摘要
The past two decades have seen formative assessment claim legitimacy in policy discourse and engender immense tensions within the testing-dominated assessment regimes of multiple educational settings.These tensions,along with the top-down approach of the policy process,have made the inroads of formative assessment in local contexts very complex.This study seeks to unveil the localized appropriation and actualization of a formative assessment initiative in the College English area at a Chinese local university.The focus is on how the key actors at the institutional and classroom levels appropriate and negotiate the policy meaning within their local community of practice.Analysis of an individual interview with the dean and a focus-group interview with six 1 teachers has revealed a“two-hand”approach to the national policy and a nested mediation from local constraints,“cultural tools for thinking”and,more importantly,power in the policymaking process at the institutional level.The classroom level,on the other hand,witnesses capable teachers exercising their agency within a limited space.As a result,we would caution that power and agency could be solid mediators in the policy process and need to be exercised with care to ensure a more coherent implementation of assessment innovations.
本世纪以来,形成性评价在世界范围的教育政策话语中获得合法地位,并在以终结性考试为主导的评价体系中引发了系列性的紧张与冲突。这些冲突,与当地自上而下的政策推行方式叠加,使形成性评价在本土环境中的内化进程变得格外复杂。本研究的主要目的是呈现形成性评价在中国某地方大学大学英语学科的情境化挪用与现实化实践,重点考察学院与课堂层面的关键参与者如何在具体的工作环境中解读、在实践中协商形成性评价的政策含义。基于对学院领导的个人访谈和六位教师的焦点小组访谈,本研究发现:该校在学院层面使用了“两手抓”的措施回应国家层面的评价政策;最终评价政策的制定则是所处情境、“文化思维工具”,以及权力综合作用的结果。课堂层面的考察则发现有能力的教师在有限的权力空间内发挥着评价的自主能动性。籍此提出警示:权力和能动性是政策过程的关键中介因素,他们的妥善处理对确保课程评价改革的连贯实施有重要意义。
基金
based on research projects sponsored by the National Social Science Fund of China(NSSFC)(No.17BYY100)
the China Association of Higher Education—Foreign Language Teaching and Research Association[21WYJYYB24]。
