Re-organization of assessment during the educational emergency in primary and secondary teaching: an Italian case

Abstract

The educational crisis caused by the pandemic created an unprecedented need to reorganize teaching and learning processes, and the educational assessment became one of the thorniest issues in this rapid change; assessment re-organization entails layered complexities on micro, meso and macro levels. This research is contextualized in a larger digital ethnographic study of three different Italian teacher online communities, uncovering the experience from mixed-methods research. Following this research, a survey instrument was developed and launched. Current paper reports on the survey aiming to uncover the change in assessment practices during the educational emergency while reflecting on teachers' beliefs on the assessment, the use of remote assessment methods before and during the pandemic, and its re-organization. Findings suggest a significant reorganization of assessment during the COVID-19 educational emergency in all school orders. Through all school orders, teachers perceived a reduction in the importance of assessment during the pandemic and, consequently, used most assessment techniques significantly less than before. However, different methods changed differently, with oral examinations diminishing dramatically and increased use of closed-question quizzes.