Influences of Selected personal and Contextual Factors on Primary School Teachers’ Formative Assessment Practices in Sheger City

Abstract

This study aimed to identify teachers’ level of formative assessment practice and examine the main personal and contextual factors that influence this practice. A mixed methods research approach, involving an explanatory sequential design, was employed. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select participants for the survey. Teachers’ survey questionnaires, principals’ (key informants) interviews, classroom observation, and students’ focus group discussion guides were used to gather data. Frequency counts, percentages, and multiple regression were used to analyse the quantitative data. The qualitative data were analysed using the deductive organization of responses from participants into themes, and the two data strands were then logically integrated. Findings showed that teachers' formative assessment practices varied widely. Although most teachers self-reported as proficient or advanced uses of formative assessment, classroom observations indicated mainly limited practices of formative assessment. The discrepancies between self-reported data and observed practices suggest potential overestimation in self-assessments. The major factors hampering a successful formative assessment practice in primary schools are teachers’ low level of understanding of the strategies of formative assessment, minimal support from school leaders, the school's tendency to promote the summative assessment type, large class size, teachers teaching subjects they were not trained for or not adequately trained for, and the absence of instructional materials (including textbooks). Implications for practice and policies in the area of formative assessment were discussed.