Investigating Alternative Assessment Practices in Pre-service English Teacher Education Programs

Abstract

The general purpose of this study was to examine the place of alternative assessments in the Egyptian pre-service English teacher education programs. A hundred fourth year student teachers of English participated in the present study on a voluntary basis. A closed response questionnaire that included thirty two alternative assessment strategies, followed by five options: always, often, sometimes, rarely, and never, was developed, judged, modified, and distributed to the participants to complete. The findings of the study indicated that the response “never” got the highest percentage followed by “rarely”, then “sometimes” for most of the suggested alternative assessment strategies. Such findings imply that the frequently used assessment strategies are traditional (paper-and-pencil achievement tests). This indicates that English teacher educators need real and immediate guidance in designing and using alternative methods of assessment.