Teachers’ Perspectives on Eliciting Students’ Knowledge: Do They Align With the Formative Assessment Model?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 46
  In Roundtable Session: Impact of Teacher Perspectives and Practices on Learner Outcomes

Abstract

The study presented in this paper explored the perspectives of 11 secondary science teachers’ elicitation practices during instruction to understand their formative assessment practices. Teachers elicited students’ knowledge to check for prior knowledge, recall, and understanding. Teachers’ perspectives on their elicitation practices suggested that they were aware of the essence of formative assessment. However, the strategies the teachers used in eliciting as well as in using the elicited information did not align with the formative assessment framework that requires clarifying learning intentions, engineering effective classroom activities, and providing feedback that moves learners forward. Challenges like time pressure and student apathy to learning impeded teachers from eliciting and using elicited information in ways that could enhance students’ learning.

Author

• Comfort Muyang Ateh, Providence College