A Critical Realist Approach to Pupil Assessment

Stephen Dobson (1963) has worked with refugees for 13 years and is currently professor in education at Hedmark University College, Norway. He is also visiting professor at Lillehammer University College, Norway. His most recent publications in the field of assessment are Assessment for Learning in Subjects (published in Norwegian 2010 with Roar Engh), Assessment, Principles and Practice (published in Norwegian, 2009), Assessment for Learning (published in Norwegian with Roar Engh and Eli-Kari Høihilder, 2007). He has also published The School and Socio-cultural Background of Pupils (an edited collection in Norwegian with Thomas Nordahl, 2009), Cultures of Exile and the Experience of Refugeeness (2004, Bern: Peter Lang), The Urban Pedagogy of Walter Benjamin. Lessons for the 21st Century (2002), The Pedagogy of Ressentiment (1995). Forthcoming: Studying the City. Methodologies, Experience and Politics (Palgrave Macmillan). Dobson is joint leader of the Norwegian national network for pupil assessment, funded by the Norwegian Directorate of Education and training. Erling Lars Dale (1946) is the author of more than 30 books in Norwegian. At a young age he gave rise to a lot of debate with his first book published in Norwegian: Education and Social Change (1972). His research interests span educational theory (published in Norwegian, The Tree of Knowledge and the Beauty of Art, 1990), the history of Norwegian education (The Strategic Educationalists: Education as Scientific Knowledge, 1999), special needs with Educational Diversity (in Norwegian with Jarl Inge Wærness, 2003). Most recently he has published a number of works connecting the themes of curriculum, pupil assessment and school reform, including Assessment and Learning in a Pupil Active School (with Jarl inge Wærness, 2006) and a two volume work on comprehensive schools and the reproduction of social inequality (2008). He has just been published is entitled, Kunnskapsløftet. På vei mot felles kvalitetsansvar? (The Knowledge Reform Policy. The Journey Towards Joint Responsibility, 2010).