Bhutanese Elementary Teachers’ Assessment Conceptions

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate Bhutanese elementary teachers\u27 conceptions about assessments to determine teachers’ inclination towards improving conceptions (formative) or accountability conceptions (summative). Assessment conceptions were measured using the abridged version of CoA-III Abridged (CoA-III A) inventory proposed by Brown (2006) which includes four pre-determined assessment conceptions: assessment for improvement, assessment for student accountability, assessment for school accountability, and assessment as an irrelevance. The data was collected from 111 elementary teachers using an online survey questionnaire. Findings indicate that teachers conceive that the purpose of assessments is for improvement. They also conceived of assessments as irrelevant. There was a strong positive correlation between the conception of assessments for improvement and student accountability and a positive association between improvement and irrelevance conceptions. It was concluded that teachers have positive conceptions about assessment, but they often experience an assessment practice dilemma between the improvement and accountability purposes of assessment