A Narrative Inquiry Of College English Teachers’ Classroom Assessment Knowledge And Practice

The Ministry of Education promulgates Teaching Requirements for College EnglishCurriculum in2007，which highlights the importance of the teaching assessment of collegeEnglish. It also requires teachers to combine formative assessment with summativeassessment in order to execute teaching assessment more comprehensively and appropriately.This promulgation provides college English teachers with a guideline in both theory andpractice. However, in reality, some teachers consider classroom assessment as burden andthey can not truly understand the significance and functions of classroom assessment, whichproduces a negative effect on the effectiveness of classroom assessment and teaching quality.As assessment reforms being under way, it is urgently necessary to explore into collegeEnglish teachers’ classroom assessment knowledge and their practical implementation to urgeteachers to master the knowledge of classroom assessment for effective practice in classroomassessment and thus to enhance the validity and reliability of classroom assessment of collegeEnglish.This study is based on the theoretical framework of cognitive learning theories and socialconstruction theories. In this study, the author equates the classroom assessment knowledgeconstruction of college English teachers with that of students’ knowledge learning and tries todistinguish teacher knowledge and teacher belief to highlight the significance of teachers’knowledge and practice. The study intends to explore into the characteristics, influentialfactors of three college English teachers’ classroom assessment knowledge and practice andtheir relationships, urging educational training organizations to give sufficient training andassistance to teachers to promote teachers’ position of as well as their voice in classroomassessment. It also encourages teachers to reflect on their teaching to achieve the mutualdevelopment of teaching and learning.The author applied the methodology of narrative inquiry to make a case study into threecollege English teachers qualitatively and collected the research data through three channelsduring March to November in the year of2013to dig out respective teacher’s explanationabout their classroom assessment practice and observe students’ involvement in the classroomassessment activity. The author analyzed, categorized and generalized the research data fromthe three channels and composed six narrative stories (two stories for each teacher) as thefinal research texts. Three research results are drawn from them. First, the three collegeEnglish teachers possess general knowledge about classroom assessment and they also holddistinctive, personalized knowledge and practice. Second, the main factors influencing thethree college English teachers’ classroom assessment knowledge and practice includeunderstanding students and learning, personal learning and teaching experiences, educational policy, social reality and self-positioning. Third, there exists direct alignment andcontradictions between the three college English teachers’ classroom assessment knowledgeand their practice.Through the research and exploration into college English teachers’ classroomassessment knowledge and practice, the author finds out that the construction of teachers’classroom assessment knowledge is built upon the social interaction and self-reflectionthrough long-term teaching experience. So, it is of highly importance for college Englishteachers to strengthen the understanding of students as well as their leaning process and tocarry out reflective teaching. At last, the implications of this research on future research is putforward, for example, the effective assessment for various skills of English, how to provideteachers with the most optimum working conditions for teachers to execute effectiveclassroom assessment, etc.