Assessing the assessment

In essence, ‘learning can be defined as changes in knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes, brought about by experience and reflection upon that experience’ (Brown, Bull & Pendelbury, 1996, p21). This research highlights how feedback from learners, peers and tutors, augments the experience and reflection, a form of internal feedback, accelerates the learning (Schmidt et al, 1990). The authors draw on their experience as lecturers and course designers for the module “Curriculum Assessment” which is offered to both, traditional full-time undergraduates and part-time professional educators. This paper builds on research described at the 2009 ECER conference, which focused on the introduction of an assessment portfolio that was designed with the aim of promoting a constructivist approach to the development of professional competence among trainee teachers.This new paper focuses on the next stage of the research and highlights how using multiple ‘voices’ from the research process one can encourage a sense of professional development from both pre & post-experience learners.