Teachers’ Grading Decision-Making: Validating the Interface between Teaching and Assessment
16 oct. 2015 — 13 h à 14 h 30
Le Centre canadien d’études et de recherche en bilinguisme et aménagement linguistique (CCERBAL) vous invite chaleureusement à son prochain forum de recherche sur Teachers’ Grading Decision-Making: Validating the Interface between Teaching and Assessment, présenté par Liying Cheng
Résumé
Grading is one of the most challenging aspects of assessment for teachers as it is a complex decision-making process that requires them to make professional judgments. Various factors determine this process, such as the grade-level at which teachers teach (Randall & Engelhard, 2009), the assessment training they receive (Brookhart, 1993), and the subject matter they teach (McMillan, 2001). Further, teachers tend to consider confounding factors such as effort, work habits and achievement when assigning grades (Guskey, 2011; Yesbeck, 2011). This is discrepant with measurement recommendations that grades should be based solely on students’ academic achievement. Brookhart (1993, 2004) suggests that this discrepancy is a symptom of a validity problem that can be best framed by Messick’s (1989) framework. Such framing entails exploring teachers’ interpretation of what a grade represents, how they think about grade use and consequences, and what values they place on grades. Despite the importance of grading in the interface between assessment and teaching/learning, only a few studies on grading have been conducted in language assessment, and even fewer within the Asian context where non-achievement factors are valued (Cheng & Wang, 2007). This study employs a survey design with mixed mode analysis to address this research gap. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 350 Chinese English language teachers. First, the questionnaire measures the extent to which teachers consider different factors and use different assessment methods to determine grades. Second, it provides three grading scenarios to explore the meaning and values associated with grades assigned by the teachers, and finally, it gathers demographic data about the participants. These findings together shed light on understanding the validity of teachers’ grading where non-achievement factors are valued and highlight the influences of the social and educational values on teachers’ grading decision-making within the Asian context.
Liying Cheng
Ph.D. is a Professor and the Director of the Assessment and Evaluation Group (AEG)
Liying Cheng (程李颖), Ph.D. is a Professor and the Director of the Assessment and Evaluation Group (AEG) at the Faculty of Education, Queen’s University. Her primary research interests include the impact of large-scale testing on instruction, the relationships between assessment and instruction, and the academic and professional acculturation of international and new immigrant students, workers, and professionals to Canada. She conducts the majority of her research within the context of teaching and learning English as a second/foreign language (including immersion and bilingual contexts). Since 2000, she has obtained research funding totalling more than 1.5 million Canadian dollars. In addition, she has conducted more than 170 conference presentations and has 120 publications in journals including Language Testing, Language Assessment Quarterly, Language Testing in Asia, Assessment in Education, and Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. Her recent books are Language Classroom Assessment (single-authored, TESOL English Language Teacher Development Series, 2013); English Language Assessment and the Chinese Learner (co-edited with A. Curtis, Taylor & Francis, 2010); Language Testing Reconsidered (co-edited with J. Fox et. al., University of Ottawa Press, 2007); Changing Language Teaching through Language Testing (single-authored, Cambridge University Press, 2005); and Washback in Language Testing: Research Contexts and Methods (co-edited with Y. Watanabe with A, Curtis, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004).