Beyond Test : Alternatives in assesment

Presented in Language testing subject

Source :Language assement by H. Douglas Brown

• Brown and Hudson ( 1988) noted that to speak of alternatives assement is counterproductive because the term implies something new and different that may be exempt from the requirementsof responsible test construction.

The defining cahracteristics of the various alternatives assesment

1. Requires students to perform, create, produce or do something

2. Use real-word context or simulations3. Are noinstrusive in that they extend the day to day

classroom activities4. allow students to be asssesed on what they normally do

in class every year5. use tasks that represent meaningful instructional

activities6. focus on processes as well as products7. tap into higher-level thinking and problem solving skills

The dillema of maximizing both practically and washback

• The principal purpose of this chapter is to examine some of the alternatives in assement that are markedly different from formal test.

• Test, especially large-scale standardized test, tend to be one shot performances that are timed, multiple choices, decontextualized, norm- referenced , and that foster extrinsic motivation.

Relationship of practically / reliability to washback

High

Practically and

reliability

low

Performances based assesment

the characteristic of performance assesment :2. Students make a constructed response3. They engage in bigber- order thinking , with open

–ended tasks4. Tasks are meaningful , engaging, and

authenthicatic5. Tasks call for the integration of language skills 6. Both process and product are assesed7. Depth of a student’s mastery is emphasized over

breadth

• in reality , performances as assesment procedure need to be treated with the same rigor as traditional tests.

• To sum up, perfomances assesment is not completely synonymous with the concept of alternatives assesment.

Portofolios

• a portopolio is a purposeful collection of students work that demonstrates ... Their efforts, progress, and achievements in given areas.

Portofolio materials such as

• Esssays and composition in draft and final forms• Reports, project outlines• Poetry and creative prose• artwork, photos, newspaper or magazine clippings• Audio and or video recordings of representations,

demonstration• Journals, diaries, and other personal reflections• Test, test scores, and written homework exercises• Notes on lectures• Self and peer assesment-coments, evaluations, and

checklist

Succesfull portofolio development will depend on this

• State objectives clearly

• Give guidelines on what materials to include

• Communicate assesment criteria to students

Journals

• A journal is a log of one’s thought , feelings, reactions, assesments, ideas, or progress, toward goals, usually written with little attention to structure , form, o correctness.

• journals obviously serve important pedagogical purposes : practice in the mechanics of writting , using writting as a thinking process, individualization , and communications with the teacher .

Conferences and interviews

• Conferences are not limited to drafts of written work. It must assume that the teacher plays the role of a facilitator and guide , not of an administrator of a formal assesment .

• A number of generic question that may be usefull to pose in conference are

3. What did you like about this work?4. What do you think you did well?5. How does it shows improvement from previous work?

Can you show me the improvement?6. What did you do when you did not know a word that

you want to write?

• An interview is intended to denote a context in which a teacher interviews a student for designated assesment purpose.

• How do conferences and interviews score in terms of principle of assesment ? Its practically, as is true for many of the alternatives to assesment , is low because they are time –consuming.

Observations

• All teacher , whether they are aware of it or not , observe their students in the classroom almost constantly. Virtually every questions , every response, and almost every non verbal behaviour is , at some levelof perception, noticed.

In order to carry out calssroom observations , you have to follow this

step• Determine the specific objectives of the observations• Decide how many students will be observed at one

time• Set up the logistics for making unnoticed observations • Design a system for recording observed performances• Do not overestimate the number of different elements

you can observe at one time• Plan how many observations you will make • Determine specifically how u will use the results

Self and peer assesment

• A conventional view of language assesment might consider the notion of self-and peer-assesment as an absurd reversal of politically correct power relationships.

• Self –assesment derives its theoritical justification from a number of well established principles of second language acquisition.

• Peer-assesment appeals to similar principles , the most obvious of which is cooperative learning. Many people go through a whole regimen of education from kindergaten up through a graduate degree and never come to appreciate the value of collaboration in learning.

• Peer assesment is simply one arm of a plethora of tasks and procedures within the domain of learner-centered and collaboration education.

Type of self and peer assesments

1. Asesement of a specific performance

2. Indirect assesment of general competence

3. Metacognitive assesment for setting goals

4. Socioaffective assesment

5. Student generated test

question

1. siti : give example for portofolio and how to asses portofolio ?

2. monggang : can you explain diagram of relationship pratically/realibility ?