The effectiveness and challenges implementing a formative assessment professional development program

ABSTRACT

This study reports on the effectiveness and challenges of a formative assessment professional development program designed to address the challenges Kosovo teachers face in adequately using formative assessment in their classrooms. Selected teachers (n = 19) from Kosovo municipalities participated in the professional development training program. Data were collected from open-ended pre- and post-questionnaires, mentoring, and teacher portfolios. This mixed-methods approach utilized an inductive analysis approach. Positive results included teacher attitude changes toward and a better understanding of formative assessment and lesson planning. The study reveals the complexities of the cultural context in implementing peer and self assessment and the shifting of learning responsibility from teacher to student. Consequently, the study considers the impact of the cultural context on the many challenges teachers face in their practices. Thus, the study promotes further culturally contextual professional development to improve teacher practices, potentially impacting student outcomes and the educational system directly.

KEYWORDS:

• Formative assessment
• in-service teachers
• professional development programs
• teacher attitudes

Acknowledgments

The research was conducted with the permission of the Kosovo Education Center (KEC), the implementation organization of the ASSET-USAID Program. The authors thank the KEC and ASSET-USAID Program for the opportunity to design and implement a formative assessment PD program. It should be noted that the PD implementation was supported, yet the research study was conducted voluntarily by the authors, who were the facilitators of the PD program. The authors received no financial support for this article’s research, authorship, and publication. The views in this article are those of the authors and not the PD program implementation institutions. The authors thank the teachers who participated in the PD program.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fatlume Berisha

Fatlume Berisha is an Associate Professor of Chemistry Education at the Faculty of Education, the University of Prishtina ‘Hasan Prishtina.’ She received her BS and MS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her doctorate from the University of Graz. Her main research interest is in active teaching and learning of sciences, particularly chemistry education, STEM education, learning in maker space labs, assessment, and environmental education. In addition, her research interest expands on science education for citizenship, pre-service and in-service science teachers’ beliefs, and science teacher professional development.

Eda Vula

Eda Vula is a full Professor of Teaching and Learning in Mathematics, Research in Mathematics Education, and Educational Action Research at the Faculty of Education, the University of Prishtina ‘Hasan Prishtina.’ She received her BS, MS, and her doctorate from the University of Prishtina. Her research interests concern teaching and learning in mathematics, problem posing and problem solving, action research, comparative studies, STEM education, as well teacher education and teacher professional development.

Rachel Gisewhite

Rachel Gisewhite, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Center for STEM Education at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her research focuses on authentic scientific inquiry experiences that increase scientific literacy and provide K–12 students, preservice teachers, and community members with an understanding of their place in the social and natural world, the recognition of their responsibility for their collective and individual actions, and a charge to act with generosity to remediate or protect that which they are exploring.

Hannah McDuffie

Hannah McDuffie is a current graduate student in the STEM Education PhD program through the USM Center for STEM Education. She obtained her BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Park Campus with minors in Chemistry and Psychology. Her teaching experience at the collegiate level began when she was 19, stemming from work as an undergraduate teaching assistant in General Chemistry. She now serves as a graduate teaching assistant in Organic Chemistry. As part of her graduate research assistantship, she also works on the GenSea project and serves as an educator for the Environmental Justice STEMM Leadership Academy. After graduating, she hopes to continue a career at the collegiate level through teaching in the biological sciences and working in higher education administration.