This paper explores the ways in which student assessment can be developed in higher education and work-related contexts to form a strong bridge between practice and improvement. Our aim is to provide a starting point for evaluation and improvement of assessment practices, which benefits the learners, instructors, and designers of the curricula, as well as developers of educational organisations. Empirical explorations in the article draw on interview data gathered from physiotherapy students, teachers, and workplace supervisors, on their experiences of student assessment, in two higher education and work-related contexts. Although the actual empirical study is not the focus of this paper, short descriptions of the participants' lived-through experiences are used to illustrate the explicit theoretical purpose of the discussion. In particular, we outline a theoretical model of "zones and mirrors" that provides a compelling link between student assessment and learning, by exploring the stages and elements that can join the two, in dialogue with the empirical data.