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A phenomenographic study of Singapore Chinese language teachers' experience of assessment tension
Author
Chan, Kwong Tung
Supervisor
Tan, Kelvin Heng Kiat
Abstract
This research investigates the qualitatively different ways in which Chinese Language (CL) teachers in Singapore experience assessment tension (AT). AT is defined as “teachers’ feelings of struggle with competing considerations in their assessment practices”. A phenomenographic approach was used to identify and describe CL teachers’ collective experience of AT in terms of their distinctive differences and their interrelatedness within. Data was collected from the semi-structured interviews.
In the literature, teachers are increasingly experiencing much more AT at different levels for the past two decades due to a variety of reasons, both in Singapore and elsewhere. This research investigates specifically what assessment considerations CL teachers focus on and how they deal with these competing considerations. The investigation focuses on the different ways CL teachers described their AT experience. The primary research question for this research is: “What are the qualitatively different ways in which teachers experience AT?”
A total of nine CL teachers from three secondary schools of different profiles and the Ministry of Education (MOE) headquarters were selected as participants. The findings or the outcome space of the investigation could be logically reduced into the ‘What’ aspect and the ‘How’ aspect of the phenomenon experienced. It may be understood in three related and distinct ways.
At the collective level, the qualitatively different ways in which teachers experience AT are denoted as “conceptions” and are represented by “categories of description”. The three conceptions of experiencing AT found in this research are the passive, the responsive and the propulsive. Respectively, their focal awareness of their experience of the phenomenon was on current limitations, imminent opportunities and beyond current limitations and imminent opportunities (or beyond school). Correspondingly, teachers assume the role of either a compliant executor, a rational practitioner or an advanced re-conceptualiser in their assessment practices. The typical attributes of these conceptions are described and their relationships are uncovered in this research. The outcome space of CL teachers’ progressive awareness of AT is further analysed in terms of the assessment purpose, reality and ideal gap, demand from stakeholders of education. These three dimensions of variation, as well as the attributes of the three conceptions of AT, are described in detail.
The variation of teachers’ experience of AT and the structure of awareness of AT derived from teachers’ interviews are useful for re-addressing assessment issues that include the understanding AT beyond a negative connotation, and the increasing importance of formative assessment (FA) in a summative assessment (SA)-dominated educational landscape. The findings also allow readers to re-look at AT in sustainable assessment practice and re-assess the taking up of new assessment ideas from the ‘West’ in a Confucian-heritage context/culture (CHC). More importantly, the progressive awareness of AT sheds light on the theoretical, analytical and pedagogical aspects of this phenomenographic study. The structure of awareness of AT depicts how the experience of assessment and education policies is theorised by individuals (theoretical aspect), is analysed to present the different aspects of ways of experiencing AT and how these aspects are related (analytical aspect). The distinctive research benefit of knowing teachers’ ways of experiencing AT is that policy-makers and school leaders could suggest how ‘better’ ways of understanding and experiencing AT may be brought about (pedagogical aspect). Consequently, this outcome space would also reveal further implications on how AT may be understood in terms of assessment practice and policy making.
In the literature, teachers are increasingly experiencing much more AT at different levels for the past two decades due to a variety of reasons, both in Singapore and elsewhere. This research investigates specifically what assessment considerations CL teachers focus on and how they deal with these competing considerations. The investigation focuses on the different ways CL teachers described their AT experience. The primary research question for this research is: “What are the qualitatively different ways in which teachers experience AT?”
A total of nine CL teachers from three secondary schools of different profiles and the Ministry of Education (MOE) headquarters were selected as participants. The findings or the outcome space of the investigation could be logically reduced into the ‘What’ aspect and the ‘How’ aspect of the phenomenon experienced. It may be understood in three related and distinct ways.
At the collective level, the qualitatively different ways in which teachers experience AT are denoted as “conceptions” and are represented by “categories of description”. The three conceptions of experiencing AT found in this research are the passive, the responsive and the propulsive. Respectively, their focal awareness of their experience of the phenomenon was on current limitations, imminent opportunities and beyond current limitations and imminent opportunities (or beyond school). Correspondingly, teachers assume the role of either a compliant executor, a rational practitioner or an advanced re-conceptualiser in their assessment practices. The typical attributes of these conceptions are described and their relationships are uncovered in this research. The outcome space of CL teachers’ progressive awareness of AT is further analysed in terms of the assessment purpose, reality and ideal gap, demand from stakeholders of education. These three dimensions of variation, as well as the attributes of the three conceptions of AT, are described in detail.
The variation of teachers’ experience of AT and the structure of awareness of AT derived from teachers’ interviews are useful for re-addressing assessment issues that include the understanding AT beyond a negative connotation, and the increasing importance of formative assessment (FA) in a summative assessment (SA)-dominated educational landscape. The findings also allow readers to re-look at AT in sustainable assessment practice and re-assess the taking up of new assessment ideas from the ‘West’ in a Confucian-heritage context/culture (CHC). More importantly, the progressive awareness of AT sheds light on the theoretical, analytical and pedagogical aspects of this phenomenographic study. The structure of awareness of AT depicts how the experience of assessment and education policies is theorised by individuals (theoretical aspect), is analysed to present the different aspects of ways of experiencing AT and how these aspects are related (analytical aspect). The distinctive research benefit of knowing teachers’ ways of experiencing AT is that policy-makers and school leaders could suggest how ‘better’ ways of understanding and experiencing AT may be brought about (pedagogical aspect). Consequently, this outcome space would also reveal further implications on how AT may be understood in terms of assessment practice and policy making.
Date Issued
2019
Call Number
P118.15 Cha