Are future teachers in North Carolina colleges being trained to use formative assessment, and how is that training demonstrated in public schools

This is a qualitative study that used a sample of nine teachers and two professors of education from six different counties in the Coastal and Piedmont regions of North Carolina to examine whether teachers were trained in their undergraduate education, or through professional development, to use formative assessment techniques in their classrooms. It also explores the participants' abilities to implement those techniques. The researcher analyzed the results from a survey questionnaire, a personal interview and field notes generated during a classroom observations, as well as a checklist of specific formative assessment techniques the researcher had observed, to achieve a triangulation of data. The findings indicated that two teachers stated that they were not familiar with the term formative assessment and had not received any training in these methods. The other nine participants reported that they were trained in formative assessment pedagogy, two of them, trained outside of North Carolina received their introduction to formative assessments during their undergraduate education. In both the Coastal and Piedmont regions, some teachers reported that their counties had required training in formative assessment using computer study of various techniques. Five teachers reported that their training in formative assessment was through professional workshops. Only one of the two professors of education who participated in the study claimed to introduce students to formative assessment methods. This study also looked at whether constructivist ideas centering on the belief that learners actively construct knowledge through social interactions, meta-cognitive reflection, and other principles; including that assessment is integral to the learning, were being used by the participating educators. The researcher likewise explored whether rubrics were used as part of the participants' instructional strategies.