Case Studies of Formative Assessment Practices: Grade four English Language Teachers' practice, understanding and experiences.
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Studies have shown that the practice of formative assessment is a challenge to many \nteachers. Teachers are either entrenched in their old habits and methods of \nassessment or they have not been adequately trained to apply formative assessment \nin the instructional process. It has been argued that formative assessment can raise \nstandards and improve learners’ poor performances (Black and William, 2001). This \nstudy explored Grade 4 English language teachers’ practice of formative \nassessment: their understanding, practice and experiences within the micro-level of \nclassroom instruction. Within the case study method data were collected through \nobservations, interviews and document analyses. Bernstein’s (1996) concept of \nframing of evaluative criteria as operationalized by Morais (2002) framed the \nanalyses of data in the study. The results showed that: three out of the four teachers \nwere not conversant with formative assessment; they lacked the skills in effectively \nusing evaluative criteria in the instructional context. The teachers’ conceptualization \nof transmission of evaluative criteria corresponded to weak framing. Thus their \ncontrol of communicating the evaluative criteria by way of the lesson objectives, \nfeedback and transmission of the knowledge were tacit. Those teachers were trained \nin South Africa, one teacher in the Apartheid Era while the other two were trained \npost-Apartheid. The fourth teacher, a Zimbabwean, and educated in Zimbabwe, \nwas able to explain and practice formative assessment to a greater extent. Her \ncontrol over communicating the evaluative criteria of lesson objectives and feedback \nwithin the context of instruction were strongly framed. Other factors inhibiting the \nthree teachers from effectively using formative assessment, could be, large classes \nand insufficient time. The Zimbabwean teacher, however, was exposed to the same \nclassroom constraints.
Author: Shayna Devi Bhoola
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2227202583