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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 9, Issue 1, Article 2 (Jun., 2008) |
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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 9, Issue 1, Article 2 (Jun., 2008) |
Results of the study indicate that attitude maps are an appropriate way to evaluate teachers’ attitudes towards assessment. Attitude maps are visual images depicting teacher attitude in two dimensions. An attitude map consists of ellipses and arrows. Careful examination of the content of ellipses and the number and the direction of arrows among the ellipses gives researchers the opportunity to classify a teacher’s attitude comprehensively. Based on the results, it can be concluded that an attitude map can provide an effective way for visually demonstrating the qualitative data and present a panoramic picture of a teacher’s attitude towards assessment. Furthermore, it can demonstrate any variations among the dimensions as well as within the dimensions that constitute one’s attitude towards assessment.
Although one of the purposes of teacher education programs is to shape pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards assessment and prepare them for reform-based assessment and instruction, sometimes only subtle changes may occur in their attitudes. The same situation exists for in-service teacher education programs. Mapping is a diagnostic process and attitude maps can be used to detect slight changes in both pre-service and in-service teachers’ attitudes.
Copyright (C) 2008 HKIEd APFSLT. Volume 9, Issue 1, Article 2 (Jun., 2008). All Rights Reserved.
