In a deep self-evaluation, which I made just after reading the material, I came to the uncomfortable conclusion that many of us as teachers and even more as foreign language teachers, when it comes to assess students, we are still too close or stick to one of the most effective but at the same time old fashioned methods, the examination or test.
I realized that tests are not the only way to assess the performance of my students, and I also noted that the majority of my students learning process cannot be set just by a grade. As proposed by Brown the alternatives in assessment, could be a magnicifent tool to be implemented at the classroom. He proposed the usage of portfolios, journals, interviews, conferences, self-assessment, and peer assessment in order to guarantee an accurate approach to correct feedback aplication and therefore an excellent learning process.
I also reached the conclusion that, by the implementation of these techniques in our classrooms, we ensure a continous assessment process, ie, students are constantly being evaluated, on a dialy daily basis. which I think is by far the most accurate way to assess because students will have more opportunities to receive feedback and thus more opportunities to do better.
Finally, I would like to say that in our country, with our poor educational conditions and overcrowded classrooms, it is goddamned difficult even to think about applying these methods. But I am trully sure that with a lot of effort from our part, vocation and love for education, these techniques or alternative assessment will no longer be a dream but a beautiful reality being applied in every single Colombian classroom.
I really enjoyed this entry! I reached pretty much the same conclusions as you did after reading the chapter; I even laughed a little bit when I thought about using portofolios in our classrooms.
ResponderEliminarI just wanted to add that the effort to try to make those alternative assessment work is not only from our part, it also requires a lot of work from our students. That's why I believe that what Prof Raul said today is true... "we need to know how to sell them to our students", otherwise they would do it with contempt and they would only be looking for a grade, which is obviously not the objective here!
You are right Leonardo. We commonly use only test as a way to assess students because our conception of assessment is just to give a grade and that’s all. What about the feedback? What about our students’ learning process? Through this course we have learnt many alternatives in assessment that we can implement in our classes and, as you said, there is no excuse to use them because our responsibility is to do our best and guide students to improve their competences and values.
ResponderEliminarTeachers can improve their own working environment, I think. It is really difficult, though. The thing is that alternative assessment, as the name suggests, is alternative to the traditional methods of assessing. No one said that they were easy to apply.
ResponderEliminarI completely agree. One of the easiest ways to assess is using a test, still alternative assessment provide evidence collected during the process and gives a more trustful result.
ResponderEliminarI got almost the same conclusions. Our perspective of evaluation needs an urgent change in order to offer students new and more enjoyable ways of assessing.
ResponderEliminarYes guys, it is quite a challenge to do these things in public school classrooms. But it is an interesting one. Besides, in your specific case you still have time to try these out in your classes (very few of you are teaching in crowded classrooms, I reckon). Doing these with smaller classes may be good training for you and a good way to gain experience.
ResponderEliminarOf course professor, as you said, many of us work with small groups making it a little easier to be revolutionary educators so to speak. We can apply these different types of evaluation and find out if whether they are useful or not.
ResponderEliminarThe important thing, I think, is also to let other teachers know about those evaluation alternatives and daring teachers to implement them.