Teachers’ Beliefs about Classroom Assessment and their selection of Classroom Assessment Strategies

The use of classroom assessment is strongly supported to promote student learning. However, assessment for promoting learning is not yet widely used. On the contrary, summative assessments are emphasized and teachers continue to use classroom assessments primarily for grading students. Teachers' attitude and beliefs about students provide foundation for their philosophy of teaching. Teachers enter teaching with prior knowledge and beliefs about learners, learning and classroom teaching. These beliefs affect teachers’ choices of assessment strategies. This research was conducted to compare the beliefs of trained and untrained middle and secondary school teachers of Pakistan about classroom assessment. The data was collected from 123 teachers selected from 15 schools of various cities of Pakistan. The samples were selected by using the convenience sampling strategies (Gay, 1992; Gay, & Airasian, 2003; Fraenkel, Wallen, 2006 ) and teachers were categorized into trained and untrained groups. The data gathered from the sample was tabulated and analyzed. The hypothesis was tested using Chi Square. Except a few differences, the study revealed that there is no significant difference in the beliefs of trained and untrained teachers regarding the teacher knowledge and teaching approaches. The study opens up an issue, “whether or not the teacher training has a significant impact on teachers in Pakistan.” It was recommended that teacher education institutes should reconsider their teachings and there should be more professional development activities inside schools to encourage teachers to equip themselves with contemporary approaches of assessments.