An investigation of teachers’ perceptions of applied use of formative assessment in a public school (primary) in Kazakhstan.

This research studied teacher perception on formative assessment in the context of Kazakhstan. Teachers using FA are better able to meet the learning needs of their students, give constructive feedback, support independent learning, organize interactive assessments of students' attainments, adjust the teaching process, and find students’ weaknesses and strengths (OECD, 2014; Black &William, 1998). Hence, this positive interaction with students may only be achieved when the teacher believes in the advantages of FA. Thus, it is crucial to gain information about what do teachers think about formative assessment. There is a gap in the literature about teachers’ perceptions of FA in Kazakhstan. Therefore, this study focussed on the teacher’s experience, perception, attitudes, and beliefs about FA. This study's first purpose is to gain a deeper understanding of the main opportunities and obstacles to implementing FA according to teachers' realities, whilst the second is to get teachers’ suggestions regarding the integration of FA. Based on the purposes mentioned in the research scope two research questions have been generated to guide this study:

1) What do primary school teachers perceive as the opportunities and obstacles to using FA to support learning in their classrooms?

2) What recommendations would teachers give to improve support the use of formative FA in primary schools in Kazakhstan?

This qualitative research interviewed six primary school teachers from a Kazakhstani public school, and the data was analysed through thematic analysis. The philosophical stance that was hold for this research is interpretivism. This research was aimed to seek the reality of participants in the way they understand it rather than giving the general results of research as a complete truth.

The exploration about system change, teacher perceptions about formative assessment, opportunities and obstacles of formative assessment and recommendations for the successful implementation  in this literature review informed key areas of this research.  There is limited research on teacher perceptions on formative assessment in Kazakhstan. Therefore, this research explored teacher perceptions about formative assessment opportunities and obstacles in its implementation and intends to make suggestions accordingly. It was important to understand how teachers perceive formative assessment and what they think about it to apply formative assessment appropriately in practice.

A qualitative case study research design was adopted in this research. From an interpretivist research position, semi-structured interviews were conducted, as this research questions explore individual teachers’ views and opinions about formative assessment practice, to use this technique provided the opportunity to communicate with participants, listen to their attitudes and provide recommendation that could not be done had a questionnaire been used instead. Before the actual research, a pilot study was designed to test the implications of the method. Also, purposeful sampling strategy was used to select primary school teachers from public schools. The results of this study were analyzed through inductive thematic analysis to generate themes from the massive data. Braun and Clarke (2006) suggested that thematic analysis should be used when analyzing qualitative research. In this research, thematic analysis helped to produce a clear report by examining different attitudes of interviewees, highlighting similarities, differences and defining unique meanings of large data (Braun & Clarke, 2006; King, 2004). In addition, an inductive approach was best suited for this research as themes were inductively generated from the data (Nowell et al., 2017). As Braun and Clarke (2006) recommended, a six-phase procedure was used to deal with transcripts. All ethical considerations and decisions have been made according to BERA's (2018) guidelines

The findings indicate an overall understanding on the part of teachers about the opportunities and obstacles of the implementation of FA . In order to gain this understanding, teachers should be part of the reformation process and equipped with the necessary knowledge to be so involved. Thus, within the main research questions, questions about the change process in the assessment system and PDP quality were also essential elements of this study in terms of perceiving teachers' attitudes. Teachers claimed that FA develops life-long skills amongst students and that it meets international standards. They could see opportunities for FA in terms of providing feedback (Askew & Lodge, 2000) and promoting individual work (Shirley, 2001). They also noted that they reflected on their use of FA methods (Danielson, 2009). With regards to obstacles, primary school teachers considered certain challenges that could prevent the implementation of FA. Thus, though they were keen to use FA, they pointed out that it is not easy to do so in practice (Torrance & Pryor, 2001). All the primary school teachers involved in the present study emphasized parents' and students' resistance to FA, irrelevant books, and time constraints to its implementation. Also,the primary school teachers were asked to give their suggestions to understand what issues teachers need to solve with regard to the previously mentioned obstacles to the implementation of FA. Firstly, teachers highlighted the importance of having appropriate technology such as a computer, printer, interactive board in the school and practical PDP to support substantial classroom changes. Additionally, they suggested going to other schools and participating in the more experienced teachers' lessons as a further means of practical support. All these suggestions were recommended by primary school teachers to support the implementation of FA.

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