Assessment needs of English language teachers at school level

This project derives from the doctoral dissertation entitled A knowledge base of language assessment literacy for Colombian teachers of English (Hernández-Ocampo, 2022), which recommends identifying the assessment needs of English language teachers in various schools in different contexts such as rural, urban, public or private. The knowledge obtained from the findings of this study will complement the proposal to promote language assessment literacy in future language teachers that the doctoral dissertation initially stated and, therefore, will enrich the training in assessment that pre-service language teachers receive. In 2009, López and Bernal made a call for more teacher training in language assessment since they found that few undergraduate and graduate teaching programs offered an assessment course in their curricula. A decade later, the picture was not very different from what they had shown back then: only about 50% of the accredited undergraduate language teacher education programs offered an assessment course in their curricula (Hernández-Ocampo, 2022). This set the ground for the proposal of a knowledge base of language assessment literacy to be included in these programs as well as in professional development programs offered to in-service teachers, aiming to improve teachers’ qualification in assessing their students’ learning. The proposal explicitly addresses three pillars: context (in which the assessment practice occurs), knowledge (the education that language teachers receive) and cognition (of assessment that teachers possess), which become the foundations of a course to prepare pre-service language teachers in the dimension of assessment. With this in mind, this research project, in which we will identify the needs of English language teachers regarding assessment of students’ learning at school level, could help strengthen the proposal of a course in assessment (described in Hernández’s doctoral dissertation). Since Hernández-Ocampo’s (2022) study focused on how pre-service language teachers are taught to assess their students, we consider that it is paramount to analyze what in-service teachers at schools do. This will provide a wider and more accurate view of the context so that the proposed course can better meet the needs of the ESL community in Colombia regarding assessment. This study will also contribute to the development of new knowledge in the research line of the Languages Department at the School of Communication and Language named Lenguajes, aprendizajes y enseñanzas[1], as well as to consolidate the emerging research line in language assessment, Evaluación, reflexión y praxis. Last, but not least, the findings of this project could contribute to a better understanding and positioning of assessment practices in the curricular decision-making processes that affect the educational community to which the Languages Department offers its services. [1] The second research line, Lenguajes, aprendizajes y enseñanzas, aims to investigate the relationships between languages, learning and teaching. It proposes as thematic axes the appropriation of culture through teaching and learning; bilingualism, mediations and materials design. http://comunicacionylenguaje.javeriana.edu.co/investigacion-publicaciones/grupos-investigacion