Designing sustainable development of Danish science teachers’ assessment capacity

This presentation describes and analyses an ongoing Danish project focusing on the development of assessment capacity among Danish primary and lower secondary science teachers. The project adapts mainstream theories for teacher professional development to a sustainable model for capacity building on three levels: Personal, interpersonal and organizational. Especially the interpersonal and organizational levels are addressed through including school leaders and municipal administration and even political stakeholders. Within this model, the project applies an understanding of assessment capacity consisting of four different discourses: assessment competence, assessment literacy, assessment capability, and assessment identity. In an action research approach through consecutive cycles teachers, teacher educators, researchers, leaders and administration work with implementing formative assessment processes and building assessment capacity. Various data collection methods are applies and preliminary results point to the difficulties of changing existing practices in desired directions. They also underlines the necessity to consider teacher development in a broader context and gives some ideas for doing so. As such the project represents a model for sustainable implementation of changes to teaching practice in science that can be relevant beyond assessment in science. These findings and ways forward will be discussed.