TEACHERS’ BELIEFS ABOUT ASSESSMENT: Revisited

Teachers' knowledge and beliefs about assessment shape their assessment understandings and practices. Building upon Barnes et al.'s chapter in the first edition of the International Handbook of Research on Teachers' Beliefs, titled “Teachers Beliefs' about Assessment,” this chapter presents the results of a systematic review of the literature published on or after 2012 on preservice and inservice K-12 teachers' beliefs about assessment. Findings from the studies included offer important insights into the beliefs teachers hold about assessment across various socio-cultural and policy contexts. We found that preservice and inservice teachers hold beliefs about assessment that are informed by their prior experiences; preservice and inservice teachers hold beliefs about different types of assessment, and their beliefs do not always reflect their use of these assessment types in practice; and preservice and inservice teachers hold beliefs about the purpose of assessment which are informed by/reflect the larger assessment context in which they learn and work. The chapter closes with a discussion of these themes and implications for practice.