Profiling Formative Assessment Culture in EFL Teacher Education Programs in the Middle East

Abstract

Although there is general agreement that there is a difference between assessment of learning (summative assessment), and assessment for learning (formative assessment), and that both forms of assessment have valuable roles to play, comparatively little attention is given to the latter in foreign language teacher education programs (FLTEPs) in the Middle East. The inclusion of formative assessment in foreign language teacher education curricula is meant to improve student teachers’ learning and that is why it generally counts towards the final grades. However, little formative classroom assessment, as compared to summative, is currently provided and as a result, student teachers are unable to benefit from the positive effect this would have on their learning. There is in practice a gulf between the decision-takers’ requirements that formative classroom assessment should be used and instructors’ distrust in this form of assessment. This research paper assumes that this view is unconsciously inherent in FLTEPs, which is the major channel for training and recruiting teachers of foreign languages at pre-university levels in many Arab states. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide a snapshot of the implicit/explicit formative classroom assessment culture in FLTEPs in the Middle East.