In contrast to the traditional psychometric paradigm of educational assessment and paralleling the recent work of Pollard, Torrance and Pryor (education, U. of Sussex) ventured into classrooms to apply a "micro-sociological" approach to study how assessment of English primary grade students (4 to-7-year-olds) occurs within teacher-student interactions. They integrate their interviews and tapes of classroom "assessment incidents" with challenges to conventional testing from social constructivist theories of learning and motivation and attribution theories, with implications for upgrading assessment as helpful feedback to facilitate learning. The US debate is deemed too theoretical, the UK's too practice-focused. Distributed in the US by Taylor & Francis. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
