Teachers and testing: an investigation into teachers’ perceptions of formative assessment

Abstract

Research conducted within the past decade contributes much to an understanding of the role and potential value of formative assessment in learning. As an Advisory Teacher within a local authority, the researcher was interested to find out how teachers actually perceive formative assessment. This study therefore set out to investigate the range and nature of such perceptions and whether any relationships exist between them and independent variables such as school phase and length of teacher experience. The sample was drawn from teachers working in 24 lower and middle schools within one local authority and the research was conducted in two phases. This paper will focus on Phase 1, during which data was drawn from a questionnaire survey which elicited both quantitative and qualitative responses from 67 teachers. Analysis of this data revealed a range of perceptions about formative assessment among teachers. In particular, they acknowledged the value of formative assessment in promoting learning. However, these findings suggest that perhaps teachers were less confident than they claimed to be in putting actual strategies in place, supporting the findings of Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, and Wiliam (2002). Statistical analysis revealed some significant relationships between some of these perceptions and both school phase and length of teacher experience. Both theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations made for future policy and practice.

Keywords:

• teachers
• perceptions
• formative assessment

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank all the teachers who gave their time to take part in the survey, as well as Local Authority colleagues who took part in the initial pilot study. Special thanks go to Ruth Kershner and Isobel Urquhart (University of Cambridge) who supervised this research project as part of M.Ed. thesis. The advice received from Marie-Pierre Moreau (University of Bedfordshire) in the drafting of this paper is also very much appreciated.