Towards a comprehensive assessment system through teacher collaboration : an interactional ethnographic study in Hong Kong

Abstract

The primary data source was an ethnographic archive of 42 collaborative meetings from a teacher group organized into two teams. They worked together for different year-groups cross two education systems and focused on various practical issues in the implementation process. In setting up cases, the bounded context referred to the teacher teams engaging in different assessment designs for the contemporary curriculum. It used discourse analysis to examine the video transcripts. Their patterned ways of collaboration were reported based on multiple events across the whole school year. Using various sources of evidence for data triangulation included textual materials, field notes, and interviews. The process of teacher collaboration was used to formulate causal inference within and across time and events. Results suggested that the routine both produced and confined the trajectories of teacher learning within the assessment system. Teachers collectively established their cultural practice on assessment, and the collaboration supported their classroom practice. Analysis over time indicated that a robust teacher team promoted educational outcomes. It illustrated a set of collaborative practice from an emic perspective that had cultural-historical meaning in the context. By comparing the two teacher teams, it was evident that alignment between assessment and pedagogical practice was fundamental to the instructional improvement initiatives. Their different logics suggested that the reorganization should be focused on the various assessment components separately. It also revealed that the local and international systems were in a synergistic relationship. In sum, the nature of teacher collaboration cannot be regulated merely by manipulating a single component. Changes at a systemic level are required to create new types of professional learning. Identifying unmet needs are of the utmost importance, and the themes of contemporary curriculum design offer a vision for transformation. This study contributes to a better understanding of professional learning to support instructional improvement through teacher collaboration on assessment. It gives an empirical account of how teachers can support instructional practice within an assessment system. By drawing insights from each of the constructs, the project finally leads to a reconceptualization of cultural-historical activity theory. This thesis makes a strong case for professional learning through teacher collaboration on assessment and offers a basis for significant analytic generalization.