Evidence of method effects in teachers' conceptions of assessment : contrasting interview and survey responses

Considerable effort is being spent on improving the quality and nature of teacher assessment practices. Attitudes towards, beliefs about, and intentions concerning any psychological object are strong predictors of human action and behaviour vis a vis that object (Ajzen, 1991). Therefore, understanding how teachers think about assessment is an important factor in determining how assessment reforms are implemented in school contexts. Inferences about human thinking should not be a function of data collection methods; hence, validation of results across methods is an important aspect to improving our understanding of the structure of conceptions.