Observation

Valid online formative assessments are crucial for accurate measurement of students' progress and effective pedagogical decision-making in digital learning. This quantitative-based study followed two primary aims. First, it aimed to investigate the extent to which Iranian EFL teachers working in universities and language institutes apply indicators of online formative assessment validity. Twenty-one online classrooms were observed in three sessions using a checklist. The second aim of this study was to determine the effect of EFL teachers’ place of living on the validity of online formative assessment. To this end, 316 Iranian EFL teachers from diverse EFL settings, including public schools, private schools, language institutes, and universities were asked to fill out online formative assessment validity scale developed by Maleki et al. (2023). The sample included both male and female teachers with varying age group ranges and academic degrees. The findings of the study indicated that Iranian EFL teachers in universities and language institutes tend to overlook indicators associated with the learner-centered aspects of online formative assessment validity. Furthermore, it was revealed that EFL teachers’ place of living could impact the validity of online formative assessment. This study has several implications for online EFL teachers and policymakers. The findings of this study emphasize the context-bound nature of validity in online formative assessment. Besides, it helps Iranian EFL teachers identify specific areas that need more attention and improvement in order to enhance the validity of their online formative assessments.

Background: The functional movement screen is developed to examine individual’s movement patterns through seven functional tasks.Aim: This study was conducted to examine the effect of core muscle fatigue on functional movement screening (FMS) scores in female athletes.Materials and Methods: The study has a pre-test-post-test design. The statistical population included female athletes (18-28 years old) in Tehran with at least two years of sports experience (3 days a week), of which 40 were selected as samples. In this study, core muscle fatigue was examined using the Plank test, before and after which the subjects performed the FMS test. After ensuring the normal distribution of the data through the Shapiro-Wilk test, the effect of core muscle fatigue on the FMS test was examined using Wilcoxon and paired t-tests, and Cohen's D measure was used to evaluate the effect size. The data were analyzed through SPSS 24 software. The significance level in all tests was P≤0.05.Results: According to the results, core muscle fatigue significantly decreased the scores of the deep squat (P=0.001), hurdle step over (P=0.002), in-line lunge (P=0.001), stability push-up (P= 0.001), and rotary stability tests (P= 0.001) but did not significantly affect the scores of the shoulder mobility (P=0.317) and active straight leg raise (SLR) tests (P=0.763). Moreover, core muscle fatigue affected the total score of the FMS test (P=0.001), with the average score decreased by 4.32 after applying the fatigue protocol.Conclusion: Core muscle fatigue significantly reduced the FMS test scores with a medium to large effect size in female athletes.