Assessment culture and teaching choices. Conceptions and practices at primary school

A recent educational reform in Italy, which also focuses on classroom assessment, has led to much criticism and debate, notably about training theories and underlying ideology, teachers’ conceptions, practices and experiences. These points are fundamental, so as to consider an ‘assessment culture’ which underpins the creation of didactic projects, formative interventions, decision-making, and school failure and success. In the light of reactions aroused by the reform, we conducted a survey in primary schools in Valle d’Aosta (Italy).The research focused on the following aspects: Teachers’ attitudes regarding classroom assessment, teacher’s conceptions about the functions of assessment, and finally, concepts and tools used by teachers for assessment purposes. The aim of the survey is to investigate the relation between assessment culture and practices in school settings. Our research was carried out in primary schools which represent the system level the most affected by the educational reform. A total of 50 teachers were interviewed, and they also filled a questionnaire of 75 items based on a Likert scale. The level of agreement or disagreement expressed by the teachers emphasized various aspects of classroom assessment and the different teaching practices related. Our results stress a non-homogenous assessment culture, even though we also identify significant trends, in particular that the function of assessment, first summative, appears to be detached from learning purposes. Teachers seem to grasp the complexity of classroom assessment, but we note a conceptual gap between assessment conceptions and teaching-learning practices.