Everyone has an assessment memory. For some it is an occasion when assessment was linked to a rite of passage, passing a driving test, getting the qualifications to get into university or college. For others, the memory is less positive - the occasion when an assessment result closed doors, making a long-held ambition suddenly seem impossible or when a poor test result changed your view of who you were. Assessment is powerful and occasions when we encounter high stakes assessment often stay with us for good or ill throughout our lives.

At social gatherings when someone asks me what I do and finds out that I am interested in educational assessment, one of two things tends to happen: either they move quickly to the other side of the room or they begin a conversation that feels close to the confessional.

A highly-esteemed professor, having looked around to see no-one else was listening, told me he had failed his 11+ and had spent the rest of his life feeling he wasn’t quite good enough academically. A neighbour told me of a piece of very personal writing she had handed in to a teacher only to have it returned covered in comments. Suddenly, she said, she lost interest in the writing and, indeed, in ever submitting anything that mattered to her to anyone in a position of authority These were both people who would be regarded by society as highly successful learners but for whom feedback had had a negative effect on their learning, confidence and self-esteem.

As an adult it is easy to say failure is part of life, so best get used to it. Premised on the notion that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, the more often that people are exposed to judgement, to marks and grades, the more resilient they will become. I agree that honesty matters but learning matters just as much and damaging children’s confidence can damage their ability to learn.

Assessment serves three main purposes, to inform learning (assessment for formative purposes), to sum up learning (assessment for summative purposes) and to hold the education system to account (assessment for purposes of accountability). Of these three purposes, the most important purpose for assessment is to support learning. However, if assessment is to support learning, the research evidence is clear: assessment has to pay attention to both learning and learner. Successful learners can cope with different kinds of feedback, grades and comments.

It is when learners find learning hard that far greater care has to be taken. Consistently attaching numbers or letters with negative connotations to pieces of work from a child may help them to learn – but not necessarily what we might want them to learn. They learn they are not being successful. Even if a supportive comment is added to a grade, it will make little difference. The letter or number is a far more powerful communicator than words. Essentially, assessment feedback from the very earliest years has to be personalised. One size will not fit all.

In Scotland, we await the imminent publication of the evaluation of Curriculum for Excellence by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Its last report, published in 2007, argued Scottish education was very successful with 80 per cent of young people, but that 20 per cent of Scotland’s young people were not well supported.

The phrase “Who you are matters a great deal more in Scotland than what school you attend, and ‘who you are’ is defined largely in terms of socio-economic status” challenges our idea of the egalitarian Scot and sits uneasily with our view of ourselves as a nation. Although the gap appears to be closing, there remains much to do.

This week in Glasgow, more than 300 delegates will attend the 16th International Conference of the Association of Educational Assessment - Europe (AEA-Europe. The theme of the conference is Social Justice and delegates will focus on how best to enhance the life chances of learners where poverty, discrimination or lack of educational opportunity threatens to limit a child’s development.

It would be good to think the assessment memories of the next generation would be better, more constructive memories. It is far easier to challenge people, to extend potential, to raise expectations and aspirations, to improve learning if learners are confident and clear about what to learn, how to learn and how to improve their performance. Assessment is crucial in that process.

Louise Hayward is Professor of Educational Assessment and Innovation at the University of Glasgow. The AEA-Europe conference is being hosted by the University of Glasgow and runs from November 5-7.