Pre-Service Maths Teachers’ Conceptions Regarding Assessment

Evaluation practices are among the most important parts of education and training activities. Teacher candidates' understanding of assessment is also considered important for future education activities. The main purpose of this research is to determine the opinions of mathematics teacher candidates regarding the concept of assessment. This study was carried out using the survey model, one of the quantitative research methods. The research sample consists of 467 teacher candidates studying in primary mathematics teaching programs at two different universities. The study used a scale developed by Kyttälä et al. (2021) to determine teachers' understanding of the concept of evaluation. The scale consists of 20 items and three sub-dimensions (assessment as a harmful action, assessment of learning, and assessment for teaching and learning). In this study, the scale was adapted to the Turkish language by the researchers. Descriptive statistics, t-test for independent samples, and single-factor analysis of variance methods were used to analyze the data. According to the findings, teacher candidates' understanding of assessment differed according to gender and grade level.