Informing learning and teaching using feedback from assessment data: Hong Kong teachers’ attitudes towards Rasch measurement

Reform initiative towards assessment for learning is a response to a number of developments both in the region and internationally. Teachers play a critical role in the success of its implementation. This study aimed to explore teachers’ attitudes towards the costs and benefits of using reports generated from Rasch measurement to support assessment for learning. The participants were 25 primary school teachers and 24 secondary school teachers. Focus-group interviews were used to collect data on their attitudes towards Rasch measurement. ‘Big ideas’ (Krueger, Analyzing & reporting focus group results. Focus group kit 6. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1998) were identified from the transcripts as a whole. They were then encoded with key phrases and sorted into categories. This study found that Hong Kong teachers in general welcomed Rasch measurement as a powerful alternative to traditional total score method for providing useful and detailed feedback to support and improve student learning, although some of them might be deterred by the contextual and technical problems. Copyright © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.