Investigating the Impacts of EFL Teachers' Age, Educational Background, Instructional Experience and Gender on Their Beliefs about Formative Assessment

Subject Areas :

Kamran Mehrgan ¹ , Abdolmajid Hayati ² , Seyyed Mohammad Alavi ³

1 - Department of English Language, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
2 - Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran
3 - Department of English Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2017-03-08 Accepted : 2017-07-24 Published : 2017-09-01

Keywords: age, Gender, Formative Assessment, Summative Assessment, EFL teachers' beliefs, educational background, Teaching Experience,

Abstract :

Formative assessment is deemed the collaborative processes in which teachers and learners are engaged for the purpose of understanding the learners' learning and diagnosing their strengths and weaknesses. On the other hand, teachers' beliefs about formative assessment are paramount and might be influenced by a legion of variables such age, educational background, instructional experience, and gender. This study investigated the impacts of EFL teachers' age, educational background, instructional experience, and gender on their beliefs about formative assessment. To this aim, 100 male and 100 female EFL teachers from Ahvaz junior and senior high schools participated in the study. The participants were given the questionnaire of teachers' beliefs about formative assessment. The results regarding EFL teachers' age, educational background, and gender revealed no statistically significant influence on their beliefs about formative assessment. However, teachers' teaching experience had significant impacts on their beliefs about formative assessment. These findings can contribute to EFL authorities concerning assessment procedures in language learning and teaching.