The preceding articles in this issue describe a diverse range of projects which had in common the aim of implementing or improving the practice of formative assessment, and thereby to secure some of the benefits attributed to it. This article attempts to set up a framework within which each of the different studies may be located and inter-related. There are three main sections. The first deals with the roles of assessment, both formative and summative, within a comprehensive model of pedagogy. The second considers the specific ways in which the different practices of assessment feedback help to develop the capacity of each student to become a thoughtful and independent learner. The third reviews the ways in which new assessment practices present problems to teachers in challenging them to re-think their role and similarly to students, when for both groups, new practices affect their ways of coping in the classroom.