How are
related the terms testing, assessing, and teaching? If we make a survey with
Colombian teachers maybe the majority of them could say that testing is a way
of assessing students, and that it is important in teaching to determine
whether the student passes or fails the course. I´m just guessing the answer because
that is what is commonly said by teachers and, actually, that was what I
thought before starting reading the interesting book “Language Assessment –
Principles and Classroom Practice” by Brown (2000).
As it was
explained in the previous post, there are different kinds of assessment, but it
depends primarily in the teachers to choose the appropriate one for enhance
students learning. The easy way is not the suitable one when we talk about
assessment. Teachers must be active, inquiring, and dynamic in order to create
a better environment for learners. This means assessing them without them
realising it. But, what is the purpose of this?
Testing is,
without have a look of the statistics, the most used way of evaluating students
in Colombian schools. A Test is defined by Brown (2000) as “a method of
measuring a person’s ability, knowledge, or performance in a given domain”. Tests
produce anxiety and fear from some students that only study for the exam and
then forget everything because their objective is to pass it –maybe because we
are got into the bad habit of compete for a grade and not to learn; which is
the main purpose of going to an academic institution–.
When
students think they are not being judged by the teacher, they do not care about
making mistakes and do a better job. If teachers can create a way in which they
assess students while they do not realise it, they will perform freely and the
results could be more accurate when evaluating. Therefore, taking into account
what was said in the previous post and this one, I would say that assessment
should be formal and formative in order to collect information from different
sources –not just by testing– and to provide reliable feedback. This will help
you to make better decisions to improve your teaching and, at the same time, it
will enhance your students’ learning process.
However, it
does not mean that testing is bad at all. As Brown (2000) himself said, tests
can bring out the best of students and it will be a good instrument to measure students
ability in a particular domain. After using assessment to improve students
learning you, probably, will want to measure whether your teaching methods were
appropriate for them and have a look of students understanding. That is when
tests are useful for teachers to evaluate not only their students, but
themselves as well. Despite some students suffer from test-phobia, it is
important to evaluate your teaching method in such a way in order to make
decisions from the results obtained.
Now, the
discussion will be about how to assess and evaluate students in terms of
language skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Should we assess
and evaluate them separately? Or should we integrate all of them?
It is always very fun and interesting to evaluate students when they don't know they are being evaluated. I think that practice shows us as teachers many aspects of students' behaviours, learning styles, etc... as they aren't under preasure.
ReplyDeleteIt's true teachers can't just forget about evaluating only because it doesn't seem to be as useful for the learners development as assesing. Why? because not only the students need to be analyzed but also some other educational aspects such as teachers methodology itself.
ReplyDeleteI find your post very interesting not only for all the information you are giving but also because, in some way, you are trying to relate it to our Colombian context. This would be a long discussion due to the fact that many factors affect the way we measure our students'abilities and sometimes those factors are external ones...should we give it a try even though we have many things against us? Is it always the teachers' fault? Why teachers decide to follow the easy path? What is more important at the end...?
ReplyDeleteThere always be many questions....
Great analysis Manuel, the best thing to do is to try to change those misconceptions, and to get commited with our profession, it means helping a student achieve his purpose, and I think that the most effective way to do it is by going all through his process carefully(providing constant feedback),this way he will be really willing to learn, as he will feel he is not alone, and also that this process is really worth it. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Manuel. Tests can make the test-taker feel anxious sometimes, and this can result in a grade that doesn´t reflect the real performance of the student. That is why teachers have to use different ways of assessment in which students can act naturally and just do the best they can without feeling any pressure of having a bad grade.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Manuel. Assessment goes beyond interacting with your students. It is about the impact and the shaping that with our word we give to the student. In my opinion, Assessing + a good teaching + proper evaluation method is a killing combo technique to beat students hunger of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteWe, teachers and students, used to think that evaluation is the last step; however, as we could notice, it is a process in constant revision that needs to be adapted and invented in our context. We need to change the idea about this issue, take into account the process and take advantage of all those moments in class that shows us students’ progress.
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ReplyDeleteManuel, I think your point really matters in our profession; we as Colombian teachers tend to assess only by using tests and we sometimes are running out of time and just give feedback to those studens who constatly ask us about their performance. Sometimes I ask myself "what about the students that are not so active or do not speak out and express their ideas? How can we help them and turn them into a successful learners?" after some readings passages and your videos of course I think about formative assessment as an useful tool in the classroom where students could work cooperatively
ReplyDeleteand make judgements about peers' work.
Manuel, Both videos are really interesting, cheers!
What I found really interesting was that the key issue while assessing is to find ways of helping students to be active in the classroom, and make them feel free to express their ideas. If this is not achieved,and constant feedback is not given from both student and teacher, the teacher would not know what is needed in the classroom. If it is possible to keep on teaching or if the student need more assurement in the matter; or the proffessor would not know if the student is really paying attention to the class or just thinking about something else.
ReplyDeleteThat is why giving and receiving feedback is so important, because it is a constant flow of ideas from the point of view of all the parts really involved in the teaching and learning process, but it is true that the teacher need to be a good quiestioner, need to improve in making thought out questions to really get to give and receive meaningful feedback, as it was stated in the very interesting Principles of Formative Assessment video.