Bridging the gap between assessment, teaching and learning

This paper looks at how learning, teaching and assessment can become misaligned resulting in an education system that does not support student learning. It discusses a number of issues that, if addressed, could narrow the gap between teaching, learning and assessment: • The need to use the same software tools throughout the education process • The need to assess what the student has learnt rather than what is easy to assess • To consider the possibility of assessing qualitatively not quantitatively • To consider the possibility of assessing the application of knowledge, rather than its acquisition This paper outlines how past work developing a software tool combining simulations and assessment (Thomas et al 2004, 2005) has been used to produce exemplar teaching material that uses the same software throughout the educational process. The system is capable of handling the needs of traditional e-Assessment and of providing the tools to investigate innovative assessment that focuses on performance and the quality of learning. Whilst the principles discussed are not subject specific, an exemplar in the area of Mathematics is used in this paper.