Abstract:

If assessment literacy is important for teachers, it is more so for teacher educators. Assessment literate teacher educators will not only benefit their students by making competent assessment-informed decisions based on sound assessment practices but also by modelling those practices for the prospective teachers. This paper reports on the results of an initial discussion session of an action research project focused on the assessment practices of teacher educators in a Malaysian university. The action research project was intended to encourage the teacher educators involved to re-examine their assessment practices and revise them where necessary with the intention of improving or updating them. The purpose of the initial session was to re-examine and discuss the teacher educators’ assessment practices in the courses they were teaching. Four teacher educators teaching English proficiency and Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) courses participated in the session. The data comprised several documents related to the courses as well as discussion notes written during the session. The data were analysed through document analysis and thematic analysis. The results revealed two areas for improvement, which were the alignment of assessment with the learning outcomes, and the integration of ICT in assessment. Suggestions for improvement which were discussed during the session included adding new assessment tasks, integrating the use of ICT in an assessment and restructuring the allocation of marks for the assessments. The session also highlighted the benefits of collaboratively reviewing assessment practices among teacher educators. The results of the session imply the need for continuous development of assessment literacy among teacher educators.

Keywords:

Assessment practices, assessment literacy, teacher educators, areas for improvement.