A typology of teachers’ self-reported use of student data from computer-based assessment programmes in secondary education

Abstract

Teachers in secondary education have to deal with a growing diversity in student population, which asks for differentiation of their teaching. Computer-based assessments (CBA’s) are educational software tools that, for a particular school subject, allow students to practice their knowledge or skills, leading to results about students’ performance or ability level at that point in time. Information derived from CBA’s (known as learning analytics) has the potential to support teachers to differentiate by informing them of each student’s current level. In this study, our aim was to provide a typology of how and why teachers in secondary education use analytics, with the subsequent aim of providing recommendations for teacher professional development. Four profiles were found: high users, selective users, early stage users, and non-users. We provide recommendations for each of these profiles.