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Conceptions of assessment when the teaching context and learner population matter: compulsory school versus non-compulsory adult education contexts

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Abstract

This paper presents results of a study on teachers’ conceptions of assessment carried out on a sample of 493 teachers of Spanish as foreign language from all over the world. At the moment of data collection, the participants were members of an international online teacher community and were teaching at different professional contexts: basic compulsory school, and diverse extra-school teaching contexts, such as language academies and in-company education services. A self-report questionnaire was presented online to the teachers with 40 rating items capturing their conceptions of assessment and habitual assessment practices. Confirmatory factor analysis was undertaken to evaluate the theoretical model. Results reveal a new bifactor model of conceptions of assessment, which contrasts with the prevailing literature in the field. More specifically, results point to differences in teachers’ conceptions of assessment depending on four aspects: how assessment affects the teaching process, the learning process, the certification of learning results, and the participants’ accountability to different audiences, such as colleague teachers, families, and the general society. Our results further put forward that the learner population, whether children-adolescents or adults, influences teachers’ conceptions of assessment. This should lead researchers and practitioners to rethink teachers’ conceptions of assessment in a broader context than has been considered to date.

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  1. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.SEC.TCHR.FE.ZS/countries?display=default

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departament de Psicologia Evolutiva i de l’Educació, Facultat Psicologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Campus Mundet, Paseo del Valle Hebrón 171, E-08035, Barcelona, Spain

    Ana Remesal

  2. Faculty of Education, The University of Auckland, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand

    Gavin T. L. Brown

Authors
  1. Ana Remesal
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  2. Gavin T. L. Brown
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ana Remesal.

Additional information

Dr. Ana Remesal. Departament de Psicologia Evolutiva i de l’Educació, Facultat Psicologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Campus Mundet, Paseo del Valle Hebrón 171, E-08035. Fax +34934021368, Email: aremesal@ub.edu

Current themes of research:

Teacher education. Assessment. Conceptions.

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Lafuente, M.; Remesal, A.; Álvarez Valdivia, I. (2013). Assisting Learning in e-Assessment: A Closer Look at Educational Supports. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. doi: 10.1080/02602938.2013.848835

Brown, G.; Remesal, A. (2012). Prospective teachers’ conceptions of assessment: a cross-cultural comparison. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, vol.15 (1).

Remesal, A. (2011). Primary and secondary teachers’ conceptions of assessment: A qualitative study. Journal of Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(2), 472–482.

Coll, C.; Remesal, A. (2009). Concepciones del profesorado de matemáticas acerca de las funciones de la evaluación del aprendizaje en la educación obligatoria. Infancia y Aprendizaje, 32(3), 391–404.

Remesal, A. (2007). Educational reform and primary and secondary teachers’ conceptions of assessment: the Spanish instance. Building upon Black and Wiliam (2005). The Curriculum Journal, 18(1), 27–38.

Dr. Gavin T. L. Brown. H - Block. Epsom, Level 4, Room 6EH-409; Epsom Campus, 74 Epsom Ave.; Auckland 1023, Epsom, New Zealand. Email: gt.brown@auckland.ac.nz

Current themes of research:

Self-assessment. Psychology of assessment. Assessment

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Panadero, E., Brown, G. T. L., & Courtney, M. G. (2014). Teachers’ reasons for using self-assessment: A survey self-report of Spanish teachers. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice. doi:10.1080/0969594X.2014.919247

Brown, G. T. L., Irving, S. E., & Keegan, P. J. (2014). An introduction to educational assessment, measurement, and evaluation: Improving the quality of teacher-based assessment (3rd ed). Auckland, NZ: Dunmore Publishing. ISBN: 9781927212097 URL: http://tinyurl.com/l4xtyzb

Brown, G. T. L., & Harris, L. R. (2014). The future of self-assessment in classroom practice: Reframing self-assessment as a core competency. Frontline Learning Research, 3, 22–30. doi: 10.14786/flr.v2i1.24

Gebril, A., & Brown, G. T. L. (2014). The effect of high-stakes examination systems on teacher beliefs: Egyptian Teachers’ Conceptions of Assessment. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, 21(1), 16–33. doi: 10.1080/0969594X.2013.831030

Chen, J., & Brown, G. T. L. (2013). High-stakes examination preparation that controls teaching: Chinese prospective teachers’ conceptions of excellent teaching and assessment. Journal of Education for Teaching, 39(5), 541–556. doi: 10.1080/02607476.2013.836338

Brown, G. T. L. (2013). Assessing Assessment for Learning: Reconsidering the policy and practice. In M. East & S. May (Eds.), Making a Difference in Education and Social Policy (121–137). Auckland, NZ: Pearson.

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Remesal, A., Brown, G.T.L. Conceptions of assessment when the teaching context and learner population matter: compulsory school versus non-compulsory adult education contexts. Eur J Psychol Educ 30, 331–347 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-014-0236-3

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