Addressing Changing Assessment Agendas: Impact of Professional Development on Secondary Mathematics Teachers in NSW

Abstract

In New South Wales the focus on assessment for learning requires teachers to consider carefully the alignment between assessment, curriculum, and pedagogy. This emerging agenda in teacher education seeks to ensure that assessment practices provide advice to teachers about what students know and where teaching might be directed to enhance learning. To incorporate this change into classroom practices, teachers need ongoing and sustained professional development. This paper describes the experiences of secondary mathematics teachers as they engaged in a two-year professional development program using the SOLO Model as the theoretical framework to explore the changing nature of assessment. Initially, teachers’ views of the advantages of the professional development experience are identified as major themes. Following this overview, three case studies are presented to provide a longitudinal perspective about the ways in which the views of teachers evolved over the period of the project.