The power of a basic assessment course in changing preservice teachers' conceptions of assessment

This study explores preservice teachers' conceptions of assessment and examines whether and how they change during an e-learning basic assessment course. This was done by addressing the following questions: What characterizes preservice teachers' conceptions of assessment? And to what extent do preservice teachers' assessment conceptions change after participation in a basic assessment course? Data were collected at the beginning and the end of the course from 297 Israeli preservice teachers, using Brown's Teacher's Conceptions of Assessment Inventory (TCoA). Descriptive results revealed that most dominant were the conceptions of assessment as improving learning and teaching. Surprisingly, improvement and accountability were highly correlated in a positive way. The pre-post analysis of students' conceptions indicated that all improvement and some of the irrelevant conceptions significantly changed following the course. The implications for teacher preparation programs, which strive to create a conceptual change toward assessment, are discussed.