A switch to the new paradigm: Teachers’ views and attitudes towards self-assessment

Abstract: The study that has been undertaken sets out to explore teacher attitudes towards the subject of self-assessment. It also aims at finding out specific strategies and tools used, and what the teachers feel would aid with the promotion and implementation of self-assessment in the modern language classroom.To this end we conducted a number of interviews, in the south of Sweden, with teachers of varying experience who actively practice self-assessment in their classrooms. The teachers were positive to the concept of self-assessment, but stressed a number of areas that presented problems, available time and the ambiguity of the syllabi being examples. They adopted a number of strategies in order to overcome these problems. Furthermore, they identified a number of key advantages in using the approach, both from their perspective and that of the students’. It strengthens student confidence, clarifies goals and promotes active learning.