An Exploration of Teacher and Student Perceptions of Classroom Assessment

Abstract

My study explores a teacher’s intentions for and students’ perceptions of formative assessment practices enacted within the classroom. Adopting a constructivist epistemology (Merriam, 2009) to explore how interactions impact the learning environment, I use the relativist ontology (Reason, 1994) to examine how different individuals experience the same assessment interactions differently due to their unique perspectives. A qualitative case study methodology allows me to simultaneously explore varying understandings of, intentions with, reactions to, and perspectives on assessment practices in one teacher’s classroom through the use of a wide range of data collection techniques. Using the story model as my framework, I offer a discussion of Ontario’s current educational context in order to highlight implications for theory, make recommendations for further study, and highlight how findings from this study may be taken into consideration for further curriculum reform.