English Ph.D. Dissertations
Placing One Program's Assessment and Its Effects on a Novice Teacher
Date of Award
2010
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
English/Rhetoric and Writing
First Advisor
Kristine Blair (Advisor)
Second Advisor
Lee Nickoson (Committee Member)
Third Advisor
Lance Massey (Committee Member)
Fourth Advisor
Alan Atalah (Committee Member)
Abstract
For over one-hundred years, and since the work of Thorndike and Hillegas, writing assessment practices have rested on the value of interrater agreement to show reliability - agreement achieved through norming practices. Recent conversations have emphasized a greater use of localized practices and the importance of stakeholders against a background of standardized assessments such as No Child Left Behind and a society that values accountability. Due to very real circumstances, such as student enrollment and a need to ensure a consistent student experience across sections, some writing programs, especially those making use of graduate student teaching assistants, may have a desire to use norming techniques and standardized writing assessment designed around local contexts and requirements.
Several studies have been conducted on the effects of standardized assessment on primary and secondary education, but none have done so in the post-secondary composition classroom. Thus, via qualitative methods, this ethnographic study investigates the effects of standardized writing assessment practices on a single, novice instructor, even though those practices are locally designed and governed. Using feminist research principles and activity theory, interviews with a novice instructor and program mentors, several classroom observations, and an analysis of the novice instructor's commenting practices, a deep map is created. This map provides a richer understanding of the relationship between the program rubric, end-of-term portfolio exchange, and the classroom decisions of this instructor. This contextualized study contributes to conversations regarding the effects of standardized writing assessment practices on instructors, teaching and learning to the test, and localized writing assessment practices.
Recommended Citation
Schnieder, Jeremy Lee, "Placing One Program's Assessment and Its Effects on a Novice Teacher" (2010). English Ph.D. Dissertations. 63.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/eng_diss/63