The impact of conceptions of assessment on assessment literacy in a teacher education program

Assessment literacy is considered essential to modern teaching. Over time, assessment literacy has evolved to include both measurement and assessment for learning perspectives. At the same time, research into teachers’ conceptions of the purpose and role of assessment demonstrates increasing evidenc...

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Main Authors: Christopher Charles Deneen, Gavin T.L. Brown
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2016-12-01
Series:Cogent Education
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2016.1225380
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author Christopher Charles Deneen
Gavin T.L. Brown
author_facet Christopher Charles Deneen
Gavin T.L. Brown
author_sort Christopher Charles Deneen
collection DOAJ
description Assessment literacy is considered essential to modern teaching. Over time, assessment literacy has evolved to include both measurement and assessment for learning perspectives. At the same time, research into teachers’ conceptions of the purpose and role of assessment demonstrates increasing evidence of the impact of teachers’ conceptions on assessment practices. The conjunction of these two factors, assessment literacy and conceptions of assessment has not been adequately explored. This study addresses this need by examining the impact of a master’s level teacher education course in educational assessment on student teachers’ expressed literacy in and conceptions of assessment. Achievement data were collected and interviews conducted in a class of 32 pre-service and practicing teachers. Inferential analysis and qualitative coding were applied to the data. Analytical results included a strong, polarized affective component. These positive and negative affective conceptions appeared independent of level of academic achievement. Academic achievement appeared to play a role in allowing deeper articulation of conceptions, but did not accompany particular conceptual changes. These findings suggest that while fluency in factual knowledge (i.e. assessment literacy) was enhanced; conceptions of assessment that may influence application of assessment literacy were not changed through the mediating influence of the assessment course. Implications of the results and this apparent disconnection between assessment literacy, teacher education and practice are explored.
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spelling doaj.art-c9530b367a4f40f99fb2cb9f082561252023-08-02T03:29:29ZengTaylor & Francis GroupCogent Education2331-186X2016-12-013110.1080/2331186X.2016.12253801225380The impact of conceptions of assessment on assessment literacy in a teacher education programChristopher Charles Deneen0Gavin T.L. Brown1National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological UniversityThe University of AucklandAssessment literacy is considered essential to modern teaching. Over time, assessment literacy has evolved to include both measurement and assessment for learning perspectives. At the same time, research into teachers’ conceptions of the purpose and role of assessment demonstrates increasing evidence of the impact of teachers’ conceptions on assessment practices. The conjunction of these two factors, assessment literacy and conceptions of assessment has not been adequately explored. This study addresses this need by examining the impact of a master’s level teacher education course in educational assessment on student teachers’ expressed literacy in and conceptions of assessment. Achievement data were collected and interviews conducted in a class of 32 pre-service and practicing teachers. Inferential analysis and qualitative coding were applied to the data. Analytical results included a strong, polarized affective component. These positive and negative affective conceptions appeared independent of level of academic achievement. Academic achievement appeared to play a role in allowing deeper articulation of conceptions, but did not accompany particular conceptual changes. These findings suggest that while fluency in factual knowledge (i.e. assessment literacy) was enhanced; conceptions of assessment that may influence application of assessment literacy were not changed through the mediating influence of the assessment course. Implications of the results and this apparent disconnection between assessment literacy, teacher education and practice are explored.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2016.1225380assessmentconceptions of assessmentassessment literacyteacher educationpre-service teachersteacher education curriculum
spellingShingle Christopher Charles Deneen
Gavin T.L. Brown
The impact of conceptions of assessment on assessment literacy in a teacher education program
Cogent Education
assessment
conceptions of assessment
assessment literacy
teacher education
pre-service teachers
teacher education curriculum
title The impact of conceptions of assessment on assessment literacy in a teacher education program
title_full The impact of conceptions of assessment on assessment literacy in a teacher education program
title_fullStr The impact of conceptions of assessment on assessment literacy in a teacher education program
title_full_unstemmed The impact of conceptions of assessment on assessment literacy in a teacher education program
title_short The impact of conceptions of assessment on assessment literacy in a teacher education program
title_sort impact of conceptions of assessment on assessment literacy in a teacher education program
topic assessment
conceptions of assessment
assessment literacy
teacher education
pre-service teachers
teacher education curriculum
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2016.1225380
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