Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Cathryn White

Abstract

An international school in a Middle Eastern country provides five language options to students in the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) program in preparation for the international baccalaureate program. However, despite the use of formative assessments by language teachers, students’ scores on the IGCSE written language exams have not improved over 3 years. Therefore, the problem investigated in this study was that secondary language teachers are challenged to promote writing achievement for students at the study site. The purpose of this basic qualitative study, guided by Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory in second language learning, was to investigate secondary language teachers’ perspectives regarding the implementation of formative assessments to promote writing achievement for students at the study site. This basic qualitative study included Zoom interviews with 10 secondary language teachers teaching at the research site for 1 to 7 years. Using content analysis, data were coded using open coding, and then classified into themes using inductive analysis. Four themes: a) teachers perceive professional development (CPD), collaboration, time, and resources are needed, b) teachers use formative assessment to monitor and evaluate progress and inform instruction, c) teachers use formative strategies to evaluate curriculum progress, and d) teachers perceive time and students’ attributes as barriers, indicated that a 3-day professional development project was needed to support teachers’ use of formative assessments to improve students’ writing skills. This project may result in social change by strengthening secondary language teachers’ understanding of formative assessments and improving instruction for students in writing, resulting in improved performance on writing assessments at the study site.

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