Classroom Writing Assessment and Feedback in L2 School Contexts
The primary goal of this book is to explore how classroom writing assessment can be used to infor... more The primary goal of this book is to explore how classroom writing assessment can be used to inform and improve learning and teaching. This chapter lays the theoretical and pedagogical foundations for the book by examining the purpose, theory, and practice of classroom writing assessment.
With a growing awareness of the limitations of a transmissive mode of education and a one-size-fi... more With a growing awareness of the limitations of a transmissive mode of education and a one-size-fits-all approach to teacher education, teachers’ active involvement is increasingly recognized as a crucial component of their continuous professional development (CPD). In many EFL (English as a foreign language) contexts, however, CPD is still largely built on the premise of knowledge transmission and knowledge consumption. The present study seeks to explore how EFL teachers can be made to play a more active role by participating as presenters at CPD seminars, as well as the ways in which such a mode of CPD can promote teacher learning. Using questionnaire and email interview data from 166 seminar participants and 4 teacher presenters respectively, the study shows that opportunities for teachers’ knowledge sharing and production at CPD seminars can enrich teacher learning. The paper concludes that a more robust form of teachers’ CPD should see teachers play a much more active role than ...
This study investigates the reactions of students in two Hong Kong secondary classrooms to their ... more This study investigates the reactions of students in two Hong Kong secondary classrooms to their teachers’ feedback, focusing particularly on the factors that might have influenced their reactions. Student data from questionnaires, checklists and protocols were triangulated with teacher data from interviews, classroom observations and feedback analysis to situate student reactions in their specific contexts. The results show that students, irrespective of proficiency level, wanted more written comments from teachers. The students of lower proficiency were less interested in error feedback than those of higher proficiency, though both groups preferred more explicit error feedback from teachers. Students did not understand all of the teacher feedback, which could be due to its illegibility, apart from other plausible factors not explored in the study. The results suggest that the teachers’ feedback, which was mostly teacher-centred, made students passive and dependent on teachers. The...
Feedback in writing has in recent years attracted the attention of an increasing number of writin... more Feedback in writing has in recent years attracted the attention of an increasing number of writing researchers. While much feedback research focuses on the act of feedback per se, little attention has been paid to the issue of teacher readiness to implement change in feedback. Using data gathered from Hong Kong secondary teachers attending a teacher education seminar on feedback in writing, this article investigates teachers’ readiness to implement change in feedback as well as their perceptions of the factors that may facilitate or inhibit change. The findings show that while teachers may be cognitively aware of the need for a feedback revolution, there are obstacles that get in the way of innovation. The article concludes that if teachers are to start a feedback revolution a number of issues have to be addressed, including enhancing teacher training and empowering teachers.
While research on error correction has focused a great deal on whether teachers should correct er... more While research on error correction has focused a great deal on whether teachers should correct errors in student writing and how they should go about it, teacher beliefs and perceptions regarding error feedback have received relatively little attention. This study investigated L2 writing teachers’ perspectives, practices and problems regarding error feedback. A questionnaire was administered to 206 secondary English teachers in Hong Kong and follow-up telephone interviews were conducted with 19 of them. The questionnaire consisted of both open and close-ended questions, asking teachers about how they correct student errors in writing, how they perceive their work in error correction, as well as their concerns and problems. The follow-up interviews, which were semi-structured, provided in-depth information about salient aspects of the questionnaire findings. The results of the study show that although selective marking is recommended both in the local English syllabus and error corre...
While collaborative writing has been increasingly investigated in educational research, little is... more While collaborative writing has been increasingly investigated in educational research, little is known about whether and how it is adopted as a pedagogical activity in classroom contexts. This exploratory study investigated EFL teachers' perceptions of the implementation of collaborative writing in Chinese tertiary institutions. The analysis of in-depth interviews with 31 EFL teachers from 13 institutions in the People's Republic of China and their teaching materials reveals mismatches between their perceptions and practices, as well as their perceptions and knowledge. While the teachers perceived collaborative writing as valuable and feasible, more than half of them were not using it, and their perceptions were not supported by sound teacher knowledge. Practical implications are provided for implementing collaborative writing in classroom contexts.
This qualitative study examines how four pre-service language teachers learned about CT and CT te... more This qualitative study examines how four pre-service language teachers learned about CT and CT teaching through engaging in overseas field school experience in New Zealand. Informed by relevant literature on CT and a Vygotskyan sociocultural perspective, the study revealed that overseas field school experience was facilitative for the student teachers to foster CT skills and dispositions and cultivate CT-oriented pedagogies. The student teachers mostly developed a sense of agency to tackle contextual constraints and integrate CT with their future language teaching. The findings have implications for preparing pre-service teachers to teach CT through overseas immersion programs.
Research in second language teacher education (SLTE) has provided evidence for the impermeability... more Research in second language teacher education (SLTE) has provided evidence for the impermeability of teachers’ beliefs (Golombek, 1998; Johnson, 1994; Peacock, 2001), though much less is known about whether SLTE can influence or trigger changes in student teachers’ (STs) beliefs about teaching and learning. This chapter reports the findings of a study that investigates the changing beliefs of 19 STs enrolled in a pre-service teacher education programme in Hong Kong. Playing the role of the teacher-researcher in the study, I used an ‘image of teaching’ task — similar to Farrell’s (2006) metaphors for learning and teaching — to elicit the STs’ initial beliefs on entry to the teacher education programme, as well as a reflection task at the end of a 14-week course entitled ‘Introduction to English Language Teaching’ (IELT) to investigate possible changes in their beliefs about language teaching and learning. Interviews were also conducted with the STs at the end of the IELT course to find out what might have triggered the changes, if any, in their beliefs.
Although previous studies have examined the impact of online formative assessment on second langu... more Although previous studies have examined the impact of online formative assessment on second language learners' writing development, scant attention has been paid to how writing teachers engage with online formative assessment and the influencing factors. By exploring three English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) writing teachers' engagement with online formative assessment during COVID-19 in three universities in China, the qualitative case study identified three types of teacher engagement: disturbing, auxiliary, and integral, embodied by their varied emotional, physical-cognitive, and social investment in the formative use of information communication and technology in writing assessment. These individualized engagements were primarily influenced by teachers' beliefs, digital literacies, and learning/teaching experiences, and mediated by relevant contextual and technological factors. Implications are provided for supporting EFL writing teachers' engagement with online formative assessment.
Classroom Writing Assessment and Feedback in L2 School Contexts
The primary goal of this book is to explore how classroom writing assessment can be used to infor... more The primary goal of this book is to explore how classroom writing assessment can be used to inform and improve learning and teaching. This chapter lays the theoretical and pedagogical foundations for the book by examining the purpose, theory, and practice of classroom writing assessment.
With a growing awareness of the limitations of a transmissive mode of education and a one-size-fi... more With a growing awareness of the limitations of a transmissive mode of education and a one-size-fits-all approach to teacher education, teachers’ active involvement is increasingly recognized as a crucial component of their continuous professional development (CPD). In many EFL (English as a foreign language) contexts, however, CPD is still largely built on the premise of knowledge transmission and knowledge consumption. The present study seeks to explore how EFL teachers can be made to play a more active role by participating as presenters at CPD seminars, as well as the ways in which such a mode of CPD can promote teacher learning. Using questionnaire and email interview data from 166 seminar participants and 4 teacher presenters respectively, the study shows that opportunities for teachers’ knowledge sharing and production at CPD seminars can enrich teacher learning. The paper concludes that a more robust form of teachers’ CPD should see teachers play a much more active role than ...
This study investigates the reactions of students in two Hong Kong secondary classrooms to their ... more This study investigates the reactions of students in two Hong Kong secondary classrooms to their teachers’ feedback, focusing particularly on the factors that might have influenced their reactions. Student data from questionnaires, checklists and protocols were triangulated with teacher data from interviews, classroom observations and feedback analysis to situate student reactions in their specific contexts. The results show that students, irrespective of proficiency level, wanted more written comments from teachers. The students of lower proficiency were less interested in error feedback than those of higher proficiency, though both groups preferred more explicit error feedback from teachers. Students did not understand all of the teacher feedback, which could be due to its illegibility, apart from other plausible factors not explored in the study. The results suggest that the teachers’ feedback, which was mostly teacher-centred, made students passive and dependent on teachers. The...
Feedback in writing has in recent years attracted the attention of an increasing number of writin... more Feedback in writing has in recent years attracted the attention of an increasing number of writing researchers. While much feedback research focuses on the act of feedback per se, little attention has been paid to the issue of teacher readiness to implement change in feedback. Using data gathered from Hong Kong secondary teachers attending a teacher education seminar on feedback in writing, this article investigates teachers’ readiness to implement change in feedback as well as their perceptions of the factors that may facilitate or inhibit change. The findings show that while teachers may be cognitively aware of the need for a feedback revolution, there are obstacles that get in the way of innovation. The article concludes that if teachers are to start a feedback revolution a number of issues have to be addressed, including enhancing teacher training and empowering teachers.
While research on error correction has focused a great deal on whether teachers should correct er... more While research on error correction has focused a great deal on whether teachers should correct errors in student writing and how they should go about it, teacher beliefs and perceptions regarding error feedback have received relatively little attention. This study investigated L2 writing teachers’ perspectives, practices and problems regarding error feedback. A questionnaire was administered to 206 secondary English teachers in Hong Kong and follow-up telephone interviews were conducted with 19 of them. The questionnaire consisted of both open and close-ended questions, asking teachers about how they correct student errors in writing, how they perceive their work in error correction, as well as their concerns and problems. The follow-up interviews, which were semi-structured, provided in-depth information about salient aspects of the questionnaire findings. The results of the study show that although selective marking is recommended both in the local English syllabus and error corre...
While collaborative writing has been increasingly investigated in educational research, little is... more While collaborative writing has been increasingly investigated in educational research, little is known about whether and how it is adopted as a pedagogical activity in classroom contexts. This exploratory study investigated EFL teachers' perceptions of the implementation of collaborative writing in Chinese tertiary institutions. The analysis of in-depth interviews with 31 EFL teachers from 13 institutions in the People's Republic of China and their teaching materials reveals mismatches between their perceptions and practices, as well as their perceptions and knowledge. While the teachers perceived collaborative writing as valuable and feasible, more than half of them were not using it, and their perceptions were not supported by sound teacher knowledge. Practical implications are provided for implementing collaborative writing in classroom contexts.
This qualitative study examines how four pre-service language teachers learned about CT and CT te... more This qualitative study examines how four pre-service language teachers learned about CT and CT teaching through engaging in overseas field school experience in New Zealand. Informed by relevant literature on CT and a Vygotskyan sociocultural perspective, the study revealed that overseas field school experience was facilitative for the student teachers to foster CT skills and dispositions and cultivate CT-oriented pedagogies. The student teachers mostly developed a sense of agency to tackle contextual constraints and integrate CT with their future language teaching. The findings have implications for preparing pre-service teachers to teach CT through overseas immersion programs.
Research in second language teacher education (SLTE) has provided evidence for the impermeability... more Research in second language teacher education (SLTE) has provided evidence for the impermeability of teachers’ beliefs (Golombek, 1998; Johnson, 1994; Peacock, 2001), though much less is known about whether SLTE can influence or trigger changes in student teachers’ (STs) beliefs about teaching and learning. This chapter reports the findings of a study that investigates the changing beliefs of 19 STs enrolled in a pre-service teacher education programme in Hong Kong. Playing the role of the teacher-researcher in the study, I used an ‘image of teaching’ task — similar to Farrell’s (2006) metaphors for learning and teaching — to elicit the STs’ initial beliefs on entry to the teacher education programme, as well as a reflection task at the end of a 14-week course entitled ‘Introduction to English Language Teaching’ (IELT) to investigate possible changes in their beliefs about language teaching and learning. Interviews were also conducted with the STs at the end of the IELT course to find out what might have triggered the changes, if any, in their beliefs.
Although previous studies have examined the impact of online formative assessment on second langu... more Although previous studies have examined the impact of online formative assessment on second language learners' writing development, scant attention has been paid to how writing teachers engage with online formative assessment and the influencing factors. By exploring three English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) writing teachers' engagement with online formative assessment during COVID-19 in three universities in China, the qualitative case study identified three types of teacher engagement: disturbing, auxiliary, and integral, embodied by their varied emotional, physical-cognitive, and social investment in the formative use of information communication and technology in writing assessment. These individualized engagements were primarily influenced by teachers' beliefs, digital literacies, and learning/teaching experiences, and mediated by relevant contextual and technological factors. Implications are provided for supporting EFL writing teachers' engagement with online formative assessment.
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