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Teachers' competence in educational assessment is a key feature in teacher professionalism. Understanding of assessment competence has evolved from the learning of technical skills in assessment to a context-dependent, socially defined understanding encompassing a multitude of approaches to assessment. Thus, a holistic approach to assessment competence is used in this research to specifically consider the role of education culture on assessment competence. In particular, we compared Canadian and German student teachers with regard to their self-rated competence in, and approaches towards, educational assessment. While structural analysis revealed that the overall dimensions in which assessment is perceived do not depend on culture, ANOVAs pointed at some differences between the two countries, particularly concerning assessment purposes and approaches to fairness.

The synergy, or lack thereof, between large-scale and classroom assessment has been fiercely debated in both academic and policy spheres for decades around the world. This paper seeks to explicate how different countries are utilizing large-scale testing and test results at the classroom level. Through country profiles, this paper analyzes contemporary developments on the tensions and synergies between large-scale assessment and classroom teaching, learning, and assessment observed across seven international jurisdictions: United States, Canada, Australia, England, Germany, Finland, and Singapore. The paper concludes with an analysis of international trends leading to a synthesis of root causes contributing to the current limited uptake of large-scale assessment results at classroom levels.

Educational assessment is a complex area of teacher professionalism involving negotiation of purposes and practices within sociocultural contexts. Developing teachers' assessment literacy has thus become a priority across education systems. Additionally, student teachers' assessment approaches and confidence in their assessment competence may be influenced by their personality and the prevailing educational cultures. This cross-cultural study on student teachers in Canada and Germany examined the relationship between personality traits and assessment literacy. Regression analyses revealed that self-rated assessment literacy was supported by sense of self-efficacy, suggesting that experiences of success in teacher education are important in developing assessment literacy. While summative approaches to assessment were not associated with personality, formative approaches were particularly influenced by personal values such as empathy and composure. Overall, the findings were fairly stable across the two educational contexts. Implications for teacher education in the field of assessment include an emphasis on leveraging student teachers' values.