Standardise and individualise – an unsolvable tension in assessment?

Abstract

This article revisits the recent upsurge of authentic assessment in literature and problemtises the assumptions underlying both the theoretical soundness and the practical readiness of this movement. The discussion highlights this movement's lack of sufficient attention to the concerns that have resulted in the dominance of the traditional standardised assessment in the first place. It also cautions that a continuous failure to recognise and address those concerns could continue plaguing a wider application of authentic assessment in practice. The article concludes by pointing out some compromising solutions between individualisation, the essence of authentic assessment, and standardisation, the essence of the traditional assessment.

Keywords:

• Authentic assessment
• traditional assessment
• standardised assessment
• individualised assessment