Formative Assessment in a Test-Dominated Context: How Test Practice Can Become More Productive

Xiao, Yangyu

doi:10.1080/15434303.2017.1347789

Cited by 23 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Responding to the quality education policy [(Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (MOE), 2010)], the constructs in evaluation criteria for the quality of primary education have changed from students' academic examination results and enrollment quotas to students' moral character 1 development, academic achievement, physical and mental health, interest and specialty, and academic workload [Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (MOE), 2013]. Against the background of China's long history of high-stakes examinations and contemporary policy priority in formative assessment (Xiao, 2017), primary schools are expected to effectively combine formative and summative assessments. According to English Curriculum Standards [Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (MOE), 2011], the priority of formative assessment is to encourage students' active participation in learning and to enhance students' self-confidence, while summative assessment is oriented to testing students' integrated language skills and ability to use language.…”

Section: Research Context and Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Through reflective learning and interaction with the university professor, Zhao relearned the purposes of formative and summative assessment. Although he developed his conception of how different levels of schooling are featured with different purposes of assessment, he mistakenly equated the formative use of summative assessment (Xiao, 2017) to formative assessment. Such misconception can be attributed partly to his inadequate assessment knowledge, lack of screening of online information, and his direct "borrowing" of the university professor's view without scrutiny.…”

Section: Case 1-zhao: a Low Starting Point And Limited Changes Of Coamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Findings also show that other contextual factors such as classroom realities, school assessment culture, and national assessment policy may place constraints on pre-service teachers' conception change concerning what they should do and what they should not do in assessment. In particular, the large class size (Xu and Harfitt, 2019), the deep-rooted routine practices in school assessment culture (Fuller et al, 2015), and the challenge of implementing formative assessment in a test-dominated Chinese context (Xiao, 2017) seem to have prompted the participants to reflect on their initial CoAs. Although these contextual factors seem to have constrained their classroom assessment practice, reflections on these constraints have raised their awareness concerning how to deliver effective feedback, how to achieve fairness in classroom assessment, and how to fulfill multiple assessment purposes in a large class.…”

Section: Differentiated But Complementary Influence Of Experiential mentioning

confidence: 99%

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How Pre-service Teachers' Conceptions of Assessment Change Over Practicum: Implications for Teacher Assessment Literacy

2019

Front. Educ.

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Practicum poses great challenges for pre-service teachers who learn to assess because their conceptions of assessment (CoAs) may undergo dramatic changes. This multiple-case study reports on how three pre-service teachers' CoA changed over practicum at a primary school in China. Findings show that pre-service teachers' CoAs have experienced a rapid change from a superficial perception of assessment for academic achievement and moral character development to a more comprehensive understanding of varied assessment purposes, constructs in assessment criteria, feedback, fairness in classroom assessment, and students' involvement in and engagement with assessment. A range of factors are found to have exerted varying degrees of influence on these conception changes, such as personal factor (i.e., agency in assessment), experiential factors [i.e., school-based assessment practices, interactions with students, and (anti-)apprenticeship of observation about assessment], and contextual factors (i.e., mentoring, classroom reality, school assessment culture, and national assessment policy). These findings are discussed in terms of how these changes are diverse but limited, as well as how the mediating factors have exerted differentiated influences in positive or negative ways. This paper concludes with implications for research on teachers' CoAs and professional development for assessment literacy.

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Section: Research Context and Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Case 1-zhao: a Low Starting Point And Limited Changes Of Coamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Differentiated But Complementary Influence Of Experiential mentioning

confidence: 99%

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How Pre-service Teachers' Conceptions of Assessment Change Over Practicum: Implications for Teacher Assessment Literacy

2019

Front. Educ.

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“…On a discouraging note, the test-dominated culture, which restricts the effective implementation of instructionally relevant assessment, has pervaded in China for thousands of years, and probably will not change any time soon. In such circumstances, a more fruitful way out might be to explore the potential of formative uses of summative tests (Xiao, 2017), for instance, retrofitting summative tests for diagnostic purposes, rather than insisting on radical changes in the emphasis of summative tests.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of recent empirical research (2011–2018) on language assessment in China

Min

Zhang

2020

Lang. Teach.

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This article reviews a selected sample of 70 empirical studies in journal articles and doctoral dissertations on language assessment in China between 2011 and 2018. Following a brief introduction to the history and current state of language assessment in China, the article presents a critical review of language assessment research on six themes that have aroused the greatest interest from researchers in the country, including (1) test reliability and validity; (2) factors affecting test performance; (3) rating and rating scales; (4) technology and language testing; (5) test washback; and (6) classroom-based assessment. In addition to situating the commentary on the studies within the social, cultural and historical contexts of China, this article outlines the scholarly contributions of these studies to the wider international field of language learning, teaching and assessment. It concludes with recommendations on areas in need of further development over the coming decades.

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“…One important source of feedback for teachers is assessment information from student testing, which, in turn, can be used to support the teaching-learning process (Bennett, 2011;Brown et al, 2014;Xiao, 2017). Such information needs to be descriptive (so-called formative), without which it is not possible to use the feedback to improve teaching (Brown, 2017;Sadler, 2010).…”

Section: Feedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estonian science teacher beliefs about competence-based science e-testing

Rosin

Vaino

Soobard

et al. 2021

SEI

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Competence-based, science e-testing (CBSeT) is a novel external assessment tool which provides feedback to science teachers about their students’ competence-based skills, thereby giving relevant assessment information which teachers could potentially use in their teaching practice. The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which teachers’ existing beliefs towards CBSeT enabled them to use the received CBSeT feedback in their practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven science teachers from selected schools which took part in an CBSeT pilot programme. The findings revealed that most teachers believed the feedback provided adequate assessment information about the level of students’ actual competences and gave general guidelines to support their further teaching and students’ learning. At the same time, they perceived that the CBSeT feedback was currently lacking an accountability function, which would make students more responsible for their learning and provide feedback on the effectiveness of their own teaching. Despite the teachers’ generally positive attitudinal beliefs towards CBSeT, several constraints to operationalising the feedback in the classroom were identified. Based on these findings, the paper suggests ways to facilitate further implementation of CBSeT feedback in the classroom.

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Formative Assessment in a Test-Dominated Context: How Test Practice Can Become More Productive

Cited by 23 publications

References 21 publications

How Pre-service Teachers' Conceptions of Assessment Change Over Practicum: Implications for Teacher Assessment Literacy

How Pre-service Teachers' Conceptions of Assessment Change Over Practicum: Implications for Teacher Assessment Literacy

Review of recent empirical research (2011–2018) on language assessment in China

Estonian science teacher beliefs about competence-based science e-testing

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