A Fresh Perspective on Progress Files--A Way of Representing Complex Learning and Achievement in Higher Education

This article addresses the challenge of developing new conceptual knowledge to help us make better sense of the way that higher education is approaching the "problem" of representing (documenting, certifying and communicating by other means) students' learning for the super-complex world described by Barnett (2000b). The current UK solution to this problem is the higher education progress file which comprises a transcript, a process (personal development planning--PDP) and the products (records and claims for learning that underlie PDP). The progress file has the potential to embody the disciplinary and transdisciplinary modes of knowledge formation and learning defined and characterized by Gibbons "et al." (1994). Our primary focus is on learning for the transdisciplinary world and the way PDP might be used to represent this learning. Descriptions and examples are given of five different curriculum assessment models that are being used to support this type of learning. Different PDP implementation models pose different challenges for assessment. While the paper is written from a UK perspective, the issues raised are germane to any higher education system that seeks to value and reward transdisciplinary knowledge and learning. (Contains 2 figures and 10 notes.)