The flexible use of assessment metaphors: a cross-sectional study of pre-service teachers’ conceptions

The aim of the study was to test if future teachers can adaptively adopt various evaluative attitudes about the teaching sequences after the initial primary teacher training program. To test this, we will compare the choice of evaluative postures of teachers entering the primary teacher training program to those at the end of the same teaching program. We will use conceptual metaphors to instantiate the different evaluative attitudes that can be adopted at different moments of the teaching sequence.We observed a greater understanding of the functions of assessment at the end of the program, resulting in an increased selection of evaluative attitudes at the end of the program compared to the beginning of the program. This also involved a more frequent selection of multiple attitudes simultaneously during each teaching sequence. We also observed a greater selection of attitudes that promote student engagement.