Assessment for Learning: What EFL Student Teachers Learn from Video Self-Reflection Tasks

Abstract

Despite the distinction made between formative and summative assessment, both forms of assessment play a crucial role in teachers’ preparation for the teaching profession. However, compared to the summative assessment, the formative assessment is not a common practice in most teacher education institutions in the Republic of Benin. This form of assessment is either non-existent or it receives little attention due to a variety of reasons among which, teacher trainers’ distrust, their reluctance to use it with large numbers of trainees, their ignorance of what it really entails as well as the benefits for trainees, and an examination-oriented school system. This research work is an experiment carried out to examine the effect of formative assessment on a group of Beninese EFL trainees. The type of formative assessment they went through is the microteaching video self-reflection. The aim of the study is to explore their perceptions of classroom teaching through microteaching video self-reflection, what they learned from the experiment, and their appraisal of it. During the experiment, qualitative data were gathered from them through their written reflections. The results reveal trainees’ positive attitudes towards the experience and their view of the reflection task as a valuable learning tool.