Unit 14 .

- Final project
14.1. Introduction
 

Vygotsky (1998) postulates learning requires the consciousness of one's own

internal processes and also an ability to control such processes. However, he
considers that initially the internal control isn't necessarily conscious because it is
not an object of reflection. Mediation, then, is an important tool in this process once
it will lead to a conscious observation and description of one's personal cognitive
aspects, helping develop strategies about their own learning steps. As stated by
Toassa (2006), "consciousness is not a static system, mechanistic: it refers to the
development of a voluntary conduct".

14.1.1. Planning learning and assessment

Learning as a process can be planned, and as such it consists in the formulation of

the learning needs, goals and objectives.

Knowledge, on the other hand, begins with the observation and description of the
learning tasks and the perception of the relation between the cause processes and
their effects.

According to Ridley (2003), classroom-based language learners are expected to

engage in two types of reflection: first, they need to acquire metalinguistic skills,
which means the ability to notice the input and the output in their interactions and
production; and the second is metacognition, which is having learners assume the
responsibility of their own learning from the setting of goals to the assessment and
constant reflection over their progress.

Metacognition also refers to "what one knows about knowing". The literature
makes a distinction between metacognitive knowledge and skills. Flavell (1979 in
Murray, 2011) saw metacognitive knowledge as consisting of three components:
person knowledge, what learners know about themselves; task knowledge, what
they know about the learning task; and strategic knowledge, knowledge learners
have about strategies they can use to carry out the task.

This being so, we can say learning is a complex process that requires personal
responsibility, active participation, learner independence and autonomy. At least
those are considered as fundamental characteristics to what Giovannini called "the
good learner"; he concluded that the good learner is the one who proves capable
of taking decisions on their learning and, therefore, are more efficient and active.
They know how to learn.

The task-based framework, on the one hand, requires the use of "authentic
assessment", which is seen as a process-oriented means of evaluating
communicative competence, cognitive abilities and affective learning (Kohonen,
1999, p. 284; cf. Hart, 1994, p. 9; O'Malley & Pierce, 1996, pp. x-6). It also fosters
learner autonomy using instructionally-relevant activities for reflexive assessment,
such as communicative performance assessments, language portfolios and self-
assessment, projects, chats, group tasks, debates, and reflexive journals, etc.

In this process, "the essentially interactive nature of learning is extended to the

process of assessment" (Williams & Burden, 1997, in Finch, 2002, p. 03), using
real-life language tasks to help students improve their linguistic competence.

Self-assessment and peer-assessment are also two possible resources with

effective results for not only testing processes but also for individual development
and also in the construction of learner's responsibility.

For the teacher, an authentic assessment means collecting information about

learner's progress as well as the social learning aspects of the teaching itself, in a
way that teacher appropriately embraces a coach or tutor's role, observing the
different aspects of learner's progression, not narrowing their participation to what
is tested only, but rather, guiding their development through differentiation.

14.1.2. Portfolios

They are considered a form of assessment, but teachers can use them as part of
their regular programme as well. However, the main aspect of a portfolio is that
they may offer a deeper form of learner involvement or engagement; they help
enhance the learner experience, as learners become more aware of their own
preferences, styles, and strategies. Portfolios also foster learners' reflection, as
well as insights which allow them to give themselves feedback, or as pointed by
authors such as Hughes and MacLellan, portfolios promote the dialogic reflection.

The ability to give ourselves feedback is a fundamental feature of the autonomous

learner, or in other words, the dialogic reflection must be the ultimate goal of any
class where the intentional focus relies on the learning process and the self-
assessment skill it may naturally promote.

In the foreign language class, where improvement over time is expected, to keep
learning evidences as a form of documentation of the steps a learner has followed
during the evolution of a course is basically what a portfolio does. It is believed to
enhance the learner's reflective judgment and help them make decisions on better
informed choices about their learning styles.

Portfolios can be created by students, instructors, teachers, as well as faculty

members. There are also the professional portfolios, which are created for
employment purposes.

Furthermore, portfolios have been recently more used as online or electronic

resources that are quite advantageous once information is placed in multi-media:
texts, graphics, animation, sound and video, and so on. They also offer a more
organized system where searchable information, hyperlinks, menus, as well as
collaboration and feedback are enormously facilitated.

Reflection task 14.1.

1. Answer the questions below:

a) Write your own definition to a portfolio.

b) What is the purpose of the use of a portfolio in the academic writing setting?

2. Read the text on Assessment Types below and find the mistakes in grammar,
morphology and syntax that were purposely left. Then, correct them:

Types of Assessments

From informal questioning to final exams, there are countless ways teachers may
determine what students know, understand, and are able to do. The instruction
cycle generally follows a pattern of to determining where students are with respect
to the standards being thought before instruction begins, monitoring their progress
as the instruction unfold, and then determining what knowledge and skills are
learned as a result of instruction. Assessments based on when they are
administered relative to instruction, can be categorized as formative, summative, or
interim.

Summative Assessment: Formal assessments that are given at the end of a unit
term course or academic year.

These assessments are designed to judge the extent of student learning for the
purpose of grading, certification, or evaluating the effection of a curriculum. They
use to be retrospective assessments of what students have learned, know, or are
able to do.
Formative Assessment: A process and/or a set of strategies that teachers and
student use to gather information during (as opposed to after) the learning process
and to make adjustments accordingly.

At the other end of the assessment spectrun is formative assessment. A teacher

using formative assessment strategies knows where students need to end up and
regularly checks in with students, using a wide variety in methods and strategies,
to determine where they are in the learning process. Once clearly the teacher
understands where students are, instruction is adjusted to accommodate the needs
of the students in order to, get them to where they need to be.

Interim Assessment: Assessments administered during instruction that are

designed to evaluate students' knowledge and skills relative to a specific set of
goals to inform decisions in the classroom and beyond.

As the name suggests, interim assessments fall between formative and summative
assessments. They are typically administered every 6 to 8 weeks at the some
school. Their purposes may include predicting a student's ability to succeed on a
large-scale summative assessment, evaluating a particular educational program or
pedagogy, or diagnosing gaps in students' learning. As with any quality
assessment, the specific interim assessment used is driven by the proposal and
intended use of the data, but the results of an interim assessment must reported in
a manner that alhows for aggregating across students, occasions, or concepts.

Adapted from the "Comprehensive Assessment System: Rhode Island Criteria and
Guidance" - Department of Elementary and Secondary Education of Rhode Island
on http://www.ride.ri.gov/Portals/0/Uploads/Documents/Instruction-and-
Assessment-World-Class-Standards/Assessment/CAS/CAS-Criteria-Guidance-
ONLY.pdf

3. Considering the text above would you say a portfolio assessment fits better the
criteria of summative, formative or interim assessment? Explain your choice.?

Read the comments about this task in the virtual campus. The comments are
posted in the section "Evaluation".

14.2. Criteria or standard?

 

It is important to understand the distinction between criteria and standards. A clear

understanding of these terms will make the assessment task easier. Sadler (1987)
defines these terms as:
Furthermore, Sadler states that standards must promote an understanding of
quality roughly similar to that held by the tutor so that they can evaluate their own
work in the act of producing itself. It is believed as an indispensable condition for
enhancing learners academic performance. (Sadler, 1987; Sadler, 2008).

Institutions as well as teachers must have discretion in deciding which

assessments to use to meet their various needs. However, they should always
seek to create or purchase assessments of high quality. Assessments of poor
quality are of limited utility as the information they produce does not represent
student learning well enough to properly inform decision-makers about the
changes that are needed. There are three major indicators of assessment quality:
validity, reliability, and fairness.

Reflection task 14.2.

1. The standards described in this chart below illustrate three distinct levels of
quality, achievement or performance: fail, pass, and high standard.

Choose two more criteria from the box below and on the chart describe, with your
own words, standards having in mind the academic writing setting. An example has
been given:

 
 STANDARDS
CRITERIA Fail standard Pass standard High standard
(3-4 marks) (5-7 marks) (8-10 marks)

Clear, concise,
Correct, but
scrupulously
Stilted, awkward occasionally
accurate, polished
and/or stilted or
and sometimes
oversimplified awkward
1. Quality of innovative or
expression expression
expression original language
resulting in overall although
used to express
lack of clarity of meaning is
complex and
meaning. generally
abstract ideas and
retained.
information.

 The text does

 The test has  The text has
2.Language not have
coherence, but cohesion and
accuracy coherence and
no cohesion coherence
cohesion
3.  The text does  The text has
Appropriateness  The text has a
not have any the citation, but
of citation correct citation.
citation wrong written

2. Using the key ideas below briefly write what you believe to be good definitions to
the terms in bolds.

Validity: refers to the accuracy / tied to the purpose / requires the collection of
various sources of evidence / respects construct.

Reliability: the consistency of an assessment / promote similar results / gathering

multiple sets of data / is useful / honest representation of what students know.

Fairness: entails a lack of bias / accessibility / equity / does not favor the
background, gender or experience of a group.

3. Make a chart with your main mistakes spotted by your tutors along these
previous weeks. For that you'll have to review all your produced material and
develop a scheme with the following errors:
- Spelling I would like to evoid it ...spelling
- Grammar to produce a suitable hypothesis of
him.....grammar

- Vocabulary
- Coherence and Cohesion   . Improving this skill I suggest increasing the
vocabulary to write complex
sentences.....language, check the use of "suggest",
- Punctuation Hello Tutor.
- Typographic Hello Tutor.
- Argumentation
- Connectors The five Stephen Krashen hypotheses......use of
"the"
- Referencing
- Organization I am an outgoing person, so it reflects on my
writings; it means a lot to say.....organization of
ideas, language
- Syntax

4. Read the statements below and check yes or no according to your own ideas:

STATEMENTS YES NO

1. Planning and organizing your writing are less important than the expression of ideas.    x
2. Plagiarism simply means copying another student's work and calling it your own.  x  
3. Only a good vocabulary is important in producing a formal academic style in your
written work.
 x  

4. Constructing an argument for an essay involves linking together ideas that you have
read in books and other source material.
 x  

5. An advertisement is close to an academic writing.    x

6. The best order for ideas in an academic paragraph is from specific details to a
general idea of the main point
 x  

7. The best kinds of words to use in academic writing are words such as reason or
similarity which show relationships between ideas.
 x  

8. The best way to start an academic text is with a question  x  

 
Read the comments about this task in the virtual campus. The comments are
posted in the section "Evaluation".

14.3. Review
 

This section summarises the knowledge acquired during this unit:

- The Introduction presents the concept of learner autonomy, especially the idea
of learner's reflective involvement in all aspects of the learning process as well as
the relevance of their self-regulation for their complete cognitive enhancement.

- Then, we approached the assessment idiosyncrasies, still under the light of the
autonomous learner issue.

- And finally, we have dealt with some of the course contents attempting to review
some key aspects of the academic writing structure. Furthermore, this whole week
meant to have the learner assume a more independent stance towards their own
learning. That is exactly what the final task intends to promote: a thorough and
careful look into their own progress over the past 14 weeks.

14.4. Check your knowledge

 

Enter the virtual campus and access the Reflection exercises section. There you
will find the tasks you have seen during this unit. You have to complete all of them
and, when you finish them, the system will provide you the feedback. If you need
more information, consult the files "Assessment", right under the section
Assessment of the unit.

Remember that, apart from reading the contents and completing the Reflection
exercises, you have to complete the activities and the exam or the final task. The
teacher had provided the information about them in the Group forum.

Bibliography
[1] Caixal, E. (2011). "Designing an Online Course in English for Academic
Purposes. Unpublished Masters Dissertation". Universidad de Jaen.

[2] Esteves, O. et Rubis Arumi, M. (2012). "La evaluacion por competencias y el

portafolio del estudiante: dos experiencias en asignaturas de lengua alemana y de
interpretacion simultanea", Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.
http://www.xtec.cat/fadults/formacio/semi/autoapre/evaluacion.pdf [Checked on the
25th November, 2013].

[3] Finch, A. E. (2002). Authentic assessment: Implications for EFL performance

testing in Korea. Secondary Education Research, 49, 89 - 122.

[4] Fleming. D. and Walter, P. (2004). Tesl Canada Journal/Reveu TESL Du

Canada - Special Issue number 4, 58 - 72.

[5] Hughes, C. TEDI/The University of Queensland "Practical Guidelines for Writing

Assessments Criteria and Standards".
www.uq.edu.au/.../Writing_Criteria_Standards.doc [Checked on the 25th November,
2013].

[6] Hughes, H. Woodrow. "Dialogic Reflection: A New Face on an Old Pedagogy".

http://gsep.pepperdine.edu/~whughes/Journaling.html [Checked on the 25th
November, 2013].

[7] Instituto Cervantes (2006). Plan curricular del Instituto Cervantes. Madrid:
Instituto Cervantes.
http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/biblioteca_ele/plan_curricular/default.htm
[Checked on the 25th November, 2013].

[8] Koch, S., Passerino L. "Aprender a aprender: evidenciando o processo

metacognitivo para construção de uma aprendizagem consciente". In: XIII
Seminário Internacional de Educação, Escola: Espaço de Sociabilidade e
Cultura da Paz.

[9] Kohonen, V. (1999). "Authentic assessment in affective foreign language

education". In J. Arnold, (Ed.) (pp. 279-294).

[10] Kostopoulou, S. "Learner self-assessment and the European Language

Portfolio", Trinity College, Dublin.
http://www.enl.auth.gr/gala/14th/Papers/English%20papers/Kostopoulou.pdf
[Checked on the 25th November, 2013].

[11] Little, D., Ridley, J., Ushioda, E. (2003). "Learner Autonomy in the Foreign
Language Classroom - teacher, learner, curriculum and assessment". Authentik
Language Learning Resources Ltd, Dublin.

[12] MacLellan, Effie (1999). "Reflective Commentaries: What do they say about
learning?" Educational Action Research, Volume 7(3): 433-449.

[13] Sadler, R. (2005). "Interpretation of Criteria-Based Assessment and Grading in

Higher Education", Griffith University, Australia, vol. 30, No 2, pp. 175 - 194.
[14] Skehan, P. (1990). "Communicative Language Testing". The Journal of Tesol,
France, Volume 10, Number 1, 115 - 127.