Publications & Resources

Assessment in Learning

Jan 2012

Eva L. Baker

Assessment in the educational context typically refers to inferences made about students’ behavior, sometimes their achievement and sometimes their affective states. In this article, the term assessment will be used to denote the process by which information is gathered, either formally or informally, about the status of students’ learning. Assessment is an activity which for many years was the province of the teacher through the use of examinations, shorter quizzes, recitations, or longer assignments like research papers or science projects. The goals of classroom assessment were to gauge the progress the student was making, and thereby to provide feedback, and to sum up the students’ levels of attainment for the purpose of being given a mark or grade, such as A, B, or C.

Baker, E. L. (2012). Assessment in learning. In N. M. Seel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the sciences of learning (Vol. 1, pp. 316-321). New York, NY: Springer.