Exploring teachers’ intentions and challenges concerning formative assessment: A case study of public and private secondary school Pakistan Studies classrooms in district Lower Chitral

Formative assessment is important to improve students' learning at all levels. This study aims to explore teachers' intentions and challenges concerning formative assessment of grade X Pakistan Studies teachers in a public and private secondary school of district Lower Chitral. It was a qualitative case study where the data were obtained through classroom observation, semi-structured interviews with the teacher, and focus group discussions with the students.The findings of the study revealed that both teachers had a conceptual understanding of FA and emphasized the importance of FA in students’ learning. Moreover, the private school teacher’s intention to implement FA was greater than the public school teacher because the private school teacher had detailed lesson plans for the classroom and also had a scheme of work. Furthermore, he tried to involve the students in the classroom activities through direct questions and allowed them to discuss with peers and share their points. In addition, both teachers faced numerous challenges of implementation in Pakistan Studies classrooms.The study highlighted the challenges faced by the teachers to implement FA in their classrooms. The interview and classroom observations data revealed that lack of students' and teachers' knowledge of FA, large classroom size, teachers' workload, and time constraints are some of the challenges to implementing FA in Pakistan Studies classrooms. The data highlighted that a lack of student knowledge demotivates teachers to explore new teaching strategies in the classroom. Students are not aware of FA; therefore, they are not cooperative in implementing FA inside the classroom. Additionally, the data shows that teacher knowledge also impacts the implementation of FA. teachers had the basic knowledge of FA but did not have much knowledge about FACTs and their implementation in a classroom. Furthermore, teachers' interview data highlighted classroom strength as a potential challenge to implementing FA; and students also shared in their focus group discussion that teachers cannot control the class because of the large classroom size. Similarly, the data also revealed that time constraints and teachers' workload were also issues because teachers had to cover a lengthy syllabus within a specific timeline, which discouraged teachers from practicing FA in their Pakistan Studies classroom.