Efl teachers’ cognition of formative assessment and their practices in writing classes a case study

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER EFL TEACHERS’ COGNITION OF FORMATIVE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

EFL TEACHERS’ COGNITION OF FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT AND THEIR PRACTICES IN

WRITING CLASSES: A CASE STUDY

Supervisor: Trần Thị Lan Anh, Ph.D Student: Phạm Viết Phương Thảo Course: QH2016.F1.E1

HA NOI – 2020

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NHẬN THỨC VÀ THỰC HÀNH CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TIẾNG ANH VỀ ĐÁNH GIÁ THƯỜNG XUYÊN TRONG LỚP HỌC VIẾT: NGHIÊN CỨU TRƯỜNG HỢP ĐIỂN HÌNH

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Trần Thị Lan Anh, Ph.D Sinh viên: Phạm Viết Phương Thảo

Khóa: QH2016.F1.E1

Ngày ký:

Trần Thị Lan Anh

HÀ NỘI – 2020

Signature

Date

Secondly, I would also like to show my deep appreciation to all of the participants of this research Thank you very much for accepting my invitation and spending your time participating in this study Had it not been for your support, this study could never have taken shape

Last but not least, I wish to extend my special thanks to my beloved family,

my best friends and my classmates for their treasured physical and mental support during the time I worked on this research Thank you for always being the ones I can count on and help me whenever I need it

Abstract

The importance of formative assessment for teaching and learning adjustment has long been documented in EFL research in various contexts However, what teachers think, know, and believe, or their cognition (Borg (2006), about formative assessment and how they use it in their classrooms, especially in lower-secondary education is still an under-researched area This study aims to explore Vietnamese EFL lower-secondary teachers’ cognition towards formative assessment practices and to uncover the relationship between cognition and their reported and observed practices in writing classes Findings revealed that teachers

in general had a positive attitude toward the use of formative assessment Although some teachers held misconceptions of formative assessment as what is advocated in the literature, they reported practicing formative assessment regularly

in class Moreover, the findings indicated that formative assessment strategies (questioning, feedback, and peer assessment) used by teachers were reported to promote students’ learning by motivating students and enhancing their engagement while also hinder students’ learning by putting them under pressure From the findings of the study, it is suggested that teachers should be provided with more opportunities to be trained about formative assessment to thoroughly understand its conception, and teacher educators should focus and give more specific guidance about the implementation of formative assessment for teachers through official policy documents and training Future research is also necessary

to investigate teachers’ practice of formative assessment from both teachers and students’ perspectives The findings of this study contribute to the literature on formative assessment in EFL contexts and lay the foundations for other studies on teachers’ formative assessment practice in the context of Vietnam

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the study, statement of research problem and questions 1

1.2 Scope of the study 3

1.3 Significance of the study 3

1.4 Organisation 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Definition of Formative Assessment 5

2.2 Formative Assessment Strategies 7

2.2.1 Questioning 7

2.2.2 Feedback 8

2.2.3 Peer-assessment 9

2.3 Language teacher cognition 10

2.3.1 Teacher belief 10

2.3.2 Teacher knowledge 11

2.4 Teachers’ cognition and practice 12

2.5 What have been studied about EFL teachers’ cognition? 14

2.6 What have been studied about EFL formative assessment? 14

2.7 What gaps does this study fill-in? 15

2.8 Framework for language teacher cognition research 16

2.9 Borg’s (2006) adapted framework for language teacher cognition 17

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 20

3.1 Case study as the research approach 20

3.2 Research design 21

3.2.1 Research site 21

3.2.2 Participants 21

3.3 Data collection procedure 22

3.4 Data collection instruments 24

3.4.1 Documents 24

3.4.2 Non-participant observation 24

3.4.3 Interviews 26

3.5 Thematic data analysis 28

3.6 Ethical considerations 31

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 32

4.1 FINDINGS 33

4.1.1 Teachers’ educational, teaching, and assessment backgrounds 33

4.1.2 Teacher cognition 34

4.1.3 Teachers’ reported classroom practice in formative assessment 42

4.1.4 Contextual factors 49

4.1.5 Case study of Helen: Relationship between cognition and practice 53

4.2 DISCUSSION 56

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 60

5.1 Findings 60

5.2 Implications 62

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further research 63

5.4 Concluding thoughts 64

APPENDIX 66

REFERENCES 83

List of tables, figures, abbreviations

Tables

Table 3.1 Participants’ background 22

Table 3.2 Observation details 26

Table 3.3 Interview details 27

Table 3.4 Descriptive coding in interview analysis 29

Table 3.5 In Vivo coding 30

Table 3.6 In Vivo coding in document analysis 30

Table 3.7 Process coding 31

Table 4.1 Teachers’ teaching listening and writing procedures 44

Table 4.2 Helen’s teaching listening and writing procedures 54

Figures Figure 2.1 Borg’s (2006) framework for language teacher cognition of 17

formative assessment Figure 2.2 Borg’s (2006) adapted framework for language teacher cognition 18

of formative assessment Figure 3.1 Data collection procedure 23

Figure 4.1 Borg’s (2006) adapted framework for language teacher cognition 32

of formative assessment

Abbreviation

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language

as a foreign language (EFL) teacher-to-be, I also include myself in these ―naive‖ groups of teachers (Crusan, 2010), who thirst for the answer to the question ―How students’ writing should be assessed?‖ The literature on EFL writing assessment documents that assessment has traditionally given attention to the written products and how well (or badly) students perform in writing (Lee, 2011; Naghdipour, 2016; Guadu & Boersma, 2018) Writing assessment, which mainly concentrates

on measurement, provides deficient value for teaching and learning and ―fails to activate the formative potential of assessment for promoting students’ learning‖ (Lee, 2011, p 10) These findings highlight the need to look for an alternative approach to writing assessment to provide better insight into students’ learning progress and improve teaching and learning

Gielen, Dochy, and Dierick (2003, p 3) suggested that formative assessment ―explicitly directed at supporting, guiding and monitoring student learning‖, and is seen to have huge potential in promoting such learning (Murphy

& Yancey, 2008) However, within the previous literature, formative assessment

of writing generally, and in EFL particularly, remains an underexplored area of research (Burner, 2015) Although there is scant published research on the field (Ghoorchaei et al., 2010; Burner, 2014; Abdulahi et al., 2017), most of these focused on the formative practices’ impacts on students’ learning (good or not good), there was little attention to uncover how these practices were employed by

teachers Moreover, it is essential that teachers understand formative assessment

to be able to properly carry out it in classroom practices (Widiastuti & Saukah, 2017) Nevertheless, previous researchers (e.g., Burner, 2015) noticed contradictions between teachers’ continuing practice of product-oriented writing assessment and their positive beliefs of formative assessment Teachers’ cognition

of formative assessment, which refers broadly to teacher knowledge, thinking and beliefs (Borg, 2006; Lim, 2016), thus, needs to be further investigated to see how

it is related to teachers’ practices

In the Vietnamese context, there have been few studies (Vu, 2016; Ta et al., 2018; Nguyen & Hoang, 2019) investigating EFL formative assessment, to name but a few Among these, I can find only one research explored teachers’ beliefs and practices of formative assessment (Ta et al., 2018) However, it only focused

on teachers’ belief, which is one psychological construct among others included in the concept of teacher cognition which ―achieve[s] a greater sense of unity and coherence of the field‖ (Borg, 2006, p 321) There are no other studies in the Vietnamese context on teachers’ cognition of formative assessment as a whole Furthermore, there is a lack of studies that focus on secondary education, in which formative assessment is, without doubt, in vague (Bennett, 2011) Therefore, this research sets out to explore Vietnamese EFL lower-secondary teachers’ formative assessment practices to uncover their cognition and their assessment practices in students’ writing lessons The findings gained from this study will provide insights into the assessment practice to fill in the mentioned gap in the literature

All in all, this study aims to answer the following questions:

1 What is EFL lower-secondary teachers’ cognition of formative assessment?

2 How do EFL teachers practice formative assessment strategies in writing lessons?

1.2 Scope of the study

This research was designed to explore Vietnamese EFL lower-secondary teachers’ cognition and formative assessment practices in writing lessons It explores a case that included five EFL teachers working in a public lower-secondary school in Vietnam Due to the Covid 19 pandemic resulting in the limitation in data collection procedure, the study could only explore the reported practices by four teachers and the actual practices of one teacher

1.3 Significance of the study

Although the study was carried out in the context of a lower-secondary school only, I believe its outcomes would benefit the EFL teachers in general as they will shed light on the area of teachers’ cognition and actual practices in formative assessment The findings of this study may lead to a better understanding of the process among teachers as well as provide teacher educators and policy makers with sufficient evidence to organise professional support activities for teachers This support can help teachers clarify their conceptions of formative assessment and improve their practices in Vietnamese settings Furthermore, the research can lay the foundations for other studies in the same field, especially in the context of EFL Vietnamese education

1.4 Organisation

This paper is organized into five main parts: Introduction, Literature review, Methodology, Findings and discussions, and Conclusions The main content of each part is identified below

Chapter I (Introduction) illustrates an overview of the research problem, states the research questions and the scope of the study, as well as its contribution

to existing literature

Chapter II (Literature review) discusses definitions of key concepts and other issues related to the topic of this study It recaps what has been studied about two major concepts, namely ―formative assessment‖ and ―teachers’ cognition‖

Chapter III (Methodology) indicates the methods that this study applies to reach the final conclusion It includes the research approach, research design, procedure as well as data collection and data analysis methods

Chapter IV (Findings and discussion) reports and discusses the findings of the study

Last but not least, Chapter V (Conclusion) concludes what was investigated

in this study and answers the two research questions It also discusses the limitations of the research and gives implications for teachers, policy-makers and

researchers for further study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter illuminates key concepts and associated issues related to the topic of this study First, the chapter discusses the definition of formative assessment, which is followed by the formative assessment strategies, namely, questioning, feedback, and peer-assessment Next, the chapter deliberates on the term language teacher cognition following with its two key constructs: teachers’ belief and teacher knowledge Teacher cognition and practice is also discussed as it is another important issue related to the topic of the study After that, relevant research literature is reviewed and the findings are synthesized to form a background of what has been investigated by previous researchers on formative assessment and language teacher cognition From the previous literature, the chapter continues discussing the gap that this study needs to fill in as well as introduces the adapted framework used to address the proposed research

questions

2.1 Definition of Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is a concept that is open to various interpretations (Milawati, 2017) Over time, the definition of formative assessment is still vague, and there is no consensus as to what formative assessment means (Arrafi & Sumarni, 2018)

According to Black & Wiliam (1998, p.10), formative assessment is ―all those activities undertaken by teachers, and/or by their students, which provides feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged.‖ Cowie and Bell (1999) define formative assessment as the bidirectional process between teacher and students to improve, recognize and respond to the learning Threlfall (2005) refers to this concept as ―the use of assessment judgments about capacities or competences to promote the further learning of the person who has been assessed‖ (p 54) Whereas, Popham (2008) regard formative assessment as ―a planned process during which the teacher or students use the assessment-based on the evidence to adjust ongoing learning and instruction‖ (p

8) Although different in nature, these definitions effectively contribute to a comprehensive understanding of formative assessment In this study, I chose to adopt the definition by McManus (2008) that can recapitulate important characteristics of formative assessment raised by other definitions as mentioned Therefore, formative assessment in this study is understood as:

―a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievement of intended instructional outcomes‖ (McManus, 2008, p 5)This definition emphasizes three important factors contributing to formative assessment, which are: the subject, the purpose, and the strategy By subject, I refer to the teachers and the students, who are directly involved in the assessment process According to Hattie (2007), inclusive conception of formative assessment must include a theory of learning because it is not necessary for the student who has a problem It may include the teacher or teaching methods that need adjustment Therefore, formative assessment is not only used for learners to adjust their learning but it is also used to regulate teachers’ instruction Moreover,

―formative assessment is not a test but a process‖ (Popham, 2008, p 6) In this view, the process produces not so much a score as a qualitative insight into student understanding (Shepard, 2008), and thus, the aim of formative assessment

is not to give a result of students’ learning but to help them improve and identify their strengths and weaknesses McManus’ (2008) definition also highlights the power of formative assessment as a way to provide feedback which is seen as a primary component in formative assessment and one of the factors that have the strongest influence on learning (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Crooks, 1988; Hattie & Timperley, 2007)

In short, due to the three above mentioned factors, McManus’s (2008) definition of formative assessment was chosen to adopt in this study

2.2 Formative Assessment Strategies

According to Bennet (2011, p.3), ―to present a meaningful definition of formative assessment, we need at least two things: a theory of action and a concrete instantiation‖ To give an example of these two elements of formative assessment, Bennet (2011) introduced ―Keep Learning on Track‖ (KLT or ETS) program, which ―revolves around one big idea and five key strategies‖, basing in significant part on the work of Black and Wiliam (1998c, 2009) The big idea is that teachers use evidence to adjust teaching and learning to meet instantaneous learning needs minute-by-minute and day by day (ETS, 2010) The five key

strategies are Sharing Learning Expectation (i.e., clarifying and sharing learning goals and criteria for success), Questioning (i.e., employing effective classroom discussions, asking questions that elicit students’ evidence of learning), Feedback, Self-assessment (i.e., activating students as owners of their own learning), and Peer-assessment (i.e., activating students as instructional resources for one

another) As stated by Bennet (2011), ―this theory of action and instantiation can guide the teacher to implement formative assessment in the classroom and meet the beneficial effect of formative assessment on student learning‖

In this study, I only focused on exploring teachers’ practices of three

formative strategies, which are Questioning, Feedback, and Peer-assessment

They were the most common strategies used by teachers in previous studies (Büyükkarcı, 2014; Burner, 2015; Guadu & Boersma, 2018) By spotting the light

on teachers’ practices of the three formative strategies only, I would be able to save time and focus to investigate the matter at a greater depth, as well as compare with other previous literature In the sections below, I summarize what has been studied about the three formative strategies in succession

2.2.1 Questioning

There is no doubt that questioning is a vital aspect of the teaching and learning process It is also an important strategy in formative assessment (Harlen, 2007) Previous studies reported on numerous benefits of using questioning as a

formative assessment strategy in class Burns (2005) advocated questioning as a formative assessment practice due to the fact that it enables students to take an active part and engage in their assessment and learning These kinds of questions not only provide teachers insights into student thinking which can guide their adjustment of future lessons but also help students themselves reflect on their own thought processes (Büyükkarcı, 2014) Moreover, Black and Wiliam (1998b) identify another use of Questioning is to activate and develop students’ prior knowledge as this process requires students to produce answers with explanations

to reflect on what they have known in advance, which helps students to build a bridge between the old information and the new one, thus avoid superficial conclusions However, regarding the effectiveness of questioning, Büyükkarcı (2014) also mentioned that the quality of the students’ assessment was affected by the quality of the questions given by teachers Therefore, to make the most use of the strategy, questions should be planned and prepared carefully by teachers so that they are able to elicit appropriate responses or evidence of learning from the students, which show what they know, what they can do and understand

2.2.2 Feedback

Feedback is seen as a primary component in formative assessment and one

of the strategies that have the strongest influence on students’ learning (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Burner, 2015) Ramaprasad (1983) regarded feedback as ―information about the gap between the actual level and reference level of a system parameter which is used to alter the gap in some way‖ (p 120) What is more, Murphy and Yancey (2008) also supported the idea as they explained that formative assessment aimed to close this distance or gap to

―promote teaching and learning‖, feedback, thus became one of the basic and crucial steps

According to Black and Wiliam (1998), there are two main functions of feedback: directive and facilitative Directive feedback only informs the student

careful explanations Such feedback tends to be less detailed and less effective than facilitative feedback, which provides precise comments and suggestions to help guide students in their own revision and future learning There are many ways in which teachers can provide feedback to assist in the development of student learning The important thing is that whatever methods were selected, it must be able to provide information about what the student does and does not know, as well as providing detailed direction for their improvement (Hattie & Jaeger, 1998) Feedback was also reported to be provided on an individual and group basis in previous studies

2.2.3 Peer-assessment

Peer-assessment refers to formative assessment practices, in which peers assess the achievements, learning outcomes or performances of their fellow students (Lindblom-ylänne et al., 2006) Peer-assessment, indeed, gives a student the opportunity to read carefully, judge and comment on their peers' work while comparing it with their own work at the same time (Basnet, Brodie, & Worden, 2010) In a study carried out by Ballantyne, Hughes, and Mylonas (2002), peer- assessment was found to enhance the metacognitive skills of learners as well as improve their understanding and learning of the subject issues Black & et al (2003) also pointed out the outstanding merits of using peer-assessment were that

it enabled to improve students’ motivation to work actively and helped develop interaction between students and other partners As reported in previous research, Peer-assessment can be used in a number of various settings, such as presentations, pair or group discussions, group projects, and essays or reports (e.g., Büyükkarcı, 2014)

In short, these formative strategies enable the teacher to ―implement formative assessment in the classroom and meet the beneficial effect on student learning‖ (Bennet, 2011) Moreover, it is claimed by Widiastuti and Saukah (2017) that teachers’ understanding and belief of formative assessment will certainly affect their ability in determining the actions above mentioned To have a

better understanding of the issue, in the following sections, I elaborate on how teachers’ cognition, as well as its correlation with practices, are understood in this study and give an introduction of the theoretical framework of language teachers’ cognition that I used to analyze the findings of this study

2.3 Language teacher cognition

In the field of language teacher cognition, Borg has been a noticeable researcher, whose defining concepts have been widely documented throughout the literature (e.g., Lim, 2016; Li, 2017) In Borg’s (2003) review of language teacher cognition study, he defined the term as ―the unobservable cognitive dimension of teaching—what teachers know, believe, and think‖ (Borg, 2003b, p 81) From Borg’s (2003) definition, it can be implied that teachers’ knowledge, belief and thinking are three key constructs of language teacher cognition However, in Borg’s later study (2006b, p 272), his definition is more elaborated The term language teacher cognition is defined as:

Language teacher cognition is an inclusive term referring to the complex, practically-oriented, personalized, and context-sensitive networks of knowledge, thoughts and beliefs that language teachers draw on in their work

According to Lim (2016), ―this later definition appears more insightful because it not only recognizes the interrelatedness of the constructs themselves, but also describes their characteristics Besides being context-sensitive, it also encapsulates the relationship between language teacher cognition and teachers’ actions.‖ (p 17) The concepts of teachers’ belief and teachers’ knowledge are frequently used and studied in the literature of language teacher cognition I, therefore, discuss these two terms below

2.3.1 Teacher belief

Teacher belief is probably the most frequently used term in the literature to refer to teacher cognition (Li, 2017) Despite the mass research into teachers’

―definitional confusion and inconsistency‖ (Eisenhart et al., 1988) (Ajzen, 1988) regarded teachers’ belief as ―a central construct in every discipline that deals with human behavior and learning‖, and the best indicator of the decisions individuals make (Li, 2017) Pajares (1992) stated that ―teachers’ beliefs have a greater influence than the teachers’ knowledge on the way teachers plan their lessons, on the kinds of decisions they make, and on their general classroom practice … teachers can identify the level of students’ capacities … select and adjust their behavior and instructional choice accordingly‖ (p 231) In the EFL context, teachers’ beliefs refer to teachers’ behaviors with some individual teaching practices which reflect their perspectives toward teaching and learning a foreign language (Li, 2017) They are mostly shaped by teachers’ personal experiences (their learning), their interpretations as well as interactions with factors or events happening around the teaching environment (Guadu & Boersma, 2018) Teachers’ beliefs, in previous literature was strongly claimed to have a great influence on their actual practices of teaching and assessing students in the class (Burner, 2015; Guadu & Boersma, 2018)

2.3.2 Teacher knowledge

―Teacher knowledge seems to be a more complex concept than belief because it is, in itself, multi-dimensional, comprising knowledge about many aspects relevant to the processes of teaching and learning‖ (Lim, 2016, p.17) Grossman and Richert (1988) define personal practical knowledge as ―a term designed to capture the idea of experience‖ (p 55) Woods (1996, p 69), in a more completed way, defines knowledge as ―what a person knows that affect thinking, interpretation, and planning action‖, which can be implied that knowledge is not just simply a collection of information, but a cognitive feature that intermingled with an individual’s thinking and behaviors (Lim, 2016) Connelly and Clandinin (1988), as shared the same definition of knowledge with Woods (1996), stated that ―Knowledge is not found only in the mind, it is in the

body, and it is seen and found in our practices‖ (p 25) Teacher knowledge, from these above definitions, thus not only refers to what teachers know or acquire in prior education but it also serves as a basis for their planning teaching practices in class From Wood’s (1996) definition, it can be seen a correlation among teachers' knowledge, belief, thinking, and actions, which affected and was reflected in each other

Although knowledge and beliefs are noticeable concepts used in the field of language teacher cognition to discover their correlation with teacher decision-making, in previous studies, the following terms can also be identified differently

as teachers’ perceptions, teachers’ perspectives, teachers’ understanding, teachers’ conceptions, (Lim, 2016) The diversity of jargon used in teacher language cognition studies, while indicating the growth of this field, fails to ―achieve a greater sense of unity and coherence‖ (Borg, 2006, p 321) It is stated by Lim (2016) that ―differentiating knowledge from beliefs as well as compartmentalizing various aspects of knowledge itself, might not be productive to research on language teacher cognition because to a large extent these above-mentioned concepts are intricately connected‖ (p 20) In the present study, which adopts a perspective regarding language teacher cognition as a coherent whole, no attempt

is made to differentiate types of knowledge, beliefs or other cognitive attributes from one another as ―it is important for the continuing development of the field for a shared set of concepts and definitions to be established and consistently used.‖ (Borg, 2016, p.321)

2.4 Teachers’ cognition and practice

Basing on a significant number of studies on teacher cognition in both mainstream and language education (Carter, 1990; Richardson & Lockhart, 1996; Munby, 2001), Borg (2003, p 36) claimed that ―teachers are active, thinking decision-makers who make instructional choices by drawing on complex, practically-oriented, personalized, and context-sensitive networks of knowledge,

thoughts, and beliefs‖ as quoted in Li (2017) In other words, teachers’ cognition, among other above mentioned factors, has a powerful impact on teachers’ teaching practices Previous research on teacher beliefs also provide evidence that teachers’ prior experiences as learners greatly inform their pedagogical cognition and influence their teaching experiences throughout their careers (Borg, 2003) Borg's (2003) findings are also consistent with other studies' about teachers' cognition and practices over the past thirty years (Ng & Farrell, 2003; Mangubhai

et al., 2004) Farrell (2003) found evidence that what teachers say and do in their classroom is facilitated by their beliefs while Mangubhai et al (2004) noted:

―teachers’ deep-rooted beliefs about how language is learned will pervade their classroom actions more than a particular methodology they are told to adopt or coursebook they follow‖

However, there are different perceptions in relation to the divergence and its influential factors between teachers’ cognition and practice The contextual factors so far are the most widely recognized factors being claimed as the cause for the mismatch between teachers’ cognition and their actual classroom practice (Li, 2017) Moreover, Shavelson and Stern (1981) also pointed out that students (including their learning methods, preferences, and proficiency levels) are regarded as one of the most crucial contextual factors which affect teachers’ teaching practices Other similar influential factors include school environments

or school culture, which are students’ management and tasks or even ―keeping pace with other teachers’ teaching methods'' (Davis, 2003) These understandings greatly affected their initial cognition about teaching and learning, thus contributed to teachers’ behaviors of ―teaching the same way for the common test and maintaining classroom management‖ (Li, 2017)

In short, these studies of language teacher cognition have made a significant contribution to our understanding of how teachers learn, what teachers

do, and behind reasons for their actions They not only confirm that teachers’

cognition shapes teacher’s behavior but also suggest that classroom contextual factors actually influence the successive decisions a teacher may make (Li, 2017)

2.5 What have been studied about EFL teachers’ cognition?

While there has been a growing body of research in this field, not all such studies have explicitly adopted the label language teacher cognition (Lim, 2016, p 16) Numerous studies were carried out, using such terms as teacher’s perceptions (Kader, 2019; Dinkel et al., 2017; Brannan & Bleistein, 2012), teachers’ perspectives (Polesel et al., 2014; Nassaji, 2012), teachers’ understanding (Silver, 2008; Sutherland et al., 2010), teachers’ conceptions (Baleghizadeh & Shahri, 2014; Remesal, 2011), to name but a few However, all of them shared the same characteristics that tend to uncover the association between these concepts and the actual practices in the classroom, or in other words, the relationship between

―thinking and doing‖ (Lim, 2016)

2.6 What have been studied about EFL formative assessment?

In the field of formative assessment, previous studies presented the importance of formative assessment to improve the quality of the teaching and learning process in the classroom (Guadu & Boersma, 2018; Afarri, 2017; Burner, 2015; Lee; 2011; Ta et al., 2018) Most of the studies conducted on formative assessment focused on its benefits and its impact on students’ learning achievement as well as other contextual factors that may influence the classroom interaction (Widiastuti & Saukah, 2017; p 52)

Moreover, most previous studies revealed teachers’ positive belief, perception or attitude toward formative assessment while also pointing out teachers’ infrequent use or not-so-effective practices (Muñoz et al., 2012; Guadu

& Boersma, 2018; Ta et al., 2018) An extensive study conducted by Foster and Poppers (2009) exposed that most teachers in his study could not design suitable formative assessment in their teaching practices Widiastuti and Saukah (2017) also added that most of the formative assessment forms were not constructed in

line with the characteristics of formative assessment; rather, they were constructed merely to test the students’ current ability (p 52) It was then implied that teachers’ lack of knowledge or understanding on the use of formative assessment methods might hinder the employment of effective formative assessment in the classroom This result was also widely discussed in other previous literature (Brookhart, 2008; Husain, 2013)

2.7 What gaps does this study fill-in?

Research on EFL teachers’ cognition and practice of formative assessment studied various contexts, from Asian countries to European and North and South America and Africa (Borg, 2011; Büyükkarcı, 2014; Young & Jackman, 2014; Karim, 2015; Quyen & Khairani, 2016; Widiastuti & Saukah, 2017; Guadu & Boersma, 2018, Widiastuti et al., 2019) However, there are only a few studies in the context of Southeast Asian countries and especially in Vietnam (Lee, 2011; Widiastuti, 2016; Ta et al., 2018)

In addition, most of the previous studies focused on only one specific key construct of teacher cognition, for example, teachers’ perceptions (Kader, 2019; Dinkel et al., 2017; Brannan & Bleistein, 2012), teachers’ perspectives (Polesel et al., 2014; Nassaji, 2012), teachers’ understanding (Silver, 2008; Sutherland et al., 2010), teachers’ conceptions (Baleghizadeh & Shahri, 2014; Remesal, 2011) There is a lack of studies researching teacher cognition as a whole, which has been mentioned in Section 2.3.2 which prevents researchers from achieving a greater sense of unity and coherence of the field

Moreover, most research on formative assessment in previous literature has made attempt to investigate the impact of teachers’ practice on students’ learning (good or not good) (Ghoorchaei et al., 2010; Burner, 2014; Abdulahi et al., 2017), there was little attention to uncover how teachers actually practice formative assessment in their classes

Last but not least, previous researchers (e.g., Burner, 2015) noticed contradictions between teachers’ continuing practice of product-oriented writing assessment and their positive beliefs of formative assessment Teachers’ cognition

of formative assessment, thus, needed to be further investigated to see what teachers know, think, and believe of formative assessment as well as how teachers’ cognition is related to their practices

Therefore, in order to fill in these gaps this study was set out to uncover teachers’ cognition and practices of formative assessment in the context of Vietnam using Borg’s (2006) adapted framework for language teacher cognition which I explain in the next section

2.8 Framework for language teacher cognition research

Although studies of language teacher cognition draw on a tradition of educational research that stretches back over 30 years, there has been a lack of terminological framework, which provides researchers with key dimensions in the study of this field (Borg, 2006) Such framework is produced and updated by Borg (2006, p 283) on the old basis of his 2003’s framework to shed light on four sets

of concepts in the study of language teacher cognition, which are teacher cognition, teacher learning (including schooling and professional coursework), contextual factors and classroom practices

Figure 2.1 Borg’s (2006) framework for language teacher cognition of formative

assessment 2.9 Borg’s (2006) adapted framework for language teacher cognition

The framework for data analysis used in this study was adapted from Borg’s (2006) framework for language teacher cognition, which was mentioned in Section 2.8 above The four sets of concepts in Borg’s (2006) framework were adapted with a view to putting emphasis on language teacher cognition of formative assessment only

Figure 2.2 Borg’s (2006) adapted framework for language teacher cognition of

formative assessment

I clarify the concepts in the adapted framework as below:

● Teacher cognition: This concept is used as a collective term for different psychological constructs, including beliefs, knowledge, theories, attitudes, assumptions, conceptions, thinking In this research, this concept highlights what teachers know, think, and believe about formative assessment

● Teacher learning (including educational, teaching background, and assessment background): This concept refers to teachers’ prior experiences of formative assessment as both learners and teachers They inform and develop teacher’s cognition, which, together with cognition, affects their classroom practice while being shaped by contextual factors It is significant to take into

● Classroom practice: This concept is defined by the interaction of teacher cognition and contextual factors, which in turn consciously or unconsciously shapes the cognition of teachers

According to Borg (2006), the significance of the framework lies in its role

in highlighting ―key themes, gaps, and conceptual relationships‖ in language teacher cognition research, and it is within this study that teachers’ cognitions of formative assessment were explored Moreover, such a framework is essential as

it ―militates against the accumulation of isolated studies conducted without sufficient awareness of how these relate to existing work‖ (Borg, 2006), and provide researchers with key dimensions in the study of language teacher cognition By using Borg’s (2006) adapted framework, I was able to systematically code and organize emerging themes in the collected data in a way that was related to the proposed research questions to reach a conclusion for these queries

In short, this study explores EFL lower-secondary teachers to investigate teachers’ cognition of formative assessment and their classroom practices on it The methodology and findings of the research are presented in the following chapters

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the approach and method applied in this study It illuminates the research strategies, instruments, and procedures adopted to select samples, collect and analyze data to address the two research questions

3.1 Case study as the research approach

This research study was constructed in the form of a case study, which was defined by Yin (1989) as ―an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used.‖ (p 23) Baxter and Jack (2008), in addition, came up with their definition of case study as ―an approach to research that facilitates exploration of a phenomenon within its context using a variety of data sources This ensures that the issue is not explored through one lens, but rather a variety of lenses which allows for multiple facets of the phenomenon to be revealed and understood‖ (p 544) From the two definitions of Yin (1989) and Baxter and Jack (2008), the case study, in its true essence, explores and investigates various sources of evidence through the detailed context of the study to provide an insightful understanding of the research problem’s aspects In this study, the two research questions explore cognition and practice of formative assessment, therefore, the usage of a combination of multiple sources of data is required to reach a conclusion Moreover, as stated by Yin (2003), researchers should consider employing a case study research design when attempting to answer the questions of ―how‖ and ―why‖ about the researched subject In this study, the

second research question asked ―How do EFL teachers use formative assessment strategies in writing lessons?‖ For those above mentioned reasons, case study

proved to be an appropriate method in this research

According to Merriam (1998), the defining characteristic of case study research is the delimitation of the case Meriam’s (1998) definition is in line with

Smith’s (1978) view of case as a bounded system and Stake’s (1995) view of case

as an integrated system, sees ―the case as a thing, a single entity, a unit around which there are boundaries‖ (p 27) In this perspective, a case can be a person, a program, a group, a specific institution, and so on Within this study, the EFL teachers, who currently work at School A are regarded as a case

3.2 Research design

I first highlight my rationale for the selection of the research sites and provide an overview of research participants, then I discuss the use of qualitative methods to search for the answer of the two research questions

3.2.1 Research site

The study was conducted at School A- a public lower-secondary school in Cau Giay district, Hanoi, Vietnam Founded in the late 1980s, School A is among the top high-quality middle schools in the country It is under the control of Cau Giay Department of Education and Training in terms of organization, human resources, finance, and facilities In 2018, School A was one of seven institutions in Hanoi city cooperating with Vietnam Education Consultants Ltd (VEC) to establish two dual degree classes, which not only applied the mainstream program developed by the Ministry of Education and Training but also employed Cambridge A-level one With a highly competitive English language environment, School A, therefore, was suitably chosen as a research site

3.2.2 Participants

In this study, eleven teachers from the department of English in School A were invited to partake in the process (a male and ten females) The participants’ teaching experiences (in both school A and other schools) ranged from five to twenty nine years and some of them are qualified with M.A in teaching English as

a foreign language (TEFL) Out of the eleven teachers, six of them (a male and five females) refused to take part in the study Thus, the total number of the participants came to be five (five females)

Background of the participants

The participants of this study will be addressed by pseudonyms as specified

in the table below, with a view to protecting their identities

Table 3.1 Participants’ background

Pseudonym Gender Qualification Years of teaching

3.3 Data collection procedure

The data collection process took place over a period of approximately two months Numerous methods were used to collect evidence to obtain the richest understanding of the research problem (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004) In the

first question ―What are EFL lower-secondary teachers’ cognitions of formative assessment?‖, I employed a semi-structured interview approach to find out the answer for this question To collect data for the second question ―How do EFL teachers use formative assessment strategies in writing classes?”, pre-teaching

and post-teaching interviews as well as class observations and document analysis were utilized The data collection procedure for each participant was illustrated in Figure 3.1 below and rationales for employing each of the above-mentioned methods were presented in the next section

Figure 3.1 Data collection procedure

Prior to the data collection process, each participant received an introductory letter, which explained the purpose of the study and a consent form, which included the procedure of data collection (see Appendix A) The participants were given an amount of time to read and ask questions to clarify their concerns with the study When they agreed with the procedure, the participants signed the consent form to show their accord After that, the researcher and participants negotiated and made arrangements of time for interviews and classroom observations

The preliminary interview, which lasted approximately 45 minutes, was conducted first to explore teachers’ background and cognition of formative assessment in writing In the next step, each participant’s teaching was observed

in two lessons Before teaching each lesson, each participant was interviewed individually in about 15 to 20 minutes to investigate what formative assessments they plan to do in the lesson After each lesson ended, teachers were interviewed

the second time in about 20 to 30 minutes to explore any changes in assessment practices that were made in their lessons and the reasons for that

3.4 Data collection instruments

Three data collection instruments were employed in this study These instruments included documents, interviews, and classroom observation Each instrument is specified in the following sections

3.4.1 Documents

Rationales for using documents

In this study context of Vietnam, ―all educational policies and activities are made top down from the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET)‖ (Albright, 2018) In other words, Vietnamese EFL lower-secondary teachers, as well as teachers in other education levels are required to follow the guidelines in official documents issued by MOET to practice teaching and assessing Therefore, documents that provided guidelines for teachers’ assessment practices were collected to be carefully analyzed By doing so, I was able to have an overview of teachers’ classroom practice and see how they were guided to employ formative assessment

Document analysis approach has been widely adopted in the literature (eg., Guedu & Boersma, 2018) in which researchers are provided with background information and broad coverage of data, thus, able to contextualize the studies within their subjects or fields (Bowen, 2009) Data from this instrument can help

to answer the second research question: “How do EFL teachers practice formative assessment strategies in writing lessons?”

3.4.2 Non-participant observation

The researcher plans to observe two teaching lessons of each participant A non-participant method, which was described as ―non-invasive and objective examination of the researched phenomenon in its usual setting‖ (Berg, 2001) was

Constructing observation checklist

In this study, the researcher utilized a well-established formative assessment observation checklist by Oswalt (2013) By utilizing the observation checklist of previous researcher in the field along with appropriate modifications,

I believe that the validity, reliability, and contextual pertinence is ensured The checklist included five formative assessment components corresponding to five formative strategies (as mentioned in section 2.2), rating 20 specific items, which are grouped by component A Likert-type 1-5 scale (1 = no evidence of use to 5 = pervasive or highly effective use) was used to indicate whether and to what degree each item was observed in the lesson In addition, I added one more column to the right of the checklist in order to note down further details of the observed items (see Appendix B)

At first, I planned to observe all participants’ writing classes as mentioned

in the data collection procedure (Section 3.3) However, due to the obstacle of the

coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic, which made School A be closed, I could only observe two writing lessons of one participant The limitations of this study will

be later presented in Section 5.3

The table below indicates the specific details of Helen’s observation session

Table 3.2 Observation details

3.4.3 Interviews

Rationales for using interviews

Mangubhai et al (2004) emphasizes the value of interview in eliciting verbal accounts of teachers’ cognitive processes as it ―allows prominence to be given to the voice of teachers rather than that of researchers, an important consideration for ensuring fidelity of accounts of practice and their rationales.‖ (p 294) For that reason, several interviews were conducted to dig deep into teachers’ cognitive processes While being interviewed, the participants were able to profoundly reflect on their cognitions and practical theories of formative assessment Semi-structured interviews were employed to make rooms for participants to express themselves and provide evidence for the researcher to answer the two proposed research questions All interviews were conducted using interview protocols, recorded with the participants’ consent and transcribed for later analysis

Constructing interview protocols

On designing the interview protocols, I referred to Borg’s (2006) adapted Framework for Language Teacher Cognition to create questions that explore teachers’ use of formative assessment on four areas of framework: Teachers’

Contextual factors, Classroom practices While the preliminary interview concentrated on participants’ cognition of formative assessment, the pre-teaching and post-teaching interviews focused on their assessment practices inside the classroom and the reasons behind that

Interview protocols for preliminary, pre-teaching, post-teaching used in this

study are attached in Appendix C of this paper

Conducting interviews

In all interviews, I stuck to the interview protocols to collect the data Although the participants showed their agreement with the data collection procedure in the consent form, which they had signed in advance, I still asked each participant again for their permission to record all the interviews I also let participants choose the places to conduct interviews for their convenience The details of each interview was indicated in table 3.2 below

Table 3.3 Interview details

Participant Name of interview Place Date Duration

Helen

Preliminary interview Helen’s home 12/1/2020 45 minutes Pre-lesson interview 1 Classroom 15/1/2020 12 minutes Post-lesson interview 1 Classroom 15/1/2020 20 minutes Pre-lesson interview 2 Classroom 15/1/2020 15 minutes Post-lesson interview 2 Classroom 15/1/2020 20 minutes Tracy

Preliminary interview Tracy’s home 21/2/2020 40 minutes Pre-lesson interview 1 Tracy’s home 21/2/2020 15 minutes

Vee Preliminary interview Vee’s home 28/2/2020 40 minutes

Pre-lesson interview 1 Vee’s home 28/2/2020 15 minutes

Gwen Preliminary interview Classroom 5/3/2020 42 minutes

Pre-lesson interview 1 Classroom 5/3/2020 15 minutes Lucy Preliminary interview Lucy’s home 5/3/2020 38 minutes

Pre-lesson interview 1 Lucy’s home 5/3/2020 12 minutes

All interviews were conducted in Vietnamese as participants felt more comfortable to express their ideas in mother tongue language

3.5 Thematic data analysis

In this section, an attempt will be made to explain the process of analyzing the data, which I collected from the participants Thematic analysis, which is a

―foundational method for qualitative analysis‖ (p 78) was employed in this study

as it is ―useful in organizing and describing qualitative data set in rich details‖ (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p.79) Furthermore, one outstanding feature of this method is that it was able to ―report experiences, meanings, and the reality of participants‖ (Braun & Clarke, 2006 P 81)

In order to carry out the method, I followed the guide through ―a six-phase approach to thematic analysis‖ (p.87) by Braun and Clarke (2006) In the first phase, which indicated the process of familiarizing with the data, I transcribed all the interviews precisely, then re-read carefully and made margin notes for the transcript, the observation notes, and collected documents to highlight the information that might be relevant to the research questions In the next phase, which is ―Generating initial codes‖, I looked through the transcript, the documents, and the notes again, and from the relevant information, I systematically produced the initial codes, which identified the semantic (manifest) and latent levels of meaning of the data The semantic level or manifest level is what is ―directly observable in the information‖, while the latent level describes what is ―underlying the phenomenon‖ (DeSantis & Ugarriza, 2000, p.52) and refers to the factors in Borg (2006)’s adapted framework (section 2.8)

After producing the codes, the next phase involves sorting the relevant codes into potential themes When I already completed analyzing the data from each participant to create sets of themes, a cross-analysis would be conducted among the themes of five participants to identify the recurring ones

As above mentioned, three data collection instruments including documents, interviews, and classroom observation were employed in this study The evidence from the documents, as well as the observation notes and checklist, were compared with the interview data to collate and triangulate information with

a view to increasing the validity and reliability of the study process and results (Baxter & Jack, 2008)

Illustration of interview transcript analysis

This section indicates how the data collected from interviews was analyzed Two stages of the coding process, which are ―First Cycle‖ and ―Second Cycle‖ were carried out (Saldaña, 2009, p 3) In the First Cycle Coding processes, I thoroughly read the interview transcripts line by line and code the pieces of information that might be relevant to the research questions I used two types of coding methods, which were proposed by Saldaña (2009) The first one is

Descriptive Code, which ―summarizes the primary topic‖ of a sentence or a

passage in the transcripts in a word a short phrase (Saldaña, 2009, p 3) For instance, such codes as ―Gain experiences‖, ―Passion in teaching‖, ―Conservative

mind‖, etc were regarded as Descriptive Codes The table 3.4 below illustrates an

example of Descriptive Code in more details

Table 3.4 Descriptive coding in interview analysis

Example excerpt First-level coding Type of code

…cho các bạn report trước lớp, phần

đánh giá của cô là bạn report một

cách tự tin, trôi chảy, mặc dù có thể

có một số lỗi ngữ pháp trong câu đầy

The second coding method that I employed was In Vivo Code, which is ―is taken

directly from what the participant himself says and is placed in quotation marks‖ (Saldaña, 2009, p 3) The table 3.5 below shows an example of In Vivo Code

Table 3.5 In Vivo coding

Example excerpt First-level coding Type of code

Theo cô thì cái định nghĩa về đánh

giá quá trình hay là đánh giá thường

xuyên này thì cô nghĩ là nó vẫn theo

một cái quy định của điểm số, cô

nghĩ là nó không thay đổi

―Depends on mark’s rules‖

Illustration of document analysis

To analyze the data collected from official documents issued by MOET, I

mainly coded using In Vivo coding, which was clearly defined and indicated in the

paragraph above The table below presents an example of how I used this type of code to analyze documents

Table 3.6 In Vivo coding in document analysis

Bài kiểm tra thường xuyên sẽ gồm có

bài kiểm tra hỏi-đáp cho kỹ năng nói

và kiểm tra viết

Ask and answer test for speaking skill

written test

In Vivo coding

Illustration of observation notes analysis

To analyze the data from the observation note, I employed Process Code

method, which is ―a word or phrase capturing action‖, aimed to ―find repetitive patterns of action and consistencies in human affairs as documented in the data‖ (Saldaña, 2009, p 5) The table 3.7 below shows an example of Process Code

Table 3.7 Process coding

When T shows picture 3, Ss say

―No‖ T asks ―Why do you say no?‖

Ss explain to the T the reasons for

their answer

T asks Ss to work in groups of 4 and

list out reasons for each type of

pollution in each picture

Ask for explanation

Assign students to groupwork

Process coding

3.6 Ethical considerations

Participation in this study was totally voluntary All participants were explained carefully about the data collection procedure as well as their roles before accepting to participate in the research For their agreement, each participant signed the consent form and received one copy of it (Appendix A)

The participants’ identities were protected during the research process.Their names in this study have been changed using pseudonyms to ensure their anonymity Furthermore, all the videos or tapes recorded will by no means be disclosed to the public and were accessed by the researcher and her supervisor only to maintain confidentiality

In addition, before handing in the final paper, the participants read again the transcript of their interviews and findings of the research to ensure their agreement with the results

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter reports the findings about the case of five EFL teachers’ cognition and practices in formation assessment at School A My analysis of the case is based on the framework of teacher cognition of formative assessment which I adapted from Borg’s (2006) original framework of teacher cognition The framework has been presented in Section 2.9 of Chapter 2; however, to help readers follow my analysis in this chapter more easily, I display it again in Figure 4.1 below

Figure 4.1 Borg’s (2006) adapted framework for language teacher cognition of

formative assessment

How each component of the framework is understood has been elaborated in Section 2.9 of Chapter 2