NDLI: Everyday classroom assessment practices in science classrooms in Sweden

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Gómez, María del Carmen Jakobsson, Anders
Copyright Year	2014
Abstract	The focus of this study is to examine to what extent and in what ways science teachers practice assessment during classroom interactions in everyday activities in an upper-secondary school in Sweden. We are science teachers working now with a larger research project on assessment in science education that seeks to examine teachers’ assessment practices in the upper-secondary school. Framing questions include: are teachers performing an integrated assessment of students’ skills as the national curriculum mandates? If so, what do the instructional discourses look like in those situations and what are students’ experiences regarding their agency on learning and assessment? We emphasize the social, cultural and historic character of assessment and sustain a situated character of learning instead of the notion that learning is “stored inside the head”. Teacher led lessons in three science classrooms were video-recorded and analyzed by combining ethnographic and discourse methods of analysis. Both methods are appropriate to the theoretical foundation of our approach on learning and can give some answers to questions about how individuals interact socially, how their experience is passed on to next generations through language and how language use may reveal cultural changes in the studied context. Making the study of action in a classroom the focal point of sociocultural analysis supports the examination of assessment processes and identification of the social roles in which teachers and students are immersed. Such an approach requires observations of how teachers act in authentic teaching situations when they interact with their students in classroom making possible to observe negotiation processes, agencies when both teachers and students are involved in every-day activities. Our study showed that teachers mostly ignored students’ questions and that students solved their own problems by helping each other. Teachers did not provide opportunities for students to discuss or argue scientific issues as the national science curriculum stipulates. We found that traditional assessment methods, such as tests, examinations and assignments were the most common methods used to assess and grade students’ learning. Different aspects of knowledge stipulated in the national Swedish curriculum, such as lifelong learning, stimulation to students’ creativity, curiosity as well as their wish to explore and convert new ideas into action, and find solutions to problems, were restricted by teachers’ discourses. The observed teachers’ learning and assessment practices constrain students’ agency leading to students’ silence consequently hindering students’ development.Fokus för denna studie är att undersöka i vilken omfattning och på vilket sätt lärare i naturvetenskapliga ämnen betygsätter eleverna under vardagliga aktiviteter och interaktioner i klassrummet på en gymnasieskola i Sverige. Vi är lärare i naturvetenskapliga ämnen på gymnasiet och arbetar nu i en större undersökning med syfte att ta reda på gymnasielärarnas bedömningspraktiker. Våra frågor inkluderar: utför lärarna en integrerad bedömning av elevernas kunskaper som de nationella läroplanen fastställer? Om så är fallet, hur ser diskurserna ut i dessa situationer och vilka är elevers erfarenheter kring sitt eget deltgande i lärande och bedömning? Vi betonar den sociala, kulturella och historiska karaktären av lärande och bedömning, och stödjer den situerade karaktären av lärande i stället för det lärande som finns “lagrat inne i huvudet”. Lärarledda lektioner på tre naturvetenskapliga klasser videoinspelades och analyserades genom att kombinera etnografisk och diskursanalysmetod. Båda metoderna är lämpliga avseende den teoretiska grunden för vårt synsätt på lärande, och kan ge några svar på frågor om hur individer interagerar socialt, hur deras erfarenheter förs vidare till kommande generationer genom språket, och hur språkanvändningen kan avslöja kulturella förändringar i den aktuella kontexten. Genom att fokusera på handlingen använder vi ett sociokulturellt perspektiv, som möjliggör en undersökning av bedömningsprocesser och identifikation av de sociala rollerna som lärare och elever spelar under bedömningssituationer. För detta behöver vi observera hur lärarna agerar i en autentisk undervisningssituation, där de interagerar med sina elever i klassrummet, som gör det möjligt att observera förhandlingsprocesser, eget deltagande i lärande och bedömning, när både lärare och elever deltar i dagliga aktiviteter i klassrummet. Vi fann att lärarna oftast ignorerade elevernas egna frågor och att eleven löste sina egna problem, genom att hjälpa varandra. Lärarna gav inte eleverna möjligheter att diskutera eller argumentera vetenskapliga frågor, som naturvetenskapliga läroplanen stipulerar. Vi fann att lärarna använder traditionella bedömningsmetoder, såsom skriftliga prov, examinationer och läxförhör, och att dessa var de vanligaste metoderna för bedömning och betygsättning. Vi har i den här studien konstaterat att frågor om lärande, som anges i den svenska läroplanen; livslångt lärande, stimulans för elevernas kreativitet, nyfikenhet och deras önskan att utforska och omvandla nya idéer till handling, samt finna lösningar till problem, begränsades av lärarnas diskurser. Lärarnas lärande och bedömningsmetoder begränsar elevernas medverkan. Vi anser att detta leder till att eleverna tystnar, vilket i sin tur hindrar elevernas utveckling.
Starting Page	825
Ending Page	853
Page Count	29
File Format	PDF
ISSN	18711502
Journal	Cultural Studies of Science Education
Volume Number	9
Issue Number	4
e-ISSN	18711510
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2014-06-04
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Assessment and learning Science education Classroom interactions Language and power Science Education Sociology of Education
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Cultural Studies

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