Standards Assessment in English Language Teacher Education

Abstract

Instructional quality among English as a foreign language (EFL) teachersrequires the identification and assessment of professional standards for the field.Although Quality Assurance, Outcomes Assessment and Accreditation may beunderstood within language teacher education programs, successful and sustainedimplementation of quality improvement processes largely remain elusive. This paperexplores standards assessment in EFL teacher preparation programs in Turkey. Primaryissues examined were: 1) awareness of instructors in EFL teacher preparation programsof standards assessment; 2) the degree to which the standards are assessed; and, 3) thedegree to which assessment data is analyzed and acted upon. This study utilized theInstrumental Case Study combined with a mixed-method approach. Data was collectedvia survey and interviews. An internet-based survey was distributed to teacherpreparation faculty members across Turkey. One-on-one structured interviews wereconducted with instructors from EFL teacher preparation programs at public and privateuniversities. Results indicate that despite relatively high levels of awareness amonguniversity faculty members and the standards established by the Turkish HigherEducation Council, there is little evidence to suggest that assessment data is collected oracted upon.