Predicting teachers' intentions to implement school-based assessment using the theory of planned behaviour

Abstract

The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was used to explore the Hong Kong teachers' intentions to implement school-based assessment (SBA) and the predictors of those intentions. A total of 280 teachers from Hong Kong secondary schools who had been involved in SBA were surveyed. Rasch-calibrated teacher measures were calculated for each of the 6 variables – affective and instrumental attitude, subjective norm, self-efficacy, knowledge, and intention – regarding SBA. The results of hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that instrumental attitude and self-efficacy made significant contributions to predicting intentions to implement SBA. These 2 predictors explained 55.2% of the variance in intentions. The other 3 variables, that is, affective attitude, subject norm, and knowledge, did not have significant predictive power on the formation of intentions to implement SBA. Possible explanations and implications of the findings are discussed.

Keywords:

• school-based assessment
• theory of planned behaviour
• Rasch measurement
• teachers

Acknowledgements

This research was partially supported by the Internal Research Grant (grant no. RG61/2012-2013R) from the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Notes on contributor

Zi Yan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at The Hong Kong Institute of Education. His main research interests are in Rasch measurement, school-based assessment, scale development, and large-scale assessment.

Notes

1. There are three “Bands” of local secondary schools in Hong Kong according to students' academic performances. Band 1 stands for a higher level of academic performance, while Band 3 stands for a lower level.