Convergent vs. divergent assessment: Impact on college EFL students’ motivation and self-regulated learning strategies

Abstract

This study examined two types of classroom assessment events, the more closed convergent assessments (CA) versus the more open-ended divergent assessments (DA), to see if they influence learners differently in terms of motivation and learning strategies. Participants were 105 college freshmen in Taiwan with the same instructor placed under one listening and two speaking classes. In these intact groups, each student experienced two types of assessment, a more traditional test (the CA) and a group performance assessment (the DA). Immediately after they experienced each assessment event, participants reported on their task-specific motivation and learning strategies. Results indicated that CAs were better received by high self-efficacious students and DAs by low scorers. After controlling for self-efficacy, a comparison revealed that students reacted differently in the listening and speaking classes. More specifically, in speaking student motivation and strategy were higher for the DA than for the CA, whereas in the listening class the pattern was reversed. Local educational culture and the nature of assessment events are then discussed.