Conceptions of assessment among tertiary vocational education and training students across school and workplace settings in China

作者：Yan Zhang, Jason M. Stephens, Gavin T. L. Brown · 发表于：Frontiers in Education · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.3389/feduc.2026.1932418

Students' understanding of the purposes and uses of assessment has been measured using the Chinese Students’ Conceptions of Assessment (C-SCoA) inventory. The C-SCoA has a hierarchical structure with a single second-order factor (i.e., School Quality) predicting seven subordinate factors. However, previous studies with the C-SCoA have been limited to academic-track students in tertiary institutional settings. Using a sample of 1,130 final-year students in China's tertiary vocational education and training (VET) institutions, the present study offers partial validation evidence for the C-SCoA instrument with vocational-track students. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated a better fit of the data to an eight-factor correlated model compared to the original hierarchical model. The eight-factor correlated model was invariant between school and workplace settings. Taken together, the results suggest that the C-SCoA is a psychometrically sound instrument for investigating VET students' conceptions of assessment across school and workplace settings.