Research On Competency-Oriented High School Chemistry Teaching-Learning-Assessment Alignment

China is undergoing a new phase of educational reform including,new curriculum,new text books and modification in the Gaokao(Chinese College Entrance Examination).The highlight of this round of curriculum reform is to modify the key competence of subjects and to establish achievement standards and to propose the integration of teaching-learning-assessment.However,this curriculum reform has major challenges.One of the primary challenges is competency-oriented teaching and its alignment with learning and assessments which need to be addressed immediately.Several studies suggested that alignment of teaching-learning assessment might achieve the teaching aims and objectives and can be considered as an effective way of teaching.To our present knowledge only a limited information is available focusing on the alignment of teaching-learning assessments and therefore an in-depth study is required to be carried out.The present investigation analyzes the alignment of teaching-learning-assessment of the Chemistry classes in Senior High Schools in China.This study mainly focuses on two questions:(a)What was the degree of alignment of teaching-learning assessments in the Chemistry classes in Senior High Schools in China?(b)What are the different factors which influence the alignment of teaching-learning assessment in the Chemistry classes in Senior High Schools in China?In the present investigation we analyzed the related concepts and expounded the theory.Alignment of teaching-learning-assessment refers to the coordination among teaching instructions,students learning and assessment in the whole classroom system.Alternatively,teaching,learning and assessment might be carried out around a common goal of enhancing the competency,here particularly the Chemistry key competence.It had the function of developing students' key competence of subjects and simultaneously beneficial in enhancing students' quality and might promote teachers'professional development.We have analyzed several relevant frameworks which could assist us to make an analytical framework for the alignment of teaching-learning-assessment from the perspective of intended curriculum,perceived curriculum and operational curriculum.On this basis,the we designed the judgment process of competency-oriented teaching-learning-assessment alignment.Practice shows that the analytical framework can reflect the goal orientation of competency,and can be used to judge the degree of alignment,and be operable at the same time.Under the guidance of analytical framework,a multiple case study was used,and maximum variation principle was taken into consideration while performing the present research.It was done by including nine high school Chemistry teachers.We mainly used methods such as classroom observations and interview of the teachers for data collection.Afterwards,we analyzed the alignment of teaching-learning-assessment among nine high school Chemistry teachers and concluded factors that might impact their alignment of teaching-learning-assessment.Our major findings were as follows:(1)The degree of teaching-learning-assessment alignment was divided into four levels:strongly consistent,basically consistent,basically inconsistent,and strongly inconsistent.It is found that the degree of alignment of teaching-learning-assessment of most of the teachers was basically inconsistent.The alignment of teaching-learning assessment of high school Chemistry teachers was significantly poor.(2)Practically,there were some differences between the intended curriculum objective and the perceived curriculum objective,while the operational curriculum objective was closer to the perceived curriculum objective.(3)The direct reasons for the inconsistency of teaching-learning-assessment were lack of competency goal,lack of evaluation,lack of learning behavior,and inability to effectively do the assessment of the students' learning.Moreover,the balanced thoughts,evidence-based reasoning,model cognition,scientific spirit and social responsibility were easily found to be inconsistent in operational curriculum.The competency of lower level were easier to reach the consistency of teaching-learning-assessment,whereas the competency of lower level were much more difficult to reach the consistency of teaching-learning-assessment.(4)Eight factors influencing teaching-learning-assessment alignment in high school chemistry classes were revealed,among which the pedagogical content knowledge(PCK)is the core factor;the students' study condition,teaching time and examination evaluation were found to be the intermediate factors;and educational technology,college entrance examination policy,school orientation and teachers' personality were observed to be the marginal factors.The core and the intermediate factors were considered as the important factors.(5)Our theoretical model explained different factors and their importance.Briefly,the degree of alignment of the teaching-learning-assessment of high school Chemistry class was at a low level,and revealing the influencing factors which might assist to improve the alignment of teaching-learning-assessment,and suggested to answer the two significant queries raised by the research.In terms of theory,this study established an analytical framework of competence-oriented teaching-learning-assessment alignment.In conclusion,multiple case studies and qualitative research were employed to achieve our objectives.Our present observations obtained from the empirical study apparently provided an understanding for the implementation of the key competence of subjects,implementation of effective instruction,and for the further research conducted in this direction.Finally,the implications of the study and the suggestions for future research were discussed.