Secondary teachers perception of formative writing assessment and its influence on their practice

Abstract

This study sought to investigate how teachers perceived Formative writing Assessment and how this impacted on their practice. It was carried out in Kampala district involving six teachers and eighteen students. The study was guided by the following questions: • What are the language teachers’ current conceptions about assessment in general and about formative writing assessment in particular? • How do English language teachers implement questioning and feedback (assessment practices) in their classrooms? • How do English language teachers respond pedagogically to formative writing assessment data?

Data were collected from the participants using in-depth interviews, observations and documents. Data were analysed using themes and descriptive statistics in this study. These themes were decoded into smaller sub-themes under each main theme. The study found that teachers in this study had no knowledge of how to implement Formative writing Assessment in their classrooms. Practitioners need to be re-trained on how to implement the Formative Assessment policy in schools.