Alignment of Measurement and Evaluation Beliefs and Practices of Science Teachers with the National Science Curriculum

Abstract

The purpose of existing science education curriculum is to promote scientific inquiry-through inquiry-based instructional practices. Scientific literacy is included foundational content knowledge, knowledge of nature of science and ability to use this set of knowledge in daily-life through defining and solving a problem. In order to assess the effectiveness of science teaching and learning, measurement and evaluation process should capture the individual differences and different levels of learning through multiple and alternative measurement practices with effective feedback provided with teachers and students. In this regard, science teachers’ measurement and evaluation practices are significant facet to understand if the classroom practices that they use promote the scientific literacy and objectives outlined by the benchmarks. The purpose of this research was to understand science teachers’ beliefs about assessment as well as their assessment practices if they are aligned with national science curriculum. Phenomenological research methodology was informed the multiple case studies in this research to understand 3 public school science teachers’ beliefs about assessment and their assessment practices during. The data were collected through structured and semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and documents related to measurement and evaluation processes of these teachers used in their classroom. As a result of the research, it was concluded that the beliefs of the participant teachers about measurement and evaluation were not appropriate with the methods they used and that they could evaluate the gains expressed in the science curriculum and also the processes of science literacy development to a limited level.