Developing assessment culture in basic education

The latest National Core Curriculum for Basic Education was published in 2014, and was gradually taken into use from August, 2016 onwards. After not more than four years later, The Finnish National Board of Education published a reformed chapter on assessment. A local reform process was carried out and schools were to compose their own reformed curriculum chapters on assessment. The study was carried out in Kannelmäki Comprehensive School in Helsinki. It is the biggest comprehensive school in Helsinki with around 1,100 pupils in grades 1-9 and around 120 members of staff, located in four school buildings. The school in its current form is a result of two school mergers that have partly facilitated the need for developing a more cohesive assessment culture. Thus, the purpose of this study was to identify some of the development objects for the future. The data for this study was collected in a workshop for the staff. It was compulsory for the staff to participate in the workshop, which was assisted by Helvi, a virtual platform developed by the city office of Helsinki. With the assistance of Helvi, the workshop participants discussed the topic assessment in smaller groups. Each group compiled a team table that was used to find out teachers’ perceptions of the most important development objects of assessment culture. Qualitative content analysis was used as the method to analyze the data. The entries in the data were coded, divided into sub-categories, and further into main categories: The Leadership Level, The Teacher Community Level, The Individual Teacher Level and Modifying or Adding Resources. The first three were formed according to the location of where decisions about assessment culture are made. The fourth included technical and human resources, and did not fit the other categories. The results showed that it is important that the school leadership provide the staff enough time to discuss assessment. This is supported also by the literature in the field. Staff members highlighted the importance of mutual agreements about the criteria for assessment, too. As a result of this study, a good basis for further developing of assessment culture was created, as all the levels the organization were proved important