Illustrating assessment: how Hong Kong university students conceive of the purposes of assessment

The beliefs, attitudes, experiences and responses that Hong Kong higher education students have about assessment are an important facet to developing our understanding of the Chinese learner'. Using six focus groups, 26 Hong Kong university students drew pictures of assessment. The visual elements of the pictures were content analysed into eight major categories (i.e. negative emotions, being monitored, competition, lifelong, pride and pleasure, marks, inaccuracy, and burden). The most frequent categories were negative emotions and being monitored. Associations between image categories and pre-university academic performance were statistically non-significant. In addition to the portrayal of the Chinese student as an effective, persistent learner, this study shows that Chinese students are very aware of the negative, controlling impact of assessment on their lives. This study contributes to our understanding of Chinese learners in Hong Kong.