Internal and external factors influence teachers' daily assessment decisions. The purposes of teachers' assessments are crucial, as these purposes guide the assessment process. Still, little is known about teachers' assessment purposes. The aim of this study is to identify and describe the different purposes of assessments that Civics teachers…

In technology education, assessment is challenging and underdeveloped as it is a nascent practice and teachers do not have a well-defined subject tradition to lean on when assessing students. The aim of this study is to explore Swedish secondary technology teachers' cognitive beliefs about assessing students' learning of technological systems, in…

Assessment plays an important role in education and can both guide and motivate learning. Assessment can, however, be carried out with different aims: providing the students with feedback that supports the learning (formative assessment) and judging to which degree the students have fulfilled the intended learning outcomes (summative assessment).…

The purpose of this study is to investigate summative assessment (SA) perceptions and the sources of summative assessment literacy for novice second/foreign language teachers in Sweden and Finland. Data were collected through a questionnaire (N = 27) and a semi-structured interview (N = 22) from a group of novice teachers who graduated from two…

The aim of the present study is to investigate how the concept of systematic quality work is perceived by school teachers. Eleven interviews were conducted and analysed according to the phenomenographical method, inspired by qualitative content analysis. Five qualitatively different descriptive categories were identified: (i) tools for…

A series of worldwide projects concerning assessment, student outcomes and quality in higher education has revealed the need for a change in how higher education institutions assess student outcomes; however, many academics remain unconvinced. The success of assessment change arguably depends on the assessment culture within the institution. This…

In many countries, assessment for learning (AfL) is recommended in both policy and research as a concept that should be integrated into the teaching of physical education (PE) in schools. AfL is also part of physical education teacher education (PETE) programs in several countries and, consequently, something future PE teachers are expected to…

'Quality' in education has become a global phenomenon, and is frequently discussed in transnational and national policy. In such discussions, 'quality' seems to be both worthwhile and demanded, but at the same time, the concept has also been criticised in previous research as it seems to have attained a 'common sense' status. In this context, the…

This article underscores the importance of contextualization when analysing values education. The interplay between societal values and those imparted within an educational context significantly affect the interpretation and comprehension of values education. To address this concern, I strategically position sociologist Tiffany Mary Jones…

This study aimed to investigate how 33 preschool teachers' and 30 special educational needs teachers in Swedish preschools documented and described children's speech, language and communication development. The views on concepts as 'scientific basis', 'proven experience' and ways to follow language development for children in need of extra-support…

AI chatbots have recently fuelled debate regarding education practices in higher education institutions worldwide. Focusing on Generative AI and ChatGPT in particular, our study examines how AI chatbots impact university teachers' assessment practices, exploring teachers' perceptions about how ChatGPT performs in response to home examination…

Group work assessment is a challenging and complex practice for teachers. This study focuses on the challenges teachers perceive before and after participating in a group work assessment project that emphasizes individual assessment. By conducting a qualitative thematic analysis of twelve interviews with six teachers at upper secondary schools in…

Experiencing a teacher shortage, Sweden has allowed vocational teachers to gain employment without teaching qualifications. In this context, a population of non-qualified vocational teachers has emerged, a group of people rarely captured by national statistics and previous research. This study aims to shed light on the profile of non-qualified…

This article focuses on the participation of industrial and corporate actors in science and technology education in Sweden. Opening up schools for the participation of industrial actors may be seen as a means of making education more connected to society. However, it may also contribute to the emergence of tensions related to ensuring values of…

Recent reforms in England and the USA give evidence that teaching methods and content can change rapidly, given a strong external pressure, for example through economic incentives, inspections, school choice, and public display of schools' and pupils' performances. Educational activities in the Scandinavian countries have increasingly become…