Relationships among Singaporean secondary teachers’ conceptions of assessment and school and policy contextual factors

Abstract

This study examines teachers’ conceptions of assessment and related contextual factors at the classroom, school and national levels. A representative survey of Singaporean secondary school teachers resulted in a final sample consisting of 229 teachers from 9 secondary schools. Findings on that, teachers endorse views of assessment for school accountability, student accountability and student improvement, but little endorsement of assessment as irrelevance. Teachers report feeling capable and qualified to use assessments, but concerned about how much they are trusted as assessors at school and national levels. Follow-up latent class analysis identified groups of teachers based on their responses to the irrelevance of assessment; teachers who found assessment irrelevant were present across all schools and subjects, but showed lower sense of preparation for assessment, school-level support and importance of academic success in society.

Keywords:

• Conceptions of assessment
• contextual factors
• educational assessment
• latent class analysis
• teacher beliefs and views

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the schools, school leaders and teachers who graciously gave their time to participate in the project. The authors also thank Ms. Wong Huiwen for her support as a research assistant for the project and Dr Christopher Deneen for his comments on earlier drafts of the work.