Secondary level EFL teachers’ perceptions, practices, and challenges of implementing CAS in public schools in Nepal. A Narrative Inquiry
Abstract
Aim: The objective of my study was to explore the EFL teachers’ perceptions and
experiences of using CAS in Nepalese public schools. It was further aimed to explore
their current practice of CAS and the potential challenges they have faced in
implementing CAS in language teaching.
Theory: The study adopted the theory of social constructivism that addresses how social
interaction in language classrooms using CAS creates knowledge and fosters their
learning. It recognizes the social aspects of learning, such as conversation, interaction,
and application of knowledge to real-life situations.
Method: It is a qualitative research study that adopted Narrative inquiry as a research method.
The interview was used to collect data. Narrative analysis was done by extracting
different sections of text from the verbatim data, classifying, and categorizing them by
generating different themes.
Results: Based on the narratives shared by EFL teachers, it was found that the teachers have a
positive mindset toward implementing CAS as it reflects the true picture of what
students have learned so far and the need to make further improvements. CAS also
contributes to an improved and fair evaluation in language learning, whereas
homework and classwork have been found to be practised as a tool of CAS in
language classrooms. Furthermore, teachers at the secondary level use CAS as an
umbrella term consisting of a range of assessment tools such as portfolios, project
work, homework, self-assessment, peer review, project work, poster presentation,
maintaining rubrics, etc. The study revealed that large classroom sizes, lack of
resources, learning materials, school infrastructure, excessive workload, language
barriers, students with mixed ability groups and lack of training for them are major
challenges in implementing CAS. The study suggests that EFL teachers employ tools
of CAS to lead to more effective teaching and learning practices and benefit students'
learning outcomes.
Degree
Student Essay
Collections
View/ Open
Date
2023-09-11Author
Sijali Magar, Dil Kumar
Keywords
Continuous Assessment System
CAS
perceptions
experiences
practices
challenges
implementation
Language
eng