AN INVESTIGATION OF TURKISH EFL INSTRUCTORS’ CONCEPTION OF ASSESSMENT AT TERTIARY LEVEL

Abstract

This study was carried out with the aim of uncovering how Turkish EFL teachers perceive assessments regarding the conceptions of improvement, school and student accountability, conception of irrelevance, and diagnosing the relationship between these perceptions. The participants consisted of 80 English instructors currently teaching in preparatory classes at Turkish universities. The data were gathered using the Teachers’ Conceptions of Assessment Abridged Survey (TCoA IIIA), utilizing a 6-point Likert scale that ranged from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The collected quantitative data were subjected to analysis through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 23) software. The results of inferential statistics demonstrated that the conception of improvement had the highest score among all subgroups, with participants' strong agreement on that assessment is used for the purpose of enhancing learning. Conversely, the concept of irrelevance received the lowest score and the lowest level of agreement among all the conceptions. Subsequently, the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was employed to identify the relationship between levels of these conceptions. The correlation findings revealed a strong and positive correlation between improvement and school accountability. Building on these outcomes, improvement and student accountability displayed a positive and moderate correlation. Among the other three conceptions, there were positive and moderate correlations. On the other hand, there was no correlation observed between the conception of irrelevance and any other three conceptions. Lastly, the inferential outcomes of the items were analyzed in conjunction with existing studies on assessment conceptions. It was inferred that Turkish EFL instructors accept formative assessment as beneficial for their students, with the

methods used potentially varying. Emphasizing the providing of feedback to their students has paramount importance in their assessment practices. Secondly, it was inferred that the Turkish EFL teachers’ assessment preferences and conceptions do not contradict the current system in the preparatory classes