Copyright

Tim Fawns, Juuso Henrik Nieminen

Published On

2023-10-25

Page Range

pp. 533–554

Language

  • English

Print Length

22 pages

23. The only way is ethics: A dialogue of assessment and social good

Chapter of: Higher Education for Good: Teaching and Learning Futures(pp. 533–554)
What is assessment for good in the current higher education landscape? Assessment does not just “drive learning”. It plays a role in shaping students’ orientations towards future learning, beyond any course, and beyond graduation. It influences the kinds of knowledge and identity that hold legitimate status in disciplines and communities. It shapes power and trust relationships between junior and senior members of organisations, between those with different roles, between educational institutions and society. Through dialogue, this chapter challenges foundational assumptions about assessment in HE by considering meanings, possibilities and examples of ‘assessment for good’ in two disciplinary contexts of medical (Tim) and mathematics (Juuso) education. In doing so, tensions are highlighted between traditions of individualism and authentic, messy forms of learning and unpredictable outcomes. The dialogue in this chapter emphasises that there is no right way to go about assessment for good, and that multiple perspectives need to be taken into account.

Contributors

Tim Fawns

(author)
Associate Professor, Monash Education Academy at Monash University
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5014-2662
http://timfawns.com

Tim Fawns is an associate professor at the Monash Education Academy, Monash University (Australia). His research interests are at the intersection between digital, clinical, and higher education, with a particular focus on the relationship between technology and educational practice. He has recently published a book titled Online Postgraduate Education in a Postdigital World: Beyond Technology.

Juuso Henrik Nieminen

(author)
Assistant Professor at University of Hong Kong
Honorary Fellow at Deakin University
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3087-8933
http://juusonieminen.com

Juuso Henrik Nieminen is an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong and an Honorary Fellow at Deakin University (Australia). Dr Nieminen’s research concerns the social, cultural, and political dimensions of assessment in higher education. Dr Nieminen is particularly interested in how assessment shapes student identities and how it could be designed inclusively for a diversity of learners.