An exploration of science teachers’ attitudes towards assessment

Assessment, as an integral part of teaching and learning, is carried out for various reasons. Like every other educational practice, variations tend to occur in the perception of its purpose and how it is carried out. Science teachers’ attitudes towards assessment were investigated in this study by scrutinising their actions in relation to the three components of attitude: the affective, the behavioural and the cognitive, and their conceptions of teaching and learning. This involved the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data from two groups of science teachers. Data were collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews from a convenience sample of science teachers who often take part in a science teachers’ online forum. In-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out with a sample of science teachers working in East London secondary schools. Science teachers’ beliefs in assessment were deduced by looking at their conceptions of assessment. Their expressions of feelings toward assessment were gathered from their views on the value of different assessment practices. Their views on the assessment practices they utilise gave an indication of their assessment behaviour. This study reveals that science teachers have multiple assessment conceptions which include: assessment for improvement, for accountability, for learning, and as an unnecessary and imprecise process. Assessment was discussed as a teacher-centred process for teacher benefit, a teacher-centred process for student benefit and a student-centred process for student benefit. Respondents’ discussions about the different assessment practices demonstrated that assessment for learning is their common assessment practice, assessment as learning is their hidden assessment practice and assessment of learning is their key assessment practice. Science teachers’ attitudes towards assessment were also found to be evolutionary, and factors centred on teachers’ experiences, the assessment practices and the school influenced their attitude towards assessment. The concept of the evolutionary nature of their assessment attitudes in addition to the factors that affect them is the key hypothesis revealed by this study, however this could only be generalised to the sampling frame