A Survey Of English Teachers’ Classroom Assessment Literacy In Junior Middle Schools

With the development of curriculum reform of basic education in China,great changes have taken place in educational assessment,and classroom assessment has attracted more and more attention.As an important part of classroom teaching,classroom assessment is of great significance to the growth of students and the professional development of teachers.Based on the framework of teachers’ assessment literacy proposed by Chinese scholar Zheng Donghui(2014)and guided by “assessment for learning” and “teachers’ continuing professional development”,this study attempts to research on the classroom assessment literacy of junior middle school English teachers from the two dimensions of classroom assessment knowledge and skills.This study aims to explore three research questions: 1)How do junior middle school English teachers understand classroom assessment? 2)What are the manifestations and characteristics of middle school English teachers’ classroom assessment skills? 3)What are the influencing factors for the improvement of classroom assessment literacy of middle school English teachers?The author selected 60 front-line English teachers of different grades from two middle schools in Zhongshan District of Dalian,from September to December of 2020 as the research subjects.Data were collected and analyzed by means of questionnaires,interviews and classroom observation.The research results show that: firstly,the basic cognition of classroom assessment of junior middle school English teachers is insufficient and still stay on the surface.Secondly,when middle school English teachers carry out classroom assessment,they only pay attention to the summative assessment but ignore the formative assessment,and mostly adopt the single method of classroom assessment.Thirdly,educational departments,schools and teachers themselves directly affect the improvement of teachers’ classroom assessment accomplishment.This study has some implications for English teaching in junior middle schools.Firstly,educational departments should examine teachers’ knowledge and skills of classroom assessment.Secondly,schools should arrange regular training for teachers.Finally,teachers themselves should improve the awareness of classroom assessment knowledge and skills,and make it clear that classroom assessment is important to teachers themselves and students.There are still shortcomings in this study.The sample size of the survey is small,and only English teachers from two schools are selected as samples,thus lacking representativeness.The statistical analysis is not comprehensive,there is no strict distinction between teachers’ teaching years and educational background,and there is no detailed correlation analysis.The questions of the questionnaire are too general and lack of detailed indicators.It is hoped that these deficiencies will be improved and perfected in the future research.In a word,the study of classroom assessment in China is still in the stage of continuous development and improvement,which needs to be studied and explored in long-term practice.