Designing sustainable development of Danish science teachers’ assessment capacity

This presentation describes and analyses an ongoing Danish project focusing on the development
of assessment capacity among Danish primary and lower secondary science teachers. The project
adapts mainstream theories for teacher professional development to a sustainable model for
capacity building on three levels: Personal, interpersonal and organizational. Especially the
interpersonal and organizational levels are addressed through including school leaders and
municipal administration and even political stakeholders. Within this model, the project applies an
understanding of assessment capacity consisting of four different discourses: assessment
competence, assessment literacy, assessment capability, and assessment identity. In an action
research approach through consecutive cycles teachers, teacher educators, researchers, leaders
and administration work with implementing formative assessment processes and building
assessment capacity. Various data collection methods are applies and preliminary results point to
the difficulties of changing existing practices in desired directions. They also underlines the
necessity to consider teacher development in a broader context and gives some ideas for doing so.
As such the project represents a model for sustainable implementation of changes to teaching
practice in science that can be relevant beyond assessment in science. These findings and ways forward will be discussed.