Building Elementary School Teachers' Capacity in the Design and Implementation of Authentic STEM Assessments

• In Event: Classroom Assessment: Exploring Fairness and Equity

Abstract

Elementary school teachers play a pivotal role in influencing students’ learning and choices on STEM-related fields of study and careers through the use of innovative pedagogical and assessment methods. However, many teachers lack assessment literacy and encounter implementation challenges associated with STEM integration. This paper reports a design-based research initiative in building elementary school teachers’ capacity in the design and implementation of authentic STEM assessments. Data sources include teacher-designed assessment tasks, observations, and interviews. The findings indicate that despite their capacity to design the assessment tasks with a real-world problem, teachers tended to focus on the solicitation of students’ factual and procedural knowledge. They also lacked the capacity to promote students’ integration of mathematics and sciences into the design challenge.

Authors

• Kim H. Koh, University of Calgary

• Olive Chapman, University of Calgary

• Shimeng Liu, University of Calgary