Abstract:
“Teachers’ conceptions of quality are typically held, largely in unarticulated form, inside their heads as tacit knowledge. By definition, experienced teachers carry with them a history of previous qualitative judgments, and where teachers exchange student work among themselves or collaborate in making assessments, the ability to make sound qualitative judgments constitutes a form of guild knowledge” (Sadler, 1989, p.126) National Standards, introduced into New Zealand schools in 2010, require teachers in years one to eight to make overall teacher judgments in mathematics. The centrality and complexity of teacher judgment practice in mathematics in such a policy context needs to be understood. Four principals and seven teachers from four schools volunteered to participate in semistructured interviews to find how out how schools have implemented the National Standards in mathematics. Of particular interest, is the evidence teachers choose, how they weigh up this evidence, and the other factors at play that influence these overall judgments in mathematics. During the interview teachers were given two tasks. One was to discuss the mathematics overall teacher judgment for a student chosen from their class because they had experienced some difficulty in making the decision. The second judgment was made based on evidence from an unknown student and provided during the interview. The findings showed that interdependent factors such as school policies and practices, teacher knowledge and participation in moderation, influenced the ability of teachers to make overall teacher judgments in mathematics. The teachers’ approach to the judgment making and the choice and use of evidence reflected their confidence, experience and skill in teaching mathematics. Some of the challenges the teachers faced in making these judgments were finding effective ways to involve the student in the judgment making process, deciding whether a student was ‘early’ or ‘at’ a curriculum level and teaching and assessing geometry, measurement and statistics. The challenges the principals faced in implementing these standards in their schools included supporting teachers to choose and weigh appropriate evidence, developing school policies and artefacts to support assessment practices across the school including effective school wide moderation processes. This research has implications for policy, practice and research.