Synchronous online teaching through video-conferencing software (VCS) has become a common mode of instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. This mode brings unique challenges for teachers that require specific professional digital competences. One such challenge is conducting formative assessment. Through the use of in-depth interviews with nine Hong Kong university teachers who had taught synchronously online for one semester, this exploratory study explored the challenges of conducting formative assessment during synchronous online lessons and the strategies teachers deploy to conduct formative assessment. The findings indicate that the key difficulties include gathering information on students' needs, checking students' understanding, giving individual feedback, and building relationships with students. To address these challenges, the teachers suggested four pedagogical strategies: (1) Combine synchronous with asynchronous approaches; (2) Utilise breakout rooms; (3) Utilise poll functions of the VCS and combine it with other online platforms; and (4) Provide time before or after lessons for informal conversations. The findings suggest that teachers need to develop specific pedagogical strategies to conduct formative assessment. This provides an initial conceptualisation of one important dimension of Professional Digital Competence, teaching using digital technologies, and one aspect of that dimension, how teachers use digital tools and strategies to conduct formative assessment. Copyright © 2023 Taylor & Francis.

Purpose: This study aims to examine the impact of the transformation of an assessment on students' performance and perspectives in an English for Academic Purposes course in Hong Kong. The assessment was changed from the traditional pen-and-paper mode to an unproctored online mode. Design/methodology/approach: Using mixed methods, the research team analysed the differences between the assessment performances of those who took the course before the pandemic (n = 664) and those who took it during the pandemic (n = 702). Furthermore, focus group interviews were conducted with seven students regarding their perspectives on the unproctored assessment. Findings: The results revealed that, although there were no major differences in the overall grades of the two groups, students who were assessed online during the pandemic performed significantly better in terms of their English use. Nevertheless, the shift to online assessment had several negative effects on the students. Originality/value: Previous studies on unproctored online assessments (UOA) were concerned with potential learning quality issues, such as plagiarism and grade inflation. This study, however, provided empirical evidence that high-quality assessment delivery can be provided via UOA if the question types and assessment arrangements are carefully decided. Copyright © 2023 Emerald.

This study investigated how English learners complete multimodal formative quizzes. Participants included 17,950 students enrolled in a mandatory English for Academic Purposes course at a university in Hong Kong. We retrieved data from Blackboard, a learning management system, and conducted a two-step cluster analysis to examine student self-regulated learning (SRL) profiles with the quizzes. We first identified five clusters of learners with distinctively different self-regulated learning patterns. Then, we performed a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to further explore their differences in SRL, in terms of start day, days started before deadline, differences in scores between first and last attempt, and scores in language learning activities. Our findings echoed those of previous studies on the relationship between self-regulated learning and academic success. This research enables us to better understand the needs of EAP students in Hong Kong. Copyright © 2023 International Forum of Educational Technology & Society.

Successful implementation of formative assessment in classrooms relies on teachers’ formative assessment literacy, which is typically supported by professional development programs. This study reports on the impact of a professional development program on a group of in-service primary teachers in Hong Kong. The authors investigated the effectiveness of the program in developing teachers’ formative assessment literacy and how far the program assisted them in addressing the challenges they faced when implementing formative assessment in classrooms. With a mixed-method design, quantitative data were collected with a pre- and post-program survey (N = 27); qualitative data were collected with open-ended survey questions and a focus group with six participating teachers. The results provide evidence of the program’s success in developing teachers’ formative assessment literacy and equipping them with the necessary skills to address the challenges in implementation. The features of professional learning communities embedded in the program contributed to the positive impact of the program. Copyright © 2023 Teacher Development.

Few studies have explored primary school teachers’ e-assessment practices in conditions of emergency remote teaching caused by the COVID-19 lockdowns. This study explored Hong Kong primary school teachers’ e-assessment practices during the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic from late January to March 2022, when all primary schools were closed and transitioned rapidly to online teaching. 48 teachers from different schools were individually interviewed. The participants reported a variety of e-assessment practices, which were categorised into three types: e-tests/exercises, alternative e-assessments and e-teacher feedback. It was found that participants cautiously approached e-tests for summative purposes but majorly for formative purposes. It was also found that the participants less frequently used alternative e-assessments and tried out e-feedback. The participants’ e-assessment practices were influenced by their own conceptions of the usefulness of e-assessment, others’ attitudes towards its use, and perceived behavioural control. Crises such as pandemics and climate disasters will inevitably disrupt education again in the future. The findings of this study encourage policy makers, researchers and teachers to rethink the purposes and process of e-assessment in primary classrooms, thus sustaining, deepening and focusing on learning in the ‘new normal’. COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity to break away from content-heavy summative assessment and to make effective use of technology to enhance formative assessment. Copyright © 2023 ICLT.

Assessment is an important aspect of mathematics teaching and learning. This paper aims to explore Hong Kong mathematics teachers’ views on online assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data analysed is part of a larger project comprising an online survey and semi-structured interviews. This paper presents data from the survey responses of ninety-two teachers and from interviews of three teachers. Thematic data analysis is conducted, focusing on teachers’ views on assessment during online learning. Findings show that the forms of assessment that Hong Kong mathematics teachers conducted during the pandemic were similar to those from before the pandemic. They view online assessment mainly as assessment for and of online learning. This paper also discusses suggestions for online mathematics assessment. Copyright © 2022 left to the authors.

The effect of ICT use on students’ academic achievement continues to be debated. While positive, negative, and non-significant linear relationships have been reported in the literature, few studies have examined the non-linear relationship between ICT use and academic achievement. Guided by the Opportunity-Propensity framework, this study addressed this gap by examining the non-linear relationships between four types of ICT use and students’ academic achievement. A two-level multiple indicators multiple causes model was conducted using Mplus version 8.0 on a representative sample of 15-year-old Hong Kong secondary students (N = 6,037, mean age = 15.73 years, 48.9% girls) from 152 schools. The results showed a linear, negative link between ICT use at school and ∩-shape links between ICT use for outside-of-school learning (with the peak at the 50 percentile), ICT use for leisure (with the peak at the 80 percentile), and using ICT as a topic in social interactions (with the peak at the 1 percentile) and their academic achievement. These findings suggest that stakeholders should always take caution when promoting ICT use at school and ensure that its use does not interfere with students’ learning activities outside of school. Copyright © 2022 Elsevier.

In the face of Hong Kong’s high grade-retention rates, this study aimed to investigate how Hong Kong secondary schools’ grade-retention composition is associated with student performance and socioeconomic inequality in student performance. As the research questions involved analysis at the school and student levels, this study employed hierarchical linear modelling to analyse the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 data. While grade retention was often suggested to have a negative impact on repeaters’ performance in studies using the same-age comparison strategy, this study found that a higher proportion of retained students at school was not associated with a reduction in students’ performance. However, greater socioeconomic inequality in student achievement was found in schools with higher retention rates. In addition to providing plausible explanations for these findings, this paper discusses the potential role of the government’s retention policies in these respects. Copyright © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This demo/poster will report a web-based assessment database funded by a Teaching Development Grant given to the present researcher, who designed and maintained the database and made it freely-accessible to students, teachers, teacher educators and researchers. The purpose of the database is to improve preservice teachers’ language assessment literacy and enhance their skills to design assessment instruments with sufficient quality and variety. The database stores selected language assessment tasks innovated by cohorts of postgraduate and undergraduate TESL students enrolled in the language assessment courses taught by the present researcher in a university in Hong Kong. During the demo/poster, I will present the theoretical framework underlying the design and organization of the database, how the database is integrated into the assessment literacy courses given to pre-service teachers, and an analysis of students’ reflections on their experience of using the database to learn to adapt, design and evaluate assessment tasks, as well as to validate teacher-designed language tests. At the end, I will discuss the project’s implications for language assessment literacy education of pre-service teachers and potential areas of AL research. Copyright © 2020 LTRC.