Understanding how student teachers develop their assessment identity is essential to fostering student-centred and formative assessment practices in schools. This contribution presents the design of a research instrument aimed at exploring the assessment identity of pre-service teachers enrolled in a Primary Education degree.

The instrument is currently being implemented with students enrolled in “Practicum I” and “Practicum V” of the Primary Education degree at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), during the 2024-2025 academic year. These two courses correspond to the first and final practicum placements in the bachelor’s degree, allowing the research to capture student teachers’ assessment identity development across the full span of their professional preparation. Quantitative data are being collected through a voluntary, self-administered online questionnaire.

The instrument integrates multiple dimensions of assessment identity –including knowledge, beliefs, practices, emotions, agency, and perceived contextual constraints– and is structured into six sections:
(A) socio-professional background;
(B) self-perceived assessment competence;
(C) conceptions of assessment;
(D) classroom assessment actions;
(E) emotions related to assessment; and
(F) contextual factors influencing assessment.

It includes Likert-type scales and self-perception items tailored to the Practicum experience.

The questionnaire was developed through iterative cycles of literature review, expert validation, and collaborative refinement within the research team. Each item was crafted to reflect theoretically grounded constructs while remaining accessible and meaningful to student teachers. Special attention was paid to language clarity, conceptual alignment, and item polarity.

Complementary qualitative data will be collected from higher education students:
(1) reflective journals analysing their experience in the Practicum, and
(2) the design and planning of a didactic learning situation in their classrooms. These assignments provide rich insight into student teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and assessment decision-making processes.

Quantitative data will be analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics to examine trends, variations, and relationships across the different dimensions of assessment identity. Comparisons between students in Practicum I and Practicum V will help identify potential developmental patterns throughout their teacher education. Exploratory factor analysis may be applied to examine the underlying structure of the instrument, while reliability will be assessed through internal consistency measures such as Cronbach’s alpha. Qualitative data from reflective journals and lesson designs will be analysed thematically, allowing for the triangulation of findings and deeper interpretation of how assessment identity is enacted and negotiated in practice.

This contribution focuses on the theoretical foundations and design process of the instrument, which has been iteratively refined through team-based development. It also addresses methodological decisions related to its application and its role in documenting identity trajectories. The work aims to contribute to the empirical understanding of teacher assessment identity and to the design of research-based tools that support pedagogical innovation in initial teacher education.

Keywords: Initial teacher education, identity, assessment, practicum.