STEM academic teachers’ experiences of undertaking authentic assessment-led reform: a mixed method approach

ABSTRACT

A large-scale investigation was conducted at an Australian University to document and analyze authentic work-related assessment types for a university-wide major course review (Kaider, F., and R. Hains-Wesson. 2016. Enhancing Courses for Employability. Melbourne: Australian Collaborative Education Network. Report.). This study provides further insights into Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics (STEM) teachers’ experiences in undertaking authentic assessment-led reform. STEM teachers participated in an online survey and a recorded interview to elicit their perceptions of authentic assessment-led activities. A mixed methods approach was used with two key themes emerging: (1) purpose and approach, which highlighted the importance of introducing a shared understanding for effective authentic assessment-led reform and (2) working with industry, which illustrated the requirement to provide teachers with additional support options when working with industry. In this paper, we discuss the implications of the findings along with the presentation of a set of key recommendations for supporting teachers when renewing STEM education.

KEYWORDS:

• Assessment-led reform
• STEM education renewal
• teacher perception
• authentic assessment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Assessment task/s in this study refers to statements about what task students must perform or produce for a summative assessment task/s and as part of a unit of study.