Developing assessment guidelines in higher education

Abstract

The Faculty of Education at the University of Malta has just introduced a set of Assessment Guidelines (see Chetcuti, 2006). These guidelines offer lecturers in the Faculty of Education a view of the traditional, creative and innovative assessment practices which are in use in the Faculty of Education. The main aim is to try and ensure that lecturers within the Faculty of Education provide assessment which is fair, valid, reliable, efficient and effective for all student teachers. This report is a review of the project including the major principles of assessment for learning which form the basis of the document, the contents of the guidelines and the lessons learnt in the process of developing the guidelines. While the development of the guidelines is specific to the Maltese context, the lessons learnt in the process can easily apply to other situations and can be of use to anyone interested in bringing about change in assessment practices in higher education.