In this study, assessment and learning is reconceptualised as an integrated and dialogic process. Positioned in a sociocultural framework, the experiences of academics and students at an Australian university were examined to understand how they think about and participate in formative assessment to support learning. Semi-structured interviews and document analysis were used to investigate the lived experience, individual meanings and context of participants. The sociocultural issues that participants emphasised were highlighted through a power, risk and reconceptualisation analytical framework. Findings showed that academics and students give high value to dialogue as a device of trust and power for building learner capacity through assessment, and that academics' familiarity with students' individual learning reinforces student trust in the integrity and reliability of assessment. This study contributes to understandings of learning and assessment by offering their reconceptualisation as an integrated and dialogic whole when considered from sociocultural perspectives of the lived experience and context. Importantly, the study proposes that the design of intended learning experiences in assessment can also facilitate development of specific dispositions for thinking and being in students as learners and future citizens.