The Impact of the Students’ Formative and Summative Assessment on Professional Development of Iranian EFL Instructors at Universities: Case of Islamic Azad University-South Tehran Branch-Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages

This study was conducted to examine the impact of formative and summative assessment in the professional development of Iranian EFL Instructors at universities. Moreover, an attempt was made to figure out whether the formative assessment is more effective than the summative assessment. Since the present work is qualitative/quantitative research in nature, it was conducted within the ethnography of Islamic Azad University South Tehran Branch. To do so, two M.A classes were chosen and the data were collected via observations, field notes, interviews, stimulated recalls, questionnaires and through audio- video recordings. The findings of this study suggest that the formative and summative assessment enhance the practices of teaching by university instructors and that the formative assessment is more effective and beneficial.