Understanding Student Voices About Assessment: Links to Learning and Motivation

• In Event: The Roles and Perceptions of Teachers and Students Related to Grading, Feedback, and Assessment

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe students’ perspectives about classroom assessment. Sixty-three semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with elementary and middle school students by three investigators. Results indicate that students regard assessment primarily as a reasonable check on their learning and as information to help them. Their attitudes toward most types of testing are positive and enabling, with substantial attributions for both success and failure to effort. Mistakes and being wrong are viewed primarily as helpful. A model of student dispositions is proposed, based on perceived inputs, actual dispositions, and outputs related to motivation. The study is compared to other investigations of student perceptions toward assessment, though that research is scant, and contemporary theories of student motivation.

Authors

• James H. McMillan, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Amanda Turner, Connecticut State Department of Education