Kvalitativa skillnader i lärares samtal om bedömning och elevers kunnande i naturvetenskap <br> Qualitative differences in teachers’ discussions about assessment and students’ science knowledge

Abstract

In this study we investigate teachers’ collegial discussions about students’ science knowledge, in a context of collaborative planning and evaluation of teaching concerning the human body. The empirical data consists of recordings of four meetings with researchers and one team of science teachers in a Swedish compulsory school. This study contributes to the understanding of collegial discussions as such and in particular what the teachers attend to as salient science knowledge. Making use of a phenomenographic approach, the result consists of a set of categories of teachers’ qualitatively different ways of expressing students’ science knowledge. When teachers relate the students’ science knowledge to their teaching it opens for an interdependent approach to teaching and assessment, in contrast to an instrumental way of viewing scientific knowledge, particularly in grading situations. We discuss how the identified qualitative differences have implications for teachers’ possibilities of professional development, e.g. regarding subject didactical knowledge.