Assessment postures of future teachers

Proceedings of The 5th International Conference on Advanced Research in Education, Teaching and Learning

Year: 2021

DOI:

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Assessment postures of future teachers

Walther Tessaro

ABSTRACT: 

At the very heart of a process whose steps range from defining the object to making a decision, the assessment action is the result of intertwined dimensions whose constituent elements are based on the assessment culture and skills, the evaluator’s posture and the assessment gestures.  Researchers have most often attempted to describe evaluator postures using metaphors. Metaphorical language is used to describe and explain teachers’ conceptions of students, their role and their profession. Analysis of these metaphors is a tool for accessing their intuitive conceptions.

In a research conducted at the end of initial teacher training, we wanted to identify the students’ conceptions of the teacher-evaluator. The general hypothesis was to understand the different functions and aims of assessment, with, as consequences, on the one hand, the identification of several assessment postures, and on the other hand, the mobilization of several postures simultaneously.

A questionnaire, built on Qualtrics online platform, was distributed to all students of the same class. It included a vignette to be analyzed. Participation was anonymous and not mandatory.  It appears that, on the eve of entering the profession, future teachers give priority to supporting pupils in their learning progress, with a formative aim that implies adapting interventions according to needs. The analysis of the results shows that only a quarter of the participants chose a single assessment posture. On average, more than one posture was chosen per part of the sequence.

keywords: assessment postures; metaphors; intuitive conceptions; teacher training; assessment gestures.