Queensland teachers’ conceptions of assessment: The impact of policy priorities on teacher attitudes

The conceptions Queensland teachers have about assessment purposes were surveyed in 2003 with an abridged version of the Teacher Conceptions of Assessment Inventory. Multi-group analysis found that a model with four factors, somewhat different in structure to previous studies, was statistically different between Queensland primary and (lower) secondary teachers. Primary teachers agreed more than secondary teachers that ‘assessment improves teaching and learning’, while the latter agreed more that it ‘makes students accountable’. The inter-correlation of ‘assessment is irrelevant’ to ‘makes students accountable’ was statistically stronger for primary teachers. Teacher beliefs reflected the differing practices of assessment by level of schooling.

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► Configural & metric equivalence in primary-secondary Queensland teacher responses;
► Inter-correlation ‘Irrelevant’ to ‘Student Accountability’ stronger at primary level;
► ‘Improvement’ stronger for primary;
► ‘Student Accountability’ stronger at secondary;
► Teacher beliefs reflect differing practices of assessment by level of schooling.