Students and their EAP Assessment Literacy


Members of the Assessment Knowledge Standards exchange (ASKe) (2013), a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) based at Oxford Brookes University, have been investigating assessment practices in higher education over the last two decades, with a view to promoting the importance of Assessment Literacy, with a particular emphasis on student involvement. This research is undertaken by experts with a range of experience of working with international students, so the relevance to the EAP context is strong.


Whilst the impact on stakeholders, particularly students and test takers, is always central to the promotion of Assessment Literacy, as acknowledged by Stiggins (1991; 1995) and Popham (2001), Price, Rust, O’Donovan and Handley (2012) from ASKe offer a particularly prominent focus on the importance of fostering the Assessment Literacy of students and their understanding of the mechanisms of assessment. This view of the critical agenda for Assessment Literacy emphasizes the broader definition of assessment and refers not only to measurement of achievement, but also to the accessibility and interpretability of feedback, as well as the giving of support and development of student learning. This approach towards formative assessment shares attributes with Assessment for Learning (Biggs & Tang, 2011, p. 64; Knight, 1995), as mentioned earlier.


The stance adopted by Price et al. (2012) acknowledges the fact that, the more students understand what is expected of them in the assessment process, the more likely they will be to meet the demands of the assessment mechanisms they experience. It is also recognized that assessment is central to the student experience and that student satisfaction ratings for assessment and feedback in higher education remain less than optimal. Price et al. (ibid., p. 10) describe Assessment Literacy in terms of knowledge, skills and competencies. In this view, Assessment Literacy encompasses an appreciation of the purposes and processes of assessment, which allows deep engagement with assessment standards and the making of choices about which skill or area of knowledge to apply. This facilitates an understanding of situations when aspects of assessment are appropriate or inappropriate. This definition of Assessment Literacy extends to include:


• an appreciation of assessment’s relationship to learning;


• a conceptual understanding of assessment (i.e., understanding of the basic principles of valid assessment and feedback practice, including terminology used);


• an understanding of the nature, meaning and level of assessment criteria and standards;


• skills in self- and peer-assessment;


• a familiarity with technical approaches to assessment (e.g., pertinent assessment and feedback skills, techniques and methods, including their purpose and efficacy); and


• the possession of the intellectual ability to select and apply appropriate approaches and techniques to assessed tasks (which skill to use when, and for what).


156 Chapter 13: Building EAP test Assessment Literacy amongst stakeholders


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