Alternative Assessment: Student Designed Test Evidence in an Iranian EFL Context

Abstract

In the past decade, educators have realized that alternative assessments are an important means of gaining a dynamic picture of students’ academic and linguistic development (Tannenbaum, 1996). Alternative assessment consists of portfolio assessment, self-assessment, projects, observations, presentations, journal keeping, interviews, and student designed tests (Coombe, Folse, & Hubley, 2007). The purpose of this study is to find out how the process of having students design tests would help them and their classroom teachers in assessing students’ progress and learning. To this end, 120 junior high school male third graders studying at Imam Khomeini School located in Tehran, Iran were selected, grouped, and asked to design tests based on their English course book. Each group was given two chapters of their course book to design tests. Students were free to write as many test items in any format for any skills or sub-skills they would like. The data collection procedure was done in the classroom so they could not use sample test items nor could they use their workbooks in which students can find some sample tests. The collected questions were analyzed in terms of test format as well as skills and sub-skills. Furthermore, in order to have a better understanding of the probable reasons behind designing such tests by the students, both students and their teacher were interviewed. The results of the study revealed that students benefited from their tests, and the study helped them to review the book content in detail. However, the results revealed that students did not pay enough attention to certain key parts of each chapter, and their test-item formats suffered from a lack of variety.