Meaningful assessments are those which have direct relevance to the learner’s development and future life.
The importance of authentic and deep approaches to assessment practices have been highlighted for many years (Ashford Rowe et al., 2014).
A central concept within meaningful and authentic assessments is the engagement of students centrally working on real problems, using approaches that are relevant to their future careers, and in real contexts (Bedard et al., 2012; Crowl et al., 2013; Erekson, 2011; Solway et al. 2015).
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An important question is what a deep approach looks like in preparing students for the4th industrial age?
Within specific disciplines and professions, what knowledge and skills are most valued now, and will be of most value in the future, and how are such skills best assessed? This links also to notions of sustainable assessment.
Friedlander et al. (2011, pp. 416-417) suggest that, “[students] are relational agents, with tremendous demands on their time and attention, and must make choices about where to focus their energies and attention most efficiently…at both conscious and unconscious levels, their brains are engaging in a continuous process of triaging for the allocation of finite neural resources.”
So our assessment needs to be focused and support students’ learning, not add to their cognitive burden.
Ensuring that assessment is learning¸ and employing assessment as learning ensures that assessments are both meaningful, and do not overload learners cognitive capacity and focus on the concepts and knowledge that matter most; agreeing on what these aspects are is key