Exploring the Washback of a Renewed Assessment System on Teaching

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Washback has been defined as the impact of assessment practices on teaching and learning. By the same token, positive washback is the effect that any classroom teacher would expect from her evaluation practices. Just like learning is the goal expected in any teaching-learning experience, positive washback both on teaching and learning is the vehicle for formative assessment to take place in the classroom setting. Standardized external large-scale testing seems to have been the focus of washback studies on teaching while studies on washback of classroom assessment practices on teaching remain scarce. As an effort to bridge that gap, this qualitative case study focused on exploring the washback effect of a renewed assessment system on teaching. The fact of having engaged teachers in such renewal became an important action intended to empower teachers to carry out informed assessment practices. Consequently, positive washback effect on their teaching was the main expected result. The participants were seven teachers of a program out of whom two focal cases, who I will name Sun and Butterfly, were analyzed in depth. Data collection included document analysis, class observations, pre- and post-observation interviews, and a questionnaire. The analysis of the two focal cases evidenced specific positive strong washback of the performance assessment procedures—which were the main focus of the changes implemented during the renewal—on the teaching of Sun, the teacher who had participated actively in the curricular renewal. Such procedures mainly impacted her planning and class dynamics including the selection and use of material, her role and interactions with students in class, the type of assignments she proposed, and her assessment practices in general terms. Contrariwise, traditional testing procedures—which were found to have been overlooked during the renewal—showed to have had weak washback effect on teaching. Main results evidenced a strong coherent connection of teaching and assessment as the most important washback effect of the performance assessment procedures on the practices of the faculty. Finally, teachers’ active participation in curricular changes was corroborated as an important means that allows for the development and exercise of teacher autonomy and promotes positive washback on teaching.