Opettaja määrittelijänä - oppilas määriteltävänä : sanallisen oppilaan arvioinnin sisällön analyysi

Abstract

The focus of the research is threefold. First, the trends of pupil assessment, the concept "academic self-concept" and the way teachers perceive, describe and interprete their pupils's learning and achievements are analyzed. Second, based on the data collected (N=181) the written school reports are analyzed, and third the data and the results have been interpreted together with the group of teachers involved in the research. The aim of the research has been to develop a method for analyzing the written school reports and to analyze the written school reports according to this model. The data has been analyzed by quantitative and qualitative methods. The results showed that evaluation is moving towards authentic and qualitative evaluation. There were signs of the new assessment culture in that the focus of assessment was broader, including instructions and attributions, in addition to measurements of learning outcomes, study methods, abilities, personality and social skills. The written reports include normative descriptions about the progress of pupils. On the whole the results showed that teachers emphasised social skills and positive attitudes to school more than other characteristics in their pupils. The most important change toward a more authentic assessment was including instructions and attributions in aim to support self - directed learning into the reports. How to operationalize the learning of necessary skills became one of the crucial questions of the broader assessment. In spite of these signs the change is not as significant as has been expected. The potential for developing the written reports are discussed and the theoretical framework is built so as to firstly, see the written reports as metaphorical and future oriented to support the ontogenetic development of pupils, secondly, develop the reports so as to support learners to become self directed learners and thirdly, develop the teacher - pupil interaction in evaluation.