Assessing Value-Oriented Education in Tertiary EFL: A Formative Feedback Perspective

Abstract

Against the national policy mandate of integrating value-oriented education (curriculum-based ideological and political education) into tertiary EFL teaching in China, assessment practices remain fragmented and over-reliant on summative language tests, with few empirical qualitative studies exploring frontline college English lecturers’ authentic perceptions of value evaluation mechanisms. This qualitative study adopted semi-structured interviews with 20 college English teachers from four types of public universities in Inner Mongolia, positioning Feedback Theory (Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006) as the central analytical lens, supplemented by Teacher Cognition Theory (Borg, 2003) and Sociocultural Theory (Vygotsky, 1978). Through six-phase thematic analysis via NVivo software, three core thematic clusters emerged regarding assessment practice: (1) core dilemmas of value evaluation, including subjectivity of value growth, language-value assessment incompatibility, and the problem of performative compliance; (2) multi-source formative assessment pathways favored by teachers, demonstrating how diversified feedback from self-assessment, peer evaluation, and teacher process observation can overcome single-source scoring bias; (3) structural constraints restricting the implementation of multidimensional value assessment. The integrated “Cognition–Practice–Assessment” model constructed in this study fills the research gap of missing holistic assessment frameworks for value-oriented EFL education. Findings suggest practical pedagogical and institutional implications: universities should build formative evaluation systems centered on multi-source feedback, provide targeted teacher training on value assessment design, and balance linguistic proficiency measurement with long-term value development tracking. Keywords: value-oriented education; college English; formative assessment; multi-source feedback; teacher cognition; qualitative thematic analysis.