Is formative assessment an effective way to improve learning? A Symposium at Experimental Biology 2008.

Formative assessment is designed to provide information about students' learning to help them and their teachers to identify deficiencies and misconceptions. It differs from summative assessment, which aims to rank students according to their achievements to determine which students pass or fail or to assign grades to students. This article reports on a symposium concerned with evidence for the effectiveness of formative assessment in improving learning.

Defining core elements and outstanding practice in Nutritional Science through collaborative benchmarking.

Benchmarking has been adopted by educational institutions as a potentially sensitive tool for improving learning and teaching. To date there has been limited application of benchmarking methodology in the Discipline of Nutritional Science. The aim of this survey was to define core elements and outstanding practice in Nutritional Science through collaborative benchmarking.