Changing approaches to classroom assessment: An empirical study across teacher career stages

Research indicates that there is considerable variability in teachers' approaches to assessment resulting in different learning cultures for students. The primary purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between teachers' approaches to assessment across a set of dimensions (including their conceptions of assessment purposes, processes, fairness, and measurement theory) and career stage. The results of this paper illustrate nuanced impacts of career stage on teachers' approaches to multiple dimensions of assessment and enable the generation of assessment profiles that provide empirical support for differences in teachers’ approaches to assessment both within and between career stages.     

A Method for Measuring Retention in Reading

ABSTRACT

The authors used self-regulated learning (SRL) as a lens for examining teachers' conceptions of assessment and their classroom assessment practices. Fifteen upper-elementary and middle school teachers participated in semistructured interviews designed to uncover their beliefs about the forms and functions of classroom assessment. Observational data were collected in the teachers' classrooms. The findings show that while teachers have complex understandings of classroom assessment, their assessment environments are not optimal for supporting students' development of SRL habits. Teachers tend to see themselves as the initiators and controllers of assessment opportunities, prioritize attainment of content information, and value written assessment products over practices that generate intangible data. The authors describe these trends as consequences of the competing audiences teachers have to satisfy with their assessment practices.     

Prospective teachers' initial conceptions about pupils' understanding of science and mathematics

Earlier reports have shown that prospective teachers' conceptions about teaching science to a high degree are resistant and do not change substantially during the teacher‐training programme. In our investigation we elucidate the prospective teachers' initial conceptions about pupils' understanding of science and mathematics. We applied ‘The Lesson Preparation Method' and used a phenomenographic approach in order to reveal the range of conceptions that the prospective teachers hold. A third of the prospective teachers did not consider pupils' conceptions when planning lessons. The rest of the 32 participants expressed awareness; some of the prospective teachers even referred to subject‐specific teaching experience. Also regarding the prospective teachers' conceptions about pupils' knowledge and beliefs, as well as about pupils' difficulties, there was a significant diversity. By raising these issues about pedagogical content knowledge the prospective teachers' conceptions can be extended and developed during the education.     

Preservice teachers' initial conceptions about assessment of science learning: The coherence with their views of learning science

This study utilized responses from Taiwanese preservice elementary teachers to describe and analyze their conceptions about the assessment of science learning and the extent that these conceptions were coherent with their views of learning science. A methodological framework of phenomenography was used for the study. The results revealed that the preservice teachers' mode of assessment was coherent with a traditional view of learning but their performance mode of assessment was not well developed. Improving preservice teachers' conception of assessment requires clarifying and reconstructing their conceptions of and coherence between assessment, curriculum, pedagogy, and learning.     

Fair student assessment: A phenomenographic study on teachers’ conceptions

This research focuses on understanding teachers’ conceptions of what constitutes a fair assessment. In recent decades the number of studies seeking to learn about teachers’ conceptions on assessment has multiplied. The idea is simple, and involves the extent to which conceptions have an effect on what happens in practice. With this aim, a phenomenographic study was carried out to understand what is a fair assessment from teachers’ perspectives. Despite the importance of conducting phenomenographic studies in education, in Spain hardly any studies have used this methodology. Participants were 30 teachers at primary/secondary schools in Spain. The results show that teachers' conceptions of fair assessment were divided, some being more closely related to the principle of equality and others to equity. The conclusion of this study highlights the influence of the school context on teachers’ conceptions of what constitutes fair assessment (in the research, there were 15 teachers who worked in schools located in low socioeconomic status contexts and 15 who were in high socioeconomic status environments).     

Formative assessment strategies for students' conceptions—The potential of learning analytics

Formative assessment is considered to be helpful in students' learning support and teaching design. Following Aufschnaiter's and Alonzo's framework, formative assessment practices of teachers can be subdivided into three practices: eliciting evidence, interpreting evidence and responding. Since students' conceptions are judged to be important for meaningful learning across disciplines, teachers are required to assess their students' conceptions. The focus of this article lies on the discussion of learning analytics for supporting the assessment of students' conceptions in class. The existing and potential contributions of learning analytics are discussed related to the named formative assessment framework in order to enhance the teachers' options to consider individual students' conceptions. We refer to findings from biology and computer science education on existing assessment tools and identify limitations and potentials with respect to the assessment of students' conceptions.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Students' conceptions are considered to be important for learning processes, but interpreting evidence for learning with respect to students' conceptions is challenging for teachers.
• Assessment tools have been developed in different educational domains for teaching practice.
• Techniques from artificial intelligence and machine learning have been applied for automated assessment of specific aspects of learning.

What does the paper add

• Findings on existing assessment tools from two educational domains are summarised and limitations with respect to assessment of students' conceptions are identified.
• Relevent data that needs to be analysed for insights into students' conceptions is identified from an educational perspective.
• Potential contributions of learning analytics to support the challenging task to elicit students' conceptions are discussed.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• Learning analytics can enhance the eliciting of students' conceptions.
• Based on the analysis of existing works, further exploration and developments of analysis techniques for unstructured text and multimodal data are desirable to support the eliciting of students' conceptions.

     

Investigating teachers' educational beliefs in Chinese primary schools: socioeconomic and geographical perspectives

This empirical study explores the nature of and profiles in primary teachers' educational beliefs in the Chinese educational settings. A survey of 820 primary school teachers was conducted using a questionnaire focusing on teachers' traditional and constructivist beliefs about teaching and learning. Analysis of variance and cluster analysis were applied. Results show that gender and subject domain affect traditional educational beliefs. Significant differences appear considering economic and geographical context variables. Cluster analysis helps to delineate four teacher belief profiles: a constructivist profile, a mixed constructivist/traditional profile, a traditional profile, and a mixed low constructivist/traditional profile. Inter-relation between teacher belief profiles and school categories are discussed.     

The Video Viewing Task: A source of information for assessing and addressing teacher understanding of text-based discussion

This paper reports on the Video Viewing Task (VVT), an assessment designed to measure teachers' developing understanding of two reading comprehension instruction approaches: Reciprocal Teaching (Palincsar, A. S. & Brown, A. L. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 1(2), 117–175) and Questioning the Author (Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., Hamilton, R. L., & Kucan, L. (1997). Questioning the author: An approach for enhancing student engagement with text. Newark, DE: International Reading Association). The VVT consists of video excerpts that teachers view and comment on during their viewing. The VVT also includes a series of questions to guide teachers' reflections after viewing. Analyses of teachers' comments and reflections in response to the VVT provide evidence that the VVT captures teachers' entering conceptions and is sensitive to changes in teachers' developing understanding following professional development specific to the two instructional approaches.     

Profiling teachers' continuing professional development and the relation with their beliefs about learning and teaching

This exploratory study investigates the relationship between teachers' continuing professional development (CPD) and their beliefs about learning and teaching, in a Dutch secondary education context. Two hundred sixty teachers participated in a survey focused on teachers' updating, reflective, and collaborative activities, as well as their student- and subject matter-oriented beliefs. A cluster analysis produced three distinctive CPD profiles, reflecting relatively low, medium, and high participation in the three CPD activities. The greater teachers' participation in CPD, the more student oriented those teachers are. These findings have strong implications for fostering teachers' participation in CPD and encouraging their student orientation.     

A Person-Centered Approach to Understanding Teachers' Classroom Practices and Perceived School Goal Structures

ABSTRACT

We examined 179 teachers' perceptions of their own classroom practices and their school's motivational climate to illuminate the ways these perceptions work in concert. Using teachers' responses to two scales of the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Survey, a cluster analysis revealed three profiles of teachers described as cluster 1: Aligned: Performance Moderate, Mastery High: We agree with everything!; cluster 2: Aligned: Performance Low, Mastery High: Yea to Mastery! Nay to Performance!; and cluster 3: Unaligned: Classroom Mastery with School Performance: We're Mastery Structured in a Performance School. Cluster analyses revealed significant differences suggesting these teacher groups had distinct profiles. This study adds to the literature on goal theory aimed at understanding and advancing teachers' motivationally supportive practices and can be used in teacher education and development to help teachers identify, reflect on, and understand their classroom goal structures and how they relate to structures operating at the school level.     

标准参照评估的行动实践 ——以香港中文大学通识教育基础课程为案例

香港特别行政区高校从2015年开始，学生学业评估陆续由常模参照评估转为标准参照评估。本文以香港中文大学通识教育基础课程实施标准参照评估的行动为案例，分析了这项新的学业评估方式在实施中所遇到的问题，讨论了解决方法并提出实施模型。该模型包含评分量表的设计与开发、量表使用、教师意见反馈与量表修改，以及评分之后的集体讨论这一套实施流程。文章最后指出，要保证标准参照评估的有效实施，需建立教师实践共同体。实践共同体的行动包括：教师共同开发评估标准，通过集体讨论对评估标准的含义和使用达成共识，共同审视评估结果，根据评估结果进一步修改和完善评估标准。     

The influence of core teaching conceptions on teachers' use of inquiry teaching practices

This article investigates three teachers' conceptions and use of inquiry‐based instructional strategies throughout a professional development program. The professional development program consisted of a 2‐week summer inquiry institute and research experience in university scientists' laboratories, as well as three academic year workshops. Insights gained from an in‐depth study of these three secondary teachers resulted in a model of teacher conceptions that can be used to direct future inquiry professional development. Teachers' conceptions of inquiry teaching were established through intensive case–study research that incorporated extensive classroom observations and interviews. Through their participation in the professional development experience, the teachers gained a deeper understanding of how to implement inquiry practices in their classrooms. The teachers gained confidence and practice with inquiry methods through developing and presenting their institute‐developed inquiry lessons, through observing other teachers' lessons, and participating as students in the workshop inquiry activities. Data analysis revealed that a set of four core conceptions guided the teachers' use of inquiry‐based practices in their classrooms. The teachers' conceptions of science, their students, effective teaching practices, and the purpose of education influenced the type and amount of inquiry instruction performed in the high school classrooms. The research findings suggest that to be successful inquiry professional development must not only teach inquiry knowledge, but it must also assess and address teachers' core teaching conceptions. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 1318–1347, 2007     

Engineering teachers' pedagogical content knowledge

The aim of the study was to discover the essential characteristics of engineering teachers' pedagogical content knowledge by studying teachers' conceptions of their students' ideas of moment. To compare the conceptions maintained by teachers with those of their students, the most common difficulties experienced by first-year engineering students in understanding the moments of forces were looked at. The data on students' conceptions were collected by means of a questionnaire. In addition, four experienced teachers were given the same questionnaire as the students and then were asked to write what they expected the students' answers to be. The students' answers and the teachers' conceptions of their students' potential answers were compared. It was found that although the teachers originally appeared to be familiar with their students' conceptions, they were rather astonished by the general pattern of the students' thinking. It is planned that the information gathered about the teachers' pedagogical content knowledge will eventually be used to improve engineering teacher training.     

Cultures in Dialogue: Perceptions and Experiences of Finnish Teachers of Transnational Dances

This article is based on a phenomenographic study that focuses on identifying the pedagogical conceptions of Finnish teachers of transnational dances. The purpose is to uncover and understand teachers' conceptions concerning the implications of the cultural contexts of their specific dance forms for their pedagogical practices. Through a process of phenomenographic data analysis, the authors have identified three different ways to understand teachers' conceptions and experiences: (1) Dance as a path towards personal expression, (2) Telling a story of being a woman through dance, and (3) Self-approval and the collective nature of dance. The study aims at facilitating discussion about the process of cultural dialogue, especially within dance pedagogy. Understanding the complexity that diverse cultural contexts create is particularly important in countries like Finland, which have only brief histories of multicultural education.     

Preservice elementary teachers' views of their students' prior knowledge of science

Pre‐service teachers face many challenges as they learn to teach in ways that are different from their own educational experiences. Pre‐service teachers often enter teacher education courses with pre‐conceptions about teaching and learning that may or may not be consistent with contemporary learning theory. To build on preservice teachers' prior knowledge, we need to identify the types of views they have when entering teacher education courses and the views they develop throughout these courses. The study reported here focuses specifically on preservice teachers' views of their own students' prior knowledge and the implications these views have on their understanding of the formative assessment process. Sixty‐one preservice teachers were studied from three sections of a science methods course. Results indicate that preservice teachers exhibited a limited number of views about students' prior knowledge. These views tended to privilege either academic or experience‐based concepts for different aspects of formative assessment, in contrast to contemporary perspectives on teaching for understanding. Rather than considering these views as misconceptions, it is argued that it is more useful to consider them as resources for further development of a more flexible concept of formative assessment. Four common views are discussed in detail and applied to science teacher education. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 497–523, 2008     

The Commonalities and Dissonances Between High-School Students' and Their Science Teachers' Conceptions of Science Learning and Conceptions of Science Assessment: A Taiwanese sample study

The main purpose of this study was to concurrently investigate Taiwanese high-school students' and their science teachers' conceptions of learning science (COLS) and conceptions of science assessment (COSA). A total of 1,048 Taiwanese high-school students and their 59 science teachers were invited to fill out two questionnaires assessing their COSA and COLS. The main results indicated that, first, although a handful of different patterns occurred, students and teachers were found to have similar COLS–COSA patterns. In general, students and teachers with COSA as reproducing knowledge and rehearsing tended to possess lower-level COLS, such as learning science as memorizing, testing, and calculating and practicing. In contrast, if students and teachers viewed science assessment as improving learning and problem-solving, they would be prone to regard science learning as increase of knowledge, applying, and understanding and seeing in a new way. However, the students' conceptions did not align with those of the teachers' in certain aspects. The students tended to regard science learning and assessment at a superficial level (COLS as ‘memorizing’, ‘testing’, and ‘calculating and practicing’ and COSA as ‘reproducing knowledge’), while the teachers’ conceptions were at a more sophisticated level (COLS as ‘application’ and ‘understanding and seeing in a new way’ and COSA as ‘improving learning’). It is evident that a dissonance exists between the students' and teachers' COLS and COSA. Based on the results, practical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Assessment in play-based kindergarten classrooms: An empirical study of teacher perspectives and practices

Kindergarten education is changing. Current reforms have increased accountability structures requiring teachers to integrate assessments throughout their instruction to support academic learning while retaining developmentally appropriate pedagogies such as play-based learning. Despite these reforms, comparatively little research has been conducted on teachers' assessment practices within play-based instructional contexts. The purpose of this study was to explore teachers' approaches to assessment in play-based kindergarten education and specifically to examine how assessment practices differed based on teachers' conceptions of the purpose of play in student learning. Data were obtained from 77 Ontario kindergarten teachers via (a) an electronic survey, (b) in-depth interviews, and (c) classroom observations. Overall, data from this study suggest a misalignment in teachers' perspectives of the purpose of play and what teachers assess during periods of play.