Teachers' Perspectives towards the Implementation of Assessment for Learning at University Level

Abstract

Assessment for learning (AFL) is an approach to teaching and learning that creates feedback to improve students' performance. Students become more involved in the learning process and gain confidence in what they are expected to learn and to what standard. The present study is a quantitative study that aims to investigate university EFL teachers' perspectives of assessment for learning approach and identify the challenges teachers face when implementing AfL. Also, three research questions are addressed: (1) To what extent do English language teachers use assessment for learning in their classes? (2) What are the teachers' perspectives on Assessment for Learning in developing EFL learning? And (3) What challenges do EFL teachers face when implementing AFL? To answer the research questions, the study used a 25-item questionnaire (Modified of Colby, D. C. 2010). The questionnaire was distributed to 102 EFL teachers at three public universities in Erbil: Salahaddin (55 teachers), Soran (34 teachers) and Koya Universities (13 teachers). The data was analyzed using SPSS Software. Despite some varied challenges and difficulties EFL teachers face in implementing the AfL approach in the classes, generally, the results show that university teachers have a positive perspective toward implementing AfL as a teaching and learning approach. It is recommended that it is necessary to arrange and implement teacher-training sessions and workshops to improve teacher' grasp of the current AFL approach.