Trang 1 School of Education and Professional Development An exploration of literacy in classroom assessment of English teachers at a higher educational institution in Vietnam Linh Dam -
INTRODUCTION
Rationale & Research Aims
For a long time, classroom assessment (CA) was overshadowed by the acknowledged far-reaching effects of large-scale testing, despite the undeniable significant role it plays in the learning process (Stiggins & Conklin, 1992) The same was witnessed in English language education where much attention had been paid to large-scale testing including national exams and popular tests such as IELTS, TOEFL (Sheehan & Munro, 2017) As a result, classroom assessment was left as a pretty under-researched area However, this situation seems to take a turn, when the backwash of high-stake language testing is further scrutinized and put down to assessment taking place in the classroom where the teacher acts as the main agent (Rea-Dickins, 2004) The emphasis is put on the teacher’s ability to successfully embed assessment into teaching practices to promote learning towards better educational outcomes (Sheehan & Munro, 2017)
While assessment literacy (AL) is integral for teachers as classroom assessors, it should not only be measured through their understanding of theoretical principles Previous quantitative studies (Hasselgreen, Carlsen & Helness, 2004; Crusan, Plakans & Gebril,
2016), whose findings confirmed lacking AL of English teachers through their scores in a questionnaire, have had their validity challenged by later qualitative studies (Rea-dickins,
2007) Specially, participants were found capable of demonstrating a variety of CA strategies despite not scoring high in those theory-based tests This implicates the pressing need for further studies that attempt to evaluate teachers’ AL through their demonstration of classroom practices However, their knowledge base of assessment is not the sole driving factor for the classroom practices of teachers (Xu & Brown, 2016) In fact, the formation of teacher CA practices is a complex process under the influence of various dynamics related to their past learning experiences, the broader historical & social context, the micro professional context, their professional learning and most importantly their own conceptions of assessment (Looney, Cumming, Kleij & Harris, 2017) This is complemented by dimensions found within their professional context which can hinder teachers from putting knowledge into practices (Barnard & Burn, 2012) Assessment literacy, therefore, should be looked at as teachers’ competence in CA practices at the interplay of these abovementioned factors (Xu & Brown, 2016) Following this direction, the current study hopes to contribute to
2 the limited body of research that endeavours to explore AL of language teachers through multidimensional lenses, rather than judging them as literate or not
In the context of Vietnam, there seems to be a lack of study that seeks to explore literacy in CA of language teachers The past studies by Vu (2017) and Pham, Nguyen & Nguyen (2019) did lay the focus on investigating CA practices of English teachers in various Vietnamese settings; however, neither of them took the same direction as this study Moreover, their contexts were set at primary and secondary schools where participants’ CA practices tend to be highly constrained by stakeholders, national curriculum and school- leaving exams As this study is set at higher educational context where teachers are given excessive autonomy at their hands, it would be captivating to see what the teachers bring into their CA practices to enact their own interpretation of AL
All the aforementioned reasons prove the pressing need for the researcher to carry out the current project which targets at exploring literacy in classroom assessment of English teachers at a higher educational institution in Vietnam To realize this ultimate ambition, the research aims at answering the following questions:
How do the teachers develop their classroom assessment practices?
What does assessment literacy mean to the teachers through their classroom assessment practices? What are the conceptions that underlie their decision- making?
How do the teachers perceive the impacts of their professional context on their classroom assessment practices?
Context of the study
Chosen for this research is a foreign language school belonging to a university in northern Vietnam With its main mission of fostering human resources highly competent in foreign languages for the northern mountainous region of the country, the school trains students who major in languages to become teachers or interpreters Thanks to its growing reputation, the school is welcoming more and more students in recent year However, this seems to put a strain on its limited number of teaching staff who have to deal with large-sized classes comprising of at least 35 students As a young unit with only 13 years of establishment, the school has yet to have its facilities fully invested to meet the standards of a well-catering educational environment Most students come from remote areas where economic and educational conditions are inferior to those in larger cities Partially because of this disadvantaged background, their proficiency is generally lower than the average of language-majoring students all over Vietnam To secure their graduation, they must attain at least level B2 (CEFR or equivalent) in certified exams such as IELTS, TOEFL, VSTEP As mature students admitted at the minimum age of 18, students in Vietnamese higher
3 education (HE) are supposed to be responsible for their own learning progress with less parental and stakeholder involvement (Nguyen, 2011)
In general, HE institutions in Vietnam have the rights to internalize their curriculum (Hayden & Lam, 2007) This is no exception to the target setting where its curriculum is designed and approved by the teachers within a specialized department with no interference from higher authorities Half of the main curriculum is devoted to proficiency courses to provide students with an adequate proficiency basis prior to the core major-related modules Each proficiency class is organized into two sessions per week, both of which last three and a haft hour One of them covers reading and writing, while the other is devoted to speaking and listening Each class lasts for 15 semester weeks during which students are assessed by their teacher After that, students have to sit finals where they are assessed by other teachers Results from their classroom assessment account for half of students’ final outcomes of a course These are represented by five grade components (each making up 10%) and generated from students’ performances throughout the semester The teachers have flexibility over the number of grades they can give, just needing to ensure that CA results feature adequate components The other haft is decided by the students’ performance in the final test whose format is always communicated to them at the beginning of the semester Although each course comes with a specific syllabus and textbook, teachers have much autonomy over their lessons plans, supplementary materials and content schedule depending on their class context In every class, the teacher is encouraged to make use of at least two classroom tests for each session during the whole semester; however, test content is completely up to the teacher Unlike those in primary or secondary education, teachers at HE in Vietnam are not put under pressure of students’ school-leaving exams or achievements (Chua & Duong, 2016)
The target population of the research are 40 teachers belonging to Department of English in the school Most of them are in the age range between 28 and 36 with at least 6 years of teaching experience There are three teachers younger than this age group with only 1-3 years in the job Several teachers have been inactive in teaching, because they are currently taking further education Except for the department head and some teachers who have teaching workload cutbacks due to their managerial roles in other departments within the school, the others have to take on at least 4 classes per semester both in proficiency subjects and major-related subjects such as linguistics, translation and teaching methodology Besides their main classroom duties, each teacher has to take over others such as student dealings, research output, curriculum revision, invigilation and assessment in the final exams
Overview of the study
The current study is presented through five chapters, each of which is briefed as follows:
Chapter 1 gives background to the general topic of classroom assessment & assessment literacy, and the rationale behind the study It also addresses clear research questions to answer and provides the readers with a better understanding of the subjects
Chapter 2 reviews key concepts and research findings underlying the topic in the light of relevant literature, thus enabling the researcher to justify the theoretical framework of literacy in classroom assessment this study bases on
Chapter 3 provides the justifications for the choice of phenomenology and interview for the research design It describes in details the process of building, piloting, implementing the interview protocol and how the generated data is treated as well as analysed Measures taken to ensure ethical conformation of the research are also included in this chapter
Chapter 4 presents the most significant findings to answer each research question Discussion of these findings is done hand-in-hand as they are presented
The final chapter summarizes the key findings of the study, which in turn leads to implications being made for improved assessment practices in the target context An acknowledgment of its limitations and a reflection by the researcher on the takeaways from this research are also found in this chapter
LITERATURE REVIEW
Classroom Assessment
If considered together in a spectrum, “classroom assessment” (CA) can be said to be at the other end of large-scale testing While the latter refers to tests administrated on an extensive basis and under tight control by different parties such as stakeholders, test organizers, and test designers (Seong, 2011), the former is confined within the classroom setting with a higher degree of flexibility and deals with teachers as assessment agents (Rea-Dickins, 2004) In that sense, an assessment administrated by the other parties in the classroom is not considered classroom assessment, because it is not prepared and carried out by the teacher (Mckay, 2006) Unlike large-scale testing which is organized in separation from instruction, CA cannot deviate from learning and teaching (Black & William, 1998) With that being said, a learning task can also be considered an assessment task through which the teacher determines the extent to which students grasp what is learned
According to Zhang & Burry-stock (2003), CA can be seen as a process that constitutes a number of stages namely designing and implementing assessment methods, forming judgment of students’ performance, interpreting and using assessment outcomes in instructional decisions, and communicating them to stakeholders (students, parents, and authorities) Besides these central processes, CA is also presented through various smaller activities including longitudinal compilation of students’ works, students’ involvement in self- assessment and peer-assessment, teacher feedback & grading, adjustment of assessment to specific learning goals as well as students’ needs, and subsequent modification of instruction (Davidson & Leung, 2005)
CA, therefore, can be both for formative and summative purposes (McKay, 2006) As a form of formative assessment, CA evidences are used to hold students accountable for their learning progress and help teachers amend their instruction towards better achievements (Stiggins & Conklin, 1992) When serving summative purposes, CA is used to measure students’ learning with its outcomes being reported against the curriculum criteria and communicated to parents and higher authorities (Black & William, 2005) In the target context of the study where summative assessment is conducted by other agents separately from CA,
CA is rather associated with formative purposes
As noted above, however, CA entails higher degree of flexibility and is largely dependent on what is actually practiced by the teacher in a particular context (McKay, 2006) Therefore, a teacher may not use CA for all of these stated purposes Instead, they can even take advantages of CA to prepare students for summative assessments (Cheng, Rogers &
Hu, 2014) and for prominent large-scale language tests such as IELTS, TOEFL (Sheehan & Munro, 2017)
While the presented definitions have demonstrated all essential parameters and processes involved in CA, they are not detailed to the point of outlining all CA strategies Therefore, these will be added into the theoretical basis of the study as follows:
Observation: This method can only turn into an assessment strategy when the teacher takes advantage of their stand-back time, circulating round the class to take note of aspects such as students’ performance in a task, their participation, and their progress towards the objectives (McKay, 2006) This kind of recording must also be done systematically and consistently throughout a semester
On-the-run assessment: This means a sudden intervention by the teacher into the classroom discourse (William, 2009) This may happen as the teacher observe students on the task and think that scaffolding should be given on the spot Scaffolding, according to Mckay (2006), encompasses questioning techniques, clarification request or any other action by the teacher to redirect students into the right track
Portfolio: This alternative assessment method refers to a compilation of students’ works over a period of time (Cheng & Fox, 2017) Portfolio should be used by the teacher to monitor students’ achievements from one work to another Based on the gathered evidence of their achievements, the teacher can discuss with students about their progress and motivate them to work harder (McKay, 2006) Students should be assessed on their performance in accordance with the criteria set on each piece of work and the whole portfolio
Classroom test: This method involves students working on a task or a number of tasks under time limit without teacher intervention (McKay, 2006) While deemed to be the most popular form of assessment, research suggests that CA should move away from using test considering the impact it may have on students’ mental well- being and its failure to measure students’ continuous progress (Huerta-Macıas,
Project: This method entails students working on a macro task or series of tasks that may take over a long period of time (J.D.Brown, 1998) While being an assessor of
7 students’ works, the teacher also acts as a facilitator who guides students stage-by- stage throughout the project.
Assessment Literacy
2.1 Tensions in the conceptualization of Assessment Literacy (AL)
Playing the dual roles as a teacher and an assessor in the classroom, each teacher is expected to possess the competence to conduct CA rightfully to promote teaching and learning towards better educational outcomes (Sheehan & Munro, 2017) Without adequate literacy, CA is subject to teachers’ intuition, thus leading them to form such improper judgements To take a salient example of this, the study by Berry, Sheehan & Munro (2019) found that the fussiness in their participants’ understanding of assessment prompted them to grade students’ performance by just guessing their levels and assigning a random number The consequence of this fuzzy understanding, according to Vogt & Tsagari (2014), may be a series of wrong decisions made following those random judgements
While AL is indispensible for teachers to do well as the main agent of CA, hardly has literacy in CA been properly defined (Willis, Adie & Klenowski, 2013) Malone (2011, online) defines this as “an understanding of the measurement basics related directly to classroom learning” While this definition manages to situate AL within the context of classroom, it has yet to clarify what “measurement basics” refer to Fulcher (2012, p.125) considers AL as comprising of the “abilities required to design, develop, maintain or evaluate [….] classroom based tests, familiarity with test processes” Considering this definition in relation to the presented literature, it can be said to only reflect teacher competence in one small component of CA which is classroom test Meanwhile, CA is a much broader area constituting a range of practices
On the other hand, Inbar-Lourie (2008) associates AL with a set of abilities by the teachers to:
Critically design and evaluate assessment methods and their congruence to the circumstances under which assessment happens
Decide the next doings based on the assessment outcomes
Compared to the two previous ones, this definition seems to embrace the most essential dimensions of CA as outlined in the literature However, its vagueness can still be sensed, as it has yet to denote the meaning of “doings” by the teachers
While the previously offered definitions have their own shortcomings, it should be acknowledged that AL seems to be much a complex concept to confine within a definition
(Willis et al, 2013) Is this an implication that AL should be conceptualized in a broader framework?
2.2 The Chosen Conceptualization of Literacy in Classroom Assessment
Perhaps, Xu & Brown (2016) are the only scholars that attempt to reconceptualise AL in a framework based on a thorough systematic review of over 100 studies under the same theme At the heart of the framework is the practical knowledge base presented into specific constructs that a teacher is expected to excel in
Figure 2.1 A conceptual framework of teacher assessment literacy (Xu & Brown, 2016)
Owing to this clear conceptualization, the knowledge base in this framework is chosen for the study However, the focus is put on only five components namely assessment purpose, content & methods, teacher feedback, grading, student-involved assessment, and interpretation & communication of assessment results Moreover, these five constructs are more obviously presented in the processes of CA as previously discussed Given the background of the participants in this study, the researcher assumes that their knowledge of the instructed discipline & teaching methodology and understanding of assessment ethics should not be put under scrutiny
In their article, Xu & Brown (2016) did provide specifications regarding what teachers are expected to know under each construct However, these are reconsidered and adapted in light of thorough literature research and context of this study Details are given as followed:
Knowledge of assessment purposes, content and method: Teachers need to identify the right purposes of their assessment and choose the suitable assessment task (Mckay, 2006) Content of the task must resemble the learned content
(Brookhart, 2011) and expected outcomes from the task should be reflected in the course objectives (Hill, 2012) Assessment content should also be adapted on account of students’ proficiency, interests, background, physics, affections (Hill 2017) and classroom conditions (McKay, 2006) Moreover, teachers need to thoroughly understand the principles of employing different assessment strategies including observation, portfolio, project, test, on-the-run assessment (J.D.Brown, 1998)
Knowledge of grading: It is necessary for every classroom teacher to understand the marking rubrics and assessment criteria thoroughly so as to assign appropriate weighing to different components in students’ performance and give rationale for their scoring decisions (Brookhart, 1999) Ideally, non-language use and non-achievement factors such as efforts and bias should not be considered (Stiggins, 1995) Grading in the classroom should also guarantee intra-rater reliability which emphasizes the teacher’s ability to be consistent their marks given under different conditions (H.D.Brown, 2003)
Knowledge of feedback: The teacher needs to ensure that the feedback is given on aspects of students’ performance (accuracy, fluency, coherence, vocabulary etc), not on their cognitive capabilities (Hill, 2017) The feedback should be accommodated to students’ needs whether being focused or unfocused It should cover strengths, weaknesses as well as recommendations for improvement (Hill, 2012)
Knowledge of student-involved assessment: As a decision-maker in class, the teacher needs to have a good grasp of benefits brought about by engaging students in peer-assessment as well as self-assessment, and how to implement these methods to maximize their potential (Chappuis & Stiggins, 2002) It is also vital that students be trained on how to assess themselves based on the given criteria, and not to give harsh comments that sound patronizing to their peers (Mckay, 2006)
Knowledge of assessment interpretation & communication: Based on the results of students, teachers are in charge of making interpretations about students’ needs, and any adjustment in terms of instructional approaches to help them achieve the learning objectives (Rea-dickins, 2001) In the current context of the study which deals with students at HE (with less parental and stakeholder involvement) and formative assessment, the focus will be on how the teachers communicate the assessment results to their students to hold them accountable for their learning progress It is important for teachers to make students understand the rationale behind their results, their results in relation to the goals of the curriculum, and further actions to take by students to achieve these goals (Brookhart, 1999)
Albeit the meticulous analysis of varying constructs involved in AL, any teacher may ponder over being considered an assessment illiterate (if their knowledge does not meet
10 those criteria) Whether the status of being assessment literate should be conferred to them by assessment experts or should be proudly be claimed by the teachers themselves is a question left unanswered (Sheehan & Munro, 2017)
On the other hand, Sheehan & Munro (2017) posits that measurement of teachers’ literacy should be put within how they actually demonstrate their knowledge through CA practices Most studies conducted into this area have come out with quite consistent findings which affirm the lacking AL of English teachers (Hasselgreen et al, 2004; Crusan et al, 2016; Fulcher 2012) However, one common limitation among all of them is the use of quantitative instruments which generate very superficial findings Specifically, lacking AL of the majority of participants is confirmed based solely on their checking of theoretical statements in a questionnaire distributed by convenience In later qualitative-oriented studies, Berry et al
(2019) and Rea-dickins (2007) challenge the validity of these quantitative studies by pointing the wide range of assessment activities that their participants manage to deploy (despite not scoring high in such a survey) These aforementioned points provide the researcher with the basis to investigate the participants’ literacy in CA through their actual practices with the use of qualitative measures.
Development of Classroom Assessment Practices
According to Smith, Hill, Cowie, & Gilmore (2014), teachers’ current practices can be a reflection of the experiences with which they were familiarized as schoolchildren In assessment literature, this has been corresponded by Vogt & Tsagari (2014)’s study which reported their participants’ practices being reminiscent of the way they were tested at school
In contrast, Sheehan & Munro (2019) found that the majority of participants in their study develop their CA practices by rejecting the traditional paper-based assessment formerly practiced by their teachers Instead of falling into the old path characterized by grammatical exercises and test, they were eager to create an interactive assessment environment that is both motivating and pressure-free for students
In discussing the influence of prior learning background on the teachers’ assessment practices, it is worth bringing in their experiences during pre-service education The study by Graham (2005) found that many of its participants’ current assessment practices were inspired by those modeled by their university professors and mentors These well- demonstrated practices can more or less decide whether teacher students replicate or break away the obsolete practices they experienced at school However, teacher trainers’ modeling alone is not adequate It is still essential for pre-service teacher education programs to include components related to assessment training (Deluca, 2012) Sadly, many of them have yet to realize this (Popham, 2011) Pre-service assessment training tend to be
11 completely either absent or confined to just one module which only introduces students to very basic concepts involved in this complex area
3.2 Historical & Social Context and Professional Context
Rather than just measuring the gap in teachers’ knowledge, research into AL should seek to understand how practices have arisen as they have (Fulcher, 2012) In fact, classroom work of teachers develops alongside their mediation within the historical & social context, and the professional context in which they function (Scarino, 2013; Davies, 2008)
To be more specific, the broader historical and social context denotes any transformation happening in the past and present society that influences the way in which assessment is conducted (Looney et al, 2017) However, it is the professional context that tends to exert more explicit influences on classroom work of a teacher The most influential factors, as recognized by Deluca, Coombs, MacGregor & Rasooli (2019), are those at micro-level such as curriculum, student background, student interactions and behaviours, student diversity, and class setting Meanwhile, Mockler (2011) reckons that macro-level factors including institutional organization, assessment system and collegial connections can also contribute to shape teacher practices If any change associated with the abovementioned factors happens, that CA practices might be reframed in adaptation to it (Looney et al, 2017)
Teacher AL would not plateau, but keep advancing as long as professional learning takes place (Xu & Brown, 2016) This enables teachers to constantly revise their own set of assessment philosophies and make better compromise out of the tensions arising from their context
As teachers move along their career, they should endeavour to better their practices through ceaseless reflection of prior assessment experiences (Deluca, 2012) This involves looking back critically on the past practices and planning as well as implementing changes to enhance their efficacy Without reflection, teachers’ actions would be driven by impulse, and eventually fall into the old path In assessment literature, hardly has there been any study that sheds light on the role of reflective practice in teacher CA development The one by Sheehan & Munro (2019) did touch upon this aspect through the recounts of participants who enhanced their ability to design assessment tasks by making and learning from mistakes However, what they emphasize is not the importance of reflective practice, but the not-so-straightforward pattern in the participants’ development of CA practices
In-service participation in assessment training is another way through which teachers can enhance their AL (Xu & Brown, 2016) The training content delivered by field experts can even empower teachers to change their cognitions (Levy-Vered & Nasser-Abu Alhija,
2015) This notion has also been affirmed by such studies as the one by Sheehan & Munro
(2019) in which participants described their training program as an eye-opening experience and the force for them to innovate their practices Nonetheless, there are a number of studies that come out with opposite findings For instance, informants in Brown & Bailey (2008)’s study found their engagement in an assessment course unhelpful, as its heavy theory-based approach fails to provide them with practical knowledge to apply in classroom environment The underlying truth, according to Malone (2013), is rooted in the mismatch in the actual training needs of teachers and those anticipated by experts While teachers prefer practical elements, training professionals reckon that an understanding of technical basics is integral Apart from practicality, what is apparently lacking in the content of many programs is the so-called localization element (Vogt & Tsagari, 2014) That means assessment training should be situated within the teachers’ own context, because the particular contextual tensions they are caught in may become the hindrance for them to put knowledge into practices (Xu & Brown, 2016).
Assessment Conceptions & Impacts of Professional Context
Another shortcoming of these quantitative-oriented studies lies in their failure to take into account the set of conceptions that govern the classroom decisions made by teachers Based on the framework of Xu & Brown (2016), it can be seen that conceptions denote two dimensions namely cognitive and affective According to Thompson (1992), cognitive dimension is mostly associated with constructs including beliefs, thinking, opinions, impression, bias, preferences, expectations and mental drawings Meanwhile, the affective dimension represents negative or positive attitudes that teachers form as a result of their prior experiences with assessment (Xu & Brown, 2016) Both of these dimensions are framed by the broader beliefs they hold towards assessment, teaching and learning (G.T.L.Brown, 2008) According to Looney et al (2017), these conceptions act as a filter through which they operationalize, modify or even reject a certain practice For example, Sheehan & Munro (2019) found in their study that student-involved assessment was used more frequently and properly by participants who held stronger beliefs to the efficacy of this method and vice-versa
Research has pointed out that teachers’ assessment practices can contradict existent theoretical principles For instance, scoring practices of classroom teachers are found to be influenced by non-language use factors (Yin, 2010) and non-achievement factors such as bias, students’ efforts and attitudes (McMillan, Myran & Workman, 2002), even though this is supposed to deviate from basics for grading as abovementioned The rationale behind this all puts down to the teachers’ own set of philosophies, personal preferences and expectations
13 for students’ performances that may render these scoring principles inapplicable (Teasdale & Leung, 2000)
Despite some firm beliefs that teachers hold towards CA, their ability to translate those into actual decision-making is primarily subject to the context where they work (Barnard & Burns, 2012) While professional context contributes to promote teachers’ practices, it also entails dimensions that may hinder teachers from making decisions in line with their inner philosophical framework
For instance, Xu & Liu (2009) found that varying impositions from stakeholders, school policy (i.e students’ achievements, school-leaving exams, teacher standards), institutional organization, and curriculum may act as barriers for the teachers to translate their assessment ideals into classroom practices On the other hand, participants in Yin (2010)’s study perceived their CA practices as impacted by parameters directly concerning classroom context including large class size, limited class schedule and classroom conditions
Taylor (2009) identified lack of formal assessment training as another hindrance for teachers to further advance their AL While the importance of professional development has been widely acknowledged, there is apparently a lack of focus on assessment in these provided in-service training programs
After their study, Xu & Liu (2009) apparently made the call for a shift of research methodology that look at the unique and inner nature of teacher assessment Therefore, the current study can be considered as a response to that call which hopefully can contribute to the limited body of research that follows this direction Instead of judging whether the participants are assessment literate or illiterate, it seeks to understand their literacy in CA practices as situated into the broader social & historical context, their micro professional context, their schooling experiences, their professional learning, the conceptions guiding their practice, and the constraints imposed by their professional context
METHODOLOGY
Methodological Approach
According to Newsome (2016), phenomenology lays emphasis on the how humans describe and interpret their experiences As a result, it is suitable to those studies that seek to investigate its participants on invisible aspects such as their attitudes, feelings, beliefs and perceptions (Denscombe, 2017) The focus of this research was placed on the teachers’ description of their CA practices, the conceptions underlying their practices and their perceptions of how professional context impacts their practices Such a congruence of phenomenological approach to the research aims provided the researcher with the basis to choose it as the central methodology for the research design.
Research Method
The current study took a qualitative approach to the collection and analysis of data with interviews being used as the primary method By using interviews, the researcher is able to dig deeper into aspects that are harder to uncover through quantitative instruments including participants’ beliefs, feelings, experiences and the underpinnings of their actions (Mears,
2017) These were in line with the aims of the current study which targets at the teachers’ experiences with assessment, the conceptions underlying their practices and their perceptions of the impact from their professional context In specific, semi-structured interviews were put to use which involved further probing into the participants’ response to understand the underpinnings of their actions (Robson & McCartan, 2016) This enabled
15 richer data being collected to help the researcher back up her interpretations Most of the questions were put in open-ended form which allowed the researcher to generate unanticipated answers and further probe into the participants’ response (Lodico, Spaulding & Voegtle, 2006) The probes were either pre-scripted with references to the identified literature or spontaneously posed in correspondence to the participants’ response (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2018)
The researcher admitted the point that combining classroom observations together with interviews would enable comparisons to be made out of the teachers’ actual practices in relevance to their description, thus enhancing the trustworthiness of the data However, the researcher’s plans for conducting observations were hindered, due the unprecedented circumstance this year With cross-border travel restrictions in place, access to the target setting was made impossible Following the guidelines of Vietnamese government in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak, all classrooms in this setting were moved online Consequently, several CA practices often implemented in a normal face-to-face classroom may not be observed on a virtual basis After thorough consideration, in-depth interview was deemed to the most feasible method.
Quality
Data reliability and validity are the keys through which a study secures its trustworthiness (Coe, 2017) Data reliability, which is about the consistency of data generated under different conditions, is further complicated in any research that employs interview (Denscombe, 2017) Participants’ ideas tend to be impacted by the temporary context of the interview However, this was mitigated by later double-checking the response with the participants or comparing the viewpoints of participants to look for common themes (Denscombe, 2017)
In qualitative research, validity is shown through the resonance of findings to actual discourses of the partaking group and those within related literature (Given, 2008) Upon awareness of this, the study placed interpretive & descriptive validity, theoretical validity (Maxwell, 1992), and content validity (Perọkylọ, 2017) at its essence While descriptive validity was addressed via the accurate presentation of data without any distortion or fabrication, interpretative validity was achieved through rational inference of participants’ words in relevance to literature and detailed context description (Maxwell, 1992) As a mean to form theoretical validity of data, this current study used theories grounded from the past studies as the basis for its research design and data analysis Finally, content validity was demonstrated through the building of interview questions that covered all the concepts or issues identified in the literature review (Perọkylọ, 2017)
Several other measures were taken to further validate the protocol of the study After the questions being built, they were sent to the supervisor for feedback This resulted in the wording of several questions being edited for enhanced congruence with the characteristics of semi-structured interviews The questions were then piloted with those teachers who are currently taking further education abroad, because they shared the same background with the participants (Gay, Mills, Airisian, 2012) Following the pilots, the researcher came to a realization that prompts should be added to several questions to help the researcher clarify their meaning (Cohen et al, 2018) The pilots also presented the researcher with opportunities to enhance her interviewing skills to generate more enriched response from the participants (Silverman, 2017)
Despite having been away from the investigated context for further education, the researcher still acknowledged that her position as an insider did bring about certain merits With a capture of the actual happenings in the target context, the researcher was able to build sounder interpretations with the collected data Familiarity with the participants not only provided the researcher with the ease of access, but also facilitated the interview progress (Creswell & Creswell, 2018) A certain level of comfortableness between both parties would make the participants more open about their response, thus contributing to the richness of data On the other hand, this close researcher-informant relationship did pose a question to the honesty of the data (Denscombe, 2017) Participants were likely to adjust their response to the satisfaction of the researcher Yet, this was tackled by a clear address of research purposes and expectations for truthful correspondence by the researcher prior to the interviews.
Sampling
The current study employed non-probability sampling in choosing its informants Therefore, the researcher has the rights to exert criteria on deciding who will partake in the study (Denscombe, 2017) One of the greatest trades–off of using this sampling method is that the data gathered would be inefficient for the conductor to make any generalizations out of the target population (Tansey, 2007) However, it is worth noting that the current small- scale qualitative study attempted to investigate the participants in terms of their experiences, practices and conceptions on much personal and specific level Therefore, the use of non- probability sampling was plausible enough
As the study also looked at the transformation of teachers’ CA practices, those teachers who have longer teaching experiences (at least 6 years) were more preferable for the study Those with less teaching experiences (1-3 years) were not considered for this study, as they may not be able to give insightful response with such short career duration Those who are currently taking further education or only take over very few classes as partial
17 fulfilment of the administration requirements were also not considered, since their being in the classroom had been inconsistent With that being said, purposive sampling approach was taken to sort out appropriate participants who can give insightful response to help the researcher meet the objectives of the study (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017) 10 chosen participants were those who had been consistently in the classroom, thus being able to give in-depth updated reflection of their CA development The choice of participants reflected the main range of ages and teaching experiences in the target context in compliance with the representativeness ideal of non-probability sampling (Denscombe, 2017) Hopefully, the chosen participants with varying backgrounds would reveal a diversity of perspectives and allowed the researcher to draw interesting comparisons based on which.
Research Conduct
The current project lasted for three months with the main phases being literature building, research design, data collection, data analysis and writing up Intensive reading, which was fundamental to the enhancement of the researcher’s knowledge base and research competence, was done throughout the whole period Regarding data collection process, all the interviews took place on one-off basis through Zoom at the participants’ convenience, since the researcher was not based in Vietnam The language used for the interviews was Vietnamese, so that both sides found it easier to convey their meaning As the collected data was supposed to be sufficient for the researcher to make a thorough analysis, each interview was expected to last for over 1 hour All of the interviews were recorded through build-in functions of Zoom upon the participants’ approval Their response was then transcribed and translated into English to prepare for analysis process.
Ethical Considerations
It is very imperative that the serious considerations be taken to guarantee adherent ethical conformation in the conduct of an educational research (Howes & Moes, 1999) For those studies that involve human participation, research ethics are primarily shown through respecting the participants and their autonomy (Cohen et al, 2018) On this premise, the researcher followed the principles devised by Denscombe (2017) including the protection of participants’ interest, their involvement on a voluntary informed basis, and honesty in participant confrontations For the sake of interest protection, every disclosure by the participants including their personal information and interview data were confidentially stored and not revealed to any third party for irrelevant purposes (Newsome, 2016) Whenever mentioned in the study, their identities were put under pseudonyms to prevent the participants from any potential mental and physical infringement With regards to voluntary basis, participants were invited into the study upon their approval and could withdraw at any point without further coercion from the researcher (Denscombe, 2017) Informed consent is
18 the key through which the researcher gains the trust of the potential participants (Hammersley & Traianou, 2012) Therefore, they were thoroughly explained about the research purposes and their feasible contribution at initial contact The researcher then spared few days for them to consider their partaking decision Upon agreeing to join the study, the participants were double-checked on their understanding of the study’s intentions and signed the consent forms provided by the researcher To exert the honesty notion during the data collection process, the researcher maintained a subjective attitude, only posing questions to guide the interviews without manipulating or obstructing the participants (Lodico et al, 2006).
Analysis Process
The current study took thematic approach to its analysis process for its prevalence in analysis of qualitative data (Braun & Clarke, 2006) and appropriateness for those researchers with less experience (Robson & McCartan, 2016) According to Punch & Oancea, (2014), there are two basic processes involved in thematic analysis namely coding and theming Coding entails the researcher picking up chunks of data and aggregating them into a category (Creswell, 2013) This is not a straightforward process, as some codes are quite subtle and can only be captured through thick description of data (Ryan & Bernard,
2003) After a number of codes are identified, a theme is formed as a broader unit of data that represents these sub-categories of codes (Creswell, 2013) Thematic analysis can be conducted in a deductive way where existing themes and sub-themes are brought in to code the data or in an inductive way where these develop out of the data itself (Braun & Clarke,
For any study that addresses very clear aims from the beginning, major themes are formed in conformation to the research questions (Bell & Waters, 2018) Those codes underlying each major theme come from either the chosen framework for the study or issues identified in the literature In qualitative-oriented social research, however, it is not uncommon to see codes that surprisingly emerge from the data in addition to the anticipated codes from the literature review (Creswell & Creswell, 2018) Instead of fitting the data to a predetermined coding frame, the researcher also considered these surprising codes Such a combination of both deductive and inductive approaches enabled the researcher to not only link the data with existent literature, but also explore unpredictable findings brought about by context difference
Based on the research questions of this study, the three major themes were identified as development of CA practices, assessment literacy through CA practices & underlying conceptions, and impacts of professional context Under each theme were series of sub- themes set following the literature Data chunks were labelled to a suitable sub-theme based
19 on its description in the literature review (Gay et al, 2012) For instance, coded for the sub- theme related to professional context were data bits representing curriculum, student behaviours, student diversity etc If the data review came out with any unit not falling into any of these categories, it would be named as an unexpected code and interpreted alongside with these expected codes under the same theme As for the second question, chunks of data coded for conceptions were presented as woven into those coded for practices in each of the five constructs This was because the participants tended to reveal their conceptions (beliefs, thinking, opinions ) simultaneously through the description of their practices
FINDINGS & DISCUSSION
Development of the teachers’ classroom assessment practices
When asked to talk the researcher through their assessment experiences as schoolchildren, all the teachers associated these with monotonous paper-based grammatical exercises and tests Looking back at these practices, all teachers believed that these failed to develop the real-life competences of a language learner:
“We had different kinds of test such as 15-minute test, 45-minute test, and end-of- term test All of them featured purely grammatical paper-based exercises […] I think this way of assessment only tested our memorization of grammatical rules and prepared us for our school-leaving exams It could not assess the skills required for target language use” (IT10)
The teachers then shared about their current CA practices which are communicative-oriented and totally different from how they were assessed at school Even when they have to include grammar in any activity, they would do it in a different way:
“Seeing many students with accuracy problems, I still include grammar in my class, but grammatical knowledge is embedded into communicative activities to help enhancing their communicational accuracy I would not let them do paper- based exercises like gap-filling or multiple-choice as we used to” (IT9)
It appears that the teachers’ current CA practices do not resemble the kinds of assessment they experienced at school, which seemed contradictory with what was found by Vogt & Tsagari (2014) that their participants’ assessment practices bear reminiscence to the ways they were assessed as schoolchildren
Contrary to the point made by Graham (2005) that teachers tend to replicate the practices introduced to them during pre-service education, the teachers in this study believed this only happened at the initial stages of their career Most of them ascribed this to the absence of modules focusing on assessment in their teacher preparation programs, which has been also asserted by Popham (2011):
“As a fresh graduate with lack of experiences, I drew much on the assessment experiences that my professors used during pre-service education Testing and
21 assessment was also not covered in the program at that time, so my mind always went blank having to create an assessment activity As I became more experienced and knowledgeable, I realized that these were no longer suitable and stopped applying them” (IT2)
Through these abovementioned findings, it can be concluded that the teachers’ current CA practices were not under much influence by their experiences both as schoolchildren and pre-service teachers
As participants talked about how much their CA practices have become, several of them mentioned the transformation in ELT in Vietnam as the driving force for the formation of their practices This was the most apparent through the words of IT3:
“Communicative Language Teaching had found its way into Vietnam long time ago During my pre-service education, I was already assessed by skill-based approach When I started my career, our MOET 1 propagandized CEFR and started calling for competence-based assessment How come you can replicate the old practices driven by Grammar Translation while there was such a big change happening”
Based on this description, it seems that the development in CA practices of participants in this study took a different way compared to that of participants in Sheehan & Munro (2019)’s study Instead of rejecting the old practices and developing the new ones by themselves, the teachers perceived their CA development as primarily driven by the historical change in their ELT setting which enabled them to break from the grammar-based assessment experiences they had at school
As the participants recalled the development in their CA practices, the boom of technology was presented quite lot in their words Many of them supposed they could not stand back when the use of technological tools in ELT has become so pervasive While confessing that their initial use of technology was to follow this trend, these teachers now acknowledged the remarkable role of these tools in helping them extend their practices:
“I should call it another classroom, but in digital form Thanks to this, I can constantly monitor my students’ learning through their personal folders, something I can’t do in the actual classroom due to short class schedule […] Using technology also allows me to change many assessment activities in writing sessions For instance, I can ask them to design a poster or a video with visual or sound effects, instead of traditionally writing on a white paper” (IT5)
1 Ministry of Education and Training
The study was conducted under an unprecedented social circumstance which caused classes in the target setting to be moved online, so it came as no surprise to the researcher that this detail was brought in many teachers Previously, technology was just used in assistance for their assessment activities in a normal classroom However, this sudden change in class context has challenged the teachers to use technology solely for CA implementation:
“COVID-19 is a situation that no one would have expected For us who were familiar with the traditional classroom, the thought of totally online classes was quite scary initially I was struggling in the first few online sessions, having to adapt all the activities to be administrated online” (IT9) However, this teacher then shared she had become much more confident and no longer worried about having to conduct CA online
In essence, these presented findings show that CA practices of teachers are subject to changes brought about by the social and historical context they find themselves in These are the changes that explicitly impact education in general and ELT in particular
Meaning of assessment literacy in the teachers’ CA practices and the conceptions
In line with what was found by Cheng et al (2014), many participants in this study reported their CA being affected by students’ summative assessment which accounts for 50% of their final outcomes in this context Some participants were honest about the fact that their CA tasks were rather oriented to the content of summative assessment:
“As you know, our type of speaking tasks in the final exam is either conversation or group discussion Therefore, I tend to pitch oral tasks in my class to these two types” (IT7)
To account for her action, IT7 cited previous experiences when her students would do many other activities in the class and ended up performing poorly in the final test When questioned about their performance, they seemed to blame the teacher for letting them do too many tasks different from those in the exam Making the same decision, IT9 put this down to the practical mind-set of the students:
“Our students are quite very practical They come to school mainly for grades I can’t count how many times I gave them an interesting task and all what they did was asking if it was in the test”
For some other teachers, while supposing CA should not be driven by the final exam, they still devoted a small proportion of CA towards final exam preparation:
“I still spend around 25% of CA for finale preparation This is necessary to get student familiarized with those exam task items which are not covered in class” (IT8)
While not devoting their whole CA content to prepare students for high-stake test such as IELTS and TOEFL as participants in Sheehan & Munro (2017)’s study, some teachers admitted their CA did sometimes feature the content of these prominent exams like They believed that this was necessary, because students had to take these exams for their graduation IT6 shared that she even built “her own syllabus”:
“Whenever I look at the syllabus of a subject, I feel like the student needn’t achieve all of these goals Therefore, I only pick out the suitable ones primarily to help them perform well in the finales, and then achieve band 7 in IELTS, which is the basic pre-requisite for language-majoring students nowadays”
This participant, together with several others, then talked about how they manage to incorporate the past actual tests in these exams in their CA content However, they had to compromise that within the content detailed in each syllabus:
“Of course, I must be mindful about the topics covered in the syllabus If the topic of that session is “technology”, I will have to choose an actual test covering that topic” (IT4)
On the other hand, some teachers are opposite to CA practices being impacted by summative assessment and high-stake tests, clearly expressing their general views toward assessment in the language classroom:
“I think the main goals of CA should be to help students achieve the goal as outlined in the curriculum and develop the core competences that enable them to use the language to communicate With these at their disposal, they can do well in any exam” (IT10)
“What is in the finals is already covered in CA content As long as students do well in their class, they don’t have to worry about the finals.” (IT3)
When asked about how they often plan assessment content to be implemented, most teachers agreed that this must be done with great consideration regarding congruence of task content with the course’s objectives, student levels, interests, background, and classroom conditions All of these have already identified by Hill (2017) in the literature However, the first two factors seemed to be valued the most:
“I’ve got to carefully check whether a task requirement is too easy or difficult in relation to the course outcomes Either way will not help students achieve their targets” (IT8)
“You know that our students are generally at quite low levels, right? That’s why I always have to simplify task requirements However, there will be students whose
27 levels are beyond that range Then I have to give them more requirements to challenge them” (IT5)
However, there were teachers who opined that task content should not be adapted to preserve its originality If they thought the task content was unsuitable, they would rather not choose it for their class:
“When adapting, you tend to bring your personal issues in the task Sometimes, changing just a word can make the task nature different Available materials are designed with our students in mind, so they are already suitable in every aspect” (IT6)
In terms of assessment methods, the teachers’ decision-making also divided on the use of alternative assessment and test in the classroom Classroom test was the most popular method chosen by many teachers Though they beware that using test may trigger pressure on the students, they think that using test is a way of holding students responsible for their learning:
“I think test is the fairest and most reliable assessment method I always question the reliability of using alternatives like a project Because this may last for a long time, the teachers have the tendency to mark students’ on their continuous effort without caring about its quality (IT9)
Impact of professional context as perceived by the teachers
Unlike the participant in Xu & Liu (2009)’ study, the teachers in the current study did not find impositions from stakeholders, school policy or curriculum impacting their practices, which can be explained by the higher education context where they work that gives them substantial flexibility over their CA Instead, the impacting factors most perceived through their response were related to classroom context including class schedule and class size, which are also found by Yin (2010):
“I always come to class with a good intention of implementing efficient assessment activities for learning However, I end up skipping or cutting short many of them I feel bad as this affects the outcomes of the lesson, but I have no choice” (IT4)
“Having so many students to assess, I can’t be sure that my judgement is always right for each of the students” (IT8)
When the class entails parameters that may hinder the teachers to fully translate knowledge into practices, many of them resort to what was pinpointed by Xu & Brown (2006) as a
35 compromise made out of this tension into decision-making IT2 showed her disappointment at having to compromise her actions, even though that was the best she could do:
“I know that feedback can be ultimately effective if individualized However, I cannot give individual feedback to every student when I have 35 or 45 of them Thus, I can only do whole-class feedback and point out most common errors I resolve this by using Google classroom to give individual feedback, but I can’t do that weekly, just ensuring that they each receive individual feedback at least one time during the whole semester”
In this educational setting where facilities have yet to be fully deployed, it is not surprising to find that the teachers saw classroom conditions as another major factor constraining their CA practices The specific problem is identified as unstable internet connection, which takes a further toll when technology is increasingly being used in aid of their implementation of CA practices IT9 showed her disappointment at this issue through an experience in class:
“There was one time I wanted to show the students a video of their friends’ performance and asked them to give peer feedback However, the video did not come out due to poor wifi connection I had no choice but to skip this activity”
Heavy workloads, which were compiled by both the teachers’ main classroom work and other responsibilities they have to assume as teaching staff in this context, was commonly cited as another substantial factor that takes them away from their classroom duties:
“Workloads from classroom only already give me a hard time because we each have at least 4 classes per semester However, I have other duties to take on such as doing research and managing students There are times during the academic year when I am under constant stretch to meet the deadlines Then, my devotion to classroom work is affected and I resort to doing things such as feedback and grading on very superficial levels” (IT4)
On the other hand, there were some teachers who would not think of this as a constraint, assuming that teachers should not let themselves be dragged away from their main classroom work:
“Prior to the start of every semester, I always determine the amount of work spent for my classroom practices and never let other duties get in the way It all boils down to how you organize your time” (IT6)
When asked about their perceptions of assessment knowledge for teachers, all of them agreed that this was indispensible for their role in the classroom and desired to enhance their assessment competence through formal learning Surprisingly, lack of formal assessment training was not seen as a problem as by Taylor (2009) This was confirmed through the recounts of many participants about several professional development programs that encompassed assessment they got to attend every academic year However, many teachers
36 believed that what was apparently absent from these programs was training content specially localized to their own context as emphasized by Vogt & Tsagari (2014):
“The experts just came and demonstrated something they consider useful without knowing whether we can benefit from it I prefer training where they literally “hold my hands” and show me the way something is applied to our current context with unique features” (IT7)
Summary: From this question, it can be seen that participants do not perceive impositions from higher authorities or curriculum as impacting their CA practices However, the most penetrating impacts are perceived as triggered by dimensions of their class context Heavy workload, resulting from the teachers having to take on multiple duties simultaneously, is cited as another factor that drags teachers away from their CA Finally, the teachers all express their wish for an assessment training program specifically tailored to their own context, which is apparently absent
CONCLUSION
Findings & Implications
Findings from this study have shown that the participants’ development of CA practices is a complex process under the influence of the broader social and historical context, which is significantly featured through the transformation of ELT pedagogical direction in Vietnam and the use of technology in CA driven by the unprecedented circumstance However, their
CA is primarily shaped by the curriculum grounded in their professional context Apart from formal learning, the participants also foster their assessment competence through informal learning processes such as reflective practice and knowledge transfer Through their description, it seems that the participants have quite varying and unique ways of enacting the concept of AL in their practices Though many of these are quite deviant from the principles of AL, they are driven by the teachers’ own set of conceptions rooting from both their own philosophies and prior on-the-job experiences Finally, the most substantial impacts of professional context on their CA practices are perceived by the teachers as brought about by class context constraints, and heavy workloads The teachers also express their wishes for an assessment training program tailored to their own professional context, which has apparently been absent
While AL in CA practices in this study is understood as being influenced by varying factors concerning with the participants’ macro & micro context and their own conceptions, it is not the researcher’s intention to advocate the immutability of teacher AL As abovementioned, constant learning (in whatever form) would enable teachers to make better compromise out of their conceptions and contextual tensions to advance their AL From the findings of this study, it is recommended that teachers should restlessly strive to take advantages of rising technology tools in compensation for CA practices impacted by limitations in classroom context and unprecedented social circumstances Another implication would be that professional training should account for both practicality and localization elements, so that teachers find the knowledge helpful particularly in their own classroom setting As teachers’ CA practices are always driven by their conceptions, it is necessary that training courses tap into their mentality Once successfully executed, this would bring about overnight effects since innovated minds translate into innovated actions
While no imposition from authorities or institutional policy is perceived as an impact by the teachers in this context, school administration is advised to consider further investing facility- wise to help enhancing the efficacy of CA With reference to the findings, it appears such primary investment should be into a high-quality internet network to cater to the increasing demand of using technology in CA by the teacher Looking further, an all-encompassing system that assists teachers in CA administration is also worth investing This would save teachers’ resources usually wasted on the manual conduct of CA amidst such heavy workloads, thus allowing them to focus on bettering practices.
Limitations & Recommendations
One obvious limitation to the study is its use of interview as the sole method for data collection As the findings are only generated through the description of participants, issues related data reliability and validity are acknowledged Therefore, further research should be conducted with the use of multiple methods to enhance the quality of the data Another shortcoming that needs addressing is the small scale and qualitative-oriented nature of the research which is restricted to a very specific context with unique system and features Consequently, not all implications made out of its results apply to other context If more opportunities arise in the future, the researcher will hopefully be able to conduct more high- quality research in light of the realized limitations
There has been quite limited research that seeks to explore teacher assessment literacy at the intersection of various dynamics including teachers’ background, context and conceptions Apart from building on the limitations of this study, further studies into this direction should make use of other protocols such as think-aloud to inquire cognitive processes going on in teachers’ mind when they conduct practices such as grading Alternatively, teachers can be let to watch excerpts of their practices in actual classroom and explain the driving cognitions behind their actions Longitudinal case studies should also be conducted to investigate how teachers develop the conceptions that govern their practices, ideally from their school to pre-service education and in-service learning Moreover, one intriguing finding coming out from this study touches on a quite new aspect of assessment, which is the application of technology into CA Therefore, it is highly recommended that future research extend this into such orientations as conceptualizing teacher AL on digital basis This would prove even more worthwhile under the current circumstance where virtual learning has turned a norm.
Personal & Professional Growth
Working on the research has, in many ways, been an awe-inspiring experience for me Personally, I see myself changing my outlook on the actions taken by others Instead of making right-or-wrong judgment, I would initially attempt to understand the driving force
39 behind them It also led me to broadly look at each human being at the interplay of their background, the socio-cultural context and the professional context in which they function More importantly, no longer do I embrace the research phobia that was triggered by the experience in my bachelor study I grow more confident of my capability and firmly believe that I can embark on this academic path with nonstop determination, appropriate directions and unwavering support from my network
Professionally, my research competence has been remarkably enhanced Back then in my bachelor degree, I was used to doing research with complete instincts and cognitions Now that I have completed this research, it dawned on me that any research must be conducted in compliance with appropriate philosophies, methodologies, principles and procedures Intensive study on the topic of classroom assessment and assessment literacy has caused me to question the decisions I have made in my class However, many of those were put down to my lack of experience as a fresh bachelor struggling to flap in a tertiary context With the takeaways from this MA course and ever-growing desire for lifelong learning, I will always strive to better my practices as I become more experienced in the field
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