Teachers’ conceptions of assessment in Chinese contexts: A tripartite model of accountability, improvement, and irrelevance

The beliefs teachers have about assessment influence classroom practices and reflect cultural and societal differences. This paper reports the development of a new self-report inventory to examine beliefs teachers in Hong Kong and southern China contexts have about the nature and purpose of assessment. A statistically equivalent model for Hong Kong and southern China teachers had three factors (i.e., improvement, accountability, and irrelevance). The Chinese teachers very strongly associated accountability with improvement (r = .80). This is consistent with the Chinese tradition and policy of using examinations to drive teaching quality and student learning and as a force for merit based decisions. Small differences between the two groups of teachers are consistent with assessment policy differences in the two jurisdictions.

► We psychometrically validated the Chinese-Teacher Conceptions of Assessment inventory.
► A 3-factor model was statistically equivalent for Hong Kong and South China teachers.
► Assessment for Improvement was highly correlated with Accountability purposes.
► Factor mean score differences were consistent with jurisdictional policy differences.
► Assessment for learning policy reforms unlikely to succeed in Chinese contexts.