New Zealand prospective teacher conceptions of assessment and academic performance: Neither student nor practicing teacher

Conceptions of assessment are critical components of prospective teacher learning about assessment. Students (n=324) enrolled in a 2nd-year course on classroom assessment responded to the Teachers’ Conceptions of Assessment Abridged (TCoAIIIA) inventory. Confirmatory factor analysis found that the model for practicing teachers was not well-fitting and an alternative five factor model was found (i.e., assessment improves student learning and teaching; assessment is ignored and is inaccurate, assessment is bad, assessment measures school quality validly, and assessment grades students). Students more than moderately agreed that assessment improves student learning and teaching and that assessment grades students. A structural equation model found that only one conception of assessment negatively predicted course total grade (β=-.23) and/or test score (β=-.29). The study showed that prospective teachers have quite different patterns and effects in their conceptions of assessment than practicing teachers and high school students. Copyright © 2011 Antioch University Los Angeles, Department of Education.