Editorial

Abstract

First paragraph: In drawing together this special issue about the Public Understanding of Assessment, the contributors have been conscious of parallels that can be drawn with the established field of the Public Understanding of Science, which seeks to address the lack of science knowledge among the general public. The impact and meaningfulness of science in everyday life offers a common thread, which Jenkins (1994) highlighted as the importance of context and ‘knowledge in action' (p. 603) rather than knowledge for its own sake. Perhaps the most important aspects of science education in an everyday sense are those that have direct implications for the individual or society, e.g. the environment or food safety. In a similar way, the papers collected here variously adopt Harlen's people-focused view that ‘... what is important for everyone using or affected by assessment is not the details of definition but some general ideas, particularly about the trade-off between accuracy and meaning in assessment and the match of methods to purpose' (1994, p. 8).