Abstract

This study aims to explore the influence of science teachers’ beliefs on an educational assessment reform adopted in Estonia. Two existing questionnaires were adapted to develop a model to examine teachers’ beliefs about teaching and assessment and administered to a sample of Estonian science teachers (N = 319). The outcomes were examined through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). This produced two dominant beliefs in relation to teaching named “teacher-centred” and “student-centred”, plus indicating four purposes for assessment, namely: “teaching improvement”, “irrelevance”, “examination”, and “school and teacher accountability”. Findings indicate most Estonian science teachers express beliefs aligned with student-centred approaches and predict positively teaching improvement purposes for assessment as perceived by teachers, both of which seem to support the implementation of a student-centred reform in the country. However, at the same time, the relatively high rating of teacher-centred beliefs and high valuation of assessment for examination purposes seem to counteract the intended reform.

摘要

本研究旨在探讨科学教师的信念对爱沙尼亚教育评估改革的影响。对现有的两份问卷进行了调整，以开发一个模型来检查教师对教学和评估的信念，并应用于爱沙尼亚科学教师的样本（N = 319）。通过验证性因素分析 (CFA) 和结构方程模型 (SEM) 检查结果。这产生了“以教师为中心”和“以学生为中心”的两个与教学有关的主要信念，并指出了四个评估目的，即：“教学改进”、“无关紧要”、“考试”和“学校和教师责任” ”。调查结果表明，大多数爱沙尼亚科学教师表达了与以学生为中心的方法一致的信念，并积极预测教师认为的评估教学改进目的，这两者似乎都支持在该国实施以学生为中心的改革。然而，与此同时，对以教师为中心的信念的较高评价和对考试评估的较高评价似乎与预期的改革相抵触。