Return to search

Dilemmas of assessment : A comparative study of the perceptions of teachers in municipal and independent upper secondary schools in Sweden

Recent discussion has been given attention to different approaches of evaluating students’ knowledge acquisition and achievement, with attention given to how to appropriately assess students’ understanding. This debate includes Sweden, where the government places high value on the use of international forms of assessment. The Swedish debate also includes the disconnect between municipal and independent schools, this includes a marketisation of education and separation of two school contexts of municipal and private education providers. This thesis seeks to gain the perspectives of teachers within these debates and their perception of assessment practices. Teachers’ perceptions from both municipal and independent schools are gathered and compared to gain insights into similarities and differences in the perceptions on their use of assessment. Twelve semi-structured interviews were sampled from teachers of different subjects, with an equal distribution of teachers from municipal and independent schools. The results indicate that all teachers relate to the importance of the teacher-student relationship, where teachers are able to understand their students’ perspectives and the contextual factors relating to assessment practices. The teachers show limited discrepancies between their perception of their use of assessment, although 4 differences can be observed. (1) Teachers in municipal schools include students for peer reviewing each other’s work. (2) Teachers in independent schools have the possibility of extending their original teaching structure if students have yet to understand the current topic. (3) In connection with true to life circumstances teachers in municipal schools connect their assessment as preparation for university, while teachers in independent schools are able to connect assessment with students’ interests. (4) Pre fixed answers were used to a higher degree by teachers in independent schools. All teachers describe how they use summative and formative assessment within their practices, which they describe contributes towards students learning. Importance is placed upon achieving a progression where students develop and continuously learn and progress and where the teachers are able to view the complete picture of achievement.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-231146
Date January 2024
CreatorsGustafsson, Linus
PublisherStockholms universitet, Institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Page generated in 0.0181 seconds