Developing summative assessment literacy: A longitudinal study of pre-service and novice language teachers

Assessing students correctly is a question of national equivalence and individual fairness, especially given the fact that grades are used as the basis for further education. A Swedish Research Council overview points to deficiencies in teacher education regarding the development of assessment competency in pre-service teachers, and little research has to date investigated and problematized
this crucial aspect. Research regarding how novice teachers use and improve this competency is also limited. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate teachers’ summative assessment literacy at the end of their teacher education and of first year teaching as well as factors influencing this literacy based on teacher cognition and language assessment theories as conceptual
framework. The study will focus on language teachers in Sweden and Finland from three different institutions. Using a longitudinal multiple case study approach, we will collect quantitative and qualitative data (involving questionnaire, interviews and document analysis) from pre-service
teachers at the end of teacher education and later from novice teachers at the end of first year of teaching. We expect the results will provide new insights into how pre-service teachers and novice teachers develop assessment literacy within a period of 1–2 years, and will help us offer recommendations with direct relevance to design new assessment initiatives within teacher education and schools.