Urban public-school teachers’ assessment literacy in China’s Zhengzhou city

ABSTRACT

Since the turn of the century, China has shown its determination to change its examination-oriented tradition. It started assessment reforms and raised a series of expectations regarding teacher assessment literacy. At the same time, China experienced rapid internal migration, with urban public schools accepting huge numbers of migrant students in recent years. This study explored urban public-school teachers’ assessment literacy in China’s Zhengzhou city. The teaching of nine teachers from nine urban public schools were observed and follow-up interviews conducted between 2018 and 2019. The study provides insights into the contextual challenges that face teachers with regard to assessment in urban public schools in China.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban public-school teacher
• assessment literacy
• China
• Zhengzhou

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Students are allowed to use reference materials in exams.

2 Parents’ major criteria of judgment on school’s education quality in China (Wang 2018).

3 In non-compulsory education such as high school, most Chinese cities still do not accept migrant students.

4 At the time of this study, the curriculum for junior middle school had not yet been revised. High school curriculum standards had been revised, and featured an assessment framework based on students’ competence.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Philosophy and Social Science Project Fund [21FJKB007].