Cited by 80Educational Assessment and ImprovementStudent Assessment and FeedbackTeacher Education and Assessments

How Do Teachers Make Sense of Data in the Context of High-Stakes Decision Making?

Open access
Vanlommel, Kristin, Schildkamp, Kim·2019·American Educational Research Journal

Abstract

This study examines the way teachers make sense of data in the context of high-stakes decision making, such as decisions related to student placement in educational tracks. Different types of data, data collected rationally and intuitively, may be used in this sensemaking process, and the same data may be interpreted in different ways by different teachers. Results show that teachers base their decisions on rational processes only to a limited extent. Teachers collect a great amount of data intuitively, and they sometimes interpret data collected rationally by personal criteria and triangulate data to a very limited extent. Since fair educational decisions are informed by a rational collection and a transparent interpretation of data, implications for theory and practice are provided.

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Crossref · 10.3102/0002831218803891

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82 of 82 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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Authors
Vanlommel, K., & Schildkamp, K.
Affiliations
  • University of Antwerp (BE)
  • University of Twente (NL)
Venue
American Educational Research Journal
Published
2018-10-26
Volume
56
Issue
3
Pages
792-821
ISSN
  • 0002-8312 (ISSN-L)
  • 1935-1011
OpenAlex
W2898505312
Cited by
79
References
83
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 12
FWCI
8.52
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • American Educational Research Journal (publishedVersion)
  • University of Twente Research Information (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Educational Assessment and Improvement
  • Social Sciences › Education › Student Assessment and Feedback
  • Social Sciences › Education › Teacher Education and Assessments
Keywords
teacher decision-making, high-stakes decisions, educational tracking, student placement, data triangulation, data interpretation, educational equity, transparency in decision-making

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