A Study Of Assessment Literacy Of EFL Teachers In Senior High School

Based on the Iceberg Model of Assessment Literacy(2009)and CSE scales for reading comprehension,focusing on English reading instruction in senior high school,the current study investigates the overall level of EFL teachers’ assessment literacy(AL)from assessment attitudes,assessment knowledge and assessment skills.Meanwhile,three suggestions concerning advancing EFL teachers’ AL are proposed based on the correlation between teachers’ AL and the three dimensions of CSE-based assessment practice as well as the analyses for differences among different levels of the same item.Mixed methods of quantitative research and qualitative research are employed in the present study.Questionnaire survey is firstly used to collect data for quantitative analyses to present the overall level of EFL teachers’ AL,in which 142 participants from Yunnan Province are invited to make choices for items concerning assessment attitudes,assessment knowledge,assessment skills,as well as their attitudes towards CSE,understanding about CSE,experience of and confidence in CSE-based assessment in reading instruction.Then,semi-structured interviews are employed for 6 teachers to collect information for qualitative analyses.Descriptive statistics suggests that teachers involved in the study are found to be in a relatively low level of AL,and they do not acquire much experience in CSE-based assessment so the application of CSE scales for reading comprehension waits for further advancement.Independent Sample T-test confirms that there are significant differences existing in teachers’ AL between two paired groups of answering “yes” and “no” for three aspects related to CSE reading scales.Correlation Analysis proves the significant correlation between teachers’ AL and their performance on three CSE-related aspects,among which the correlation between experience of CSE-based assessment and their AL is the strongest.Moreover,results from One-way ANOVA Analysis also confirm that with teachers becoming more experienced in setting CSE-based assessment objectives and guiding students to arrange their reading process according to CSE scales,their level of AL shows an increasing tendency.Therefore,the key for developing teachers’ AL on the basis of CSE is to advance the application of CSE scales in their instructional assessment practice.To help teachers get more experience in CSE-based assessment and to achieve the goal of developing their AL through facilitating CSE-based educational assessment,some measures must be taken.To be specified,training programs aiming to enhance teachers’ formative assessment knowledge and skills as well as foster their abilities and skills in making assessment standards,choosing assessment methods,and multiplying assessment subjects should be developed.Also,a supportive atmosphere should be created to help teachers form positive attitudes towards CSE-based assessment.The validation of measures mentioned above relies on the joint efforts of educational administrators,assessment experts and EFL teachers in senior high school.