''The third question in thinking like an assessor asks us to be careful that we evoke the most appropriate evidence.''
This reminds me of part of the work I had to do last year in this course and how the term ''validity'' was like something coming from another galaxy. I simply had never heard about it before. Now, I know that it does not come from another galaxy but this planet. The Assessment planet. Things happen for one reason so if this validity exists is for an important reason.
I also have the feeling that most of the time we don't pay real attention to the possible consequences our judgements based on test scores can have.In this case, our judgements should be based on valid criteria, something that would fairly and consistently show to what extent our students are able to demonstrate they have a certain level of proficiency in a language skill. Just when we realised our judgements have consequences, which not always is easy to see, we can start to work on making our work more valid than it tends to be day by day.
I absolutely agree on your ideas. Since by assessing our student we are getting concrete evidence of learning, we have to make decisions out of the results we have got. And for this to happen, it is fundamental to think of criteria validity. Of course we usually forget that by making judgments out of the results students may get we are somehow making consequences to come up. Hence validity of criteria is one essential issue to think about. It is not that we test just because of testing, but to get results and to make adequate decisions based on those results. We tend to forget that the washback effect may give way to negative or positive consequences, and here comes the time when we must use of our good sense, tact, or sensitivity to make sound judgements.
ReplyDelete"I also have the feeling that most of the time we don't pay real attention to the possible consequences our judgements based on test scores can have"
ReplyDeleteWhat you mention above is the everyday issue in most of the cases, unfortunately. If we don't pay attention to such a delicate issue such as evaluation, it's obvious what happens next. Vague judgements, vague opinions, supportless arguments and biased decisions. After a test we have a score, what do we do with it, two options, either we use it wisely in terms of helping and making our students improve, or just lie and continue with this aimless practices in our classrooms, all in all, it's more comfortable, isn't it?
As the teacher said in the previous lessons, the obtained results are not as important as the interpretation that you can give them. The idea is to collect as many evidences as you can, and extract from them the real effect of our own teaching practices. In other words through assessment we receive the necessary feedback to make the correct adjustments in order to improve the students ‘learning day after day.
ReplyDeleteThat is why we need to be specific and use all the required guidelines in order to cover most of variable that the task demands for the sake of improving the students’ learning day after day.
I donot really think that we pay attention to test results, I think that we start thinking and interpret the results when the results are not good (too many bad marks) but when you have one or two you really donot care, you donot try to find the reason or causes behing. I believe that the problem is not that we donotcare, or donot want to analyse the results, the problem is that we donot have the time to do it.
ReplyDeleteDear Claudia,
ReplyDeleteTeachers cannot only assess students for the sake of marking them. It is certainly our professional obligation to interpret and make decisions out of the results students obtained at tests. More importantly, the best way to assess students is to obtain as much as evidence as possible from our students. It is true that for most of teachers it is not possible to carry out several evaluative samples due to the little time we have.
As for evidence from students, apart from the marked tests, we can include unmarked evaluations. For instance, we can make the habit of taking notes of our students' performance in class.
Then, interpretation comes, which is key so as to make a fair judgment. Consequently, the more evidence we get, the better decisions we can make.