What university students think about assessment: a case study from Italy

Abstract

Nowadays, assessment is widely recognized as a key element in higher education systems. Current studies are moving towards the revision of traditional modalities of testing, the individuation of alternative forms of assessment, and, above all, the analysis of conceptions that teachers and students have about assessment. The present research is oriented towards this last point. The paper presents an exploratory analysis of students' conceptions about formative assessment and self-assessment. Researchers conducted a survey in a public university in the South of Italy. Respondents indicated a great level of confusion about assessment. A critical need to re-look into assessment practices in the Italian higher education system is implied by this study.

Keywords:

• assessment
• formative assessment
• self-assessment
• learning
• higher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Serafina Pastore, Ph.D. in Instructional Design and Educational Assessment, is a researcher on Didactics in the Department of Education, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari-Italy. She also serves as the coordinator of Italian Evaluation Society's Special Interest Group on Educational Assessment. Her research interests include the study of self-assessment supporting learning in higher education and assessment of competencies and learning outcomes.

Monica Pentassuglia is a Ph.D. student in Human Sciences, Department of Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology, University of Verona-Italy. She is focusing her research efforts on educational assessment and teacher education areas.