Exploring students' assessment preferences at a university context

The importance of language education is increasing day by day. Language testing and assessment constitutes one of the most important elements of language education. Considering these facts, the aim of the study is to uncover the university students' assessment preferences and the underlying reasons in an optional English preparatory program in a vocational school of a university in Mersin, Turkey. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were utilized in this study. The adapted version of Assessment Preferences Inventory (API) by Büyüköztürk and Gülbahar (2008) was conducted to 14 students studying in the optional English preparatory program. The data obtained from the inventory was analyzed through SPSS. Then, open-ended interview questions were asked to the students, as the qualitative method, so as to find out the underlying reasons of the students' preferences. The results presented that the students mainly preferred tests with simple items due to being easier and less demanding than the ones with complex items composed of high-order cognitive questions. In addition, they preferred to be involved in the assessment process with their instructors in order to be a part of the learning and assessment processes.