The Master’s and Doctoral Study Program in English Language Education, Ganesha University of Education (Undiksha)Postgraduate Program in collaboration with Mataram University again held a guest lecture, on Friday (9/11/2023) from 15.30 – 17.00 WITA. This public lecture which took place online raised an interesting topic, namely “Teacher Agency on Primary English Oral Assessment”.
This lecture invited speakers from Mataram University, Santi Farmasari, M.Ed. TESOL, Ph.D. He is a lecturer, researcher, and resource person with expertise in the field of English language education, especially in the field of assessment. This seminar was attended by eighty-eight students from the postgraduate study program and several postgraduate English Language Education lecturers.
In an inspiring scientific presentation, Mrs. Santi Farmasari, M.Ed. TESOL, Ph.D., thoroughly discusses the importance of teacher independence (teacher agency) in conducting oral English assessments for elementary school (SD) students. In her introduction, Mrs. Santi emphasized the urgency of trustworthy and reliable assessment, because this is related to students’ academic safety.
According to Mrs. Santi, teacher independence must be understood from two main perspectives: ecological and sociological perspectives. In an ecological context, teacher independence is influenced by the surrounding environment. Therefore, the teacher’s environment needs to provide opportunities and support so that teachers can develop their independence. Meanwhile, from a sociological perspective, teacher independence is closely intertwined with social interactions and relationships between people. Teachers need to be supported by their professional community, including fellow teachers, principals, supervisors, and other related parties. Teacher independence also depends greatly on the capacity and resources they have, such as knowledge, skills, experience, and other supporting facilities.
Mrs. Santi Farmasari also shared the results of her research involving six teachers with 20-25 years of experience. This research focuses on the obstacles and supports for teacher independence in carrying out assessments. He outlined the important stages that teachers must go through in making assessments, starting from test specifications, developing School-Based Assessment Tasks (PBS), sharing PBS information, use of technology, implementation, to post-implementation evaluation. The main findings of the research are that teachers act as agents in existing contexts, they successfully negotiate unexpected situations and utilize cultural knowledge as a basis for assessment. Teacher independence is also greatly influenced by the trust and support provided by the school administration.
It is important to note that although teachers have a role as agents in assessment practices, close supervision is still needed to oversee these assessment practices. Mrs. Santi Farmasari emphasized the importance of activities that support the development of teacher professionalism. In the question and answer session, he also emphasized the importance of the process in “Oral Production” which must involve three stages: control practice, Guided Practice, and finally achieving free practice which is the true “oral production” stage.
Presentation by Mrs. Santi Farmasari, M.Ed. TESOL, Ph.D., provides in-depth insight into teacher independence in conducting oral English assessments in elementary schools. Through his research and experience, he invites us to better understand the complexity and importance of the teacher’s role in creating accurate and meaningful assessments for student development.
In the end, the public lecture went smoothly and students felt the new insights conveyed because the emphasis of the assessment material given was on the ‘teacher agency’ in conducting assessments for elementary schools. This is very useful to understand because oral assessment is often an issue and is seen as often causing subjectivity and how teacher agencies can be empowered so that assessments can be carried out well.
