Exploring Assessment: an intervention

Teaching a complex subject such as taxation law to international students at a professional university masters level is challenging with high failure rates reflecting the difficulty students have in learning such a subject. Added to this is the changing face of accounting education in Australia with the Australian Qualifications Framework enforced by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency adding increasing accountability requirements. Using action research the problem of student learning and poor oral communication skills was addressed by designing interviews as a form of assessment. It was recognised that assessment could be a substantial driver for learning. Results of surveys conducted both pre] and postintervention with subsequent follow up discussions were very positive with lower failure rates also indicative of the benefit to students.