University Student's Assessment Policies in a Portuguese University

10.6197/HEED.2016.1002.02

Celeste Simões；Anabela Santos；Jin-Jy Shieh

Assessment ； Higher Education ； University Policies ； Students' Perceptions ； Teachers' Perceptions

Higher Education Evaluation and Development

10卷2期（2016 / 12 / 01）

19 - 52

英文

Assessment is a central issue in what concerns student learning in higher education. This study aims to find out the policy/regulations that three colleges, integrated into a Portuguese University, from different academic areas, namely sciences, social sciences and humanities, has formally set for teachers and students to follow when conducting student learning assessment and its strengths and weaknesses when transposed into practice. In this regards, an open-ended questionnaire was conceived. Content analysis of the answers given by students and teachers were supported by Nvivo 11 software. The data analysis allowed the identification of the most relevant categories about the students learning process assessment, for each one of the three schools, and the differences between the students' and teachers' perceptions about assessment practices, as well as the assessment methods preferred by the students and how they relate each form of assessment with their learning process. It was concluded that the major policies are conceived mainly regarding assessment for certification and quality, however, guidelines and practices regarding assessment for and as learning are also present, mainly through the use of different assessment methods over the semester.

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