Biology teachers' struggle with the issue of fairness in a school-based assessment scheme

Abstract

This interpretive study of the implementation of a school-based assessment scheme of biology practical work in Hong Kong examines the struggles of three teachers with the issue of fairness in relation to their classroom actions. Though the teachers' discourses were dominated by, and their classroom actions were pre-eminently influenced by, the notion of fairness, they did so in three qualitatively different ways: (1) fair in the sense of assessing students on a fair basis; (2) fair in the sense of not jeopardizing students' chances to learn the subject matter while they are being assessed; and (3) fair in the sense of not depriving students' opportunities of receiving an all-round education. The implication is that assessment innovation is a necessary but not sufficient mechanism for changes within the educational system. It should be undertaken with full regard to problems of teacher interpretation and mediation at the classroom level. Otherwise, this will ruin the best intentions behind the assessment innovation. (Contains 1 table and 40 references.) (Author/SLD)