ERIC Number: EJ867881
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Sep
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0039-8322
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Teacher Assessment Knowledge and Practice: A Narrative Inquiry of a Chinese College EFL Teacher's Experience
Xu, Yueting; Liu, Yongcan
TESOL Quarterly: A Journal for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages and of Standard English as a Second Dialect, v43 n3 p493-513 Sep 2009
This article explores teachers' assessment knowledge and practice through a narrative inquiry of a college EFL teacher, Betty (pseudonym), in the People's Republic of China. Drawing on Crites' (1971) notions of "sacred stories" and "secret stories" in teachers' professional knowledge landscapes (Connelly & Clandinin, 1995), it examines Betty's account of her experience of assessment reform. This account comprises three stories involving her colleagues and students. Following Connelly and Clandinin's (2006) three strands of narrative inquiry, this article discusses three structural conditions of teacher knowledge, "temporality", "sociality", and "place", and their effects on teachers' knowledge construction of assessment. We argue that teachers' prior assessment experience will affect their current practices and future plans for assessment (temporality); power relationships in teachers' workplace will greatly influence their assessment decision-making (sociality); and the specific contexts in which assessment takes place will affect teachers' sense of security and therefore the effectiveness of the assessment (place). The findings highlight the recognition of teachers' agency in assessment practice, the importance of negotiation with teachers of the reform policies, and the urgent need for professional development. (Contains 1 table, 1 figure and 6 footnotes.)
Descriptors: Teacher Characteristics, Student Evaluation, Foreign Countries, College Faculty, Language Teachers, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Inquiry, Knowledge Base for Teaching, Power Structure, Decision Making, Educational Change, Educational Policy, Professional Development, Evaluation Methods, Personal Narratives
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: China
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A