Exploring the Moroccan EFL High School Teachers’ Feedback Practices as a Form of Formative Assessment: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the extent to which Moroccan EFL secondary school teachers use feedback as a form of formative assessment. It also aims at identifying the main challenges that render such practice difficult. Feedback is crucially important in the learning-teaching process. It is considered a key strategy of formative assessment. Despite the existence of several studies that recommend the use of formative assessment, it has not been properly addressed by research in the Moroccan educational system. Thus, exploring the Moroccan EFL teachers’ feedback practice can provide a clear picture of the opportunities and challenges of its implementation in the Moroccan context. The study follows a quantitative research design in which data were collected from 100 EFL secondary school teachers through questionnaires. Results revealed that the majority of teachers implement feedback as a formative tool to assess their students. However, they reported that workload, lack of time, and school regulations are the main obstacles which render formative feedback practices challenging. The findings will benefit policy makers, practitioners, researchers, and teacher trainers as well.