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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 209 (2015) 229 – 233

International conference “Education, Reflection, Development”, ERD 2015, 3-4 July 2015, Cluj-
Napoca, Romania

Teachers’ Conceptions of Assessment

Dana Oprea *
a
%DEHЮ-Bolyai University, Department of Psychology, Cluj-Napoca, 7 Sindicatelor Street, Cluj-Napoca, 400015, Romania

Abstract

The present article reviews relevant research on teachers' conceptions of assessment. Our objective is to identify key issues and
findings regarding the relationship between the conceptions/beliefs that teachers have about many educational artefacts (teaching,
learning, assessment) and their evaluations of student behavior and performance.

©©2015
2015TheTheAuthors.
Authors.Published by Elsevier
Published Ltd. This
by Elsevier Ltd. is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of ERD 2015.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of ERD 2015

Keywords:educational assessment, teachers’ beliefs, conceptions,beliefs and practice

1. Introduction

Interest toward assessment in higher education has significantly increased in recent years. Assessment serves
multiple purposes such as providing information about student learning and progress, teaching quality, and program
and institutional accountability. The study of teachers’ conceptions about assessment is a critical issue in the field of
assessment research. Although this area of research has wide-ranging implications for policy and practice in tertiary
institutions, little is known about faculty’ conceptions regarding different aspects of assessment. Teachers’ beliefs
domain is a very attractive one because there is clearly evidence that the beliefs about teaching, learning, and
curricula influence strongly how teachers teach and what students learn or achieve (Clark & Peterson, 1986; Pajares,
1992; Savasci-Acikalin, 2009). Examining teachers’ beliefs provides a means for understanding the relationship
between beliefs and student outcomes, and it also provides insight into teachers’ classroom practices and pedagogy
(Kagan, 1992; Muis & Foy, 2010; Opre, 2010).

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +40-264-590967; fax:+40-264-590967

E-mail address:danaopre_ubb@yahoo.com

1877-0428 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of ERD 2015
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.11.222
230 Dana Opre / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 209 (2015) 229 – 233

Teachers’ beliefs are understood as part of a complex multidimensional system that can include contrasting
beliefs which can or cannot materialize in practice, dependent on individual or contextual factors. According to the
new perspective, teachers’ conceptions or beliefs become key factors, being regarded as essential determinants of
the instructional activity and of the students’ learning process. Specifically, it starts from the premises that teachers
own a variety of beliefs and this influences the quality of their performance. In this fashion, teachers develop their
own convictions about epistemology, about their students, about their status as a teacher, about the content of the
teaching materials and how they teach it and about an array of social aspects that are related to teaching (Levin,
2015). Once established, these beliefs function as a filter, similar to a mechanism of interpretation and
transformation of the curricular documents (Grossman, Wilson, Shulman, 1989; Nespor, 1987; Pajares, 1992; apud
Skott, 2015), affecting their method of implementation. In general, they are seen as explicative principles of the
practical activities inherent to a teacher (Skott, 2009a). Resuming the key dimensions of teachers’ beliefs in a very
recent study, Jeppe Skott (2015) provides a comprehensive definition that encompasses the portrait, the source and
the impact of these beliefs. According to him, teachers’ beliefs are individual mental constructs, value laden and
subjectively true, being the result, relatively stable, of some significant social experiences and having an increased
impact over teacher’s interpretations and contributions in the context of their teaching (Skott, 2015).
In the research area of teachers’ beliefs, the themes with a longer tradition in research, such as those which study
beliefs about teaching and learning, personal epistemology, curricula have specific content domains well
appointed. In relation to these themes the term of beliefs has been considered as the most suitable by researchers
and it was established. In contrast, if we are to refer to teacher’s beliefs about assessment, the preferred term and the
most frequently used in the specialized literature is that of conceptions: teacher’s conceptions in regards to
assessment. In order to eliminate confusion and to remain within the terminology generally accepted, we have
decided that in the second section of the present chapter to use the term of conceptions. Therefore, the phrase we
will make use here will be that of teacher’s conceptions of assessment. For the same reason, in this section, we will
return for an elaborate analysis of the relationship beliefs-conceptions.

2. Teachers’ beliefs about assessment

Researchers in the field made clear distinctions between the terms knowledge and beliefs (Nespor, 1987; Pajares,
1992; Skott, 2015). They agree that knowledge implies a general consensus with regards to its value as truth. In
contrast, beliefs are being referred to as a set of faiths that individuals have in connection to a particular topic
(Pajares, 1992).
These conceptual delimitations have been well established in the specialized literature concerned with teachers’
beliefs, especially in the fields with a longer tradition in research, as: beliefs related to teaching and learning;
personal epistemology; beliefs about specific content domains). In the context of these studies the term beliefs was
considered by researchers the most appropriate and it has established. Contrary, the researchers who investigate
beliefs in relation to assessment use terms like conceptions and values to describe their variable interests.
The term conception, initially introduced by Thompson (1992), refers to “general mental structure, encompassing
beliefs, meanings, concepts, propositions, rules, mental images, preferences, and the like”. In other words,
conceptions integrate in unitary construct knowledge and beliefs, beliefs representing a subcategory of the
conceptions. In the context of national assessment conceptions describe “teachers overall perception and awareness
of assessment (Barnes, Fives & Dacey, 2015). Some studies that are a reference point in their field (Brown, 2004,
2006, 2008) have used the term of teachers’ conceptions in relation to assessment. Thus, due to the fact that in the
specific research area of teachers’ beliefs in relation to assessment the established term is that of conception, in the
following section of this paper we have decided to use the terminology of assessment conceptions.
A review of specialized literature reveals that the issue of teacher beliefs about teaching, learning, curriculum
and different disciplines has been investigated by researchers with predilection and it has existed for more than
twenty years (Beswick, 2006; Fives, Lacatena & Gerard, 2015; Thompson, 1992). In contrast, the interest in the
study of teachers’ assessment conceptions is relatively recent (Brown, 2004, 2006, 2008; Harris & Brown, 2009;
Barnes et al., 2015) and it occurs due to the paradigm shift in the approach and understanding of teaching and
learning. Even though, they are fewer and more recent, the studies on the conceptions of assessment bring important
 Dana Opre / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 209 (2015) 229 – 233 231

contributions to the way in which teachers understand assessment and how these beliefs influence their teaching
behavior. On the basis of a analysis of representative studies in this field (Brown, 2004, 2006; Davis & Neizel, 2011;
Haris & Brown, 2009; Remesal, 2007), we can identify four categories of teachers’ conception in relation to
assessment. These categories are briefly portrayed through the following assumptions: a. assessment improves
teaching and learning; b. assessment holds the students responsible for their own learning; c. assessment charges
institutions and teachers with responsibility of students/pupils teaching; d. assessment is irrelevant, it negatively
affects teachers, students/pupils, curricula and teaching.
According to the conceptions in the first category, the main purpose of assessment is to optimize the students’
learning process. Actually, it is considered that this method gives students/pupils useful feedback and it facilitates
their engagement in assessment through the process of self-assessment or peer assessment (Dayal & Lingam, 2015).
Concurrently, assessment provides teachers with information they use to optimize their own teaching activity. The
second perspective on assessment presents the students as responsible for their own learning and that they have to
obtain the necessary qualification in order to access different educational levels.
In this understanding, the focus is not on students` procurement or on their process of learning, but rather on the
position they occupy in comparison with other students who are in the same year of study. The third category
regarding assessment conceptions addresses assessment from the perspective of its suitability/utility to measure
teachers’ work and of the educational institutions in contrast to predetermined standards (Brown, 2002). According
to this view, any deficiency in the level students’ performance is assigned to those two actors: teachers and
institutions of education. The fourth type of conceptions is those conceptions that describe the irrelevance of
assessment. Specifically, this perspective supports that the utility of the assessment process is rejected in education,
assessment being considered to have negative consequences for the educational process, students and teachers. It
could be flawed, it could disregard students’ abilities and provoke them anxiety. In addition, with regards to
teachers, assessment could have different effects over their autonomy and professionalism and it could distract their
attention from the established goals in connection to students learning (Brown, 2002).
It is very important to remember that at one time teachers could simultaneously hold multiple conceptions of
assessment, for example they could understand assessment as learning optimization learning, but also as a method of
charging teachers with responsibility for the learning of the students.
Beyond the diversity of conceptions of assessment held by teachers’, another area of interested was the process
of development and the factors that influence these types of conceptions. Some authors, (Brown, 2004), consider
that, initially, they are not affected by the context they develop in or by previous experience. To be more precise, the
roles fulfilled by teachers, the numbers of years in education, the number of years of professional experience and
the socio-economic status of their schools does not influence the conceptions that teachers held in relation to
assessment. In opposition to this view, more studies have indicated that these conceptions can actually be altered by
various factors such as: the system of education where the teachers work, the manner of understanding of the
content taught (Vandeyar & Killen, 2007), the teachers’ beliefs in their students’ abilities, the perception of the
community expectations (Bright & Joyner, 1998).

3. Beliefs and practice relationship

The interest showed for the research of conceptions of assessment comes from the premises that these
conceptions, like other types of teachers’ beliefs, significantly influence their decisions and professional activity
(Brown, 2008; Opre, 2010; Vandeyar & Killen, 2007). In consequence, changing teachers’ conceptions of
assessment will lead to the alteration of their assessment methods. In a recent study relatively recent, Vandeyar &
Killen (2007), have illustrated that different assessment conceptions lead to different assessment practices. Thus,
teachers’ who concept assessment as a useful method of gaining the information needed to take the decisions related
to learning, they will constantly use the assessment tools that are complementary to the process of teaching and
learning. Teachers who have the conception of charging students with responsibility for their own learning will
favor the formal, summative assessment methods.
The relationship between beliefs and practice is not, however, quite that direct and simple. It is influenced by a
number of distinct factors, with the context where the teaching activity is playing an important role. Therefore, in
232 Dana Opre / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 209 (2015) 229 – 233

their studies, Davis and Neitzel (20100) and James and Pedder (2006) have broght forward constrains that the
context imposes on the materialization of teachers’ assessment beliefs. In the former study, (Davis and Neitzel,
2011), the participating teachers did not constantly use formative methods of assessment, despite the fact that the
conception they have shared in relation to assessment were extremely articulate and rooted in the paradigm of self-
regulated learning. These teachers reported that the assessment tools used have been imposed by external requests
for a particular kind of assessment information.
Moreover, James and Pedder (2006), in their study conducted on 558 teachers in England, have identified a gap
between reported practices and beliefs. Hence, in spite of the fact that these teachers valued the practices which
facilitate explicit learning and promote learning autonomy, they reported that they are involved in practices which
support a performance orientation in students (Barnes et all., 2015). The authors have explained these disparities by
drawing attention to the influences and pressure that the context for assessment in the country where they study was
placed (England) imprints teachers’ practices making them to be more performance oriented than they believe they
should be. Even though the number of studies in the field of assessment conceptions that are concerned with their
connection with practice is relatively reduced, we can still identify the existence of this relationship. It is important
to make note of the fact that despite the fact that there is not sufficient data that could highlight the relationship
between beliefs and practice we cannot state that it does not exist. Furthermore, we believe that in order to
understand the complexity of such a relationship, we need to analyze with higher attention individual factors, but
also the social and political contexts where assessment takes place and how they influence the materialization of
conceptions in practice. We are encouraged, in this regards, by the results gained in related areas of research.
Therefore, we can notice that there are more studies that illustrate the complexity of the relationship between beliefs
and practice in other research areas of teachers’ beliefs. For example, there have been conducted studies that have
analyzed this interdependence, studies that addressed teachers’ beliefs about effectiveness of inquiry, feedback, self-
efficacy, physical education, beliefs about classroom management, and beliefs about various pedagogical practices.
The outcomes of these studies have brought forward three distinct perspectives over the way the relationship beliefs
and practice functions, and they are the following: beliefs influence practice, practice influence beliefs, teachers’
beliefs are disconnected from their practices. This means that we can induce that the relationship beliefs-practice is
actually very complex, in which these two components influence one another; the power of these interconditioning
can vary across every individual and context as well as according to the type of beliefs and practices that are being
assessed.

Conclusion

To resume, we can state with high confidence that the research on teachers’ beliefs is fundamental for the
understanding of the complex nature of teaching and learning within the present educational environments. These
beliefs are individual mental structures, value laden and subjectively true. Even though the majority of educational
researchers are aware of the importance of the relationship between assessment- beliefs- practice, we, unfortunately,
have to highlight the fact that there are a relatively small number of studies that have examined it in all its
complexity. We are of the opinion that conducting ample studies that will analyze the nature and intensity of this
relationship, could bring an essential contribution towards the development of this domain. In addition, the result of
this kind of endeavour could open new research directions or even a new focus of the research objectives. This could
allow for the reexamination of the learning experiences that teachers are engaged in and, indirectly, allow for a
reconceptualization of the development process of the pedagogic expertise.

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