Journal of Scientific Research and Development 2 (7): 304-312, 2015 Available online at www.jsrad.org ISSN 1115-7569 © 2015 JSRAD 304 On the effectiveness of three types of assessment on EFL learners' self-regulation Abbas Ali Zar ei 1, * , Zahr a Uselfi 2 1 Associate professor, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin 2 MA, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin Abstract: The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of self, peer, and teacher -assessment on EFL learners’ self-regulation. The participants were 94 male and female Iranian EFL learners at IT English language institute in Qazvin. The instruments included a 55-item Preliminary English Test (PET) and the Persian translation of a 32-item self-regulation questionnaire. The participants were randomly assigned to three groups, and each group received one of the treatment conditions (self, peer, and teacher -assessment). They were also given the questionnaire twice, once before the treatment and once after it. The collected data were analyzed using the ANCOVA procedure. The results of the study showed no significant differences among the effects of the three types of assessment on self-regulation. The findings of this study may have theoretical and pedagogical implications for learners, teachers and syllabus designers. Key words: Self- assessment; Peer - assessment; Teacher -assessment; Self-regulation 1. Introduction * Among learners’ personality traits, self-efficacy beliefs have received considerable attention (Bandura, 1986 - 1989; Pintrich and Schunk, 1995; Zimmerman, 2000). According to Zimmerman (2000), Albert Bandura, a cognitive psychologist, in 1977, introduced self-efficacy for the first time and viewed it as individuals’ beliefs of their own competence to do an activity. Over the past few decades, there has been a major shift from teacher- centered learning strategy use to learner-centered learning strategy use in EFL educational systems (Reiss, 1985; Tamada, 1996). A number of researchers have investigated the relationship between self-efficacy components (self- regulation, goal-orientation, and achievement motivation) and educational performance. Self- regulation is a concept that refers to learners’ purposeful and active participation in their own learning processes. Zimmerman (1986) claims that self-regulated learners can use their metacognition purposefully to improve their own motivation in an active manner in their road to learning. Self- regulation may be influenced by a number of factors. One of the factors, which is of interest in the present study, is the type of assessment. Assessment has various types including self- assessment , peer -assessment , and t eacher - assessment. Boud (1995) refers to self-assessment as learners’ reflection on their own work and evaluation of their own performance against the assigned criteria. Falchikov (1995) refers to peer- assessment as learners’ reflection on their * Corresponding Author. classmates’ work against the assigned criteria. Brown and Hudson, (1998) refer to t eacher - assessment as the traditional and formal system in which teachers take the responsibility for assessing students’ performance. There have been several studies investigating the effects of different types of self-efficacy such as self- regulation, goal-orientation, and achievement motivation on learners’ performance (Bandura et al., 1996; 2001; McCarthy et al., 1985; Zimmerman et al., 1992), and the effects of self (Brown, 2005; Butler and Lee, 2010; Chen, 2008, Falchikov and Boud, 1989; Leach, 2012), peer (Cheng and Warren, 2005; Falchikov, 1995; Freeman, 1995), and teacher- assessment (Chacon, 2005; Hoy and Davis, 2006) on learners’ performance. However, few studies have specifically investigated the relationship between self-regulation as psychological factor and different types of assessment (self, peer , and t eacher - assessment) (Alfallay, 2004; Nicol and Macfarlane- Dick, 2006).Thus, the main focus of the present study is on investigating the effects of self, peer, and teacher-assessment on Iranian EFL Learners’ self- regulation. More specifically, this study aims to find answer for the following research question: Are there any significant differences among the effects of self, peer, and teacher assessment on Iranian EFL learners’ self-regulation? 2. Literature review 2.1. Self-regulation Zimmerman and Bandura (1994) state that self- regulation refers to learners’ mind generating concepts which assist them in their feelings and