In the last decade there has been a growing interest in improving the nature of assessment to
enhance student learning in higher education. At its best, assessment can motivate and influence
the student’s direction and approaches to learning. It is widely accepted that assessment should
be valid, reliable, and transparent. Despite what is known about quality assessment, the literature
suggests that these conceptualisations are not always practised. This thesis seeks to reflect on
current Initial Teacher Education assessment practices by integrating student, academic and
high-school teacher perceptions. The overall objective of this research was to develop an
innovative assessment framework that resolved key issues, including depth of understanding,
engagement with assessment, and achieving authentic and sustainable assessment practices.
An important consideration was to ensure any optimised assessment did not increase the
marking and feedback workload for the academics.
Aligning to Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology principles, this thesis adopted
design thinking as a qualitative methodological approach in the research inquiry process to
explore and develop solutions to the complex assessment issues identified by literature and
participants in this research. As proposed by Stanford d.school, design thinking is a structured
method of thinking processes used in problem solving, with consultation of end-users to develop
prototypes and devise solutions. Under the umbrella of PAR, this research incorporated the
design thinking mindset and its structured approaches to investigate perspectives which then
enabled creation of assessment frameworks. This research consisted of two phases:
Phase One focused on end-users’ perspectives and experience of usual assessment practices
that occurred pre-Covid-19, in a face-to-face teaching and learning setting. Semi-structured
interview analyses revealed that despite acknowledging and understanding the importance of
assessment and feedback processes, end-users were not completely satisfied with their
assessment experiences. Students wanted assessment with more clarity and transparency
providing them with authentic opportunities. While academics and high-school teachers wanted
more student engagement in assessment. Assessment workload constraints affected both
students’ and academics’ assessment and feedback experiences. Based on these
understandings, the assessment framework was ideated and developed into a scenario-based
experience assessment prototype.
After this stage, the pandemic pushed teaching, learning, and assessment practices to a digitally
supported remote delivery, which meant that the framework adopted in Phase One could not be
tested for effectiveness. Phase Two evolved from these social distancing Covid-19 restrictions
which caused new problems and challenges in delivering and completing assessment.  In light of  this, the same design thinking stages and procedures as Phase One were adopted. Analyses
discovered academics and teachers experienced tensions between their usual pedagogical
practices and the limited social cues available to them in the online environment. It appeared that
students did not necessarily know how to collaborate, which was magnified in the online
environment. Therefore, a new fit-for-purpose assessment framework prototype was developed
for the digital emerging environment to support end-users in facilitating, monitoring, and
assessing collaboration.
This thesis presents practical assessment alternatives in these universal and situational
assessment environments, to equip students with knowledge and skills to excel in future
employment settings. The lessons thereby learned from adopting the design thinking approach as
a results-driven planning method in this study may assist others in exploring this more novel
approach to qualitative research. It is anticipated that the findings of this research will contribute
to promoting and sustaining changes to improve teaching, learning, and assessment in higher
and teacher education.