Browsing by Author "Wallinmaa, Venla"

This thesis aims to examine teachers’ conception and experiences of co-assessment. School assessment is a surface issue right now. New curriculum in 2014 shifted the focus from the assessment of pupils to the assessment of learning. The new curriculum did not work as well as hoped, so chapter 6 assessment of learning was renewed. The newest version which aims to increase equality will be implemented in the autumn of 2020. Teaching has traditionally been seen as independent work done alone. Co-teaching is a method where two or more teachers plan, teach and assess together in equal collaboration. Studies have shown that the benefits of co-teaching are worth pursuing. The concept of co-assessment was derived from the key concepts of the thesis. The purpose of the study is to examine teachers' perceptions of co-assessment as well as its benefits and challenges. The research was carried out with a phenomenographic research approach. The research material was collected through interviews with 13 teachers in an elementary school in Vantaa. The semi-structured group interviews were held in April 2019. The material was analyzed with phenomenographic analysis. Teachers described co-assessment as a formative and summative assessment. Co-assessment was carried out everyday life and in planning of assessment in various ways. Co-teaching teams also split assessment tasks. Teachers spoke about formative assessment a little bit more than about summative assessment. Formative co-assessment was seen as more diverse and there were more differences of opinion. Conceptions of summative co-assessment were more similar. According to the teachers the challenges of co-assessment are related to time, teamwork, differences of opinion and pupil-related worries. Co-assessment benefits both teachers and pupils. Co-assessment provides an opportunity to improve well-being at work and simplify assessment. Co-assessment is higher quality and more equitable for students. The benefits were related to the challenges in many ways, and were perceived as mitigating them.