Teach to Tests Versus Teach to Students: A Comparative Study of U.S. and Korean Beginning Teachers Learning to Navigate the Tension

• In Event: 56.080 - Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: 56.080-12 - The Impact of Testing on Teacher Identity

Abstract

This study compares the lived experiences of eight US and Korean secondary teachers who all work in a test-driven school context. Using phenomenological research design, this study attempts to find the essence that explains the learning of beginning teachers who work with the pressure of teaching to tests. This study suggests that despite many differences found in the teachers’ lives, they have all made a consistent effort to balance teaching to tests with their own ideas about good teaching. Although the teachers were frustrated at having to teach to tests, they kept their commitment to student-centered teaching and tried their best to squeeze student-centered teaching as much as possible into their primarily test-centered lessons.

Author

• Jina Ro, Sungkyunkwan University