Competence, confidence and opportunity of early career secondary teachers to create effective summative assessment

Competence, confidence and opportunity of early career secondary teachers to create effective summative assessment

One of a secondary school teacher’s most complicated roles is that of creating summative assessment. With the absence of specific training in summative assessment creation in initial teacher education programs since the introduction of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers in 2011, a gap has emerged in the profession's expectations. This research delves into the complex role of early career teachers in Queensland in creating summative assessment, ultimately proposing a model for professional learning to support those embarking on their teaching journey. Employing an exploratory quantitative survey with 116 teacher respondents, the thesis consists of four papers: a systematic literature review defining quality indicators for effective teacher created summative assessment, a conceptual paper presenting a proposed framework, an exploratory factor analysis validating the conceptual framework, and analysis of survey results. The findings reveal that effective summative assessment exhibits high levels of validity, reliability, fairness, authenticity, and flexibility. Additionally, a practice framework emphasising an iterative process involving increasing Competence (knowledge and skills), Confidence and Opportunities (to create, reflect, learn and plan) is conceptualised. Teachers prefer this process to occur within their context, under the mentorship of experienced colleagues. The study contributes to theory by providing a set of quality indicators for the creation of effective summative assessment, and a practice framework for the improvement of teacher-created summative assessment.

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