the efficacy of testing course offered to english students in iranian universities: does it grow assessment-literate teachers?

With at least a third of every class time being devoted by teachers to it, assessment plays a key role in formal education. therefore, it is wise to expect teachers to acquire enough knowledge of assessment before they join the teaching profession. in other words, the need to pay more attention to assessment literacy in teacher preparation programs is undeniable. many researchers believe that teachers’ lack of assessment literacy is due to teacher education programs being theory-laden, and not an accurate mirror of the realities of classroom assessment. following a qualitative design, this research intended to obtain reflective feedback on the appropriateness and efficacy of ‘testing’ course from university students of english in iran. to fulfill the purposes of this experiment, 57 students majoring in english translation at islamic azad university of dezful, iran were invited to participate in the study. in order to get reflective feedback from the participants, a questionnaire including four open questions was devised by the researcher and distributed among the participants. results showed that a majority of the students expected to gain some knowledge of know-how beside knowledge of know-that, but this expectation was not met in the course. more than half of the students suggested supplementing the course with more practical aspects. aspects such as developing assessment literacy, knowing how to assess learners during class time, what kind of assessment to employ in different situations, and how to provide feedback are issues that cannot be learned through theories. these things are acquired only through experience gained either in assessment practice or in real-life teaching.