Conceptions of classroom assessment and approaches to grading: teachers' and students' perspectives

Classroom assessment and grading play central roles in education, with important impacts on teachers and students. This study examined the interactions between Canadian teachers' and students' conceptions of assessment and approaches to grading. 219 teachers and students completed a survey with two scales: Teachers' Conceptions of Assessment (TCOA) and Teachers' Approaches to Grading (TAG). Factor analysis of the TCOA scale showed four factors: assessment to improve teaching and learning, negative or irrelevant assessment, assessment for student and school accountability, and inaccurate assessment. Analysis of the TAG survey also showed four factors: social-emotional pressures for grade increases/changes, situational considerations for grade increases/changes, contextual-based grading, and achievement-based grading. Discriminant analysis showed that four out of these eight factors from the two scales had the strongest effects on teachers' and students' membership in their respective groups. The results contribute to a more complete understanding of assessment cultures as conceived by teachers and students.