Abstract

Pre-service teachers’ conceptions of assessment have received relatively little attention in research concerned with professional development in initial teacher education. These conceptions, alongside of others regarding teaching and learning, however, have a great impact on future teachers’ instructional practices. In this study, we examine conceptions of assessment indirectly, by analysing 79 Finnish pre-service subject teachers’ narratives of students’ failure. Our findings reveal four major conceptions: (a) assessment is about feedback and reflection, (b) assessment needs to be personalised and demonstrate students’ learning, (c) assessment should take into account students’ invested effort, and (d) assessment fails to measure students’ success or failure. These findings provide a qualitative insight into and extend both research on teachers’ conceptions of assessment as a vital aspect of assessment literacy and research on pre-service teachers’ conceptions in particular. The relevance of these findings for future teachers’ professional development is discussed.