Conceptions and Practices of Assessment: Case Studies of Nigerian Teacher Educators

Abstract

This qualitative case study research explores the conceptions of assessment and assessment practices of five Teacher Educators [TEs] in Nigeria. Evidence points to the crucial role of teacher education in developing assessment literacy among teacher candidates. Several research findings also suggest a connection between how teacher candidates experience assessment while in teacher training and their conceptions and practices of assessment when they begin their teaching careers. This doctoral research assumed a sociocultural perspective to explore TEs’ conceptualizations of assessment, and their assessment practices drawing on three conceptual frameworks [conceptions of assessment; assessment practices; influencing factors]. Specifically, this study explored TEs’ conceptions and assessment practices, the nature of the connection between TEs’ conceptions and assessment practices, as well as influencing support and impediments to their conceptions and practices of assessment through research with five Nigerian TEs who teach a specific assessment course in teacher education programs. The five TE participants teach in teacher education programs across the three types of universities in Nigeria (federal, state, and private). Each TE represented the unit of analysis – a case, hence there were five cases in total. Data collected to analyze each TE’s case included interviews, observations of online classes, assessment samples, and the course syllabus. Data from these four sources were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Nigerian policy documents on assessment in teacher education were also reviewed to provide context to TEs’ classroom assessment practices. The results of the study revealed that the TEs hold multiple conceptions of assessment which varied across conceptions of assessment categories and co-existed interestingly within each case. Findings also suggest that generally, TEs’ assessment practices focused on summative practices with minimal formative assessment practices. Factors shaping TEs’ conceptions and assessment practices were mainly micro and meso-level factors such as large class sizes, facilities and resources for online assessment, funding for professional development, as well as collegial support and colleagues’ views on assessment. Results of this study describe in-depth, the complexities inherent in TEs’ assessment practices, as well as the sociocultural factors relating TEs’ conceptions and assessment practices in the context of Nigerian teacher education. This study contributes to what is still a very limited body of literature on conceptions of assessment and the sociocultural influences that shape TEs’ assessment practices, particularly in the Nigerian educational and research spaces.