In this apart, it is necessary to reflect and pose a critical point of view about the evaluation process. Issue that is presented in The Foreign Language Curriculum Guidelines and other articles in this regard (Hargreaves et al (2001), Chapter 3 Haynes & Zacarian (2010), Chapter 7 Dawes, Hubbard, & Smith (in Grugeon, et al., 2005, Chapter 8) Nation (2009), Chapters 6 and 10 Nation & Newton (2009), Chapter 10 Weigle (2002), Chapters 8 and 9); in which topics such as evaluation, assessment, achievement indicators, competences, strategies, methodologies, feedback, teaching and learning are addressed, with the purpose to provide teachers information enabling them to enhance their teaching practices, the students’ learning process and the way in which teachers design, carry out and reflect about evaluation.
Though, some of the content about evaluation presented for the aforementioned authors seems ideal, it is still far from what really happens at the educational institutions.
- Would you consider, according to your experiences that evaluation processes at educational institutions are more interested in high-scores at the results than in the quality, property and effectiveness of teaching and learning processes?
Good afternoon.
ResponderEliminarFirst that all, I want to say about we are in a world that every day is changing and, I consider that the time is in continuous evolution; so, the idea about "evaluation", it has been implement the same processes in all the educational institutions during in the last years. In this case, we as professors need to think according to Guidelines curricular in a foreign language:
"Los procesos de globalización colocan en primer término el valor del conocimiento y, por consiguiente, de los mecanismos que permiten su progreso y su diseminación en suma de la investigación y de la educación. Los procesos de globalización no serían posibles, con el ritmo y extensión con que hoy se están dando, sin la concurrencia de la tecnología." (P. 46)
For that reason, we need to be conscious with the learning, the knowledge and the skills that students have because me, as teacher I prefer the students learn for learning and not for a note. So we must to be creatives to do more formative evaluations than summative, we need to create new strategies to evaluate and we necessity to improve and transform the evaluation depending on actual century.
On the other hand, I want to make a reflection with this texts that we read: I invite to think more in the motivations, in encourage and strengthen students´ learning because I ask them: What happen when the student do not have reasons to learn a Foreign language and in addition, they live in countryside and they do not have hope to study in a University?
Hello to everyone.
ResponderEliminarI would like talk firstly, about evaluation process because is the mostly innovation regarding to formative assessment. These notions are coming after and impossible to find an institution or school no using the competences, strategies, methodologies, feedback etc. We cannot forget that the globalization is, according to the current education paradigm, the integration of various cultures and one of principles of Colombian education is to create in each individual a cultural identity from any region. Then, the government pretends with the new evaluation system and new generation professors, seeking for producing proficient student and we know almost perfectly that be graduate someone no have guaranties to get an employ and also we know that whole knowledge or, probably, memorised information that as a last resource, perhaps he uses it to choose one vocation.
In Colombia the education system evaluates us to be proficient people, it means there are something like selection of weakness to produce, these people for poorness and that kind of people that has only possibility to access to formal education like SENA. Meanwhile, others with economic resources, some families worried for future of their son, they have possibility to access private high education.
Finally, what I want really to say is that, Colombia is a key in the world’s economic, and everyday appears new advances and technologies, new ways of language and way of communication, and therefore, we are in middle and the end of opened Veins of America, in which all our potential going to North America and Europe.
I call your apologies for being so vulgar. But hell yes. All my life I have experienced that situation, even now at the university. It is almost an illness, people only care for a number (that sadly can say something about your progress). The perfect example, it is after a proffesor gives the grades to his/her students. They inmiditedly go to ask between each other: "hey, bro, what was your score?". Then I remember a experience in a course of french,it sucked because the proffesor were restricted, because what mattered for the school was high grades so they can go and tell the world how amazing are their courses. That made my days horrible.
ResponderEliminarI strongly agree with you, the most of the times our learning performance is translated into a score. The society and the circumstances have obliged us to spend our time and effort thinking about how are we going to the whatever score.
EliminarThis is deeply controversial, being interested in getting high-scores is not only a matter of educational institution but also of the student, family and society. The issue is that sometimes students are not enough autonomous to guide their learning process neither to be conscious about what is being doing in the classes, thus, they just respond to the system's requirements. Based on my experience, as a high school student, a really ignored till now as a pre-service teacher that getting a high-score not always meant that I was comprehending nor getting a low score means I wasn't. However, it is necessary to acknowledge that sometimes to get a high-score also requires a great effort.
Another aspect quite common in the schools is the known 'recuperaciones' at the end of the school year, when the students who failed a subject can have a second chance to take an exam or workshop to do what they did not in a school term or even in a year. Do this coherent with the teaching and learning processes?
Hello :)
EliminarI am also very agree with your thinking and I consider your expression of "vulgarity" as a sign of frustation and for me is really normal because I have the same feeling. I am exhausted of scores, of measuring my ' knowledge', my formative process as if it was an object or something like that. Moreover, this is an issue in which while we are students we are not going to get out of this problematic except that the educative system change and we all know this is not going to happen, at least soon. So, according to this situation I have thinking in a question for you : it is possible that students do not pay attention to the scores when this is a requirement from the educative system ?
Hello everyone!
ResponderEliminarIn relation to previous opinions, I have to say that from my own experience, schools have to follow the orders of the Government in terms of evaluation. It means, the teacher depends on the directives and the directives respond to the law. Thus, the intervention of the teacher disappears especially if it is a public school for the idea of improving the quality of education and improving everything that surrounds the academic aspects.
What about human training? I think our country thinks badly about education. We need to train human beings with values, political and critical thinking, and then train the academic beings. Only in this way will we succeed in education, training people as human beings and not as machines.
Good evening, dear colleagues.
ResponderEliminarFrom my perspective as a casualty of large-scale testing in Colombia, I consider there is indeed a tendency at educational institutions to overload not only students, but teachers as well, with constant demands of reaching the highest scores on any standardized test allowing the institution per se, the city, the department and even the country to be competitive and to achieve renown in both the national and the global economy. As a result, the referred institutions have been more focused on preparing students for that kind of tests than on verifying whether all those contents, that are intensively and extensively measured, become actually relevant for students’ lives outside the academic business.
In this regard, Professor Jaime Usma (2009) reviewed a series of national language policy documents, among which we can find The English Syllabus (1982), The Colombian Framework for English Project (1991-1996), the Curricular Guidelines for foreign languages (1999) and The (new) Educational Revolution Plan (2006-2010), indicating how the government has frequently associated the mastery of EFL (assessed by the TKT and ICELTS for current and future teachers, by the ICFES for school students and by the IELTS, the TOEFL and the MELICET/MET for the general public) with utilitarian terms and expressions, such as “being competitive”, “human capital”, “global economy”, “knowledge economy” and “the vehicle that we need in order to take substantial advantage of the benefits […] and educational opportunities available abroad” (p. 133).
As the author states, this process is characterized as an instrumentalization of the foreign language, in which it is mostly deprived of any cultural or cognitive development motivation and becomes just a tool to increase the probabilities of success within the job market. Along with this, comes the marketization of foreign language teaching and learning, which can be identified in the increasing amount of private institutions, such as the British Council per se, which have established a whole highly profitable market of test preparation courses and materials (e.g. a full package of study guides + practice materials + preparation book + online course, offered on the IELTS website for a monthly subscription of US $49.99, in addition to the COP $598,000 of the test-taking fee).
Among the proposals of alternate ways for evaluation in the second and foreign language teaching and learning field, Sara Weigle (2002) has acknowledged the potential benefits as well as drawbacks of portfolios as means of writing assessment for learners in which “a collection of […] texts written for different purposes over a period of time” (p. 198) provides some insights about the development of specific language proficiency parameters according to certain sets of criteria encompassed in scoring rubrics. However, this particular methodology is yet to be widely recognized outside the academic settings and, thus, the relevance, impact and reliability of such implementation remains as a matter of choice for those who apply it and become aware of its results within a specific context.
Good night everyone.
ResponderEliminarI would like to tell you a crazy story that happened to me long time ago when I was in 11 grade, related with the evaluation system. As you know in the last year of high school you have to present a national test (ICFES) as graduation requirement. According to the statistics, the schools with best scores in the test have better academic level. So, in my school the administrative assembly decided to force us to take a special course to improve the national score of the institution, Pre-ICFES. I want to highlight that we did not have choice, it was mandatory. After a couple months we were ready to present the ICFES. The scores was actually good… well, most of them. As reward for my good results in the test, the teachers gave me the highest grade in all the subjects that were evaluated in the ICFES (Chemistry, physics, mathematics, Spanish, English) I did not have idea about all the topics that we were studying inside the class, actually, I got lose in physics constantly but for my teachers were more simple to put a number in the list that my real knowledge about the topics. Even if I got a high score in the ICFES it does not mean that I really know what I do. It could be lucky shot or just common sense. At the end I could understand that I was just a score.
I have been thinking that I'm just another number for the system for years. And, sadly my future students will feel that too, because as long as assessment remain as a tool of punishment and a tool for measuring competences detached from students realities and needs, nothing is going to change in this field; just because assessment is not approaching a human sense, is not considering student's talents and cultural backgrounds. It is sad to be a number, but in a system of education that tries to satisfy international policies, and uses evaluation as a threat , it is imposible to think about formative assessment. Maybe I am being pesimistic, but sometimes it is more important to get a five than to consider one's process to that five.
ResponderEliminarWell then, "quality, property and effectiveness of teaching and learning processes" that sound awesome, pretty much formative, but there is more interest on high-scores, especially when those are related with standarized tests, because those are the ones that give resources, recognition, and "glory" to an institution.
Hi dear Jacke, I hope you're fine. Let me tell you that there is nothing pessimistic in your discourse, since you are bringing back something that belongs to the reality of colombian students (no matter the level/field of knowledge) due to the system developed over the years and that we all know the government surprisingly "do not tell". Sadly, our government is very centralist.
EliminarIt would be fine if students reflect on their process and implemented strategies and the end of any assignment, but here is what actually happens: to be content because of the good grade or just to settle for whatever grade that is not worthy to win the resources given by the same government (in the case of ICFES). So, it is a paradox for me, because the administration is almost obliging schools to get good grades if they want to receive enough resources to enhance their quality education. It seems that schools or any other educational institutions need (have) to fight for what they already deserve, according to that 'Education quality' our country proclaims in the Human Rights.
Teaching institutions consider that quantitative results are equivalent to personal growth in the context. It is very unfortunate and one has to wonder if we will repeat the process that has befallen us.
ResponderEliminarNow… returning to the question. Indeed schools care about grades more than anything. The student’s average grades are generally a variable that is used to determine if institutions are good or bad and they get advertising from it.
These demands also go for teachers which are forced to follow some rules that may even go against what they believe but that they must accomplish in order to get all the grades for the end of the course.
I think many people here know something called ¨Cuadro de honor¨ in my school, they gave a mention to half the course. They gave mention for a bunch of stuff in the different courses. It came to the point that if you did not appear somewhere there is because you did not have anything special going on with you. This is an example on how grades might lead an institution to do things that discriminate a group of people.
You might believe there is no problem with that ¨They are just mentioning the name of people that got high grade in x subject, there is nothing wrong¨. If you think like that then I would like to ask you… Why not giving mention for achieving personal growth or anything that was not summative… Why only the people with high grades…
I think that education stills being just too traditional, and that aspect affects the evaluation of learning processes, because the most important thing on traditional evaluation is the grade, and to reach a product, without paying that much attention to the process, so it is hard to go beyond grades if our approaches to evaluate are traditional. Then, I think that making a change in how evaluation is concieved is challenge for us. Also, in my experience I always felt clumsy in standarized tests, I felt that I was not showing my real potential on those tests, and I was frustrated by the results, so it is possible to say that sometimes an evaluation focused on highscores can kill the students motivations and creative potential, hence there is call to think in formative assessment to make education more inspiring and human.
ResponderEliminarGood afternoon everyone.
ResponderEliminarThis question may cover a lot of issues around what evaluation involves, it means, there is plenty of considerations that surround whether it values number over quality learning-teaching. Based on my experience, as it is requested, I have to say that we should separate in some way what the education system proposes and what teachers do. It is because there are several teachers that aim to foster a real meaningful learning instead of sticking only to a number that separates what we are in terms of knowledge, but it doesn’t say that there aren’t teachers so traditionalists that don’t wider their perspective in terms of what teaching really is, and that could be transformed if teachers and we as preservice teachers start to reflect on how to approach to a meaningful related to the communicative competence and the constant improvement the students could get.
It means, aim for assessing the four skills not through the same format but to use diverse resources that may lead to an understanding of the students’ needs. This goes through “motivating, measuring achievements, diagnosing problems” (Nation, 2009), and it applies for all the issues that surround language and are quite important to be taken into account. If we are to talk about what the education system aims to enhance, we have to say that it is an integration of both a number and knowledge that supports certain score, but it privileges more the number since it is the one that determine you spot, at a first glance, within what society demands. So yes, the current era gives a strong value to the number, assuming that it really represents what the student knows.
I would like to point out that the education system is discussing the fact of evaluation because nowadays it turns out to be a matter of quality against quantity, which is something it shouldn't be questioned; the answer of what to choose is given by the context, but the community abuses the ideals and create another conception rom the theories and gives much priority to one or another thing (evaluation matters in this case).
ResponderEliminarSo, in my opinion (that I have been through formative and summative evaluation) I consider that the so called evaluation system should be a pre-text to increase quality, not making aside the quantity part which is also important referring to the context.
Afternoon, classmates. Hope you're not getting wet as it is raining a lot outside. Forgetting diplomacy, and centering on evaluation matters I firstly, would say that it depends. At least here in Medellin, we have a various offers of both private and public schools that manage to go further this paradigm of "good notes makes a good student" which is the canon, I would say, and get students through different processes of evaluation that make them go upon their own processes discerning both skills and weaknesses. Of course, not everyone, and we are talking not only about public schools, but private also, are aimed more into getting good scores on the tests that are usually used for proving socially certain status those tests are meant to prove, and as not everyone knows how those tests are prepared it means schools are good, anyway, it no necessarily means there is an interest about the other side of education: the quality over the quantity.
ResponderEliminarAfternoon, guys. i want to said that nowadays education system try to get just high- scores but they try to combine the quality with those result, because in my own experience, my school always talk about the importance of have good results in the saber pro, but they as institution give us tools to get those result obviously thinking in give a quality education. to finish I think that high-scores result needs that a quality education. have a nice day.
ResponderEliminarPost by Julián Zapata:
ResponderEliminarUnfortunately yes, it does.
Nowadays, the whole system is meanly focused upon the relation between scores, competence and productiveness. As such, it is not surprising that this happens because, since the 90’s Colombia has underwent into a process of broadening to the international market; therefore, the relationship between numbers and how much do we know is more tightly than ever. Albeit today we attempt to legitimate formative practices within school, marks are condition sine qua non for competence and international offers towards partnership, scholarships abroad.
Furthermore, teaching and learning practices are right know legitimate by how much content we in-out put in an amount of time; and by following international standardized guidelines and test. Knowledge has become in a matter of producing artefacts and patents for a globalize world. We are “marking” by numbers because it is, indeed, easer for keeping on track and never remain back on the queue. Everything is about trending and offering; we are offering no humanize people for no human market but with amusing grades on student records.
Good evening classmates
ResponderEliminarIt is clear that the purposes for which research is carried out influence fashion as it develops. The teacher, from the purposes, will make the decisions about what to evaluate in the students, the techniques and strategies of the strategy in the evaluation and how the results are communicated. So at present it has been reflected that they are evaluating more by quantity and not by quality, they want to stop high level of performance, which cause students to risk giving everything, as they are forced to make a Paper than none Is dedicated, must be educated to train human beings and not machines and robots that only fulfill the function of do and do not create, the requirement on the part of the teachers is very high, find the motivation to learn, Implement new forms for this process, if you want to change the way you think you have to change the way you live in the classroom, the skills and attitudes of students should be the comfort of every teacher every time you go up, Innovation is part Of human beings formed par excellence for quality and not quantity. Unfortunately it is being educated to leave the institutes to a high level, since they are given a level of exigency and of being with good prestige for the people who are about to form a study to these institutes, but it is clear that sometimes this requirement No Emerges from a will, is forced to study, is forced to follow rules that are not necessary for a good process of learning and teaching.
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ResponderEliminarHello everyone, well I would like to say according to the question and taking into account my experiences with formative and summative evaluation that educational system in general have to improve the way students are evaluated from teacher but to obtain a good result with this is necessary that Also parents have a conscious about the learning process of their children because nowadays we have many parents, I say that because I have seen it put more importance on the student's grade that in the knowledge that the student has achieved.
ResponderEliminarHence, it is necessary that parents or the people who are taking care of children prepare students to be aware of his or her process. To be honest with themselves and recognize that they could not measure with high or low scores because education is not about putting scores and that is something all teachers should take into account; Education is about transforming and educating people to get better opportunities in life, to construct a good society and to cronstruc better human beings.
To conclude, I am sure about the importance of the guidelines and standards that the educational system has but the change begin with us, teachers, because we are the model to follow and we need to show to our students the real signified of assessment.
Good evening classmates,
ResponderEliminarThere is an urgent call to overcome the gap between quantity and quality, because if there is a dialogue among these factors,aspects like assessment, achievement indicators, competences, strategies, methodologies, providing feedback, would improve significatively,plus there will be more attention on what means following the process of a student towards learning, rather than just assigning a grade or a number to a determined product. On the other hand,I have seen evaluation as a bittersweet topic, because I have been seeing it as a reward more than anything, and sometimes students live by evaluation, getting depressed or feeling bad, because of a bad grade. I want to release myself of grading to live more my learning, to create more meaningful experiences with knowledge, I want to be less stressed regarding to sumative evaluation, and focus more on formative evaluation. It is time to overcome conductist paradigms, and adapt new approaches to assess learning.
Hello everyone.
ResponderEliminarIn line with the question “Would you consider, according to your experiences that evaluation processes at educational institutions are more interested in high-scores at the results than in the quality, property, and effectiveness of teaching and learning processes?” According to my experience, I have to divide institutes in high school and University, also separate two kinds of evaluation processes (Summative and formative).
In High School I never heard about formative evaluation, all the evaluation processes were summative, it is why it was focused on grading students, as a tool to measure the knowledge acquired by learners, and sometimes as a way to punish them. In that case, it is obvious that evaluation process is interested in high scores, although the critical thinking and reflection do not exist because sometimes teachers were worried to the promotion of their students rather than in the development of these essentials skills on them.
On the contrary, at university, I got to know a new way to evaluation, formative evaluation. Although the courses are ever planned in a system in which it is necessary to be graded, all these courses including other different activities in which students are advised, corrected, and then graded. It shows a method in which the grade is only a requirement, but all the process want to increase the knowledge of the student, correct the fails and develop new competences.
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ResponderEliminarAccording to Nation, I. S. P (2009) Teaching ESL/ EFL reading and writing. “The assessment of learners’ written work can have a range of goals, teacher can motivating giving positive feedback and improve the attitude of student, including comments on the feedback that encourage more than a summative assessment. Teacher should working on the problems of writing and make a diagnosis, the author present goals and purpose that take time to do it and maybe in the real practice with a big group and without time is maybe impossible” I think that teacher should keep in mind the time to manage the class an try to respond in teaching and learning process of student in order to improve the pedagogical practices.
ResponderEliminarthe author gives ideas among these are, peer evaluation, self assessment, electronic feedback, oral feedback in class in addition pose individual feedback using a scale of which has the aspects of writing that teacher keep in mind to assess and comments to do regarding aspects of writing.
I think that teacher has to take into account the process of student to assess and revising the goals design to help student yo achieve the competences appropriately.
Good afternoon. Obviously we have been prepared for the results and a high note in the educative processes, just in some cases, the intention of te practice education is done to achieve quality in students and train them for the development of all skills.
ResponderEliminarBut by way of reflection on the documents, this consequence of the educational practice, is given by a bad elaboration of the curriculum, evaluation and planner homeworks.
According to the document (Haynes & Zacarian, Chapter 7) I gonna share five steps to follow in assessment:
1) Identify the English proficiency levels of their students.
2)Review the curriculum standars that they will use to create content and language objectives.
3)Select performance indicators that are appropiate for students' English proficiency levels.
4)Design rubrics that reflect students'English proficiency levels.
5) Share and provided direct instruction about the rubrics with students.
On the other hand, the management of the assessment in the university is totally different, for me. It applies in most cases the concept of ''Formative Assessment'',which is the teaching practice that we must take to the classroom.
¡Hi!
ResponderEliminarOk… From my point of view and also for the experience that I had at school, may be never or sometimes the institutions has the evaluation processes, because finally, always was most important the grade of final exam (high-scores), and, all scholar year, was lose because the final exam is the most important for the teacher, and obviously, for the school administration. Why? Because every year, they are preparing to people for Saber Pro exam, they don´t important how is your discipline, how is your presentation, how was your teaching and learning. So, I don´t know and I don´t say that all institutions are equal, but, I´m saying from my experience and of my family and friend experiences, that they didn´t had evaluation processes.
Finally, I think that at educational institutions is more important or they are more interested in the high-scores at the results, than of student formation process.
This issue has to do with a system which is agreed by the global society; nowadays the quantity or high-scores are shared to measure the people's knowledge. In this sense, people care more about their scores than in their own learning, because this is like what determines if they are good or not within the national and international academy. Scores are decisive in order to reach a particular goal.
ResponderEliminarAs a student I have observed that institutions proposals go hand in hand with this, why? Because students characterize by being highly competitive; the best students are who get 5.0 and the others' knowledge and contributions are not appreciated. Therefore, the schools do nothing to reverse this situation; on the contrary, they promote the importance of the scores in real life. This is a serious and a complex problem because people are not reflecting their learning processes and are becoming more individualist people.
Yes (sadly) and what is even worse is that the students are the ones who are being affected the most by this. Having said that, I would like to use my own experience as an example: for the most part of my student life, I have had good grades, but I think everyone has a breaking point and I can say that I have reached mine. Lately, I have been a bit down because I feel that I am studying for everyone, but myself. I LOVE teaching and languages, I really do, but it feels like I care more about the grades because there are people who are expecting that kind of results from me (e.g. my parents). It is like I am studying to satisfy them and not me, and that shouldn’t be the case.
ResponderEliminarThe processes of teaching and learning should be the main focus instead of the high-scores, because if there is a good process, no matter what happens, there is always going to be good results and more importantly, the students will feel comfortable in the process. Learning should be a challenging, but also an amazing experience, not the nightmare that it has turned into.
Hi!
ResponderEliminarAccording to my experience, teachers always focus their evaluations in scores and the fact that we, as students, put an effort on obtaining the best scores, but they don´t even pay attention to the process of learning. Even now at the university, I have had the experience with teachers that are only interested on obtaining some scores and forget about the effort of their students.
This isn´t only an issue that corresponds to teachers, because constantly students have to face situations in which the family and society forces them to have high scores and use it like a source to demonstrate that they are “good” students and that they can stand out from the others. But, I don’t agree with that, because obtaining good scores doesn’t mean that you understand and know how to apply that knowledge, so it isn’t a synonym of significant learning.