Tale of two science teachers’ formative assessment practices in a similar school environment

This study shows that teachers within the same school environment can exhibit formative assessment practices that are poles apart on the formative assessment practice continuum. It supports many other studies that show how teachers in similar schools have very different formative assessment practices (Black et al., 2004; Marshall & Drummond, 2006; Robinson et al., 2014; Wiliam & Thompson, 2007). Therefore, it is not only the presence of the physical aspects or other individuals in the environment that have an impact on teachers’ formative assessment practices. This study seems to indicate that investigations should probably go beyond the presence of the entities in the environment and to take a closer look at the bidirectional relationships which is also illustrated in the Ecology System Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1995). Bidirectional relationships are the interconnectivity or communications between two entities in similar environment and their influences each other. For example, Alif and Hafiz were colleagues working in a similar school environment but they practiced very different formative assessment strategies. This may indicate that just the presence of other individuals in one’s environment may not be single factor to influence their practices. Further studies should be done to investigate and examine these bidirectional relationships found in teachers’ microsystem to see its impact on teachers’ formative assessment practices.