Teacher conceptions of assessment: A help and hindrance to teacher education

Abstract

Teachers conduct assessments as part of their curricular obligations to monitor student progress and teaching effectiveness. This formative or educational purpose co-exists with the reality that assessments, especially formal tests and examinations, are simultaneously used to certify student learning attainment and to judge the quality of teaching and schools. This places summative evaluation in tension with formative evaluation. Teachers are aware of these competing purposes and generally seem resolve them in accordance with the priority that their jurisdiction places. In other words, teacher conceptions of the purpose of assessment tend to align with the ecological realities of their employment. While teachers’ conceptions of assessment can be a help to what prospective teachers learn, their conceptions can also be a hindrance to the goals of teacher education. This presentation will review cross-cultural studies that show differences in how teachers conceive of assessment and the impact these conceptions have on teacher uses of assessment. Implications for teacher education and education policy will be considered.