Assidere Necesse Est. Necessities and complexities regarding teachers’ assessment practices in technology education

Assidere Necesse Est. Necessities and complexities regarding teachers’ assessment practices in technology education

This thesis focuses on teachers’ assessment practices in primary and lower secondary schools for technology education (Sv. Teknik). It is grounded in my prior experience as a teacher but also addresses the national and international research fields of technology education and assessment.

The thesis is based on four papers covering different aspects of teachers’ assessment practices in technology. Its aim is to contribute to knowledge regarding how teachers use assessments in primary and lower secondary school. The thesis explores: teachers’ formal documenting practices; primary teachers’ minute-by-minute classroom assessment; teachers’ views on assessment and finally teachers’ statements and motives relating to criteria for success while assessing students’ e-portfolios.

The choice of methods varies, depending on the focus of each sub-study, including quantitative data, collected from official governmental databases, software-generated statistical data and questionnaires as well as qualitative methods such as observations and interviews.

Formal documents proved to be unsupportive for teachers’ assessment practices. Lack of instruction and deficiencies in design templates made these documents practically useless. The classroom study shows that the studied teachers have great ambitions for their pupils to succeed but lack collegial support concerning their assessment practices. Findings also show that teachers who are specifically trained in technology show higher self-efficacy regarding their assessment practices. Based on the results from the teachers’ assessments of e-portfolios, it is concluded that there is consensus among the teachers to focus on the whole rather than on particular details in student’s work. The overall results strengthen the importance of designing activities and that students should be taught and not left to unreflective doing in technology.

Teachers’ assessment practices are complex. This thesis shows that teachers work with assessment in different ways. It is also shown that the educational environment is not supportive enough. Assessment is a necessity in the endeavour of bridging teaching and learning in technology, thus affordance for teachers’ assessment practices must be increased.