Preservice elementary teachers assessment literacy and attitude towards assessment

The aim of this study is to determine the assessment literacy of preservice elementary school teachers (Science Teachers, Social Sciences Teacher, Turkish Teachers And Mathematics Teachers) and their attitude towards assessment. The research was participated in the academic year of 2010-2011, spring semester through 180 preservice elementary school teachers studing at the department of Elementary Education at the Faculty of Education at Fırat University. To determine the assessment literacy of teacher candidates, Assessment Literacy Inventory (1993), Measurement And Evaluation Literacy Inventory, prepared by Barbara S. Plake and James C. Impara, was used. The Inventory has been adapted to Turkish literature in a suitable manner. To analyze the results, the TAP (Test Analyisis Program) program was used. In addition, the SPSS 16.0 program variance (ANOVA) analysis has been prepared. The correlation between the groups is examined with the "Pearson Correlation Analysis". To determine the attitudes of teacher candidates about measurement and evaluation, ?Attitude Scale about Measurement and Evaluation which was prepared by the researcher as an overall of the interviews made with the teacher candidates is used. These data were analyzed with the SPSS 16.0 program.According to the item analysis results, the instrument reliability (KR-20) was 0,718, mean item difficulty was 0,556 and item discrimination was 0,374. These values show that substances of the scale can be used in a psychometric aspect. According to the findings, teacher candidates were found to be considerably at a low level of assessment literacy. The level of assessment literacy that the teacher candidates fail most has proved to be the "Sharing of the Assessment and Evaluation Results". In terms of standards, there were significant differences between preservice elementary school teachers. Attitudes of the teacher candidates were examined under four factors and they were found to be high. The correlation between success and attitude shows that, though at a low level, there is a linear relationship between success and attitıde.Keywords: Assessment Literacy, Attitude towards Assessment, Preservice Elementary Teachers, Competency