TOWARDS SUCCESSFUL ASSESSMENT PRACTICE: EXAMINING SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ CONCEPTIONS OF ASSESSMENT

Abstract

Assessment is an important part of the teaching and learning process. It helps teachers to assess student learning and to use the information to improve learning and teaching in the classroom. The purpose of this study is to investigate secondary school teachers’ conceptions of assessment. The teacher's conception of assessment (TCoA) online survey was completed by 50 secondary school teachers in Selangor in total. The survey included 27 items classified as school accountability, student accountability, irrelevance, and improvement. The findings revealed the highest mean for improvement, followed by irrelevance, student accountability, and school accountability. The findings also revealed that there was no significant difference in teachers’ conceptions of assessment among male and female secondary school teachers. In order to integrate assessments in the classroom, policymakers, teachers, researchers, and school administrators should include these findings in their practices.