Abstract
ABSTRACT Pre-service teachers’ conceptions of assessment have received relatively little attention in research concerned with professional development in initial teacher education. These conceptions, alongside others regarding teaching and learning, however, have a great impact on future teachers’ instructional practices. In this study, the authors examine conceptions of assessment indirectly, by analysing 79 Finnish pre-service subject teachers’ narratives of students’ failure. Their findings reveal four major conceptions: (a) assessment is about feedback and reflection; (b) assessment needs to be personalised and demonstrate students’ learning; (c) assessment should take into account students’ invested effort; and (d) assessment fails to measure students’ success or failure. These findings provide a qualitative insight into and extend both research on teachers’ conceptions of assessment as a vital aspect of assessment literacy and research on pre-service teachers’ conceptions in particular. The relevance of these findings for future teachers’ professional development is discussed.
Highlights
Teacher education research concerned with supporting pre-service teachers’ professional development has shown special interest in understanding how pre-service teachers’ histories, beliefs or conceptions formed upon them and knowledge about teaching and learning influence their future practices (Furlong, 2013; Kaasila & Lauriala, 2010; Walkington, 2005)
In the present narrative study, we examine 79 Finnish pre-service subject teachers’ narratives of students’ failure in order to access and identify their conceptions of assessment emerging from these narratives
We identified conceptions of assessment emerging from 79 Finnish preservice subject teachers’ narratives of students’ failure
Summary
Teacher education research concerned with supporting pre-service teachers’ professional development has shown special interest in understanding how pre-service teachers’ histories, beliefs or conceptions formed upon them and knowledge about teaching and learning influence their future practices (Furlong, 2013; Kaasila & Lauriala, 2010; Walkington, 2005). Researchers are continuously refining ways to help pre-service teachers become aware of their own beliefs and to revise them when needed. There is a myriad of beliefs relevant to teachers’ work and needing attention in initial teacher education (Fives & Buehl, 2012). Research in this domain is wide and has addressed, for example, beliefs about self-as-a-teacher, about learners and learning, and about various teaching and instructional components (Fives & Buehl, 2012; Horgan & Gardiner-Hyland, 2019; Löfström & Poom-Valickis, 2013), to name a few. Whilst many labels have been used to describe the cognitive and affective beliefs people
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