Teachers’ conception of assessment knowledge and their preferred assessment system

Abstract

The shift in education system in Indonesia from centralized to decentralized system has affected the assessment system and indirectly changed the test from standardized to school-based type. Teachers’ conceptions of assessment knowledge may have an influence on the changes. Theoretically, the assumption is that objectivist point of view prefers standardized test format, whilst the subjectivist view of knowledge prefers school-based test format. Thus, the study investigated the relationship between teachers’ conceptions of assessment knowledge and their preferred test format. This study applied mixed method of explanatory sequential design carried out in Indonesia using multistage cluster random sampling method involving 240 teachers. The instruments used in this study were two types of questionnaires, namely “teachers’ conceptions of assessment knowledge” and “teachers’ preferred test format”. The construct validity of the instruments was determined using the Rasch measurement model. The research findings showed that teachers’ conceptions of assessment knowledge was more towards being objectivist rather than subjectivist. However, in terms of preferred test format, it was the opposite, which was inclined towards school-based rather than standardized test. This result is in conflict with the earlier assumption, that those who have conceptions of objectivist prefer the standardized test format and those with conceptions of subjectivist prefer school-based test format. Thus, in this study, teachers’ conceptions of assessment knowledge did not correlate with their preferred test format. The findings show teachers’ conceptions of assessment knowledge as objectivist, but they preferred school-based test. Hence, some policies need to be implemented by the government to change teachers’ conceptions of assessment knowledge into conceptions of subjectivist view to be in line with the government’s needs.