Gustavo Pérez

The purpose of this document is to submit a proposal to

the English Department of the University of Panama

which considers the application of the model presented

by Joan Herman from the University of California. This

proposal is focused on the assessment of students’

learning and achievement at the University level.

Our Top Assessment Proposal has the following objectives:

Provide the English department with a proposal….

Help the english department…….

Persuade the English Department

The assessment and evaluation process must be related

to the course objectives.

According to its mission and vision, the students of the

English Department will develop linguistic competences

that will allow them to be prepared for a successful

professional life.

Nowadays, English is a language spoken by over 2

million people, many of them non-native speakers

around the world who are using English as an

instructional and commercial language.

The English Department of the University of Panama has

also created a new program for the Bachelor’s Degree in

English in order to prepare students who can speak

English with a high command of the language.

In order to have a precise path to follow and achieve its goal, the

English department of the University of Panama has the following

vision:

Be a leader and a model of excellence……

Its Mission:

Forming competent professionals..

Developing communicative competences….

Contributing to the development of knowledge..

Being a leader in the usage of modern technology…

Teaching English to all the other schools that request this service…

Summary:

What’s wrong with current assessments?

Why a “system” of assessments?

Many assessment purposes

LIRIETT A. HERRERA

In 1572, Oxenham took part on the

raid in Panama which was headed by

Francis Drake as one of the ship

captains . In 1567, became the first

English person to come to Panama and

use the language to communicate

others.

Lather than, 1848 a

significant group came from

the United States to work in

the Pacific Mail Company.

In 1850 the Pacific Mail

Steamship Company

established a steamship

line competing with the US

Mail Steamship

Company between New

York and Chagres

From 1903 to 1979 the

territory was controlled

by the United States,

which had built the

canal and financed its

construction. From 1979

to 1999 the canal itself

was under joint US and

Panamanian control.

In 19 04 the YMCA

Clubhouses had brought

to the Canal Zone’s

people a new quality of

life.

Lather than, in 1975

after treaty negotiation

the YMCA opened to the

public and offered and

English School.

According to this study,

this year our country ranks

number 51 on a list of 54

countries which indicates

that Panama has a very

low level of English taught

in schools.

Weak public education hampers

English proficiency.

The poor quality of public

schools across Latin America

combined with

Unequal access to education

provides a more convincing

explanation for the region’s

weakness in English.

Education Minister Lucy Molinar

said that for a real

transformation of national

education takes place, the

whole society should withdraw

authority to continue with an

ongoing process of change

and updating.

So, she declared the year 2013

as “Meduca way to

consolidation and

educational excellence”.

1. 15 New curriculua in a Secondary Education

with a focus on skill training.

2. 125,385 students were benefited by

“Children program”.

3. 13,000 youth in grades 11 and 12

attended the After School program and

681 teachers participated in 600 hours of

English .

4. In 2012, they undertook the design and

construction of 5 schools of excellence

called , Model School.

WHAT ARE DOING THE UNIVERSITIES AROUND THE WORLD

TO IMPROVE ENGLISH PROFICIENCY.

THE BEST OF THOSE UNIVERSTIES ARE:

1. Offers a complete English program including individual subjects such as

Morphology, syntax, semantics. The literature subject is divided in all the

different periods, and it also includes linguistics as a main subject.

(Chulanlancorn University of Thailand)

2. Another university requires an examination at the end of each semester.

Also they have a continuous assessment. (Kashmir University, India)

3. Some universities offer different B. A. programs in English; for example,

B.A. in English and Linguistics and B. A. in Language and Linguistics so the

programs have specific subjects oriented to the students’ goals (University

of York, London)

4. Others offer two specializations in English: Linguistics an Literature and

they focus on lectures, writing workshops, seminars and project work in

order to approach problems creatively and critically. Also, they emphasize

on creative writing skills and oral production is emphasized through courses

in drama and rhetoric. (Malmo University, Sweden)

OUR FUTURE

IT IS CLEAR THAT IN OUR COUNTRY WE HAVE TO WAIT YEARS

FOR THOSE PROGRAMS RECENTLY ESTABLISHED TO WORK

OUT AND SHOW BETTER RESULTS.

HOWEVER, DUE THE INFORMATION ABOVE MENTIONED

REGARDING OUR POSITION ON THE LIST, WE DEVELOPED THE

FOLLOWING QUESTION ABOUT ADULTS EDUCATION AT THE

UNIVERSITY OF PANAMA.

•Does the English department of the University of

Panama have a continuous assessment procedure that

demonstrates the global effectiveness of the teaching

process?

•How can the English Department improve its

evaluation system in order to help students achieve

their final goals?

•How can the English department prepare students

better so that they can have a greater command of the

language and be able to teach it in the different levels?

•How can the English department assess the students

learning effectively?

•How can the English department assess quality before

or as students graduate?

Some Research about Evaluation and

Assessment

Glorita Riquelme

PhD student Agustina Djihadi in her blog: A Jouney Called Life cited

different authors to explain both terms:

Ten Brink (1974), defines evaluation as the process of obtaining

information and using it to form judgments which are to be used in

decision making. The process has 5 stages (1) preparing, (2)

collecting the data, (3) making judgments, (4) making decision, and (5)

reporting.

The process will yield information regarding the worthiness,

appropriateness, goodness, validity, legality, etc., of something for

which a reliable assessment has been made.

Evaluation can thus concern a whole range of issues in and beyond

language education: lesson, courses, programs, and skills can all be

evaluated.

Egyankosh (2002), suggests that the evaluation must be a continuous

process and this means a regular assessment of the students'

development.

Assessment, as Burhan (2009) states, does not include

decision making and reporting. It focuses on data gathering

and placing a value on something. It covers stages 1, 2, and

3 of the evaluation process.

Kizlik (2010) Assessment is a process by which information is

obtained related to some known objective or goal. (We test

or assess to determine whether or not an objective or goal

has been obtained).

Assessment is concerned with students’ learning or

performance, and thus provides one type of information that

might be used in evaluation. Testing is a particular form of

assessment, that is connected with measuring learning

through performance.

•The evaluation process must be coherent to be successful.

•As Joan Herman expressed in her research “A good assessment is

not a single test but a coherent system of measures.”

•Coherent systems must be composed of valid measures of learning

and they should be horizontally, developmentally, and vertically aligned

to serve classroom, school, and district improvement.

We have developed the following proposal in order to help the English

department align its objectives with a vertical, horizontal and

developmental coherent assessment

•Students of the English department should have an annual assessment to

determine whether they can be promoted to the next level or not. The

assessment should be oral and also written (diagnostic).

•Assessment can also take place after all the parts of a subject are

completed; for instance grammar I, grammar II, grammar III, then students

can be assessed at the end of grammar III. (Diagnostic).

•Depending on the results, students who get low scores

in their term courses or / and annual assessment should

take reinforcement lessons during the afternoon periods

(when there are no classes in the department).

•Those lessons can be based on any deficiency the

students have in any of the four skills.

•Speaking and writing workshops as well as summer

reinforcement courses could be organized

•Students of the English department should also take the

certified English exam as other students from other colleges do.

This is a good opportunity to assess them too. They could take

this exam at the end of the first year of studies. (Diagnostic)

•At the end of the career, students should take a final exam

similar to the TOEFL in order to observe their English level as

they are about to graduate and the progress they have made

throughout the career. This exam can be taken during their third

year and if they do not get the required score they can retake it

during their fourth year

•Students could be involved in activities such as: newspaper or

magazine editing, reading circles, teaching English to children of several

communities as their communitary work. (it could be a way to assess a

group, not individual assessment)

•The department should have an assessment commission in charge of

supervising students’ progress throughout the career and reports should

be kept in students’ individual files.

•The department should count on an assessment professional for the

supervision of its assessment and to assist and guide the department in

all the process.

These are only suggestions aimed at improving the general

performance of students in the English department and thus have a

successful assessment.

These recommendations should be analyzed and improved before

being implemented; in this way, we can identify the department

strengths and weaknesses.

•Taking into account Joan Herman’s article, the assessment proposed

above is horizontal because there are objectives, because we include

students through instruction in order to achieve those objectives and at the

end objectives are evaluated to observe if they are met.

•This assessment is also vertical because it takes place first in the

classroom, later in the department and at the end at the college level.

•Finally, this assessment is coherent because it measures through the

different courses if the students’ career goals are met.

•The development of a continuous assessment process like the one we

have presented can definitely help faculty measure if the results equal

its main objectives, mission and vision.

•Likewise, it can absolutely help students work harder due to the fact

that their progress will be monitored all the time.

•We expect this proposal could be useful for the English Department of

the University of Panama and that it can lead to a coherent assessment

process as Joan Herman states.