Setting standards and primary school teachers’ experiences of the process
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Date
2014
Authors
Scherman, Vanessa
Zimmerman, Lisa
Howie, Sarah J.
Bosker, Roel
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Education, University of the Free State
Abstract
In South Africa, very few standard-setting exercises are carried out in education and,
if they are, teachers are not involved in their execution. As a result, there is no clear
understanding of what the standard is and how it was arrived at. This situation is
compounded when teachers are held accountable when learners do not meet the
prescribed standards. The aim of this paper is to explore how teachers experienced
a standard-setting process and if any reflection on teaching and learning practices
took place. The research question addressed is: How was the SAMP standard-setting
exercise experienced by teachers? Standard setting is an important component in
monitoring systems whether national or school-based monitoring systems. The South
African Monitoring system for Primary Schools (SAMP) is a school-based monitoring
system. The Grade 1 SAMP assessment is administered in English, Afrikaans and
Sepedi. As part of SAMP, a standard-setting exercise was undertaken for the Grade 1
assessment to better inform the dissemination of performance results to schools. As
part of a bigger research project, a participatory qualitative approach was followed
in which 27 participants were asked to partake in a modified Interactive Qualitative
Analysis (IQA) process. Several themes were identified by the teachers, namely
reflections on practice; emotions before and during the standard setting workshop;
benefits of working in a group; and improvements in the process. In this article, these
themes are explored and their relevance for standard setting within school contexts
discussed.
Description
Keywords
Standard setting, Monitoring, Professional development, Standard-setting approaches, South African primary schools, South African Monitoring and Feedback System for Primary Schools, SAMP
Citation
Scherman, V., Zimmerman, L., Howie, S. J., & Bosker, R. (2014). Setting standards and primary school teachers' experiences of the process. Perspectives in Education: Standards in education and training: the challenge, 32(1), 92-104.