Student Perceptions of Assessment in Taiwan and the United States

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of both formative and summative assessment in Taiwan and the United States. The focus is on the comparisons between undergraduate and graduate students and between U.S. and Taiwanese students in their attitudes toward the use of assessment in higher education. Responses from 349 undergraduate and graduate students from Taiwan and 97 undergraduate and graduate students from a large city in the United States were used for chi-square test, multivariate analysis of variance, and independent samples t-test. The two groups of students were comparable with respect to the distribution of gender and grade level. Results suggest no statistically significant difference with respect to the forms of assessment: self-assessment, peer assessment, and teacher assessment. As for the tools of assessment, attendance, class participation, homework, reading report, quizzes and exams were used more often in the classrooms in Taiwan whereas learning diary, essays, display, and projects were used more often in the United States. Students in Taiwan also agreed more to use a combination of all forms of assessments in comparison to their American counterparts. As for the contents of assessment, students in Taiwan endorsed more on the perception that assessments should include aspects of cognition, skill, and attitude. Results from this study provided information about the use of formative and summative assessment in Taiwan and the United States and student perspectives of its use. Findings from this study might be helpful for the U.S. and Taiwanese instructors to learn from each other and to meet their students' expectations in the use of assessment.