Primary school teachers' conceptions of assessment in Singapore

Abstract

Recent major assessment changes have increased the complexity of assessment significantly. Given that the assessment needs of Singaporean teachers remain fairly high, other drivers of assessment practice, such as assessment belief, could be further examined to understand teachers’ concerns. This study aims to understand teachers’ assessment beliefs. To investigate this, 106 Singaporean primary school teachers completed Brown’s Teachers Conception of Assessment (Abridged). The data was analysed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis, correlational analysis and ANOVA. The findings showed that the teachers believe strongly that assessment improves education and is used to improve teaching as well as learning. They agree moderately that assessment makes school accountable and that assessment is not imprecise and is fair to the students undergoing them. These beliefs are consistent at different teacher ages, years of experiences and regardless of the subjects they teach. Therefore, there is some evidence that the movement towards formative and holistic assessment in Singapore has been positively received and change happening at an acceptable pace. The study also suggests that some more work can be done to understand what teachers believe about how assessment impact student accountability and what negative beliefs teachers may hold about assessments.