1. Introduction

For EDC/HRE accounts, what is true for all learning and teaching? How and why do students have to be assessed? Is assessment fair? Does assessment support learning and the process of learning? In EDC/HRE these questions have to be asked in detail for different reasons. Which competences can be assessed? What kind of knowledge is of central importance? Is it important to know the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by heart or to know about the building up of the system of justice in their country? We cannot answer these questions here because we are all – internationally – in the middle of the discussion and nobody has got a definite solution (yet). Because every kind of learning has to be evaluated according to its success we would like to discuss this aspect carefully. One of the solutions to this question is which form of assessment we choose! If the teachers and students assess the achievement during and not after a learning process (formative assessment), assessment will function as a facilitator of learning and will lead to better achievement. We want to contribute to a wider understanding of learning in this article by presenting different approaches in a non-judgmental way. It is not the question whether we have to assess, but which form of assessment will be used at what point of time and what the specific goals of this assessment are. Therefore, we ask the questions just like asking the question of right choice of learning method: it is not the question of the right method that is important, but which one is used when. EDC/HRE are – as mentioned quite often already – not subjects. They are much more. They are concepts that co-determine the atmosphere of teaching and learning. When assessing the students’ achievement and performance in EDC/HRE it is not only the acquired knowledge, the trained competences and the know-how within a subject area that is tested. Assessment also includes dynamic features such as attitudes, insights, cross-curricular abilities like flexibility, communication, interaction skills, argumentation, etc. Assessment therefore takes place in different dimensions. This is valid for all subjects. There are also certain elements of EDC/HRE that we simply may not be able to, or want to, assess, such as values and attitudes, even if we consider these as part of the set of competences that we would like to impress upon students.