Twenty years of assessment policies in China: A focus on assessing students’ holistic development

Abstract

Over the past two decades, China has formulated a series of policies regarding how to assess students’ holistic development, aiming to transform its highly exam-oriented culture which traditionally emphasises knowledge transmission and book learning. Although the efforts have met with some success, various issues persist when bringing such policies into practice. This article has three goals — (1) to outline the 20 years of assessment policies of students’ holistic development under the holistic suzhi assessment scheme in China, (2) to explore how these policies have been translated into practice and the issues arose from practice, and (3) to discuss the potential implications for nurturing and assessing students’ holistic development in times of increasing uncertainties.