Supporting teacher judgement and decision-making: Using focused analysis to help teachers see students, learning, and quality in assessment data

Abstract

This paper reports results from an Australian study into how teachers see features of quality in student work and connect these to next-step teaching. Data were drawn from a national 3 year project investigating teacher judgement using A–E standards. The project developed scaled exemplars of authentic student written performance assessments to support teacher judgement and inform next-step teaching and learning. Fifty-seven participants created evaluative explanations of grading decisions (i.e. cognitive commentaries), wrote reflective responses and participated in online meeting discussions of their cognitive commentaries. These data were examined using qualitative content and thematic analyses. Findings highlighted how stated standards influence teachers’ judgements of student work. Variation was evident in teachers’ focus on (1) content (i.e. core skills vs. extended thinking), (2) specificity of improvement points and suggested teaching strategies and (3) the connection between identified areas for improvement and teaching strategies. Most teachers were able to identify specific points for improvement. However, in the main, they selected next-step teaching strategies that were general rather than targeted and specific. Teachers reflected that structured analysis helped direct their thinking and judgements, targeting attention on next-step teaching. The results suggested that teacher education and professional development should focus on supporting teachers to link specific teaching strategies to identified student weaknesses. This study found that artefacts, such as cognitive commentaries that connect assessment, teaching and learning, can help build professional knowledge and expertise, which remain key components of teacher assessment literacy.