Classroom Assessment in the Context of Motivation Theory and Research

• In Event: Research on Classroom Assessment: Laying the Foundation

Abstract

Objectives
The purpose of this paper is to describe the relationship between classroom assessment and student motivation for learning. The ultimate aim of this line of inquiry is to enhance understanding of how classroom assessment functions and how it can be improved.

Theoretical framework
The view of motivation for this study is a social-cognitive one. The view of classroom assessment for this study includes both formative and summative assessment purposes and practices. Important to moving formative assessment more firmly into regular instructional practices in schools, the steps in the formative paradigm resonate with the shift in learning theory from behaviorism to a more social cognitive perspective. “According to Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory, self-referent thought mediates between knowledge and action, and through self-regulation individuals evaluate their own experiences and thought processes” (Pajares, 1996). Social cognitive motivational variables have also been shown to be related to summative classroom assessment (as per the reviews in section 1). Harlen and Deakin Crick (2003) describe motivation as including: self-esteem, self-efficacy, effort, self-regulation, locus of control and goal orientation. Locus and other aspects of Weiner’s (1979) theory have now become part of self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

Method and Data sources
The study is a selective, theoretical literature review and synthesis of literature in two different fields. The aim is to make connections between the classroom assessment literature and the motivation literature.

Results
Three aspects of motivation are particularly relevant to discussing the effects of classroom assessment and/or informing classroom assessment practices: self-efficacy, self-regulation, and self-determination. Classroom assessment plays a role in these three different (but related) aspects of motivation. The literature shows that most classroom assessment studies which include motivation have self-efficacy (or some self-efficacy-like construct) as one of the motivational variables, and this is the variable most likely to be significant. Studies of student self-assessment show effects of this kind of classroom assessment on student self-regulation of learning. A review of the self-efficacy and self-regulation literature more generally (not limited to studies of classroom assessment) shows a logical argument can be made to connect critical aspects of classroom assessment (for example, formative feedback) to aspects critical for self-efficacy and self-regulation (for example, improvements in learning that students attribute to efforts under their own control).

Significance
This study makes two important contributions. One, it demonstrates that two different literatures, in the fields of classroom assessment and student motivation for learning, should be brought together to inform each other. Two, it offers a possible explanation for the power of student-centered classroom assessment (both formative and summative), expanding the conventional understanding of classroom assessment information beyond teacher practice (e.g., for planning lessons, for grading) to student motivation to use assessment information and, ultimately, to increase learning.

Author

• Susan M. Brookhart, Duquesne University