Fostering Three-Way Mutuality: A Framework for Actualizing Assessment as Learning

Abstract

Assessment as Learning (AaL) is a pedagogical approach that promotes student learning through the integrated and mutually supportive activities of teaching, assessment, and learning. This naturalistic case study aimed to actualize AaL in practice in two courses of the Master of Arts Seminar and Thesis. Semi-structured interviews with three participating teacher-learners, supplemented by the mentor’s field notes and students’ reflective journals, were used as the primary data sources for analyzing the implementation of AaL. The data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. The findings proposed a new framework for actualizing AaL that required building three key mutualities: ‘mutually constructed dialogic literacy and rapport’, ‘mutual understanding and engagement’, and ‘mutual support.’ Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the growth in these three mutualities promoted the extension of interaction, with dialogic feedback being a key component. This extension illustrated the mechanism whereby learners and the teacher co-regulate their learning. Based on these findings, a framework was proposed to describe teaching as an extended interaction that results in AaL, allowing the activities of teaching, assessment, and learning to be mutually supportive. The main implication of the study is that mutualities are crucial for the successful application of AaL, providing valuable insights for educators in their implementation process.