When the Compass Slips Out of the Learner’s Hands

Nov 19
5 min read

A reflection on assessment pressure, wellbeing, and why contemporary learning matters more than ever

This week, I held my thirteen-year-old son while he sobbed under the weight of assessment season. Seven assessments due in one week, several only just behind him, and more expectations still to come.

He is capable. He gets As and Bs. He cares. That is exactly why it broke him.

As I hugged him through the tears, one thought kept repeating in my mind: this is not what the end of a learning year should feel like. This is not a celebration of growth. This is not what deep learning looks like.

I often use the phrase the compass belongs to the learner. But as I watched my son crumble, I found myself asking, does it really? Or have we, as teachers, systems and schools, taken that compass back so we can keep things moving, tick off reports, meet deadlines and close the term.

If the final weeks of school feel like survival rather than achievement, something in our design of learning has shifted away from what young people actually need.

The Research is Clear

Assessment overload harms wellbeing, narrows learning and reduces agency.

What my son experienced is not an isolated moment. Research across Australia and internationally paints a similar picture.

The OECD’s Learning Compass emphasises student agency, wellbeing and co-agency, noting that overloaded, high-pressure assessment blocks undermine a learner’s sense of control and purpose.
The Gonski Review (2018) highlighted that excessive summative assessment leads to disengagement, inequity and higher stress, calling for continuous assessment practices that build progress over time.
Studies in adolescent mental health, including work from the Black Dog Institute, show that spikes in assessment load correlate with increased anxiety and sleep disruption in early teens.
Hattie’s research on visible learning consistently demonstrates that timely feedback, clarity of learning intentions and ongoing formative assessment generate stronger gains than high-stakes assessment moments.
The Education Endowment Foundation notes that when assessment becomes part of the learning cycle rather than an endpoint, both outcomes and wellbeing improve.

The pattern across this research is consistent. Too much assessment in too little time strips away agency and replaces it with pressure. It moves the compass from the learner’s hands into the hands of the system.

Why Contemporary Learning Provides a Better Path

High expectations, humane design, clarity for teachers, all backed by research

Contemporary learning is not a softer option. It is a smarter, evidence-aligned one. It draws on decades of research into cognition, wellbeing, motivation and assessment design, pulling together what we know helps young people learn deeply and sustainably.

Below is a sharper, research-anchored version of each point, including provocations and practical examples schools can adopt tomorrow.

Learners gain clarity and control

Research from John Hattie, Dylan Wiliam and the OECD Learning Compass consistently shows that clarity of learning intentions and success criteria significantly increases student agency and achievement. When students understand the why, the what and the how early, motivation lifts and cognitive load drops.

Provocation to ponder: If your learners sat an assessment tomorrow, could they clearly articulate what success looks like without teacher prompts, or are we holding the map so tightly they cannot read it?