What teachers assess and its consequences

In education, "assessment" is a broad term that includes all activities that teachers use to help students learn and to gauge student progress. Recently, assessment has been a major discussion topic in the reform of education to increase student learning and achievement in schools. The main theme of these discussions is that assessment can be an effective tool to monitor and shape student learning toward intended learning outcomes (Black and Wiliam, 1998).

There is ample evidence suggesting that students adopt an approach to learning depending upon what is expected of them (Marton and Saljo, 1976; Thomas and Bain, 1984; McKeachie, 1986; Biggs, 1987; Entwistle, 1988; 2000; Crooks 1988; Biggs, 1992; 1995; Ramsden, 1992; Biggs and Moore, 1993; Scouller, 1996; Cizek, 1997; Gerstman and Rex, 2001). In other words, students use study strategies according to the knowledge and skills assessed. Furthermore, "if a concept, skill or knowledge chunk is deemed to be examinable, then a high priority is given in the learning strategy of the student" (Bennett, 2002).

Scouller (1996) investigated students’ perceptions of and preparation for different assessments and indicated that there were distinct patterns of learning for various assessment methods. If students perceived an assessment that targeted lower levels of knowledge, they were more likely to employ surface learning approaches. In contrast, they were likely to employ deep learning approaches when preparing for assessments that they expected would assess higher levels of knowledge.

These results were also supported by Bol and Strage (1996). Bol and Strage (1996) studied the assessment practices of teachers in the United States and found that students did not engage in more advanced study skills because the course exams and other assignments did not demand it. They concluded that the lack of correlation between achievement goals and assessment practices could explain why "students do not develop the study skills necessary to tackle more complex and higher order kinds of instructional tasks that requires problem solving and critical thinking " (p. 159). In addition, Cotton (1988) synthesized 37 research reports on the relationship between the classroom questioning behavior of teachers and the quality of student outcomes. They found that when a teacher asked higher cognitive questions and increased wait time, the cognitive sophistication of student responses increased.

Therefore, asking higher-order questions helps students develop higher-order thinking skills (Hernstein, et. al., 1986; Robinson, 1987; Cotton, 1988, Mathews, 1989; Baum, 1990; Bol et al., 2000; Schouler, 2000). As research has shown, assessment that encourages students to think for themselves, apply their knowledge to new contexts, and solve problems may shift students toward a deep learning approach (Schouler, 2000). In contrast, asking questions requiring no more than the accurate reproduction of information can lead to a predominantly surface learning approach (Entwistle, 1988). Changing the method of assessment in a course can offer an effective mechanism for changing student approaches to learning (Brown, Bull and Pendlebury, 1997).

Thus, what teachers assess has a significant influence on what and how students learn. In other words, what is learned is determined by decisions students themselves make and, more importantly, the decisions the students make are informed by classroom assessments. Therefore, it is important that assessments demand and reflect the kind of learning that teachers want their students to develop. To promote deep learning in students, it is crucial that assessments reflect the requirement for deep learning (Gerstman and Rex, 2001). Furthermore, assessments that require recollection, in which teachers and the textbooks provide answers without students needing to understand the underlying concept, should be reduced to a minimum.

Based upon this research evidence, the present study aimed to reveal teachers’ perceptions and practices related to student outcomes and criteria against which students are assessed in secondary school biology classes. For this purpose, teacher interviews were conducted, and the questions that teachers asked to their students were also analyzed. The overarching research question in this study was what are the valued student outcomes and criteria against which students are assessed in secondary school biology classes?