Consonance and dissonance between Turkish prospective teachersâ•Ž values and practices: Conceptions about teaching, learning, and assessment

This study aimed to examine the consonance and dissonance between prospective teachers’ values and practices in terms of their conceptions about teaching/learning and conceptions about assessment, as well as to explore the patterns of those consonance and dissonance between prospective teachers’ values and practices. The sample consisted of 304 prospective teachers majoring in teaching science, art, special education, music, Turkish literacy, mathematics, English language, and classroom teaching domains in a large university located in the north-west of the Black Sea region in Turkey. Overall results of the study showed that the prospective teachers valued constructivist teaching/learning, making learning explicit, and promoting learning autonomy more than they practised, whereas they practised traditional teaching and performance orientation more than they valued. Results also revealed that the prospective teachers believed that constructivist teaching/learning, traditional teaching/learning, making learning explicit, promoting learning autonomy, and performance orientation were both valuable and applicable. These results also provided evidence that there were both consonance and dissonance between prospective teachers’ conceptions about teaching/learning and conceptions about assessment. Teachers’ conceptions about teaching/learning and assessment are essential in predicting their classroom-related behaviors, decisions, and teaching approaches (Brown, 2002, 2004; Chan, 2003; Chan & Elliott, 2004; James & Pedder, 2006; Nespor, 1987; Pajares, 1992; Prawat, 1992; Samuelowicz & Bain, 2001; Winterbottom, Brindley, Taber, Fisher, Finney & Riga, 2008). These conceptions differ in terms of what teachers believed as ideal (i.e., values) and their actual teaching-related behaviours (i.e., practice) in the classroom (James & Pedder, 2006; Winterbottom et al., 2008), indicating a dissonance between teachers’ practices and values in educational settings (Segal, 1998). Prospective teachers’ conceptions about learning and conceptions about assessment have been examined together in terms of their practices and values (Wang, Kao, & Lin, 2010). However there is a general lack of similar studies in the literature possibly due to the assumption that the conceptions about assessment implicit in the definitions of assessment for teaching/learning (Hargreaves, 2005). This does not mean that the conceptions about teaching/learning and conceptions about assessment are the same constructs. Rather, it means that these conceptions are related to one another (Oliva, 1997). Thus, it is reasonable to examine the conceptions about teaching/learning and conceptions about assessment as distinctly different constructs. The present study reveals some important results regarding the dissonance and consonance between prospective teachers’ values and practices in relation to their conceptions about teaching/learning and conceptions about assessment as these conceptions are important Australian Journal of Teacher Education Vol 35, 3, May 2010 28 in predicting prospective teachers’ later classroom-related behaviors, teaching approaches (Ng, Nicholas, & Williams, 2010; Pajares, 1992), and resistance to the educational reforms in general and the curricular reforms in particular (Akşit, 2007; Brown, 2004; Samuelowicz & Bain, 2001). Furthermore, given the fact that “one of the main criticisms directed at teacher education programs is their purported inadequacy in enabling prospective teachers to bridge the theory-practice gap” (Allen, 2009: 647), the present study has the potential to provide a meaningful framework for curricula attempts that aim to bridge the mentioned gap between theory and practice in teacher education. Literature Review and Conceptual Framework Conceptions about teaching and learning Conceptions about teaching and learning have been identified based on two categories such as learning facilitation, knowledge transmition (Kember & Gow, 1994), teacher-focused, student-focused (Trigwell & Prosser, 1996), imparting information, facilitating understanding (Kember, 1997), learning-centered, teaching-centered (Samuelowicz & Bain, 2001), learningcentered, content centered (Kember & Kwan, 2000), and learning-focused, content-focused (Postareff & Lindblom-Ylanne, 2008). These conceptions can be examined based on two philosophically grounded teaching and learning conceptions: the traditional teaching/learning conceptions and constructivist teaching/learning conceptions (Chan, 2003; Chan & Elliot, 2004; Chan, Tan & Khoo, 2007; Cheng, Chan, Tang & Cheng, 2009; Eren, 2009). Traditional teaching is teacher-centered; knowledge transmission from teacher to students with the teacher is seen by their students as a source of knowledge and students are seen by their teachers as passive recipients of the transmitted knowledge (Chan & Elliot, 2004). Constructivist approach to teaching is student-centered; facilitating understanding, collaboration in learning process, and knowledge construction based on students’ previous learning experiences with the teacher is seen by their students as a counsellor and students are seen as liable agents by their teachers (Chan, 2003; Chan & Elliott, 2004). Teachers’ and prospective teachers’ conceptions about teaching/learning are influenced by the other belief forms such as epistemological beliefs (Chan, 2003; Chan & Elliott, 2004; Cheng et al., 2009), motivational beliefs, and self-efficacy beliefs (Eren, 2009). Based on a sample of Hong Kong teacher education students, Chan (2003) showed that the prospective teachers with constructivist conceptions are likely to hold beliefs that knowledge is tentative and changing, and that one’s ability is not inborn, whereas prospective teachers with traditional conceptions are likely to hold beliefs that knowledge is certain and unchanging. Chan and Elliott (2004) replicated the results of Chan’s (2003) study by demonstrating that the prospective teachers’ innate/fixed ability beliefs, authority/expert knowledge beliefs, and certainty knowledge beliefs are positively linked to their traditional conceptions whereas learning/effort process beliefs are negatively related to constructivist conceptions (see also Chan et al., 2007 and Cheng et al., 2009 for similar results). Based on the traditional/constructivist conceptions about teaching/learning framework, Eren (2009) examined the relationships among Turkish prospective teachers’ achievement goals, efficacy beliefs, and conceptions about teaching/learning, and found that the Turkish prospective teachers’ conceptions about teaching and learning can be explained under the headings of traditional conceptions and constructivist conceptions. This result was in line with other studies in which Turkish prospective teachers’ conceptions about teaching and learning were examined through metaphor analyses (see Saban, 2007, 2010). Prospective teachers’ conceptions about teaching/learning have been linked to important variables such as epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy beliefs, and motivational beliefs, whereas their conceptions about teaching/learning have not been linked to their Australian Journal of Teacher Education Vol 35, 3, May 2010 29 practices and values. However, there is evidence that both prospective teachers’ and teachers’ conceptions about assessment can be identified in terms of their assessment-related values and practices (e.g., Winterbottom et al., 2008), signifying that the same may also be true for their conceptions about teaching/learning due to the interrelated nature of these conceptions (McNeill, 1996; Oliva, 1997). Conceptions about assessment Researchers conceptualized assessment based on the distinction between summative assessment, emerged from a traditional or behaviorist view of learning and teaching, and formative assessment, which emerged from a constructivist view of teaching and learning (Brooks & Brooks, 1993; Nitko, 1996; Gordon, 2008). Formative assessment has been conceptualised as ‘assessment for learning’. The explicit purpose of assessment for learning is to use assessment as part of teaching to promote learning. Summative assessment has been conceptualised as ‘assessment of learning’. The purpose of assessment of learning is to use assessment for grading and reporting (Askham, 1997; Brown, 2004, 2008; Clarke, 2001; Dann, 2002; Hargreaves, 2005, 2007; James & Pedder, 2006; Perrenoud, 1998). Teachers’ conceptions of assessment can be explained based on three meaningful dimensions: making learning explicit, promoting learning autonomy, and performance orientation. The two dimensions of teachers’ conceptions of assessment (i.e. making learning explicit and promoting learning autonomy) are associated with the assessment for learning whereas performance orientation dimension is associated with the assessment of learning (James & Pedder, 2006). Using cluster analyses, James and Pedder (2006) demonstrated that both similarities and differences exist between teachers’ values and practices in terms of their conceptions of assessment. Specifically, the teachers in their sample placed a high value for the making learning explicit and promoting learning autonomy in student assessment whereas they placed a low value for the performance orientation, indicating that teachers were aware of the importance of assessment for learning. However, teachers reported that they implemented the promoting learning autonomy in student assessment less than they valued, whereas they reported that they implemented the performance orientation in student assessment higher then they valued. Winterbottom et al. (2008) also found that prospective teachers valued promoting learning autonomy more than they implemented in their teaching, whereas they implemented performance orientation more than they valued. Also, prospective teachers’ assessmentrelated values and practices were greater than qualified teachers’ values and practices poss