Through the looking glass: Marking reassessed

Abstract

Tutors and practice teachers now have a shared responsibility to assess students' ability to relate theory and practice. This article describes our experience of preparing and facilitating workshops for practice teachers to support them in this new responsibility.

We listened to the views and opinions of many practice teachers during this process. Our understandings of what they were saying to us led us to reflect critically on current and all too often routine practice in ‘markting’ written work.

On the basis of this analysis we put forward for discussion a number of principles on which, we suggest, any marking systems should be based. Our main concern is to analyse the power relations which explicitly and implicitly underpin written work assessment. The principles, if implemented, offer a framework which contributes to turning marking into a more accountable and participative learning experience.