Mr Phill Sylvester feed back about the meeting of January 19th 2016 which was about testing

1. Feed back Meeting testing january 19th 2016
PHILIP SILVESTER 12:18 PM (1
hour ago)
to me
Hi Samir
I have very much enjoyed reading through your comprehensive documentation. As always, it is well-
presented, well-organised and complete in its scope and coverage.
The high quality support which you continue to offer your colleagues is - in my view - quite remarkable. The
teachers and pupils in your areas/wilayas are very lucky!
The Testing Meeting (ppt)
I particularly like the Einstein quote - a really good choice to start with! You are clearly tackling a complex
and difficult subject in the workshop - Testing and Examinations. You linked your workshop beginning to
previous meetings - so giving the learners (your audience) the understanding that the workshop is one part
of a programme of workshops/learning opportunities; I think this is good practice. Again, you build in quite a
lot of time to get feedback from your learners and to enable them (and you) time to reflect - good!
I thought the fact that you admitted the difficulties in approaching any tests/exams for both teachers (and
students) was a powerful, sensible and helpful starting point. You note four important functions for tests,
the principles of testing and your (excellent) section on 'Recommendations to exams designers'. By
including regular opportunities for reflection and plenty of practical advice (linked to the Algerian context, the
BEM guides etc.) you are empowering your colleagues to really take charge of the curriculum - rather than
being its servants. Well done!
Some specifics:
The 11.00-11.30am session for workshops looked very short to me (in the handout you used 11.00-
11.45am, I think).
In the UK, the language we use when we talk about assessment or testing can be very important -
semantics comes into the equation..... So it is really important to provide the time to agree/understand what
colleagues understand/agree by the words 'assessment', 'testing', 'exams' etc. We can use the same words
and mean different things!
It is also - I think - really important to remind teachers that we are all making 'judgements', 'observations'
and collecting 'data' during every minute of every lesson - it is no more and no less than our job....
Also - I do think that there are opportunities here to promote more active learning, independence and
collaboration. How much are the students involved in designing (simple) tests? Can they work on this -
with the teacher's guidance? Could they prepare tests for younger age groups? Do they know what is
expected of them (what a particular test is for?) when they sit it?
In the same way that young children need to 'learn to learn', children need to be supported to take tests and
emotionally equipped for this (through previous learning designed to inform them about the testing situation,
the importance of time-keeping, organisational skills, controlling their emotions, concentrating,
presentational advice etc.). How much do teachers teach their students how to perform their best in
exam/test situations?
Teachers' Handout
I have no doubt that your colleagues found this succinct and well-organised document to be a very helpful
tool. I particularly liked the third potential function for the test - I.e. teachers seeing how well they had
performed (self-evaluation).
'Recommendations to exam designers' - in the UK context we often talk about the 'weighting' given to
different subjects/focus/grades in order to reflect its importance like your BEM guide. Clearly teachers (and

2. their students) need to know and understand any such test/exam weightings before they sit them. What
about responding to learners' different learning Sykes in our consideration of tests/exam development?
In your 'workshop' time from 11.00am, colleagues had the opportunity to share their experiences (I imagine
that you could not allocate more time to this bearing in mind your focus but IQ do think this needs much
more time - perhaps a morning on its own?). I believe that this is VERY valuable and needs to be
considered for a further meeting - if you have time. With so much pressure on your time, the more you can
work together and share good practice, the better, in my judgement. I liked the way you 'saw' the role of the
Inspector as a supportive one, here.
Before students take a test, do they (individually) or does the teacher have a 'predicted grade/performance'
or definite expectation in mind for each individual student - depending on the test/exam?
I wholeheartedly agree that periodic tests/assessments should be constructed by each teacher as part of
the course (embedded assessment) and not added on afterwards.
You include lots of practical advice for colleagues (excellent) - e.g. The Grid of Evaluation for written
expression. This is practical, linked to the BEM guide and very clear. Is it shared with and understood by
students - those at a certain level? Potential for students to self-grade their own work? Others' work?
INSET Meeting Feedback
This is a very clear and helpful recording mechanism to enable you and your colleagues to collectively
reflect on how your workshop went. This represents excellent professional practice, in my view.
You got 100% attendance - BRAVO! Not only does this suggest you got the venue 'right' but also that your
colleagues very much appreciate what you are offering/delivering during the workshops.
Very well done! Do you take any photos of the workshops in practice? If you did, I would love to see some.
Best wishes
Phil
Sent from my iPad - Phil Silvester CBE
On 8 Feb 2016, at 20:01, samir bounab <yellowdaffodil66@gmail.com> wrote:
<TESTING meeting& workshop January 2016.pptx>