Assessment and student transformation: linking character and intellect

Abstract

This article is concerned with the complex role played by student assessment in the formation of the human subjects that are the product of higher education. Using a framework informed by the work of Foucault, it explores the productive effects of assessment regimes. Drawing on narrative data collected during in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with students, it contrasts assessment regimes in two degree programmes to consider the way in which assessment may draw students into varied power relations. It is argued that in playing out these relations assessment incites students (to varying extents) to develop, consider and disclose to the lecturer links between their intellect and character. In doing so, students expose their developing character to the interpretation and guidance of the lecturer, providing the potential for the lecturer to lead students to construct and conduct themselves in a manner appropriate for a complex contemporary state. Additionally, and significantly, such approaches may have the potential to overcome the normative effects inherent in all assessment. The extent to which assessment might assist students to develop the transformed nature that is required to purposefully and deliberately undermine the rules of the discipline is discussed.