Moroccan EFL Secondary School Teachers’ Current Practices and Challenges of Formative Assessment

This study aims at achieving two fundamental objectives: (1) exploring the extent to which Moroccan EFL secondary school teachers apply questioning, teacher feedback, peer-assessment and self-assessment as forms of formative assessment, and (2) identifying the micro and macro challenges that render the effective utility of formative assessment difficult. Despite the theoretical prominence of formative assessment, it has not been adequately addressed by research in Morocco. Therefore, exploring formative assessment practices might lead to a great understanding of what practices Moroccan EFL secondary school teachers frequently draw on to assess learners formatively. Following an explanatory sequential mixed-method design, the present study has gathered data from 98 EFL secondary school teachers using both questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The most important results reveal that not all formative assessment practices are frequently employed and that teachers experience a number of contextual, institutional and pedagogical challenges. The results obtained from this study are vital to different stakeholders: practitioners, teacher trainers, decision makers, researchers and teachers as well.