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Journal of Education for Teaching
International research and pedagogy
ISSN: 0260-7476 (Print) 1360-0540 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjet20
Impact of professional development programme on teachers’ competencies in assessment
Pauline Mak
To cite this article: Pauline Mak (2019) Impact of professional development programme on teachers’ competencies in assessment, Journal of Education for Teaching, 45:4, 481-485, DOI:
10.1080/02607476.2019.1639266
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2019.1639266
Published online: 12 Jul 2019.
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Impact of professional development programme on teachers ’ competencies in assessment
Pauline Mak
Department of English Language Education, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
ABSTRACT
In the past few decades, increasing demands have been placed on developing students’ autonomy and critical thinking skills. To enhance students’agency in learning, teachers have been encour- aged to adopt alternative pedagogical practices. The revamp of pedagogy needs to be reflected in assessment as it is an integral part of instruction. Practising teachers, however, lack assessment knowledge due to inadequate training during the pre-service pre- paration programmes. The enhancement of assessment knowledge is being urgently called for, which demands the professional devel- opment of teachers. This study seeks to investigate the impact of a professional development programme organized by a university in Hong Kong on the development of assessment knowledge of four teachers in two elementary schools. Findings indicate that the acqui- sition of assessment knowledge is a long-term achievement, which requires ongoing professional development efforts.
ARTICLE HISTORY Received 16 July 2018 Accepted 23 August 2018 KEYWORDS
Assessment competencies;
innovation; professional development; elementary teachers
Introduction
The past few decades have seen the government’s efforts all over the world to reform the education system to advocate independence and critical thinking skills (Lee 2016).
Teachers have been encouraged to adopt pedagogical practices that give pupils greater engagement and control over their learning. Such a transformation in pedagogy needs to be reflected in the assessment as it is an integral part of the instruction (Shepard, 2000). The teacher, being the fulcrum that influences pupils’ achievement, has to possess sufficient assessment knowledge to scaffold their learning. However, it has been well documented in the literature that many practising teachers lack assessment knowledge due to inadequate training during the pre-service preparation programmes (e.g., Hargreaves, Earl, and Schmidt2002; Koh 2011). Devoid of assessment competen- cies in assessment, teachers do not possess the knowledge and skills in support of enhancing pupil agency and learning effectiveness. It is crucial, therefore, to develop and support teachers’ enhancement of assessment knowledge. Much of the literature has suggested that professional development is the cornerstone of nurturing teachers to become proficient at developing effective assessment practices and to apply them productively to support pupil learning (e.g., Mak & Lee2014 ; Carless, 2011). To date, there is a scarcity of research on the professional development of teachers (Price et al.
CONTACTPauline Mak [email protected] 2019, VOL. 45, NO. 4, 481–485
https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2019.1639266
© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2013) and what support they need to develop their competencies in the assessment. To fill this significant void, the present study seeks to investigate the impact of a professional development programme organised by a university in Hong Kong on the development of assessment knowledge of four teachers in two elementary schools, which will inform teacher education programmes on how to better prepare teachers to become assessment competent. This study is guided by one central research question:
How does the professional development programme impact on the development of elementary teachers’competencies in the assessment?
The study
The professional development programme included two whole-day workshops as well as support for the participating teachers for a full-year post-workshop. In the workshops, the researcher (a teacher educator) empowered the participants with knowledge about research- informed principles of good assessment practice, kept them up-to-date regarding the research development of assessment, as well as deepening their understanding of their role and the pupils’role in initiating a change in their assessment practice. She also gave the teachers teaching material they could modify to suit their pupils’abilities and modelled how assessment strategies (e.g. goal-setting and reflection) can be used to support pupil learning.
The workshop also invited the teachers to problematise existing classroom assessment practices and put forward ideas for improvement, select and design assessment strategies for their teaching contexts and grasp the practical knowledge and skills necessary for integrating assessment with teaching and learning, with the help of the researcher. In the end, the workshops appeared to have motivated the participating teachers to integrate some new assessment strategies that would contribute to the development of autonomy in pupils.
The teachers agreed to adopt the strategies for one academic year. Throughout the year, the researcher provided the teachers with ongoing support through discussions, offering advice and guidance in areas such as material development, lesson planning and administering assistance by means of school visits, e-mail exchanges, conferencing, and phone calls.
Research design
Four Primary 6 teachers in two elementary schools in Hong Kong implemented innova- tive assessment strategies for one academic year. All the four participating teachers, Catherine, Hilary, Kenneth and Philip (pseudonyms) have a bachelor’s degree in either English or Education, while one of them also holds a Master’s in English language teaching. This study drew on multiple sources of data, including pre- and post- workshop questionnaires, individual interviews with principals and teachers, lesson observations, field notes, teaching material and pupil writing. All the interviews were transcribed. Open and axial coding was employed to analyse the data. Workshop questionnaires, lesson observation data andfield notes were analysed, with ideas related to the research question extracted to triangulate with the themes derived from the interview data. Teaching material and pupil writing were reviewed to identify themes pertaining to the development of assessment competencies among teachers.
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Findings
The results of the study show that the professional development programme has a positive impact on the teachers’development of competencies in the assessment. All of themfind the two-day workshop organised by the researcher useful and effective in terms of enhancing both their theoretical and practical knowledge about assessment. However, all the teachers expressed concern about their ability to translate the knowledge gained from the workshop into practice and hoped to receive more help from the researcher regarding the design of teaching material that suits their teaching context and how the assessment practices can be implemented in their own classrooms. For instance, Philip needed‘very substantial sugges- tions and ideas in supporting pupil learning’through assessment (interview). Hilary, on the other hand, admitted that she possessed inadequate skills and competencies to put theory into practice. She was uncertain as to how to‘administer feedback that puts pupils at the centre of assessment’(interview). Throughout the academic year, the four teachers discussed with and sent teaching material to the researcher for comments and suggestions through e-mail exchanges, conferencing and phone calls in a bid to further develop their knowledge and hone their assessment pedagogy. The researcher also paid three visits to each of the four classes to observe their lessons and provided them with feedback for improvement. One of the schools (School B), however, required additional support and more explicit guidance. Not only did the researcher send them sample material and the material designed by School A (upon their consent), she also held another workshop for the two teachers and their pupils in School B, explaining and demonstrating the what, how, and why of the new assessment strategies. It is noteworthy that the training provided pupils with the initial know-how of the strategies and gave teachers concrete ideas on how pupils could navigate their own learning.
After the workshop, the teachers of School B had gained a much better understanding of the productive use of assessment to increase pupil engagement in learning. As commented by Catherine, she now has an enhanced understanding of how to provide pupils with‘mean- ingful instruction in reviewing and giving feedback to peers’(interview). With the support of the researcher, the teachers engaged in constant and critical reflection and assisted them in fine-tuning the level of the teaching material according to the pupils’knowledge and under- standing. Although the workshops and individualized support tailored to the needs of individual schools are perceived as effective in facilitating their development of assessment knowledge, the four teachers believe that further support is needed to enhance their profes- sional competence and confidence.
Firstly, both schools see the need to engage other colleagues in the same grade in professional development. Through sharing experiences, supporting one another, shar- ing practice across classes as well as contributing their expertise collectively as a team, the teachers believe that their knowledge and practice in assessment can be further developed. Secondly, according to three of the teachers, their success in enhancing competencies in assessment has to be fostered through the professional development of the principal. Without possessing sufficient assessment knowledge, the principal will not understand the professional needs of teachers truly to administer adequate and appropriate support and resources to them. Thirdly, more extensive mentoring and planning (e.g. collaborative lesson planning) with the teachers are deemed necessary to develop in them more in-depth knowledge and expertise in assessment, shedding light on the need of the continuous nature of professional development.
Discussion and conclusion
This study set out to explore the impact of a professional development programme on the development of teachers’competencies in the assessment. The results indicate that the enhancement of assessment knowledge and professional development activities are closely intertwined. The acquisition of assessment knowledge, however, does not occur in a linear fashion and is a long-term achievement, which requires extensive coaching and mentoring from the researcher, as well as continuous work on the part of the participating teachers to build skills to cope with the challenge of an innovative assess- ment endeavour. In other words, one-shot workshops with an aim to enable teachers to master the prescribed skills and knowledge are unrealistic (Clarke and Hollingsworth 2002) as the complexity of the research-practice nexus encumbers the teachers’ability to translate knowledge to classroom practice (Carless,2011). Given the context-specific nature of an assessment, individualized and ongoing professional development is called for to deepen teachers’knowledge and enhance their competencies in the assessment as well as to help them navigate change. The researcher’s provision of training to the pupils also appears to help the teachers gain support in their innovation. In addition to the continuous assessment training, there is a need to engage teachers in critical reflection, which serves as a vehicle for heightening self-awareness of the teaching context, improving teaching and refining the teaching material to accommodate the pupils’ needs. These findings then suggest that the development of competencies in assessment is generated in the course of acting, thinking as well as the constant interaction between teachers and the researcher, and the exchange of ideas across community boundaries facilitates professional learning. Last but not least, this study demonstrates the need to enhance the assessment competencies in all the teachers of the same grade as well as the principal so as to develop a collaborative learning community and to identify the professional needs of the teachers. In view of the lack of teachers’and principals’lack of expertise in classroom assessment practices, the way forward is to improve their assessment pedagogy through continuing professional development endeavours.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
ORCID
Pauline Mak http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5328-1334
References
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