Arabic Language teachers and Islamic Education teachers’ awareness of authentic assessment in Jordan

This study aimed at investigating Islamic Education teachers’ and Arabic Language teachers’ perceptions of authentic assessment in Jordan, and exploring the effects of factors related to teachers’ specialization, gender and years of experience on their understanding of the implications of this kind of assessment. In this mixed-method research, a demographic survey was designed and distributed to 119 elementary teachers at Zarqa city in Jordan. In addition to the survey, 26 teachers were interviewed. Research findings indicated positive awareness of the implications of authentic assessment in the classroom. Moreover, the findings indicated that elementary teachers have high levels of awareness of the majority of the survey items. Furthermore, the results revealed that there were no significant differences in teachers’ awareness according to their specialization or to the number of years of experience. However, there were significant associations between teachers’ awareness and gender in favor of females.