An Investigation of Learning-Oriented Assessment (LOA) in Higher Education: A Case Study of GFP Instructors at the University of Buraimi

Asma Hamyar Al Azzani,

General Foundation Centre, University of Buraimi (UoB), Al Buraimi Governorate, Sultanate of Oman

The current quantitative research aims to investigate the University of Buraimi General Foundation Program (GFP) instructors' knowledge and practices of applying Learning-Oriented Assessment (LOA). It aims to investigate the University of Buraimi GFP instructors' knowledge of LOA, their practices of applying LOA principles, and the principle of LOA that is more applied by them than the rest of LOA principles. This research is significant as there is a dearth of studies of LOA principles and practices in literature. One electronic questionnaire was used to collect data. 23 teachers participated in the study for the academic year 2022/2023. The convenience sampling procedure was used to choose the participants. SPSS (version 23) was used to analyze data. Results show that GFP instructors have knowledge in identifying the skills to be assessed when they design tasks and recognizing the role of talk-in-interaction in structuring and mediating learning more than the rest of the investigated aspects. Results further show that the University of Buraimi GFP instructors' practices of designing real-world tasks that are aligned with the course's learning outcomes, students' involvement in the assessment process by explaining rubrics criteria, and learners' involvement in feedback and feedforward by offering feedback that is linked to the purpose of the assignment and specific criteria are higher than the other aspects of the LOA principles. Furthermore, results show that the principle of learners' involvement in assessment processes is more applied by GFP instructors than learners' involvement in feedback and feedforward and the learning-oriented assessment tasks inclusion principles respectively. The results' implications and the research avenues were discussed.

Keywords: Learning-Oriented Assessment (LOA), LOA Tasks, Learner's Evaluative Capacity, Learners' Involvement in Feedback and Feedforward, General Foundation Program (GFP)

 The above abstract is a part of the article which was accepted at The Ninth International Conference on Languages, Linguistics, Translation and Literature (WWW.LLLD.IR), 1-2 February 2024, Ahwaz.