Abstract

Assessment and evaluation constitutes an important dimension of education. If education is the process of creating the desired changes in an individual’s behaviors, evaluation then is the process of making judgments about whether those desired changes are acquired by the individual or not. The existing curricula in Turkey were put into practice based on a new approach in the 2005 to 2006 Academic Year. Accordingly, the elementary school Turkish curriculum was renewed according to the constructivist approach. In this study, the aim is to determine the factors that influence the perceptions of classroom teachers about the alternative assessment and evaluation techniques proposed by the renewed Turkish curriculum. The research was conducted with 180 classroom teachers employed in twelve different elementary schools in a city located in Central Anatolia in the Fall Term of the 2010 to 2011 Academic Year. The data were collected through the questionnaire developed by the researcher. In conclusion, it was found that teachers’ perceptions about using alternative assessment and evaluation techniques in the Turkish course are positive; and no impact (positive or negative) was observed created by the factors, which had been thought to have influence on perceptions.

Key words: Elementary school Turkish curriculum, alternative assessment and evaluation, teacher opinions