TESTING, EVALUATION & ASSESSMENT IN ELT

ByFitzroy Kennedy. M.A.

School of Education. University of Alabama

*Write down the definition of “teaching”

*Pair up with someone to come up with a definition

*Share your definitions with the group.

•To present information

•To reveal knowledge or skill

•To help students to learn

* All of the above can be accomplished either deliberately or incidentally

* You can teach by means of explicit instruction, ongoing guidance, deliberate modeling, or accidental example.

The general purpose of teaching is to help students to learn…

When you are checking student’s knowledge is…

Assessment

Formative. It is an ongoing process of gathering information on the extent of learning.

Evaluation

Summative. It sums up attainment at the end of the course with a grade.

Assessment

Process-oriented. How learning is going

Evaluation

Product-oriented. What has been learned

Assessment

Reflective. Internally defined (criteria / goals)

Evaluation

Prescriptive. Externally imposed standards

Assessment

Diagnostic. Identify areas of improvement

Evaluation

Judgmental. Arrive at an overall grade / score

Assessment

Flexible. Adjust as problems are clarified

Evaluation

Fixed. To reward success, punish failure

Assessment

Absolute. Tries to reach the ideal outcomes.

Evaluation

Comparative. Divide better from worse

Assessment

Cooperative. Learn from each other

Evaluation

Competitive. To try to do better than the others

Dimension of difference

Assessment Evaluation

Timing Formative Summative

Focus of measurement

Process-oriented Product-oriented

Relationship between administrator and recipient

Reflective Prescriptive

Finding. The use of such findings

Diagnostic Judgmental

Ongoing modifiability of criteria

Flexible Fixed

Standards of measurement

Absolute Comparative

Relationship between objects of A / E

Cooperative Competitive

Assessment for formative purposes is designed to stimulate growth, change and improvement in teaching through reflective practice.

Evaluation is used for summative purposes to give an overview of a particular instructor's teaching in a particular course and setting

•Implement research-based “best practices”

* Put the examples into practice

•Employ an assessment-informed model of teaching focused on measurable student learning outcomes.

•Define learning outcomes (desired by teachers and / or learners) well in advance.

•Assess progress toward outcomes, by and for both teacher and learner, continually during learning.

•Evaluate achievements of outcomes rigorously as each learning opportunity concludes.

- Course by course, semester by semester.

Subject-matter taxonomy by Rebecca Valette and Renee Disick

1. Mechanical skills2. Knowledge3. Transfer4. Communication5. Criticism

1.To improve their teacher, faculty must define learning outcomes and measure their achievement.

2.To improve their learning, students must learn how to use feedback to assess their own progress (“self-assessment”).

3.The best assessment derives from teacher’s questions about their own teaching.

4.Assessment provides an impetus for active student involvement.

Content of the ELP

• The Biography is an ever-changing part of the ELP which children should revisit and update regularly, enabling them to reflect upon and record what they can do in each language.

• The biography contains “can do” statements which children may color in and complete as they progress, building up into a personalized learning diary.

By recording activities like this children become aware of their progress andof the linguistic content of the course.

My Dossier

• It is a personal collection of children’s work• Children may file texts, pictures or

recordings which illustrate their experiences and achievements

• Children take pride of their dossier and they make decisions about what is going to be included, removed or replaced

• When children leave a class, they can select favorite pieces of work which reflect their good job, to show off to their teacher of parents

My language passport

• The passport provides an overview of the languages a child knows, or is learning. It covers both and school contexts and is a way of giving visibility and value to all language-learning experiences.

• It can be to motivate young learners and it may be particularly valuable, together with “My Dossier”, when children move from school to school or when teachers change.

The Language Passport should have…

Evaluation

Testing students

Achievement test

THEORIST INNOVATORS

ORGANIZER HUMANISTIC

Lecture Facts Details Critical thinking Textbooks Readings

Outlining Check lists Exercises Problem-solving

with steps and procedures

Brainstorming Illustrations Pictures Metaphors Mind-mapping Synthesis Holistic

approaches

Cooperative learning

Group discussion Role-playing Dramatization

Adapting to meet learner needs – some Exercise Types:

• COGNITIVE PAIRS• CLOZE EXERCISE• FILL IN THE BLANKS• WORD OR LETTER

UNSCRAMBLE• RE-ORDERING A

SEQUENCE• TRUE or FALSE• GIVE A DESCRIPTION• EXPOSITORY WRITING• COMPLETE THE

PHRASE or SENTENCE

• ERROR CORRECTION• COMPREHENSION

QUESTIONS• WRITE THE QUESTION• COMPLETE A CHART

or GRAPH• MULTIPLE CHOICE• SELECT AN ITEM FROM

A GROUP• RE-WRITE or RE-STATE• GIVE AN OPINION• A COMBINATION of

EXERCISES

EXPLOITING LEARNER CHARACTERISTICSTo Promote Effective Language Acquisition

Some RECOMMENDATIONS:

Use a variety of exercise types Use Multi-Media activities Test only material taught Provide examples for varying

learner characteristics Teach to and Evaluate a wide

range of knowledge and skills Evaluate communicative skills Use adapted readings, materials

and vocabulary at proper levels

Using Task-Based Learning

“A TASK is a goal-oriented activity with a clear purpose. A communication task involves achieving an outcome, creating a final product that can be appreciated by others.”

from Jane Willis, 1998

Grammatical parts: n,v,a,

Frequency Hi / Low of word

Collocations

Meanings

Written Form Spoken Form

Connotations associations

Register

Derivations

What is involved in “Knowing” a word? S. Thornbury “How To Teach Vocabulary”

Spoken Written

Plural

Passive

Possessive

WORD

Why Test?• Students learn more in classes that use tests • The connection between testing and increased

learning is well-proven in research • Students are more motivated in classes that use

tests … (M. Thompson, 2001)• The classes in which students learn most and for

which they study hardest are ones in which they are frequently and thoroughly tested…

(Eggan / Kauchak, 1994)• Students expect to be tested – adult students

expect and respect formal testing and are challenged by it…

(Hilles ref. by Thompson, 2001)

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Evaluate Assess

Fitzroy Kennedy. M.A.School of Education

University of Alabamafitznken@gmail.com