Assessment Literacy: Secondary School Teachers’ Conception of Formative Assessment

Abstract

Formative assessment has been proved to be one of the means of improving quantity and quality of students learning. However, it hasn’t been implemented effectively in classrooms may be because of misconceptions. The purpose of this research is to find out how English language teachers conceptualize formative assessment, and if their conceptions vary with level of their qualification. A total of 252 randomly selected secondary school English language teachers with different level of qualification filled in Teachers’ Conception of Formative Assessment (TCFA), questionnaire adapted from Teachers’ Conception of Assessment (TCOA III). They were also interviewed in groups of their qualification. The data from the questionnaire was analyzed running one-sample t-test and The One-way between groups ANOVA. The interview data was analyzed thematically. The result indicated that the participants’ conception is mixed and partially deviates from proper notion of formative assessment; It also revealed that the higher the level of qualification, the better conception of formative assessment. This implied poor conceptualization of the relation of teaching-learning and assessment that can impede its implementation.