PRIMARY SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS: CONCEPTION AND PRACTICES OF CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT

Abstract

Per the newly introduced classroom assessment (CA) along with the new English curriculum; Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) in Malaysia, studying English teachers’ conception of CA is considered very crucial as much strong evidence indicates that teachers’ practices of CA are highly influenced by teachers’ conception of CA. Thus, this study aims to investigate the relationship between the teachers’ conception and practices of CA among primary school English teachers. Two instruments, namely (1) English Teachers’ Conception of CA (ETCo-CA) and (2) English Teachers’ Practices of CA (ETPr-CA) were adapted for this study. The respondents of this study consist of 254 primary school English teachers from Kerian district in Perak, Malaysia. The results from the Pearson correlation showed that a moderate positive relationship exists between teachers’ conception and practices of CA with a correlation coefficient squared value of 27.8%. Apart from this, the significant mean difference in conception and practices of CA between primary school English option teachers and non-English option teachers was also studied. The results showed that the conception CA is higher among English option teachers than non-English option teachers. Whereas, the practices of CA showed no significant difference between English option teachers and non-English option teachers. This study is hoped to benefit the Ministry of Education in taking proper action to improve teachers’ practices and conception of CA.