The aim of this essay was to investigate whether pupils with higher grades based on formative assessment were more successful at adapting informal texts into formal texts.Six pupils in English 7 were asked to write an informal blog entry about their favorite hobby/pastime and a formal entry also about their favorite hobby/pastime intended for an English encyclopedia. The pupils that were selected were assessed as havingformative grades A-E. The ability to transform informal into formal texts was assessedquantitatively by counting a number of lexical and grammatical features. The results showed that pupils with a higher formative grade did not experience significant difficulties in adapting their language and switching from informal to formal language. The results also showed that the usage of slang and contractions among the pupils with lower grades was maximized.

This study is concerned with understanding the complexities inherent in the mentoring process. It investigates understandings of mentoring primary education student teachers within a school placement context. Further, it explores understandings and perceptions of the use of formative assessment principles and practices to support professional learning within that process. In addition, it aims to identify salient implications for mentoring practices within Initial Teacher Education. Within an instrumental, collective case study, a purposeful sampling strategy was employed in terms of selecting student teachers at a particular stage on a specific programme (an undergraduate primary education degree), their class teacher mentors, and their placement school management level and local authority mentors. Semi-structured interviews were used alongside a constructivist grounded theory approach to data analysis and theory generation (Charmaz, 2006). Current Scottish education policy is used to frame and exemplify points made with a variety of national and international literature employed to analyse findings and suggest recommendations for future mentoring research, policy and practice. Findings indicate that participants understood mentoring as a multidimensional process involving a range of relationships designed to support the mentoring of student teachers within a school placement context. Four relationships, which differ in terms of extent and form/function, are evident: class teacher mentor/mentee; school management mentor/class teacher mentor/mentee; school/university and local authority/school. These relationships appear to range in proximity from close to barely existent. The key relationship is that between class teacher mentor and mentee. Findings further suggest variability in understandings of formative assessment. Most participants were comfortable in describing its forms through examples of classroom practice. However, talking about function (why it is used) was an area of uncertainty. Participants also understood formative and summative assessment as connected processes. Several professional learning sources were cited as the bases of their understandings. With regard to perceptions of the use of formative assessment, findings suggest that it was used within the main mentoring relationship between class teacher mentors and mentees. Responses indicate that it was employed subconsciously in contrast to the structured, explicit way it is used with school pupils. Furthermore, participants viewed it as potentially helpful in the professional learning of mentors and mentees through strategies such as dialogue, self-evaluation and peer assessment. It was noted that support was required to develop the use of formative assessment within the mentoring process. In this respect, participants were able to articulate how it might be implemented with reference to specific professional learning mechanisms, however, were unsure about what its content might be. Based on findings, recommendations for policy and practice in the area of mentor education and partnership within Scottish Initial Teacher Education are suggested to foster a more cohesive, informed approach to mentoring student teachers. Future directions for research emerge in terms of the use of a variety of mentors from within and outwith school placement contexts, investigation of the role of the university tutor within emerging enhanced partnership arrangements, and an exploration of how formative assessment might be more consciously integrated into the mentoring process.

This study describes the findings of a qualitative study examining the understanding about the beliefs and practices about assessment of faculty who teach English as a foreign language. I analyzed the beliefs and practices of EFL faculty members as described in their responses upon the instructional process of the target language following a three-part approach proposed by Miles, Huberman and Saldana (2014), which is a concurrent flow of three activities: (a) data condensation, (b) data display, and (c) conclusion drawing/ verification. For the collection of data, I used two instruments: qualitative interviews, and documents. The following research questions guided this study: 1) what are the beliefs of faculty members about the role of assessment in the teaching of English as a foreign language in undergraduate programs in a higher educational institution in Colombia? 2) How do EFL faculty members describe the practice of assessment in a Colombian higher educational institution, both in terms of their teaching EFL pre service teachers and in their interactions with departmental colleagues? 3) How do EFL faculty members interpret the implications of the guiding principles about assessment of a Colombian university, contained in its undergraduate student manual, for their instructional practice of English as Foreign Language?

I följande kunskapsöversikt sammanställs och kartläggs forskningsområdet förformativ bedömning i matematik. Formativ bedömning syftar till att utveckla elevernas kunskaper genom att kontinuerligt i lärandeprocessen återkoppla till eleven och inte summera och gradera dennes kunskaper i slutet av ett moment. Formativ bedömning är ett välkänt fenomen som har haft stor spridning i både svenska skolor så som världen över. Studierna lyfter positiva och negativa aspekter av arbetet med formativ bedömning i allmänhet och med formativ bedömning i matematik i synnerhet. Studierna som presenteras i följande översikt diskuteras och kartläggs utifrån olika aspekter. Fokusligger på de nyckelstrategier som lyfts i och med formativ bedömning, alltså, tydliggöra mål och kunskapskrav, synliggöra lärandet, återkoppling, aktivera elever som lärresurser för varandra och aktivera eleven som ägare av sin egen lärprocess. Efter att fältet formativ bedömning i matematik har kartlagts följer en fördjupad analys i arbetet med just återkoppling och själv reglerat lärande. Slutsatser som kan dras i och med kunskapsöversikten är bland annat att arbetet med formativ bedömning är tidskrävande och att det är en undervisningsform som behöver etableras i verksamma praktiker innan det kan nå sin fulla potential.

Doctor Educationis / The central concern of this study has been to determine the effectiveness or otherwise of a combined Dialogical Argumentation Instructional Method (DAIM) and the Assessment for Learning Model (DAAFLIM) strategies in enhancing Tertiary and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) students’ conceptions of selected scientific topics. The extant literature has shown that students often hold other worldviews or funds of knowledge, which might be in conflict with canonical school science. In light of this, DAAFLIM has been chosen for a number of reasons: (1) it has been shown to be effective for revealing students’ scientific and alternative worldviews; (2) it provides the learning environment that encourages students to express themselves freely, exchange views with others, reflect on what they have learned, and even to change their minds in the face of stronger arguments; (3) it is compatible with the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) curriculum which emphasizes that educators should integrate school science with students’ indigenous knowledge as a way to make the former more relevant to their sociocultural environment; (4) assists educators to plan instruction in accordance with the needs of multicultural science classroom; and (5) the combination of classroom discourses with continuous or formative assessment (as exemplified by DAAFLIM), instead of the usual terminal summative assessment, tends to mitigate the fears that students usually associate with assessment. Specifically, a group of TVET students i.e. the Experimental group (E-group) was exposed to DAAFLIM while the other group i.e. the Control group (C-group) was exposed to traditional instruction method (TIM).

The nation is challenged with improving the mathematics achievement of its students. No Child Left Behind holds schools, districts, and states accountable for improving student achievement. Because high stakes tests are given at the end of the school year, schools are presented with the challenging task of developing or purchasing reliable assessments that provide accurate information describing how well students understand the skills that will be measured on the end-of-the-year high stakes tests. Curriculum based measurements are used periodically to measure student progress toward meeting objectives during the school year. The problem exists that schools are utilizing limited resources of time and money on a tool with little evidence of effectiveness in increasing mathematics scores on state assessments. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between the scores of the three assessments of the Mathematics-Curriculum Based Measures (M-CBM) and the scores from the mathematics MCT2 for sixth-grade students. A correlational research design is used to fulfill the purpose and test the three null hypotheses. Hypothesis 1 for this study states that there is no relationship between the August 2009 M-CBM scores and the May 2010 mathematics MCT2 scores. Hypothesis 2 states that there is no relationship between the December 2009 M-CBM scores and the May 2010 mathematics MCT2 scores. Hypothesis 3 states that there is no relationship between the April 2010 M-CBM scores and the May 2010 mathematics MCT2 scores. To test the three null hypotheses, correlation coefficients were computed using the Pearson r. The results from all three hypotheses indicated that there were moderate positive correlations between scores of the M-CBM and scores of the mathematics portion of the MCT2, with the strongest relationship being between the April M-CBM and the mathematics MCT2 scores. Further analysis was done to determine if the relationship between M-CBM and mathematics MCT2 scores continued to exist when examined by mathematics MCT2 proficiency levels. The results of this analysis indicated that relationships between M-CBM and the mathematics portion of the MCT2 scores only existed for students scoring in the proficient range.

Over the years, teachers, administrators, and policy makers have been concerned with optimizing learning for all students. The No Child Left Behind Act put an emphasis on summative assessments, which measure what students have learned. In contrast, formative assessment has been shown in many studies to improve student achievement and motivation because it is applied while students are learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate, for middle and high school mathematics and science instruction, the validity and reliability of a newly developed observation instrument called AssessToday, which is used in a single class period to assess a teacher’s use of short-cycle formative assessment. The content validity of the instrument was supported through an extensive literature review, feedback from experts in the field of formative assessment, and an examination of 98 classroom observations. For assessing reliability of the instrument, inter-rater reliability coefficients were calculated using data collected by trained observers who independently rated teachers during the same class period using three measures: percentage of agreement between raters, Cohen’s kappa, and Fleiss kappa. Cohen’s kappa (N = 36 pairs) ranged from .62 to 1.00 for all observer pairs with an average kappa of .75 for mathematics (n = 16 pairs) and .76 for science (n = 20 pairs). The recommended threshold for kappa is k = .70. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the observation data and the determined factors related to the theoretical framework established in the literature. The results affirmed that the instrument is a tool to be utilized in short-cycle formative assessment with middle and high school science and mathematics teachers.

At Mississippi State University, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, a standardized multiple-choice departmental final examination (SMCDF) was administered at the end of the Calculus I mathematics course. This practice was abolished at the end of the spring 1997 semester. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in students¡¯ success in subsequent calculus courses as measured by a student¡¯s grade. If there was a difference, was it consistent along varying levels of students¡¯ ACT mathematics scores. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was run on the data. The variables were the five student ACT Mathematics Standards for Transition ranges, and the two groups of students, those required to take a SMCDF examination and those required to take a teacher generated final examination. The results showed there was a significant difference in the mean grades at the Calculus II level (p=.006), suggesting the SMCDF examination in Calculus I improved their level of success in Calculus II. In the Calculus III and IV courses no significant differences were found. When descriptive statistics were analyzed, an unusual number of F grades were found in one group due to a university audit policy that was abolished in the fall of 1997. When F grades were excluded from the data, no significant differences were found for Calculus II, III, or IV. Further investigation along ACT-Mathematics Standards for Transition ranges showed, at an alpha level of .01 for Calculus II and IV, the data set was too small at each of these ranges to determine any significant differences. Although conflicting results did not clearly indicate whether a SMCDF examination made a difference, indications seem to be at least at the Calculus II level there was a significant effect in the original data set. Descriptive statistics showed inconsistencies within the Calculus III data as compared to Calculus II and IV. Further investigation was recommended for this area of research. Incorporating teaching styles into this study and changing the format of the examination were suggested.

The purposes of this study were to conduct an exploratory study of the status quo of engineering faculty motivation for and engagement in formative assessment, and to conduct a preliminary validation of a motivational model, based in self-determination theory, that explains relationships between these variables. To do so, a survey instrument was first developed and validated, in accordance with a process prescribed in the literature, that measured individual engineering faculty members’ motivational traits and engagement regarding formative assessment, as no such instrument existed. The survey asked engineering faculty about their satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs, degree of self-determined motivation experienced, and engagement, all relative to formative assessment of student learning. Data from the final instrument were obtained from a stratified national sample of approximately 2,500 U.S. engineering faculty, attaining 223 responses, and was first evaluated for validity and reliability. The major validity check utilized was to review two examples of formative assessment that respondents provided and then discard data from invalid responses; over 70% of responses qualified as valid. Only responses with valid examples of formative assessment were used, indicating that the inferences drawn from this study only directly pertain to faculty who understand formative assessment, a subset of the U.S. engineering faculty population. The reliability of instrument constructs was evaluated through use of Cronbach's Alpha, including removal of low-scoring survey items. Following, the remaining data were analyzed with descriptive statistics to evaluate trends and with linear regression to validate the motivational model. Results show that, for the subset of engineering faculty studied, engagement in formative assessment is positive, motivation for it is self-determined and largely derives from faculty identifying its contribution to teaching and learning, and needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness are moderately to highly satisfied. Further, from testing of the motivational model, it can be reasonably concluded that faculty engagement is significantly predicted by self-determined motivation, but the prediction of self-determined motivation by motivational needs has a caveat: the self-determined motivation of male engineering faculty was predicted by autonomy and relatedness, but by autonomy and competence for females. / Ph. D.

The study focuses on assessment and specifically the formative part, therefore the purpose of this study is to examine how some primary school teachers perceive formative assessment. Building blocks for my study are three research questions that contribute to studying the phenomenon from different aspects. Formative assessment has become a familiar subject that gets incorporated more and more in the schools therefore it is necessary to study how teachers perceive the difference between the formative and the summative part of the assessment. I use a sociocultural perspective in my study. I choose to examine the teacher’s perception on the subject by carrying out focus group interviews that gets summarized with a group of teacher’s that conversed about a specific subject which in my case was assessment. I have carried out two group interviews, thereafter analysed the collected data through a couple of main categories as well as some part categories on subject of assessment. The results of the study showed that teacher’s perceives formative assessment in different ways, though they join each other in expressing that formative assessment benefits teaching. They explain their thoughts through describing their ways of using formative assessment. It also showed that they deliberately work with the formative part of assessment because they explain the purpose with each activity they carry out.