A STUDY OF TEACHERS’ CONCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES OF CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT IN PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS OF PUNJAB

Abstract

The study aimed to explore school teachers’ self-reported conceptions and practices of classroom assessment.The data was collected through survey from 512 high school teachers working in four districts of Punjab. Conceptions ofAssessment (COA)III Abridged survey (2002)developed by Brown and Assessment Practices Inventory developed byMcmillan, Myran and Workman (2002) and modified by Brown (2009) were used to identify teachers’ conceptions andpractices regarding classroom assessment. Data was analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics. Results foundthat teachers’ showed strong agreement towards improvement; school accountability and students’ accountabilityconception of assessment whereas found disagreed to the conception that “assessment is irrelevant”. Mutual correlationwas observed among conceptions of assessment. Formal assessment types measuring surface level cognitive processingwas the mostly used assessment formats among teachers, whereas informal assessments requiring deep cognitiveprocessing of the information were found less in use. Conceptions and practices of assessment were not found strongly
related. The study made a contribution to the understandings of school teachers regarding purposes and uses ofassessment in the context of Pakistan having implication for the development of prospective teachers’ conceptions andpreferences for assessment practices.