DETERMINATION OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TEACHERS' VIEWS AND PROBLEMS ABOUT USING ALTERNATIVE MEASUREMENT AND ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Alternative assessment techniques are quite new for teachers in Turkey, because these techniques didn't used before in previous curriculums. Many research results showed that teachers have very little knowledge about the alternative measurement and assessment techniques. So, it is believed that studies concerning teachers' needs about alternative measurement and techniques should be considered. In this way, teachers' inadequacies in the measurement and assessment area would be determined. The aim of this study is to investigate science and technology teachers' views about alternative measurement and assessment techniques and the problems they encountered in using these techniques. The case study research method was adopted and semi structured interviews were implemented for the data collection process. The sample of this study consisted of 50 science and technology teachers. Nvivo 8.0 package program was used in analyzing the qualitative data collected. At the end of the study; it was found that teachers use performance task, project, branches tree, portfolio and concept map more than other measurement and assessment techniques. Lack of time is the most important problem of teachers while using alternative assessment techniques. It can be concluded that well- prepared in service training covers all alternative assessment techniques should be presented and applied in widespread manner.