A study on Turkish EFL teachers’ beliefs about assessment and its different uses in teaching English

Okan Önalan, Ali Emre Karagül

Abstract


Teacher cognition research, which primarily focuses on identifying what teachers think, know and believe, is crucial to understanding teachers’ perceptional structure as it relates to their instructional practices. Thus, teachers’ cognition on assessment constitutes a significant research field not only in order to understand the foreign language teachers’ beliefs and practices, but also to account for their needs with regards to the assessment element. The current study categorizes the purposes of assessment in English as a Foreign Language classes under four main domains: (a) formative assessment, (b) summative assessment, (c) self-assessment of students, and (d) assessment to improve teachers’ instruction. Based on this framework, this study aims to find out EFL teachers’ beliefs about uses of assessment in teaching English and how their reported beliefs relate to their undergraduate departments and teaching experience. 70 Turkish EFL teachers who work at the Prep Class of a state university participated in the study. A 20-item 5-Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect the data. The results of this study reveal that the participants’ beliefs on assessment are strong on using assessment for formative purposes. Self-assessment procedures are given the next highest importance. Neither participant teachers’ undergraduate departments nor years of experience has an effect on participants’ assessment preferences. Besides the significant findings it has produced, the data collection tool of the current study is a significant contribution to the literature. 


Keywords


EFL teachers, beliefs, assessment, formative, summative, self-assessment, assessment for instruction

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References


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