The Impact of an In-Service Professional Development Course on Teachers’ Language Assessment Knowledge

Abstract

Within recent advancement, teachers are required to be able to implement effective assessment in the classroom context. This is applicable by in-service professional development programs that assist teachers to improve and provide them with opportunities to enhance their knowledge and to use it practically, especially their knowledge regarding assessment and its concepts and components. Therefore, the present study, which was a quasi-experimental study, was designed to explore the effect of an in-service professional course on teachers` language assessment knowledge (LAK). To this end, a number of 76 EFL teachers, working at private institutes in Sanandaj, Iran, were selected through convenience sampling on the basis of availability to fill in the Language Assessment Knowledge questionnaire developed by Farhady and Tavassoli (2018) in order to estimate their current level of LAK. Then, a three-day workshop was held for the participants on the components and skills of language assessment. The instruction of each session took 6 hours. After 6 weeks, teachers` ALK was tested again after the treatment. The results of the paired T-test and repeated measures ANOVA revealed that the in-service professional development course had a significant effect on teachers` LAK. The participants claimed that their knowledge of different concepts and key terms in assessment was enhanced. Also, based on the findings of data analyses, the course treatment resulted in improving teachers' knowledge of how to design standard tests and use alternative assessment techniques. Details of the findings and implications are discussed.

Keywords

• assessment
• language assessment knowledge
• professional development course