Nurlanbekova
Y.K.
Kazakh
state women’s teacher training university
Kazakhstan,
Almaty
Evaluation and Assessment in teaching English
Institutions need to use a range
of different approaches to evaluation. A wisely selected combination of these
is likely to guarantee correct judgment, guiding recommendations and
conclusions. To measure the quality of educational services one has to consider
the short and long-term developments in an institution, the orientation of
activities towards well-established standards as well as clients’ needs.
Evaluation is formative when it is applied with the purpose of improving
the functioning of an activity. For example, the process of introducing new
teaching materials or aids would require formative evaluation done at different
stages of the trial. Summative evaluations, on the other hand, are used in
order to compare the effectiveness of
different approaches in achieving a particular goal. Their intention is to
formulate a judgment about the positive and negative aspects of educational
phenomena. Evaluation procedures can focus on the products achieved (for
example, test results) or on various processes (for example, designing and
implementing different syllabus types).
Students’ progress over a
period of time helps in assessing and improvements or setbacks in their
performance. Periodical evaluation of students is an important tool to
determine whether the students are benefiting from the teaching practices being
employed at educational institutions. Teachers are today experimenting with a
lot many techniques, which are different from the traditional examinations and
tests. These include peer assessment, classroom observation, performance
assessment and self evaluation.
Student evaluation is necessary
for the following reasons:
· It helps students to
learn more effectively and in a much better way.
· It is an interesting
experience for both the teachers and the students.
· It helps in integrating
research closely with undergraduate learning.
· It is required to be
carried out to meet quality assurance procedures.
· It helps in developing
new learning media, especially blended learning and e-learning.
Student evaluation can be
done in various ways such as exams, rubrics, progress reports, parent-teacher
meetings, and also self-evaluation.
Use of Rubrics
· The Rubric is a tool used
for authentic assessment of student performance which is useful in assessing
subjective and complex criteria.
· It simulates real life
activity by engaging students in the process of solving real-life problems.
· It is a formative
assessment type and is a continuing part of the learning and teaching process.
· It uses a range to rate
student performance and focuses on measuring a previously stated objective.
A rubric makes explicit a range of assessment criteria and expected
performance standards. Assessors evaluate a student's performance against all
of these, rather than assigning a single subjective score. A rubric handed out
to students during an assessment task briefing makes them aware of all
expectations related to the assessment task, and helps them evaluate their own
work as it progresses helps teachers apply consistent standards when assessing
qualitative tasks, and promotes consistency in shared marking. The teachers can use rubrics to structure discussions with
students about different levels of performance on an assessment task. They can
employ the rubric during peer assessment and self-assessment, to generate and
justify assessments.
Assess with rubrics
· Ensure
that assessment rubrics are prepared and available for students well before
they begin work on tasks, so that the rubric contributes to their learning as
they complete the work.
· Discuss
assessment rubrics with students in class time. Use these discussions to refine
and improve rubrics in response to students' common misunderstandings and
misconceptions.
· Practise
using rubrics in class. Have students assess their own, their peers' and
others' work.
· Involve
students in developing assessment rubrics, and involve them more as they become
competent in doing so.
· This
encourages them to be independent and to manage their own learning. Frame your
assessment feedback to students in the terms laid out in the rubric, so that
they can clearly see where they have succeeded or performed less well in the
task.
The advantages of using
rubrics for student evaluation are as follows:
· It shows the students how
they will be evaluated in a clear-cut way.
· It enables the teachers
to conduct a consistent and objective assessment, while focusing them to
clarify their criteria in precise terms.
· It provides teachers with
benchmarks against which they can measure student performance and document the
progress.
· It also gives useful
feedback with regard to the effectiveness of teaching techniques.
Self-evaluation
Teachers can follow these
simple tips to make students comfortable with self evaluation:
· Teacher needs to first
make them understand the concept by defining self-evaluation to them.
· Talk to the students
about the benefits of self-evaluation and deal with any misconceptions hat they
might have about it.
· Start by creating small
opportunities for self-evaluation. You can use many pre-designed forms to make
your students practice self-evaluation every day in the classroom.
· Teacher can work with a
colleague or a peer in doing this as it will enhance personal assessment.
There are many other
techniques the teachers can use for evaluation of student performance.
· Teachers can use a
combination of traditional examinations, quizzes, homework assignments, individual
or group presentations, essays and many more methods to evaluate your students.
· Parent teacher meetings
are also a great platforms for both the parents and teachers to interact and
share information about the students’ progress.
· Teacher can also ask students
to design a webpage for concepts or topics taught in the class. This will help
her to better gauge students’ understanding of the concept.
· Essays are also one great
method to evaluate the grasp of students about a particular topics. Essays
require them to organize and communicate their thoughts clearly.
Finally, all the teacher needs to keep in mind while
evaluating students is that it should contribute to their learning, should not
be time-consuming and should help her to assess their progress as well as
understanding.
REFERENCES
Sadler, D.R. (2009). Indeterminacy in the use of
preset criteria for assessment and grading. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher
Education, 34(2), 159–179.
Smith, C., Sadler, R. and Davies, L. Assessment Rubrics. Griffith Institute for Higher Education, Griffith
University.
Bridley, G. (1998a) Outcomes - Based Assessment in Second Language
Learning Programs. In
G. Brindley (ed.) Language Assessment in Action. Sydney: New
south Wales Adult Migrant Education Service.
O’Malley, J. M. and L. Valdez- Pierce (1996) Authentic Assessment for
English Language Learners: Practical Approaches for Teachers. Reading. MA:
Addison- Wesley.