| Summary: | Studies have shown that the practice of formative assessment is a challenge to many
teachers. Teachers are either entrenched in their old habits and methods of
assessment or they have not been adequately trained to apply formative assessment
in the instructional process. It has been argued that formative assessment can raise
standards and improve learners’ poor performances (Black and William, 2001). This
study explored Grade 4 English language teachers’ practice of formative
assessment: their understanding, practice and experiences within the micro-level of
classroom instruction. Within the case study method data were collected through
observations, interviews and document analyses. Bernstein’s (1996) concept of
framing of evaluative criteria as operationalized by Morais (2002) framed the
analyses of data in the study. The results showed that: three out of the four teachers
were not conversant with formative assessment; they lacked the skills in effectively
using evaluative criteria in the instructional context. The teachers’ conceptualization
of transmission of evaluative criteria corresponded to weak framing. Thus their
control of communicating the evaluative criteria by way of the lesson objectives,
feedback and transmission of the knowledge were tacit. Those teachers were trained
in South Africa, one teacher in the Apartheid Era while the other two were trained
post-Apartheid. The fourth teacher, a Zimbabwean, and educated in Zimbabwe,
was able to explain and practice formative assessment to a greater extent. Her
control over communicating the evaluative criteria of lesson objectives and feedback
within the context of instruction were strongly framed. Other factors inhibiting the
three teachers from effectively using formative assessment, could be, large classes
and insufficient time. The Zimbabwean teacher, however, was exposed to the same
classroom constraints.
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