A Case Study On Secondary EFL Teachers’ Classroom Assessment Literacy

The assessment in the classroom is a critical element in the cycle of teaching,learning and assessing.It influences teachers’ instruction and students’ learning dramatically.In recent years,the function of assessment in promoting students’ learning has been the focus.Teachers’ assessment literacy directly determines the degree and effect of the implementation of classroom assessment.For the assessment to adequately perform its potential in promoting students to learn,teachers need to possess a certain level of assessment literacy.Nowadays,scholarship on assessment in the classroom has increased and more and more articles have been published.However,these papers are either about the introduction of foreign classroom assessment theories or about propositions on how to conduct assessment.Very few studies have been carried out to examine how teachers enact assessment in the natural classroom setting.Specifically,which aspects have been done very well and thus need to be kept;and which facets need to be enhanced and refined,in order to improve students’ learning to a larger extent.Therefore,it’s essential to know more about frontline teachers’ assessment literacy by exploring their actual assessment in the classroom.To accomplish this objective,a qualitative case study method is adopted.Two junior high school EFL teachers are invited and involved in this study.The current study examines teachers’ classroom assessment literacy from three specific dimensions of practices-purposes of assessment,methods of assessment and criteria of assessment as well as their general conceptions about assessment.By analyzing the data from semi-structured interviews,classroom observations,and other relevant documents,the present study detects that the two teachers have a certain level of assessment literacy in several dimensions while need to enhance their assessment literacy in other areas.Specifically,the teachers have a certain level of assessment literacy with regard to their assessment purposes,methods and conceptions.The two teachers’ assessment purposes are primarily formative,such as acquire message about their students’ learning state,boost their capacity of using language,and check their strengths and weaknesses in learning and then give proper feedback.It’s clear that the two teachers care much about their students’ learning when they conduct assessment.Besides,they are able to select appropriate assessment methods on the basis of specific instructional targets and can adopt multiple assessment techniques to accomplish the pre-set teaching objectives.In light of assessment conceptions,the two teachers argue that assessment should focus on the key points of a specific lesson and assessment objectives should be contingent with instructional targets.However,their standards for assessing learners’ assignments are either absent or implicit,resulting in students’ aimlessness in the process of carrying out tasks.They need to improve their assessment literacy in terms of this point.Implications for more professional development are discussed and suggestions for future investigations are offered.