Understanding chinese efl teachers’ conceptions and practices of assessment implications for teacher assessment literacy development

This paper reports on findings from an ongoing research project exploring Chinese EFL teachers’ conceptions of assessment and their classroom assessment practices, as well as to examine the relationship between these two. The sample for the study consisted of 107 EFL teachers from 18 secondary schools who completed a Chinese version of the Teachers’ Conceptions of Assessment inventory (Brown, Hui, Yu, & Kennedy, 2011) and the Classroom Assessment Practices Questionnaire modified from Assessment Practices Inventory (Zhang & Burry-Stock, 2003). This study found that Chinese EFL teachers strongly associated assessment as a means of improving students’ EFL learning’ with assessment as a means of cultivating positive moral and personal character contributing to students’ lifelong learning and good citizenship. Results also showed that although there existed some level of alignment of teaching and assessment in the classroom, traditional assessment practices rather than alternative assessment such as student self-assessment were seen by the EFL teachers as contributing to students’ learning and making individual and school accountable, which is potentially a matter of some concern if innovative assessment reform that avoids using mandated external examinations is to be carried out in the Chinese EFL classroom. Implications of the results for Chinese EFL teacher assessment literacy development are also discussed.