It is widely acknowledged in research that common criteria and aligned standards do not result in consistent assessment of such a complex performance as the final undergraduate thesis. Assessment is determined by examiners' understanding of rubrics and their views on thesis quality. There is still a gap in the research literature about how…

Internal and external factors influence teachers' daily assessment decisions. The purposes of teachers' assessments are crucial, as these purposes guide the assessment process. Still, little is known about teachers' assessment purposes. The aim of this study is to identify and describe the different purposes of assessments that Civics teachers…

This article examines the role and pedagogical implications of supportive assessment strategies at the interface where curriculum, general "Didaktik" and pedagogy meet; theoretically, the article draws upon concepts from research in each of those domains. This interplay is examined in relation to the performance-orientation on two…

In the present study we investigate one 7th-grade mathematics teacher's eight-month long implementation of a comprehensive multi-approach formative assessment practice. Based on an analysis of classroom observations, interviews and written teacher logbooks, this classroom practice is described in detail to illustrate how multi-approach formative…

Little is known about the nature of educational proficiency in evaluation practices in academia. This is unfortunate, since excellence in teaching is increasingly seen as significant for the prosperity of contemporary higher education institutions. This study explores the meaning ascribed to educational proficiency in the recruitment of academic…

The assessment of individual knowledge and abilities should be frequently undertaken when learning is developed in interactions with other students, such as in group work and/or cooperative learning. Previous research reveals that group work assessment is a neglected research area, and this applies in particular to group work assessment…

Teachers' feedback via Learning Management Systems (LMSs) is studied within the subject of social studies at upper secondary school in Sweden. A qualitative study involved classroom observations within LMSs, gathering teachers' feedback on pupils' submitted assignments, and semi-structured interviews with six teachers. With the support of activity…

In technology education, assessment is challenging and underdeveloped as it is a nascent practice and teachers do not have a well-defined subject tradition to lean on when assessing students. The aim of this study is to explore Swedish secondary technology teachers' cognitive beliefs about assessing students' learning of technological systems, in…

Government policies increasingly focus on transformative innovation policy (TIP), as programmes are being reoriented towards addressing societal challenges and contributing to sustainability transitions. Evaluation practices need modification to keep up with this change. While a small number of frameworks for TIP evaluation have been proposed,…

In this paper, we propose a method to analyse the coherence of existing curricula at higher education institution. We focus our attention to engineering programmes at universities but the proposed method is by no means restricted to those cases. In contrast to other known methods, our approach is quantitative, decentralised, and asynchronous and…

As higher education quality assurance in many countries in Europe has become a mature activity, some agencies carrying out external quality assurance are developing beyond their core tasks and missions. The current study identifies new tasks taken up within quality assurance agencies and analyses the drivers behind such development. Based on an…

Peer assessment has been proven to improve learning for both the observer and the observed. One dimension of peer assessment that has been given little attention in the context of physical education teacher education (PETE) is the tension that exists when peers give feedback on each other's work. In this paper, we report on Swedish preservice…

Social semiotic discussions about the role played by representations in effective teaching and learning in areas such as physics have led to theoretical proposals that have a strong common thread: in order to acquire an appropriate understanding of a particular object of learning, access to the disciplinary relevance aspects in the representations…

Various efforts have been made in higher education in Sweden to meet the demand for more transparent governance and increased efficiency and quality. The purpose of this article is to investigate how university teachers handle standardized models for assessment and examination and orientate in this field of tension between professional…

The overall aim of this study was to explore how upper secondary school students (age 16-19) in Sweden perceive physical education and health (PEH) through the assessment practices they experience in this subject. In particular, the study aimed to examine the students' experiences of what can be considered as valid knowledge and what the students…