An Investigation Into Senior High School English Teachers’ Perception And Implementation Of Formative Assessment

Assessment has traditionally been an integral part of the education system.The General Senior High School Curriculum Standards(2017 Edition,Revised 2020)(Ministry of Education of the PRC,2020:87)clearly states that in the process of implementing the curriculum standards,attention should be paid to the diversity and rationality of assessment methods,and that formative assessment should be carried out effectively.The success of formative assessment depends on how teachers perceive and implement formative assessment activities(Yan,2021).Previous research has mainly explored practical approaches to formative assessment and focused on the university level,with research on high school English teachers’ perception and implementation of formative assessment lagging relatively behind.This dissertation therefore conducted a school-based study among English teachers and students of all three grades in a senior high school in Chaozhou,with the aim of investigating high school English teachers’ perception and classroom implementation of formative assessment.To achieve these aims,this study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative research paradigms and explored the research questions using questionnaires,classroom observation and interviews.First,the five aspects of formative assessment,namely purpose,agent,timing,tools,and strategies,were used to understand teachers’ perception.The study also examined the implementation of five formative assessment strategies: sharing learning objectives and success criteria,setting effective learning tasks to elicit information about students’ learning,providing feedback,activating students as learning resources for each other,and activating students as owners of their own learning.This study addresses the following two key questions:(1)How do the teachers in senior high school perceive formative assessment?(2)How do the teachers in senior high school implement formative assessment in classroom?The results of the study show that:(1)On high school English teachers’ perception of formative assessment: although high school English teachers have some knowledge of some elements of formative assessment,such as assessment agent and assessment timing,they do not have a thorough understanding of formative assessment purpose,tools and strategies,and lack a corresponding theoretical foundation;teachers generally recognise the importance of formative assessment,but their willingness to implement formative assessment is not strong.(2)On implementation of formative assessment strategies in high school English classrooms:teachers did best in setting effective tasks to elicit information about student learning;in the implementation of the other four formative assessment strategies,teachers self-reported a higher frequency of implementation than what the students experience in class.This study reveals the current situation of high school English teachers’ perception and implementation of formative assessment,in the hope of providing references for improving high school English teachers’ perception and implementation of formative assessment.