College of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, PO Box 57374, Riyadh 11574, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Med Teach. 2012;34 Suppl 1:S42-50. doi: 10.3109/0142159X.2012.656756.
"Assessment steers students' learning" is a statement that has been used repeatedly without solid evidence in the literature. This manuscript aims to evaluate the published literatures on the effect of teaching learning environment in particular, the implemented assessment on students' learning approaches. A literature review was performed on the effect of assessment on students learning approaches. English language literatures were searched in Pubmed, PsycINFO, and Medline without restriction to type or date of publication. Reviewing the literature, the most prominent identified theme was assessment function characterized in summative and formative assessment and general effect of assessment on students' learning approaches. The literature review has pointed clearly to the complexity of the relationship between learning environment, students' perceptions of assessment demands, and students' approaches to learning. Many factors (extrinsic and intrinsic) were theoretically proposed to mediate students' approaches to learning in response to their assessment. However, few of these factors were researched in the published literature. Formative assessment is likely to contribute to students' deep approach to learning while summative is likely to contribute to their surface approach. However, these effects are not definite and further research about the complex relationship between assessment and students' learning is required.
“评估引导学生的学习”这一说法在文献中反复出现，但缺乏确凿的证据。本文旨在评估教学学习环境，特别是评估对学生学习方法的影响方面的已发表文献。对评估对学生学习方法的影响进行了文献回顾。在 Pubmed、PsycINFO 和 Medline 上以英文文献进行检索，没有对文献类型或出版日期进行限制。文献回顾中最突出的主题是评估功能，其特征在于总结性和形成性评估以及评估对学生学习方法的总体影响。文献综述清楚地指出了学习环境、学生对评估要求的看法以及学生学习方法之间的关系的复杂性。许多因素（外在的和内在的）从理论上被提出，以调节学生对学习的态度，以应对他们的评估。然而，在已发表的文献中，很少有研究这些因素。形成性评估可能有助于学生深入学习，而总结性评估可能有助于学生表面学习。然而，这些影响并不确定，需要进一步研究评估与学生学习之间的复杂关系。
