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Preschool / Kindergarten Teacher's Conception of Standardised Testing …
Preschool / Kindergarten Teacher's Conception of Standardised Testing
Summarize
factors that influence conceptions of
standardised testing
standardised testing has long played a key role in improvement and accountability processes in later grades, several authors note that it has gradually taken a more important role
we define a standardised test as a test that is administered and scored in a methodical manner to produce a score that can be compared to a predefined population (norm-referenced) or some predetermined criterion (criterion-referenced).
the important role of contextual
differences in assessment policy and grade in teachers’ conceptions of assessment.
Conceptions of standardised testing
this instrument measures teachers’ conceptions about four purposes of assessment: assessment holds schools accountable, assessment holds students accountable, assessment informs the improvement of education, and assessment is irrelevant.
Positive Points
tests are often described as summative accountability instruments, improvement and accountability purposes are neither mutually exclusive nor inherent to the assessment instrument.
standardised tests provide may be used for improvement purposes, it is crucial to consider whether teachers are able to use instruments that have a clear accountability purpose to serve aims of improvement
Gaps
The results indicated that, even though the instrument was designed with the explicit focus on assessment aimed at improvement in learning and teaching, teachers still regarded the instrument as having the primary purpose of ‘holding schools accountable.’
the asTTle was utilised predominantly for reporting school quality
The formal test-like nature of
the asTTle is primarily associated with accountability, while other more informal assessment practices (e.g., observation) are linked to improvemen
experienced the purpose of demonstrating school competence and quality in a negative way
that was contradictory to the use of the same results for improvement purposes.
the focus in the design and promotion of both tests is on improvement, it is possible to
demonstrate accountability through the referencing of scores to national norms
Discussion
One of the goals of this study was to explore the extent to which EC educators view a normreferenced test as an instrument of improvement and/or accountability
Analysis of the interviews showed that teachers generally identified the tests as serving the same purposes, and they reported using the results in a similar manner
although teachers are aware of both the accountability and the improvement purposes of the tests, they differ substantially in how they experience and cope with these purposes.
The conceptual framework emerging from the interviews identified the perceived relationship between the test standard and the teacher’s own observations (whether structured or unstructured) as a central aspect in teachers’ experiences with the preschool/kindergarten tests.
some teachers experienced the normative scores of the test as pleasant confirmation, others experienced them as negative opposition to their own observation
Several aspects seemed to influence how teachers viewed the relationship between their own observations and the test
the type of classroom can influence teachers’ perceptions
of the normative scores.