Research and Innovation in Language Learning 4(3) September 2021 pp. 284-298 P- ISSN: 2614-5960 e-ISSN: 2615-4137 http://jurnal.ugj.ac.id/index.php/RILL Copyright 2021@ Haris Sugianto 284 Article EXPLORING AN ENGLISH TEACHER’S LIVED EXPERIENCES OF ASSESSMENT PRACTICES IN A BLENDED LEARNING ENACTMENT: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY Haris Sugianto harissugianto7954@gmail.com Graduate Program in ELT, Universitas Islam Malang, Indonesia Abstract Although extensive studies have put a focus on the enactment of blended learning in English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom, there is a paucity of research into the teacher’s lived experiences of how they enact assessment in the blended learning activities. To fill such gap, this paper reports on a narrative inquiry of an EFL teacher’s lived experiences of conducting assessment during blended learning in the pandemic era. The study’s findings shed light on the ineffectiveness of the assessment practice during the blended learning enactment, particularly in the context of rural schools. Albeit the participating teacher in this study was fully engaged to conduct assessment from his past experiences, two major problems hinder such a practice: students’ unsubmitted assignments and poor Internet connection. Based on these findings, teachers are encouraged to find an alternative assessment practice during the blended learning, such as portfolio assessment. This suggestion is anchored by the fact that the assessment practice was not technically assisted during the blended learning activities. Keywords: assessment, blended learning, lived experience, narrative inquiry Sari Meskipun studi ekstensif telah menempatkan fokus pada pemberlakuan pembelajaran campuran dalam kelas bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa asing (EFL), ada kekurangan penelitian yang mengeksplorasi bagaimana guru memberlakukan penilaian dalam kegiatan pembelajaran campuran. Untuk mengisi kesenjangan tersebut, makalah ini melaporkan penyelidikan naratif tentang pengalaman langsung seorang guru EFL dalam melakukan penilaian selama pembelajaran campuran di era pandemi. Temuan studi ini menjelaskan ketidakefektifan praktik penilaian selama pemberlakuan pembelajran campuran, khususnya dalam konteks sekolah pedesaan. Meskipun guru yang berpartisipasi dalam penelitian ini sepenuhnya terlibat untuk melakukan penilaian dari pengalaman masa lalunya, dua masalah utama menghambat praktik semacam itu: tugas siswa yang tidak terkirim dan koneksi internet yang buruk. Berdasarkan temuan tersebut, guru didorong untuk mencari alternatif praktik penilaian selama blended mailto:harissugianto7954@gmail.com Research and Innovation in Language Learning 4(3) September 2021 285 learning, seperti penilaian portofolio. Saran ini ditambatkan oleh fakta bahwa praktik penilaian tidak dibantu secara teknis selama kegiatan blended learning. Kata kunci: penilaian, pembelajaran campuran, pengalaman hidup, penyelidikan naratif Received 2021-06-28 accepted 2021-06-30 published 2021-09-30 APA Citation: Sugianto, H. (2021). Exploring a rural English teacher’s lived experiences of assessment practices in a blended learning enactment: A narrative inquiry. Research and Innovation in Language Learning 4(3), pp. 284-298. http://dx.doi.org/10.33603/rill.v4i3.5327 INTRODUCTION In recent years, the use of blended learning to provide course material to a diverse group of students is becoming more common in educational institutions. According to Castle and McGuire (2010), blended learning is widely used because of its potential to offer flexible access to information and teaching at any moment, from any place, and cost- effectiveness for institutions of higher education. Nowadays, impacted by coronavirus disease (COVID-19), many educational institutions in Indonesia are running blended learning. Such a learning approach combines the advantages of face-to-face and online learning to suit each individual which is a way of learning that is versatile, open and meaningful (Seffner & Kepler, 2015). Blended learning focused learner autonomy by utilizing information technology to build and facilitate positive learning (Quvanch & Kew, 2020). According to Albiladi andAlshareef (2019), blended learning can also be easily Applied to the four language skills. This subsequently engages learners to learn both virtually and face-to-face. Experience refers to an event encountered by someone (Lopez & Vanegaz, 2020). In the context of teaching, experience has an important element namely a full story of what someone experienced and what he/she did in the past as a teacher that provides insight into how experiences shape his/her knowledge and make decisions about assessment. According Xu dan Liu (2009), teacher’s lived experiences in doing assessment shed light on the importance of conducting assessment for future learning activities. The insights teachers obtained in the previous experiences lead to an overview for the current assessment practice in the classes. An empirical study by Rasyidah, Triana, and http://dx.doi.org/10.33603/rill.v4i3.5327 Sugianto, H. 286 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 Saukah (2020) yields an evidence that teachers’ past experiences of assessment practice affect the way they carry out the present assessment practice. Many previous studies have investigated and explored blended learning. Previous researchers have highlighted aspects of blended learning, for example Astria (2020) revealed that the application of blended learning is successful in the teaching and learning process and engages students in learning actively. Althomali and Alzeer (2020) showed in their study that blended learning leads to joyful learning activities for students as they participated in a variety of tasks. Alshareef (2019) contends that blended learning is appropriately enacted in teaching language skills. Recently, Dahmash (2020) revealed that blended learning has motivated EFL students to learn writing skills and encouraged them to look for resources online. Given the many existing studies on blended learning, little empirical evidence is primarily focused on the aspect of assessment practice in blended learning enacted by English teachers, whereas assessment is part of the teaching and learning process which aims to improve the performance of the assessor and the person being assessed. As revealed Black and Wiliam (2006) as cited in Khairil and Mokshein (2018), assessment is a series of collecting all the tasks performed by a teacher to students then the assessment will be used as a reference in determining how the learning process will come. Recently, researchers have only focused on exploring assessments based on classroom learning, as has been done. In particular, previous research focuses on the application and model of the assessment. For example, Zhank and Stock (2003) show that teachers rely more on objective classroom evaluation assessments and show increased attention to evaluation consistency. Musawy (2009 contends that the main emphasis of current evaluation activities is on assessment, class discussions, class assignments, assignments, and seminars. It is thus essential to further explore teacher’s lived experiences in conducting assessment during blended learning implementation. Previous studies mentioned earlier in this paper were primarily carried out on face-to- face learning in the classroom, and were also mostly conducted on teachers at the university as participants. There is a paucity of research that examines English as a foreign language teachers’ lived experiences of assessment practice in blended learning in the schooling contexts. To fill such void, the present study looked into the lived Research and Innovation in Language Learning 4(3) September 2021 287 experiences of an EFL teacher from a rural area in East Java, Indonesia, with regard to his assessment practice during the implementation of blended learning in the school. METHOD Design To explore teacher’s lived experiences, a narrative inquiry was employed in this study. Narrative inquiry is the first and most important way to understand experiences. John Dewey's theory of experience, as cited from Clandinin and Connelly (2008) provides a foundation for attending experience through three-dimensional space for narrative inquiry, namely the dimensions of temporary, place, and sociality. This three- dimensional space of narrative inquiry allows for investigation into the multilevel life experiences of researchers and participants. In this study, the stories that are told and lived are situated and understood in the larger cultural, social, and institutional narrative. Participant’s Profile The participant in this study is Erick (pseudonym, male, 47 years old). My initial meeting with Erick began when he took his son to practice martial arts. Since that, I often met and got acquainted with him. Erick is a senior English teacher at a secondary school based in Bangkalan regency, East Java, Indonesia with more than 25 years of teaching experiences. He obtained a Master’s in English Education from a private university in Malang, East Java, Indonesia. Beside teaching in formal institution, Erick run an English course at the afternoon after schooling time. Impacted by COVID-19 pandemic, Erick transformed his teaching from face-to-face to blended learning model in order to help his students engage in the online learning activities. Data Collection and Analysis Procedures Data in this study were garnered through semi-structured interview. This interview design enables participants to voice their experiences without any restricted questions. The interview was done face-to-face using participant’s national language by adhering to COVID-19 health protocols. It lasted around 45 minutes to an hour. Since the study was qualitatively anchored, the data obtained from the interview were analyzed following the qualitative framework for data analysis procedure. First, I read the Sugianto, H. 288 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 interview transcripts multiple times to understand global meaning of the participant’s stories. Further, several salient themes were highlighted in order to focus on the main issues related to the research questions. Afterward, the themes emerged from such a step were coded as the findings of the study. FINDINGS Findings of this study are detailed into two emerging themes: enacting blended learning in the teaching and learning process and navigating assessment during the teaching and learning process. Enacting blended learning: The source of teaching fulfillment Erick have been a teacher In Senior high school in bangkalan sice 2003, that school there are five English teachers, but only three teachers who teach English subjects including him, and the other teachers teach Madura Language subject . this is due to the fulfillment of the teaching hours of three English teachers who are already civil servants, where is each civil servants teacher must have twenty four teaching hours in a week. Erick taught twelve classes, consisting of tenth grades and eleventh grades. He always make paper plan and analysis of basic competence and scope (linkage and integration between Based Competence, learning materials, learning models, learning activities, indicators of competency achievement, and assessment) but in practice sometimes he got out of the lesson plan that he had mad. He conveyed: Excerpt 1 Sometimes I teach in class out of the lesson plan that I already made because I adjust to the conditions of the class when I was teaching and also I adjust what is needed in the class at that time. At the beginning of the covid pandemic 19 the learning process in his school used a full online in accordance with the instructions of the education office. Erick used whatsapp group in online learning practice , he made a voice recording to explained his materials then he shared it in the group and if there was not understood about his explanation, he ask students to send a private message or whatsapp group to ask the questions, he didn’t use the zoom because there was no signal where his students lived After several month he had tried to apply online learning but it did not run well and was ineffective because he found some problem in practicing online lerarning procces and Research and Innovation in Language Learning 4(3) September 2021 289 he claimed full online learning will be possible if implemented in schools that are located in the city center. However, full online learning did not effective if apply in his school which is the located in rural areas. It is depicted in his statement : Excerpt 2 Since I taught in the school where is located in the rural, the students often complain about the unstable network in online learning, they also convey that their phone did not support by good aplplicatoion to open document who their teacher gave to them and sadly there were still students who don't have smartphone. In addition, he also argued that online learning made him unable to recognize the character of his students because he did not interact directly in class, online learning also had an effect on character building for students, students did not respect to their teachers when online learning. This situation is reflected in Erick’s statement. He shared: Excerpt 3 I made a voice recording to explained my materials and shared some documents in the whatsapp group for them to learn and l said if there was not understood about my explanation, he ask students to send a private message or whatsapp group to ask the questions, and also I gave them some task and ask them to submit their task by sent it in whatsapp but l didn’t get respon from my students and they also didn’t submit their task. I feel disrespected as a teacher Therefore, based on the experience of online learning implementation, Erick has option to switched to apply blended learning and then he convey his ideas to his school with various problem that he found during online learning practice and his school agreed with his choice because the school realize that online learning is ineffective if applied continuously, Then, his school starting to apply blended learning with students going to school alternately every week. He explained : Excerpt 4 In the first week students with odd absences doing learning process with face-to-face learning in the school, while students who have even absences have to learn with online at home, and for the second week the students who have odd absences studied with online learning at home and students who have even absences came to school for study. Sugianto, H. 290 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 In blended learning practice, Erick used face-to-face learning to deliver learning materials, while for students who study at home he gives assignments to be done online, as he has said : Excerpt 5 During face-to-face learning at school I use it to deliver learning material, by delivering the material directly I feel more satisfied because there is direct interaction between me and students and I can also monitor my students. while for students who do online learning at home I give them assignments or practice questions to be done and then collected to me via online by whatsapp group. He prefers to use whatsapp groups as a learning medium for students who study online at home, besides he gets advice from his friends, whatsapp groups are an option because students are constrained by bad signals at student residences and also student cellphones that are not supported by good applications when using other applications.he explained : Excerpt : 6 After listening a story from my friend when studying with zoom, most students did not listen to the teacher's explanation and students did not want to turn on the video Throughout the process of learning and when students were immediately reprimanded immediately the students leaving the lesson, then students always complaining about unstable networks and cellphones that are not supported by adequate application features, finally I decided to do online learning through whatsapp groups, I think whatsapp is familiar to them and everyone can use it and also whatsapp does not require a high internet quota. Then the durations of learning process was also reduced, which originally one hour of the lesson had forty five minutes and it was changed to thirty minutes for one lesson, this reduction in teaching hours actually is less effective because thirty minutes is very short time to explain the materials in learning process. It can be seen from the Erick’s statement, He said : Excerpt 7 Within 30 minutes I can't deliver all my material, it's too short, for example I want to explain about the simple past tense, but I haven't finished explaining my material but the time was up. Research and Innovation in Language Learning 4(3) September 2021 291 but he still prefer to use blended learning in covid 19 pandemic than should be full online at home .because he said blended learning is more effective then online learning Excerpt 8 Blended learning is more effective than online learning. In online learning the students also never open or respond to learning videos or voice recordings that I submitted by online, by switching to blended learning, I hope the learning process will be more effective because we can do face-to-face learning activities even though not every day in one week but at least I can deliver lessons directly and can monitor and guide students directly. Enacting Assessment Practices In the past, before the pandemic and he was still doing face-to-face learning in the calss, he always explained the assessment procedures to his students. There are three aspects of the assessment that he used, that are knowledge, skills and attitudes but currently on pandemic, he didn't explain about it, because he made an assessment that was not in accordance with the procedure. He explained that : Excerpt 9 In the online learning practice students rarely joined online calss and submited assignments that I gave and many student scores were blank, If I follow the assessment procedures, then there will be many students whose get scores are below standard and they didn't complete in English lesson. In blended learning practice Erick did face to face learning at school he used it to explain his materiasl and recognize the character of students to conduct an attitude assessment and for the students that doing learning process at home by online he gave them task by online tests to conducted cognitive assessment. he told that: Excerpt 10 During learningin the class, I can recognize the character of my students, I make observations to them about their behavior as an attitude assessment. Not only in class, I also pay attention to how often students respond and submit assignments to me because by responding and collecting assignments, it means students can appreciate a teacher, discipline and responsibility, it is also a factor in attitude assessment. Meanwhile, for cognitive assessment, I apply individual assessment by giving a test when students learn online at home despite the fact that many students did not submit their assignments. Sugianto, H. 292 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 He ever asked to his students why they didn't submit assignments? then the same reason arose when online learning was implemented, they complained about the unstable network and also there are some students said they did not understand about the tasks but they lazy and afraid to ask the teacher. He faces the same problem with online learning, he is confused what strategy should he use to be able to overcome this problem and can assess the ability of students in English lessons properly. it is reflected in his statement : Excerpt 11 l confiuse how l will conducted asseessment to my students if my students rarely collected their task and l can't force them to collect their tasks because some reasons that they have ever said, then l decided to made an assessment by taking the assess in the previous semester for eleventh grades, and for tenth grades who just entered to school l gave a assess equivalent to minimum criteria competent. I feel sorry and afraid that if I give them a bad score, it will prevent them from continuing to higher school His decision to give good grades to his students during the pandemic was teased by other teachers. she told that : Excerpt 12 I was once insinuated by another teacher, he said to me "Mr. Erick, you have students who are very good in English , in English subject all students get good scores and no students are remedial while in other lessons many students get bad scores and remedies ". The statement made him offended because he knew that the teacher meant to tease him but Erick didn't care about it, because he had his own assessment of his students in the current condition of Covid 19. On the other hand, he found that the student assignments that were submitted to him tended to be the same from one student to another so that there was an indication that they were cheating on the answers from their friends and they did not do their own assignments, so it can be said that the current assessment is not purely the result of students' abilities, like what he said at the interview : Research and Innovation in Language Learning 4(3) September 2021 293 Excerpt 13 The student assignments submitted to me are almost all the same, I am sure they are working on the assignment together, not working on it alone. but I still appreciate their efforts by providing additional score. The findings that appeared in the assessment process using the blended learning method made him more focus on behavior assessment than on cognitive assessments. He said : Excerpt 14 Cognitive scores is not really important because English is a science that can be learned later, it is not a measure of student success in the future but students' attitudes will determine their future because attitudes cannot be learned, but attitudes can be shaped and guided. This incident reminded him of past events, He ever had a student with poor English language skills poor English so he got bad cognitive scores but he had a very good attitude and now he has good English language skills, moreover he is an English teacher. It need the right strategy for this problem so that blended learning can be implemented in rural schools and teachers can carry out the assessment properly like what Mr.Yanto expected. He expressed his wish , he said Excerpt 15 So far there is still no proper strategy for this problem , for now I think that the best solution is the learning process is carried out face-to-face in the classroom by complying with health protocols. DISCUSSION The assessments carried out by Erick used blended learning, influenced by his past experience when conducting assessments using online learning. This condition echoes previous research by Xu and Liu (2009) explaining that teacher’s past experience of assessment practice greatly influence the present practice.. Importantly, complexities he encountered during the assessment practice using blended learning was the same as in the online learning. Assessment is part of the teaching and learning process which is to Sugianto, H. 294 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137 improve the performance of the assessor and the person being assessed. According to Black and Wiliam, (2006) as cited in Khairil and Mokshein (2018), assessment is a series of collecting all tasks performed by a teacher to students then the assessment is used as a reference in determining how the learning process in the future should be enacted. In the present study, the participant referred back to the students’ past assessment as a reference to assess the students’ current competence in the class. Interestingly, this study reveals how the participant considers non-cognitive matters as the most essential assessment target. That is to say, students’ character is seen important to support the learning process. The personal and social circumstances are contributive to the participant’s lived experiences. Feelings, hopes, desires, aesthetic responses, and spiritual dispositions are all examples of the personal conditions (Connelly & Clandinin, 2006). In doing the assessment, Erick faced a dilemma. Such a practice is influenced by contextual conditions depicted in the interview. First, as an English teacher, the participant is responsible for assessing students’ competence. However, this is hampered by the facts that student tasks were not completely submitted since in some cases many of the students were lacking of online facility. Thus, the only alternative carried out was to give a minimum assessment score for the students. Another dilemma is derived from collegial relationship in the teaching profession. As shared by the participant in the interview, his colleagues’ negative responses were influential on the assessment practice. The present study uncovers a salient and common hindrance of assessment practice during blended learning in rural area schooling. As such, the interview data unpack how the participant was baffled with administering the assessment under inadequate facility and students’ demotivation factor. Previous research confirmed this finding (Yan, Zhang, & Fan, 2018). CONCLUSION The present study attempts to reveal an Indonesian English teacher’s lived experiences of enacting assessment during the blended learning implementation. 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Teacher assessment knowledge and practice: A narrative inquiry of a Chinese college efl teacher’s experience. Tesol Quarterly. 43 (3).493-512. Yan, X,. Cong, Z,. Jasom, J. F. (2018). Assessment knowledge is important, but …”: How contextual and experiential factors mediate assessment practice and training needs of language teachers. Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 74.158- 168. Zhang, Z,.Judith, A. B. S. Classroom assessment practices and teachers’ Self-perceived assessment skills. Applied Measurement In Education, 16(4), 323–34 Conflict of Interest No potential conflict of interest is reported. http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/download/ng/ https://drum.lib.umd.edu/handle/ Research and Innovation in Language Learning 4(3) September 2021 297 Author Biography Haris Sugianto is currently pursuing his Master in Applied Linguistics at Universitas Malang, East Java-Indonesia. His research interests are among English instruction, applied linguistics, and EFL curriculum. He can be reached at harissugianto7954@gmail.com mailto:harissugianto7954@gmail.com Sugianto, H. 298 p-ISSN 2614-5960, e-ISSN 2615-4137