“It Puts us in our Students’ Shoes”: Listening to Voices from Teacher Candidates on Their Test-Taking Experience

Liying Cheng; Jia Ma

doi:10.6000/2371-1655.2015.01.05

Authors

Liying Cheng Assessment and Evaluation Group, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University, Kingston Ontario Canada
Jia Ma Assessment and Evaluation Group, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University, Kingston Ontario Canada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6000/2371-1655.2015.01.05

Keywords:

Test-taking experience, classroom assessment practices, classroom assessment tools, teacher education.

Abstract

This study explores teacher candidates’ experiential learning through their test-taking experiences while attending a Bachelor of Education (B. Ed.) program. Eighty-four written reflections by teacher candidates taking a mid-term course examination on classroom assessment practices were analyzed. Major themes emerging from these reflections on the test-taking experience are related to validity concepts of construct representation, construct-irrelevant variance, relevance, and fairness. The study reveals that the test-taking experience could be valuable to teacher candidates in their learning of classroom assessment practices and in their understanding of the issues in test taking that may influence test performance. This, in turn, could potentially provide teacher candidates with a direct framework for their future classroom assessment practices, by which they may support their own future students.

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