Health Education Teachers’ Assessment Conceptions and Practices: Identifying Assessment Profiles

Abstract

The study explored the latent construct underlying the assessment conceptions and practices of Finnish Health Education teachers (n = 165) in the context of curricula, seeking thereby to identify the teachers’ assessment profiles. Six underlying factors were found to encompass their assessment conceptions and practices, namely Assessment supporting learning, Assessment of working, Self and peer assessment as part of grading, Common assessment criteria, Questionable assessment practices, and Norm-referenced assessment. Via cluster analysis, three distinct assessment profiles were identified, labeled as Problematic assessors, Learning supportive assessors, and Norm-based assessors. These findings can be used to develop Health Education teacher training and facilitate teachers’ assessment literacy.