Teachers’ classroom assessment and grading practices

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the teachers’ classroom assessment and grading practices in Junior high schools in Bali. The participants of this study were professional junior high school teachers who were randomly selected as the sample of this study. In depth interviews and classroom observations were intensively conducted to the participants to collect the required data for the purpose of the present study. This study revealed that junior high school teachers made use of formative and summative assessment and employed several ways of grading practices. There were several factors affecting their classroom assessment and grading practices consisting of internal factors and external factors. The most prominent internal factor was the teacher's philosophy of teaching and learning and the main external factors were recognized as mandated statewide learning factors and high stakes tests, government polices, and parents. The findings indicated that junior high school teachers constantly make an effort to establish a reasonable balance between their teaching philosophy and the classroom environment reality. Thus it is recommended that junior high school teachers should review their assessment and grading practices and employ more appropriate assessment and grading practices.