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. / <p>QC 20150216</p>

Studiens overordnede hensikt er å bidra til økt forståelse omkring sammenhengen mellom vurdering og skriving i fremmedspråkundervisningen. Det er særlig vurdering som læringsfremmende verktøy i forhold til elevenes utvikling av skrivekompetanse som er fokus i studien. Denne studien har både et elev- og lærerperspektiv, men særlig kommer lærerens vurderingskompetanse og betydningen av denne i elevenes læringsprosess til syne.   Skriveopplæringen i fremmedspråk i Norge foregår i all hovedsak i en skolekontekst, i et klasserom med én lærer og mange elever. Når læreren skal gi tilbakemeldinger på elevtekster, står hun overfor mange valg. Hvordan hun velger å respondere på tekstene, har betydning for hvordan eleven opplever sitt eget arbeid med å skape mening på et fremmedspråk og for hvordan forholdet mellom elev og lærer oppfattes. Denne konteksten er gjenstand for denne studien. Materialet, som består av observasjon, intervjuer, elevtekster og spørreskjemaer, har jeg hentet i en ungdomsskole, der en lærer gav meg tilgang til å observere hennes arbeid i klasserommet og med vurdering av elevtekster. Datainnsamlingen foregikk i en periode på halvannet år.   Et av hovedfunnene i studien er at formativ vurdering som medierende artefakt har betydning for elevenes skriveprosess. Så lenge elevene har forståelse for målet med skrivingen og hensikten med de tilbakemeldingene de får i skriveprosessen, vil de også arbeide grundigere med teksten på alle nivå i neste skrivefase. Samtidig bidrar en felles forståelse av målene for skrivingen til at læringsprosessen blir mer transparent og åpner opp for et bedre samarbeid mellom elevene i skriveprosessen.   Et annet viktig funn i denne studien er at det synes som lærerens vurderingskompetanse er svært sentral for elevenes utvikling av skrivekompetanse i tysk. Hele vurderingskulturen i klasserommet synes å utvikles når tolkningsfellesskap mellom lærer og elever oppstår, der prosessen, hensikten og konteksten er tydelig og forståelig for alle deltakerne i kunnskapskonstruksjonen. / The overriding aim of the study is to contribute to an increased understanding of the link between assessment and writing in foreign language teaching. There is a particular focus on assessment as a learning enhancing tool in relation to the students’ development of their writing skills. This study has been conducted from both student and teacher perspectives, but the teacher’s assessment skills and the significance of this in the student’s learning process is particularly prominent. The teaching of writing in foreign languages in Norway principally occurs in the school context. When the teacher has to give feedback on students’ texts, she is faced with many choices. How she chooses to respond to the texts has implications for how the students experience their own work in order to create meaning in a foreign language and for how the relationship between the students and the teacher is perceived. This context is the subject of this study. I obtained the data material, which consists of observations, interviews, students’ texts and questionnaires, in a junior secondary school observing one teacher and her students. The data was collected over a period of 18 months. One of the principal findings of the study is that formative assessment as a mediating artefact is significant to the students’ writing process. Provided that the students have an understanding of the purpose of the writing and the aim of the feedback they receive during the writing process, they will also work on the text more thoroughly on all levels in the next phase of writing. A shared understanding of the aims of the writing also contributes to the learning process becoming more transparent, opening up for a better collaboration on the writing process among the students. Another important finding of this study is that it appears that the teacher’s assessment ability plays a central role in the students’ development of writing skills in German. The whole assessment culture in the classroom appears to develop when teacher and students have a common reference of assessment and when the process, purpose and context is clear and understandable to all the participants while building knowledge. / Der übergeordnete Zweck der Studie besteht darin, zu einem besseren Verständnis für den Zusammenhang zwischen der Beurteilung und dem Erbringen von schriftlichen Leistungen im Fremdsprachenunterricht beizutragen. Im Mittelpunkt steht vor allem die Beurteilung als lernförderndes Mittel für die Entwicklung der Schreibkompetenz der Schüler. Die Studie besitzt sowohl eine Schüler- als auch eine Lehrerperspektive, zeigt aber vor allem die Wichtigkeit der Beurteilungskompetenz der Lehrkraft und deren Bedeutung für den Lernprozess der Schüler auf. Fremdsprachlicher Schreibunterricht findet in Norwegen hauptsächlich in einem schulischen Kontext statt, wobei eine Lehrkraft viele Schüler im fremdsprachlichen Klassenzimmer betreut. Wenn die Lehrkraft Rückmeldungen zu Schülertexten gibt, hat sie zahlreiche Wahlmöglichkeiten. Die gewählte Art der Rückmeldung zu schriftlichen Leistungen hat zweierlei Auswirkungen, zum einen darauf, wie die Schüler ihre eigenes Arbeiten und somit ihr Bemühen etwas Sinnvolles in der Fremdsprache auszudrücken erleben, und zum anderen wie das Verhältnis zwischen den Schülern und der Lehrkraft aufgefasst wird. Dieser Kontext ist Gegenstand der Studie. Das Material, bestehend aus Beobachtungen, Interviews, Schülertexten und Fragebögen, stammt aus einer norwegischen "ungdomssskole" (entspricht in etwa der Sekundarstufe I in Deutschland), wo mir eine Lehrkraft Gelegenheit gab, ihre Vorgehensweise während des Unterrichtens und bei der Beurteilung von schriftlichen Leistungen der Schüler zu beobachten. Die Datenerhebung erfolgte in einem Zeitraum von eineinhalb Jahren. Eines der Hauptergebnisse der Studie besteht darin, dass eine formative Beurteilung als mediierendes Artefakt für die Schreibprozesse der Schüler von Bedeutung ist. Solange die Schüler Verständnis für das Ziel des Schreibens und den Zweck der Rückmeldungen haben, die sie während des Schreibprozesses erhalten, arbeiten sie auch in der nächsten Schreibphase auf allen Ebenen gründlicher mit dem Text. Gleichzeitig trägt ein gemeinsames Verständnis für die Ziele des Schreibens dazu bei, den Lernprozess transparenter zu machen und eine bessere Zusammenarbeit der Schüler untereinander während des Schreibprozesses zu fördern. Ein weiteres wichtiges Ergebnis dieser Studie ist, dass die Beurteilungskompetenz der Lehrkraft sehr wichtig für die Entwicklung der Schreibkompetenz der Schüler im Fach Deutsch zu sein scheint. Die gesamte Beurteilungskultur im Unterricht wird weiterentwickelt, wenn eine Deutungsgemeinschaft zwischen Lehrkraft und Schüler entsteht, in der der Prozess, der Zweck und der Kontext für alle an der Wissenskonstruktion Beteiligten deutlich und verständlich werden.

This thesis provides findings from a qualitative study that explores the assessment process undertaken by teachers in Swedish primary technology education. The thesis aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of how teachers assess in technology education. In this study assessment with the purpose of acquiring information in order to adjust the teaching to the pupils’ needs for future progress is explored in particular. Teachers’ work with assessment is explored in two teacher-focused sub-studies. Sub-study 1 focuses on the long-cycle formative assessment and on the formal documentation of pupils’ attainment, the so-called IDP with written assessment. Sub-study 2 explores the short cycle of formative assessment and highlights two teachers’ classroom assessments practice. The results presented are built upon authentic samples of assessment documents (IDPs), classroom observations and teacher interviews. The study shows that the teachers are alone in the planning, executing and follow-up of technology education. Support is both asked for and needed. / <p>QC 20121109</p>