The Ethics of Assessments in the Classroom

1497 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays on ethical issues in assessment in education

Examining teacher ethical dilemmas in classroom assessment

Pope, N., Green, S., Johnson, R., & Mitchell, M. (2009). Examining teacher ethical dilemmas in classroom assessment. Teaching and Teacher Education , 25 (5), 778-782.

Précis

Pope, Green, Johnson, & Mitchell (2009) suggest that we need further research and discussion around ethics and assessment in the classroom. Many ethic dilemmas are faced by teachers however little has been researched around ethics and assessment. Teachers spend one third of the time in assessment related activities and do so with no clear guidelines of the ethical dilemmas involved. There is a need for pre-service teachers to undertake training and discussion around ethical conflicts and dilemma around assessment as it appears that ethical reasoning does not develop on the job. The group study of in service teachers highlighted the dilemmas around ethics and assessment. In discussing a scenario where there is no right or wrong answers teacher responses were grouped based on two principles of ‘do no harm’ and ‘score pollution’. Although responses varied greatly, score pollution rated highest with institutional requirements vs. students needs being the greatest concern around conflicting elements. Ethical conflict based around institutional expectations is described as unavoidable, as institutions deal with the abstract and teachers deal with the person. Within Institutional requirements teachers see ethical conflict where rules from the governing body do not match with what the teachers sees as meeting the need of the student. As demands of large-scale assessment increase so does the focus on the practice. Students need to be the priority and teacher’s lack formal training. Research, cle...

... middle of paper ...

...ics/codeofethics.stm

O’Neill, J., & Bourke, R. (2010). Educating teachers about a code of ethical conduct. Ethics and Education , 4 (2), 159-172.

Peterson, M. (2005). The Ethical Dilemmas of High-Stakes Testing and Issues for Teacher Preparation Programs. Journal of College and Character , 6 (7).

Pope, N., Green, S., Johnson, R., & Mitchell, M. (2009). Examining teacher ethical dilemmas in classroom assessment. Teaching and Teacher Education , 25 (5), 778-782.

Schmeiser, C. (1995). Ethics in Assessment. Eric Digest .

The Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation. (2003). The student evaluation standards; How to improve student evaluations. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.

Winthrop University. (2011, August). Faculty & staff profiles. Retrieved August 2011, from Winthrop University: http://www.winthrop.edu/coe/faculty/default.aspx?id=11015

Show More
Related

  • Charlotte Danielson's Article 'Evaluations That Help Teachers'

    1636 Words  | 4 Pages

    In 2010, Charlotte Danielson wrote an article, “Evaluations That Help Teachers”, for the magazine The Effective Educator. The purpose of this article was to explain how a teacher evaluation system, such as her own Framework for Teaching, should and can actually foster teacher learning rather than just measure teacher competence, which is what most other teacher evaluation systems do. This topic is especially critical to decision-making school leaders. Many of the popular teacher evaluation systems fail to help schools link teacher performance with meaningful opportunities for the teachers to reflect on and learn from in order to grow professionally. With the increased attention on the need for more rigorous student standards, this then is an enormous opportunity missed. Students can only achieve such rigorous expectations if their teachers can effectively teach them, and research has shown that teachers who are evaluated by systems that hold them to accountability and provide them for continuous support and growth will actually teach more effectively.

    Read More

  • (Introduction Paper) The Impact of Formative Assessment and Feedback on Student Learning Using the Student Response System

    2141 Words  | 5 Pages

    Stiggins, R.J., Arter, J., Chappuis, J., & Chappuis, S. (2004). Classroom assessment for student learning: doing it right-using it well. Portland, OR: Assessment Training Institute.

    Read More

  • Ethics of Group Counseling

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    Huey, W. C. (1986). Ethical Concerns in School Counseling. Journal Of Counseling & Development, 64(5), 321.

    Read More

  • Why America's Educational System is Failing

    1116 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cheating can be a common routine in a classroom—from copying work on homework to copying answers on a test. “Cheating by teachers and administrators on standardized tests is rare, and not a reason to stop testing America's children” (Standardized Tests). This statement is proved false by the fact that thirty-seven states have been caught cheating by “encouraging teachers to view upcoming test forms before they are administered” (“FairTest Press Release: Standardized Exam Cheating in 37 States And D.C., New Report Shows Widespread Test Score Corruption”). If teachers can view a test before it is administered, they can teach to the test so that their students’ scores are higher. Teachers who have viewed the test can then “drill students on actual upcoming test items” (“FairTest Press Release: Standardized Exam Cheating in 37 States And D.C., New Report Shows Widespread Test Score Corruption”). This is morally wrong since teachers who do not have the access to an actual test or those who refuse to view it do not know what would be on the test and cover a broad domain of material, not just specifics.

    Read More

  • Educator Code Of Ethics Essay

    531 Words  | 2 Pages

    Standards 1, 4 and 5 are the most important standard of the code of ethics that all teachers must follow. Standard 1 having a professional conduct should demonstrated by all educators. Standard 4 teacher/student relationship should be conducted inside and outside the classroom. Standard 5 all educators should abide by the code of ethics of refrain from all use of drugs, tobacco and alcohol during school and school related activities. A disciplinary action can take place if any of the code of ethics is violated from a warning, suspension, revocation, or denial of

    Read More

  • The Shortcomings of Standardized Testing

    1649 Words  | 4 Pages

    In “Standardized testing undermines teaching,” the author, Diane Ravitch, reviewed a book she authored, The death and life of the great American school system: how testing and choice are undermining education. This review highlights various cons of Standardized testing on the students and educators. She states that standardized testing and the use of incentives to motivate students and educators have failed to meet the set goals. Although the author was at the forefront of advocating for this system, she is now opposed to it and sceptical of the use of incentives to motivate teachers. She also reviews the role of charter schools in perpetuating classism. She states that standard tests and the use of...

    Read More

  • Designing Student-Centered Assessments

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    make it work? In C.A. Dwyer (Ed.), The future of assessment: Shaping teaching and learning

    Read More

  • Code of Ethics Paper

    1288 Words  | 3 Pages

    Within the Code of Ethics and Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession in Florida, I have been able to find several prevalent moral issues to discuss. Of these, I found the following five selections to be the most important issues to be discu...

    Read More

  • The Code of Ethics and the Principles of Professional Conduct of the Education Profession in Florida

    1526 Words  | 4 Pages

    "Code of Ethics – Education Profession ." Florida Department of Education Web. 1 Apr. 2011.

    Read More

  • Kant On Cheating

    986 Words  | 2 Pages

    Teachers have moral obligations to self, to faculty, to parents and to students and not living up to this obligation creates challenges and is morally wrong. I will investigate two theories under what, if any, circumstances would it be acceptable for a teacher not to report cheating through analyzing two points of view. The first from Kant’s deontological ethics perspective and then from a virtue ethics

    Read More

  • What is Cheating and Why Cheating is Bad?

    1235 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sharland, A., Fiedler, A., & Menon, M. (2013). ETHICS IN THE BUSINESS CURRICULUM: DOES DELIVERY NEED TO BE REVISITED?. Southern Journal of Business & Ethics, 5.

    Read More

  • Examining the Evolution of Standardized Testing

    1883 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stecher, “The net effect of high-stakes testing on policy and practice is uncertain. Researchers have not documented the desirable consequences of testing—providing more instruction, working harder, and working more effectively—as clearly as the undesirable ones—such as negative reallocation, negative alignment of classroom time to emphasize topics covered by a test, excessive coaching, and cheating. More important, researchers have not generally measured the extent or magnitude of the shifts in practice that they identified as a result of high-stakes testing.” Which means that in completion no test is truly valid or reliable for there are too many mistakes to be had by either the test takers or the Test

    Read More

  • Teacher Ethics

    1534 Words  | 4 Pages

    Teacher Ethics “Ethics are defined as a set of principles of right conduct; the rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the members of a profession” (Dictionary of the Human Language, 2000). Teachers are often put in situations that require more than just knowing the basic school rules. It is within these situations, that the ethical dilemmas occur. There is not always a right way to deal with the many daily problems that face educators, but there are ways to handle situations that are better than others. Teachers should follow and refer to a code of ethics to help teach in the most appropriate and ethical way as well as a guide to help deal with dilemmas.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Teacher Evaluation

    1224 Words  | 3 Pages

    Teacher evaluations are very important. Most of the time, they have a negative feeling attached to them. Some teachers view evaluations as a way of them getting written up for what they are not doing and not as a way of growing and improving to help them teach their students. This also depends on how the principals frame and do teacher evaluations. I wanted to focus on teacher evaluations because I want to show how having a good teacher evaluation can lead to teacher and student growth in the school.

    Read More

  • Classroom Assessments

    2426 Words  | 5 Pages

    In spite of the importance of assessment in education, few teachers receive proper training on how to design or analyze assessments. Due to this, when teachers are not provided with suitable assessments from their textbooks or instructional resources, teachers construct their own in an unsystematic manner. They create questions and essay prompts comparable to the ones that their teachers used, and they treat them as evaluations to administer when instructional activities are completed predominantly for allocating students' grades. In order to use assessments to improve instruction and student learning, teachers need to change their approach to assessments by making sure that they create sound assessments. To ensure that their assessments are sound they need include five basic indicators that can be used as steps to follow when creating assessments. The first of these indicators and the first step a teacher must take when creating a sound assessme...

    Read More

More about The Ethics of Assessments in the Classroom

Open Document