Assessment progress and limitations after the convergence process: Student and teacher perception on the pre-service teacher training

Abstract

Recent studies reveal punctual advances in some of the classical malfunctions of the university learning assessment. Its development is linked to the construction of a new assessment paradigm, based on the European Higher Education Area and featured by five main improvement challenges: Sensitive continuity of the evaluation, Strategic orientation to learning, Tasks and instruments for competency development and accreditation, Transparency and deep understanding of the assessment criteria and Student participation. This paper contrasts the perception of these challenges in a sample of students and teachers involved in educational degrees. The inquiry was carried out by means of a questionnaire, based on rubrics which detail five acceptance and fulfilment levels in relation to each challenge. The results disclose that the five of them are considered important and there is no divergence in the acceptance declared by both teachers and students. The differences found in the confidence interval have a small effect and refer to the degree of compliance particularly noticed in three of the challenges. Students describe a significantly inferior fulfilment when addressing the transparency in assessment criteria and the sensitive continuity, connected to the lower use of the formative function of the assessment. Students recognise that the assessment does not only come at the end, but they do not think it is developed in a sensitive and integrated way, as teaching staff state. They also acknowledge having information about the assessment criteria, but they reject the carrying out of tasks focused on explaining the same. Both sectors of the sample recognise insufficient achievement in relation to the student participation, although the average from the students’ answers is significantly inferior. These results suggest that despite the advances observed on its form, the assessment still represents a mainly certifying tool.