The language assessment literacy needs of Iranian EFL teachers with a focus on reformed assessment policies

Firoozi et al. Language Testing in Asia (2019) 9:2 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40468-019-0078-7 RESEARCH Open Access The language assessment literacy needs of Iranian EFL teachers with a focus on reformed assessment policies Tahereh Firoozi1,3* , Kioumars Razavipour1 and Alireza Ahmadi2 * Correspondence: ; Firoozi. 1 Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran 3 Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada Full list of author information is available at the end of the article Abstract Teachers’ assessment literacy has recently captured the attention of scholars across various educational contexts. The literature has it that there is a gap between teachers’ assessment practices and national assessment policies. The present study investigated the assessment needs of Iranian EFL teachers in the wake of the new assessment reform, which aims at replacing traditional discrete point testing policies with performance testing. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 EFL head teachers. In addition, documents related to the curriculum reform were also closely examined. Inductive coding of the data showed that to meet the demands of the noted reform, teachers’ current perceptions of language assessment need to change. Furthermore, teachers need training in both knowledge and skills of language assessment. More specifically, teachers need training in developing rubrics for use in assessing the productive skills of speaking and writing. They also need to develop literacy in devising higher-order thinking skills in assessing reading and listening comprehension. Finally, as non-native speakers of English, Iranian English teachers need better English aural/oral skills. Keywords: Language assessment literacy, Assessment policy, Assessment needs, performance assessment Introduction Language assessment literacy (LAL) is considered a key construct in language assessment literature (Inbar-Lourie 2013). However, what LAL entails for various groups of stakeholders is a subject of debate (Fulcher 2012). Particularly, specifying the components of language assessment literacy for classroom assessment has proven to be a serious challenge (Inbar-Lourie 2008; Rea-Dickins 2008). Viewed from a sociocultural view of learning, teachers’ assessment literacy is taken to be a dynamic process that brings together teachers’ assessment knowledge, assessment skills, and their conceptions of assessment in relation to their contexts of practice (DeLuca et al. 2016; Xu & Brown 2016). The importance of sociocultural context in the conceptualization of teacher’s assessment literacy has been echoed in recent studies (Gebril 2016; Scarino 2013). Given that classroom assessment transpires within diverse educational contexts with different educational policies, the identified components of assessment literacy based on the standards of assessment in English speaking © The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Firoozi et al. Language Testing in Asia (2019) 9:2 contexts (e.g., Brookhart 2011; DeLuca et al. 2016; Xu & Brown 2016) may not be adequate in accounting for the language assessment needs of teachers working in other educational contexts. In the Iranian EFL context, there is evidence that English teachers’ language assessment literacy is, at least, partly responsible for teachers’ failure to comply with a mandated reform requiring teachers to assess communicative competence rather than discrete bits of language knowledge (Razavipour & Rezagah 2018). Yet, Razavipour and Rezagah’s study was not specifically concerned with the language assessment needs of teachers. Hence, further inquiry into English teachers’ language assessment needs in Iran, with its centralized educational system, is warranted. The current study attempts to identify the components of language assessment literacy which are compatible with recent assessment policies of the country. Teachers’ assessment literacy: from measurement to sociocultural perspective The recent shift from assessment of learning (AOL) (i.e., “use of assessment to determine the extent to which students have achieved intended learning outcome”) to assessment for learning (AFL) (“when teachers use assessment evidence to inform their instruction”) (Black & Wiliam 2018, p. 3) has substantially affected the conceptualization of teachers’ assessment competencies (Brookhart 2003). Accordingly, the traditional psychometric approach to identifying teachers’ assessment competence has given way to new conceptualizations that take account of the situated nature of assessment practice in the complex contexts of classrooms (Brookhart 2011). Hence, informed by sociocultural learning theories, the context of assessment has been integrated in the conceptualization of teachers’ assessment literacy including “… teachers’ assessment knowledge, conception of assessment, and their responses to the external contexts embedded with actual constraints and affordances in the environment…” (Xu & Brown 2016, p.157). Likewise, in the literature of language testing, all the three components of LAL including assessment knowledge, assessment skills, and principles of assessment (Brindley 2001; Davies 2008) are considered essential for different stakeholders. A body of research has investigated LAL for language teachers (e.g., Jin 2010; Razavipour et al. 2011; Vogt & Tsagari 2014), for high stake test users (e.g., O’Loughlin 2013), for non-practitioners (e.g., Pill & Harding 2013), for item writers, university administrators, and for professional language testers (e.g., Taylor 2013). Defined from a sociocultural vantage point, “assessment culture refers to educational evaluation practices that are compatible with current ideologies, social expectations, attitudes and values” (Inbar-Lourie 2008, p. 285). Accordingly, defining the construct of teachers’ assessment competency hinges upon the context of assessment practice (Rea-Dickins 2006). The importance of sociocultural context in the conceptualization of teacher’s assessment literacy has also been echoed in recent studies (Gebril 2016; Scarino 2013). Adopting a sociocultural stance on educational assessment in Muslim countries, Gebril (2016) concluded that assessment literacy for teachers in Muslim countries needs to be reconceptualized considering the sociocultural aspects of the Muslim world. Other scholars have taken a modularized approach to language assessment literacy, maintaining that the assessment of each language skill requires its own knowledge base and competence (Crusan et al. 2016; Ölmezer-Öztürk & Aydin 2018). Page 2 of 14 Firoozi et al. Language Testing in (...truncated)