Effect of Teacher's Conceptions of Learning and Assessment on Students Academic Achievement at Secondary Level

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to explore school teachers‟ conceptions of learning and assessment and their effect on students‟ achievement scores in the subjects of English, Urdu and Mathematics. Sample of the study comprised of 1053 high school teachers teaching the subjects of English, Urdu and Mathematics. Sample was selected through stratified random sampling technique. In order to measure teachers‟ conceptions of assessment, a valid and reliable scale measuring secondary school teachers‟ conceptions of assessment developed by Brown, Hui, Yu and Wang (2010) was adopted. To measure teachers‟ conceptions of learning, a new scale was developed based on the model of secondary school teachers‟ conceptions of learning by Boulton-Lewis, Smith, McCrindle, Burnett and Campbell (2001). Both of the instruments were pilot tested to ensure the reliability of the scales. For the measurement of students‟ achievement in the subject of English, Urdu and Mathematics, their subject scores as announced by Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Lahore (BISE) were used. Data were collected personally and analyzed through SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) and AMOS (Analysis of Movement Structure) statistical programs. Descriptive statistics for the conceptions of assessment showed that teachers were mostly agreed to “improvement” and “accountability” conceptions of assessment whereas disagreed to the “irrelevance” conception of assessment. Pearson correlation revealed conceptions of assessment as being inter-related. Results found that “improvement” conception of assessment was positively and significantly related to “accountability” conception of assessment. Weak relationship of improvement to irrelevance conception of assessment was observed. However, “accountability” conception of assessment was found as negatively related to “irrelevance” conception of assessment. Measurement of the effect of conceptions of assessment showed that “accountability” conception was the most significant predictor of student achievement for the subject of Urdu and English. However, none of the conception regarding assessment predicted student achievement in the subject of Mathematics.For conceptions of learning, teachers were found mostly agreed to all conceptions of learning including: “gaining information”, “remembering”, “understanding”, “transformation” and “application”. Conceptions of learning were found mutually positively related. Moderate level of mutual relationship was found for all conceptions of learning. For the measurement of the iii effect of teachers‟ conceptions of learning, it was found that the conception of learning “remembering” and “application” were the main predictors of students‟ achievement in the subject of English, Urdu and Mathematics. No significant effect was observed for all other conceptions of learning. Significant effect based on teachers‟ demographic variables was also observed such as gender, age, qualification and experience of teachers having typical conception of learning and assessment. It was found that male teachers having “accountability” conception of assessment effect students‟ achievement. Results showed that young teachers were more influential for the effect of conceptions of assessment on students‟ achievement scores. Non significant results were found for all other age categories. The study found significant effect of teachers‟ qualification as being MPhil, having “improvement” and “accountability” conceptions of assessment on students‟ achievement scores. Demographic variable, experience showed that highly experienced teachers having “accountability” conception of assessment effect students‟ achievement significantly. Whereas remaining all relationships were insignificant (p>0.05). For the variable of gender, female teachers‟ conception “remembering” was found to be a significant predictor of students‟ achievement at secondary level. Considering respondents‟ age, it was corroborated in the findings that more experienced teachers played significant role in influencing students‟ achievement for all conceptions of learning. Measurement of the effect of teachers‟ qualification with different conceptions of learning on students‟ achievement found that teachers having masters‟ degree and one year teacher training having understanding as a conception of learning effect students‟ achievement whereas teachers with two year teacher training having remembering and transformational conceptions significantly affect students‟ achievement. It is inferred from the presented data that teachers with less experience are more influential for the effect of different conceptions of learning on students‟ achievement. The most influential conception of learning was proved to be “application” as compared to any other conception of learning. Findings of the study helped in the identification of conceptions being influential to effect student achievement at secondary level. The results have implications for assessment policies, teacher training programs and school authorities. KEYWORDS: Conception, Conception of Assessment, Academic Achievement, Secondary Level