When assessment is a constant companion: students’ experiences of instruction in an era of intensified assessment focus

Abstract

The current study aims to deepen the knowledge of students' experiences of teachers' assessment related instructional actions, with particular focus on problematic consequences of an intensified assessment paradigm. Its empirical material consists of 20 focus-group interviews with a total of 102 sixteen-to eighteen-year-old students in ten Swedish municipalities. Through inductive qualitative content analysis on manifest data level, six categories of aspects emerge that together describe students' experiences of assessment related instructional actions. Clearly, assessment, learning goals, knowledge requirements, tests, and grades are dominant elements in Swedish students' classroom life. Consequently, they often feel strong pressure and great insecurity. For the students, it seems to make no difference whether assessment purposes are summative or formative. Rather, it appears to be the total amount of assessment related instructional actions that causes stress, and decreased desire to participate and learn in school. The results are problematized and discussed through the lens of the concepts of dilemmas and complementary attitudes. It is argued that the last decade's intensified assessment paradigm, with its numerous macro-level reforms and decisions with bearing on summative as well as formative assessment, has led to teachers adjusting pedagogical and ethical positions in the classroom. Consequently, counterproductive practices seem to have evolved.

Equity, Teaching Practice and the Curriculum

“…Regarding the Swedish case, the contributions in Wahlström and Sundberg (2018) show that teaching under the standards-based curriculum for compulsory school, with its clear and uniform knowledge expectations, has become more outcome-oriented and promotes whole-class teaching in order to ensure that all students can reach the pre-set performance goals. Moreover, the focus on standards and the constant presence of grading criteria and learning aims also has consequences for students' well-being and their self-image as learners, with their level of performance becoming a part of who they 'are' (Hirsh, 2020;Vogt, 2017). This can be understood as the constant awareness that students have regarding their own capacities in relation to the clear and explicit communication of the externally set expectations of what one is supposed to know and be able to do with that knowledge in order to reach a certain performance level and, thereby, to achieve a certain grade.…”

Supportive assessment strategies as curriculum events in a performance-oriented classroom context

“…Concerning the curricular assessment context in Sweden, this can be said to be characterised by an emphasis on performance and results in the curriculum (Sundberg and Wahlström, 2012) as well as by an ‘intensified assessment paradigm’ that can be traced in instructional actions (Hirsh, 2020). During the last two decades, curriculum reform in Sweden has been influenced by standards-based reforms, and with the last reform that took place in 2011, wide-reaching changes with regard to both the curriculum and assessment have further aggravated tendencies towards result-orientation, efficiency and performativity (e.g.…”

Framåtsyftande bedömning i tidig läsundervisning : Teori och praktik

“…I en intervjustudie där elevernas erfarenheter av lärarnas bedömning fokuseras beskrivs ett kontraproduktivt bedömningsparadigm som i likhet med den pseudo-formativa praktiken ovan riskerar att leda till oönskade effekter (Hirsh, 2020). I studien beskriver eleverna som är i 16-18 årsåldern att de upplever stark press, osäkerhet och ett minskat intresse (motivation) för skolarbetet kopplat till den bedömningspraktik som de själva är en del av.…”

“…I studien beskriver eleverna som är i 16-18 årsåldern att de upplever stark press, osäkerhet och ett minskat intresse (motivation) för skolarbetet kopplat till den bedömningspraktik som de själva är en del av. Resultaten i denna studie kan inte tydligt kopplas till summativ eller formativ bedömning, utan snarare till mängden bedömningar och de instruktioner som följer i dess spår (Hirsh, 2020).…”

“…Ur ett lärarperspektiv finns det knappas utrymme för att lägga tid och energi på lästest om resultaten inte kan användas. Detsamma gäller i än högre grad för den unga eleven som ju är den som gör den verkligt stora insatsen, i värsta fall till ingen nytta alls (jfr Hirsh, 2020).…”