Three Ghanaian pre-service teachers’ conceptions of assessment literacy

Abstract

Assessment literacy is the knowledge and skills one needs to develop and practice in order to investigate what students know and can do, interpret the results of assessment, and use such results to decide how to improve learning effectively. This study explored pre-service teachers’ assessment literacy and the implications thereof for the teaching and learning of mathematics. Three second year pre-service teachers enrolled for Diploma in education consented to participate in the study. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. Findings revealed while pre-service teachers’ conceive assessment as an ongoing process aimed at gathering information about students’ learning their conception is more grounded on assessment being summative. While the study only focused on pre-service teachers’ conception, we recommend that pre-service teachers’ classroom assessment practice should be investigated, to ascertain how their knowledge of assessment informs their classroom practices.