1) The document discusses key principles of language assessment according to several authors, including Brown, Coombe et al., and Bachman and Palmer.
2) It emphasizes the importance of understanding the differences between assessment, testing, and evaluation and considering factors like practicality, reliability, validity, authenticity, washback, and providing useful feedback.
3) The authors believe Brown provides the clearest explanation of principles and that concepts like authenticity, validity, and washback are most important to apply as future teachers.
Impact of a Public Examination Change on Teachersâ Perceptions and Attitudes ...iosrjce
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The effect of language tests on teaching and learning is described in language education as
âwashbackâ. Highstakes public examinations, thus, are often used as tools of control in the school system.
Recently, the Libyan Education Authority adopted major changes into the existing Basic Education Certificate
Examination (BECE) in English aiming to promote a positive washback effect on classroom teaching. This
paper investigates the kind of relationship between testing and teaching according to teachersâ beliefs and
perceptions of the introduced exam. To address these issues, the mixed method approach was utilized:
questionnaires were distributed to 100 teachers and interviews were conducted with the examination board
director and 11 teachers from the same sample surveyed. The study found that teachers expressed negative
rather than positive views towards the exam. Teachers criticized the exam especially in terms of practicality and
content validity as most teachers declared that congruence between the new exam and the curriculum is
tenuous. However, teachers welcomed the policy regarding exam format and style. While some desired aims
were achieved through the exam, others were not. Findings showed that the exam did exert washback effect in
that teachers experienced and/or implemented changes in their classroom instructional practices. Thus findings
indicated that exams did exert washback on teachersâ attitudes and beliefs towards their classroom teaching.
However, particularly in this study, data was self-reported via questionnaires and interviews, classroom
observations would have provided more tangible evidence on teachers' actual classroom teaching practices as a
result of exam change
Basic Concepts of Teaching, Evaluation, Measurement, And Tests.Dr. Amjad Ali Arain
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Topic: Basic Concepts of Teaching, Evaluation, Measurement, And Tests.
Student Name: Nasreen
Class: B.Ed 1.5
Project Name: âYoung Teachers' Professional Development (TPD)"
"Project Founder: Prof. Dr. Amjad Ali Arain
Faculty of Education, University of Sindh, Pakistan
Impact of a Public Examination Change on Teachersâ Perceptions and Attitudes ...iosrjce
Â
The effect of language tests on teaching and learning is described in language education as
âwashbackâ. Highstakes public examinations, thus, are often used as tools of control in the school system.
Recently, the Libyan Education Authority adopted major changes into the existing Basic Education Certificate
Examination (BECE) in English aiming to promote a positive washback effect on classroom teaching. This
paper investigates the kind of relationship between testing and teaching according to teachersâ beliefs and
perceptions of the introduced exam. To address these issues, the mixed method approach was utilized:
questionnaires were distributed to 100 teachers and interviews were conducted with the examination board
director and 11 teachers from the same sample surveyed. The study found that teachers expressed negative
rather than positive views towards the exam. Teachers criticized the exam especially in terms of practicality and
content validity as most teachers declared that congruence between the new exam and the curriculum is
tenuous. However, teachers welcomed the policy regarding exam format and style. While some desired aims
were achieved through the exam, others were not. Findings showed that the exam did exert washback effect in
that teachers experienced and/or implemented changes in their classroom instructional practices. Thus findings
indicated that exams did exert washback on teachersâ attitudes and beliefs towards their classroom teaching.
However, particularly in this study, data was self-reported via questionnaires and interviews, classroom
observations would have provided more tangible evidence on teachers' actual classroom teaching practices as a
result of exam change
Basic Concepts of Teaching, Evaluation, Measurement, And Tests.Dr. Amjad Ali Arain
Â
Topic: Basic Concepts of Teaching, Evaluation, Measurement, And Tests.
Student Name: Nasreen
Class: B.Ed 1.5
Project Name: âYoung Teachers' Professional Development (TPD)"
"Project Founder: Prof. Dr. Amjad Ali Arain
Faculty of Education, University of Sindh, Pakistan
A Theoretical Framework (Modelling) for International Business ManagementYasmin AbdelAziz
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The international framework with all the institutions and organisations
that determine countryâs economic and support policy in emergent situations.
2. Impact of globalisation on international and national policy and activities. 3. The
national framework, which fairly complicated because there are many active players:
a) National economic policy: understanding it and the environment for trade
activities. b) National economic structure and competiveness of the domestic
companies. c) International management capacities. d) Local or regional environment
and conditions for the companies. e) Focus on the world market conditions and their
development
The paper makes an empirical research on the effect of formative assessment on English learning of higher vocational college students. It finds that: formative assessment attaches importance to the learning process, which is conducive to the development of good English learning habits; formative assessment can enhance studentsâ confidence in English learning, improve the atmosphere of team cooperative learning and autonomous learning, but cannot change the learning motivation of students. Overall, formative assessment has a greater impact on students with lower English proficiency.
A workshop hosted by the South African Journal of Science aimed at postgraduate students and early career researchers with little or no experience in writing and publishing journal articles.
Executive Directors Chat Leveraging AI for Diversity, Equity, and InclusionTechSoup
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Letâs explore the intersection of technology and equity in the final session of our DEI series. Discover how AI tools, like ChatGPT, can be used to support and enhance your nonprofit's DEI initiatives. Participants will gain insights into practical AI applications and get tips for leveraging technology to advance their DEI goals.
A review of the growth of the Israel Genealogy Research Association Database Collection for the last 12 months. Our collection is now passed the 3 million mark and still growing. See which archives have contributed the most. See the different types of records we have, and which years have had records added. You can also see what we have for the future.
This presentation includes basic of PCOS their pathology and treatment and also Ayurveda correlation of PCOS and Ayurvedic line of treatment mentioned in classics.
Strategies for Effective Upskilling is a presentation by Chinwendu Peace in a Your Skill Boost Masterclass organisation by the Excellence Foundation for South Sudan on 08th and 09th June 2024 from 1 PM to 3 PM on each day.
Safalta Digital marketing institute in Noida, provide complete applications that encompass a huge range of virtual advertising and marketing additives, which includes search engine optimization, virtual communication advertising, pay-per-click on marketing, content material advertising, internet analytics, and greater. These university courses are designed for students who possess a comprehensive understanding of virtual marketing strategies and attributes.Safalta Digital Marketing Institute in Noida is a first choice for young individuals or students who are looking to start their careers in the field of digital advertising. The institute gives specialized courses designed and certification.
for beginners, providing thorough training in areas such as SEO, digital communication marketing, and PPC training in Noida. After finishing the program, students receive the certifications recognised by top different universitie, setting a strong foundation for a successful career in digital marketing.
A Strategic Approach: GenAI in EducationPeter Windle
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
2. Theoretical Framework
In todayâs classrooms, the word assessment can be considered an ambiguous term since it
usually evokes situations related to anxiety or stress, such as: quizzes, oral presentations,
midterms or any evaluative task. It is of primary importance for student-teachers, or any
subject involved in the teaching-learning process, to understand the differences between
concepts such as: assessment, test and evaluation. For us, future educators, it is important to
understand the principles that each author provides regarding language assessment in
classroom practices, because these principles facilitate us with guidelines, which are helpful
and indispensable when doing evaluations, worksheets, rubrics, checking assignments,
and, above all, to contribute to the improvement of our teaching process.
It is highly important to take into consideration the perspective of the students in relation
to good assessment, because it will enhance their motivation when participating in the
teaching-learning process by contextualizing the learning in authentic tasks, so that
meaningful knowledge is developed. Students should be measured on what they have been
taught at their respective schools, they need to be provided with comments and feedback in
order to learn about their own mistakes and improve their competences in the English
language; also, the objective of a proper assessment is to trigger language performance, so
that the students are able to communicate in L2.
In the following paragraphs, a revision of the principles of language assessment according
to Brown (2004), Coombe et. al (2010), and Bachman & Palmer (1996), will be presented.
According to Brown (2004), in âLanguage assessment principles and classroom
practicesâ,provides definitions for three very similar concepts that usually are confusing
for training teachers: assessment, testing and teaching; the first concept refers to a broader
field (not only tests are considered here, but also comments from teacher to student and
viceversa), testing is a type of assessment, and teaching (which encompasses assessment
and testing). The author establishes that five principles are to be considered when effective
testing: practicability, reliability, validity, authenticity and washback. The concept of
practicability deals with test administration, expensiveness and time constraints. If a test is
easy to administrate, cheap, and it is done within the appropriate time constraints, then a
test can be considered practical. The second concept of reliability refers to the consistency
3. of a test, which means that if a teacher gives the students the same test, on different times of
the day, there will be no variation in the studentâs scores.Within the concept of reliability,
there are four factors that alter it: student-related reliability (a student is not feeling very
well, anxiety, etc), rater reliability (it refers to teacherâs criteria, student bias), test
administration reliability (conditions in which a test is administered), test reliability (poorly
written tests, ambiguous answers). The following concept is validity which according to
Brown (2004), it is the most relevant of the five principles, because it is referred to
evaluating the contents that have been covered in class; there are five types of validity:
content validity (to measure studentâs performance), criterion-related validity (consistent
criteria for evaluating something), construct validity (measuring all aspects of a construct),
consequential validity (the effect of using an assessment), and face validity (studentâs
consideration of a test). The fourth principle is Authenticity, which refers to real-world
tasks and relevantly interesting topics for the learner. Finally, it is important to provide
students with meaningful feedback, whether it is a positive comment or the clarification of
incorrect answers in a test, washback is the fifth principle that refers to this idea, which is
also considered an instance for students to be part of their own learning process.
Coombe, Folse and Humbley (2010) make a distinction between evaluation, assessment
and testing, in which the broader one is evaluation (that involves the whole course or
program), assessment is only related to the learnerâs achievements, and testing, as Brown
remarked, is part of assessment and it evaluates the studentâs accomplishments.
These authors present eight principles of a good test, in which five have already been
mentioned by Brown (validity, reliability, practicality, washback and authenticity), and the
other three principles are: usefulness âis the most important quality of the cornerstone of
testingâ(Bachman and Palmer, 1996), which is related to the purpose that will be developed
within a test. The following principle is transparency, which refers to the teacherâs fairness
when testing students (clear information). The last concept mentioned by Coombe et al. is
security; this concept is associated to recycling test items (not the whole test) in order to
avoid students from copying previously applied tests.
Finally, Bachman and Palmer (1996) consider seven qualities of language tests: reliability,
construct validity, authenticity, interactiveness, impact, practicality, and the most
important, test usefulness, which encompasses the first six concepts mentioned above.
4. Firstly, reliability, already mentioned by Brown (2004), also refers to test consistency when
measuring a studentâs performance. The authors recognize the concept of construct validity
as âthe meaningfulness and appropriateness of the interpretations that we make on the
basis of test scoresâ, which means that teachers must provide consistent evidence when
scoring their students, so that they can be evaluated on their true capacity and knowledge,
not randomly. Thirdly, authenticity, previously considered by Brown (2004) and Coombe
et al. (2010), in order to facilitate test performance, must include real world tasks that
students will face in their near future. Bachman and Palmer (1996) introduce the principle
of interactiveness, which refers to the implications of test takers, taking into consideration
their own features to achieve a test task; these features include the studentâs language
ability, topical knowledge (what students know about a certain topic), and affective
schemata ( teachers must not include topics that will affect a studentâs emotions). When it
comes to the concept of impact, it relates, as the word implies, to the impact that an
evaluation has, not only on the student (micro level), but also to his/her parents, his/her
school, the educational system and society (macro level); impact is also associated to the
concept of washback, as Hughes (1989) defines it as âthe effect of testing on teaching and
learningâ, this means that depending on the feedback that the teacher gives to a student,
this comments will affect the student both emotionally and academically; furthermore, it
will not only affect the students but also the washback will have repercussions to the entire
educative community. All principles mentioned above are included within test usefulness,
the most important test quality, which considers that tests must have a purpose, a context
and take into account the language use. Finally, the last principle is practicality, which
refers to the implementation of a test (human and monetary resources, time constraints,
etc).
From our own point of view, we believe that Brown (2004) is the one author that presents
all the essential principles for language assessment in a clear way.He advises us not only to
design proper tests, but also to have in mind that students need to be motivated and
considered in terms of their feelings, their abilities, their backgrounds, and the studentsâ
learning styles. We also need to have in mind, as Brown suggested, that the feedback we
provide to our students is necessary, for it is this part of the assessing process the one that
will make a difference in the studentsâ reaction to the teaching-learning process.All
principles mentioned above are of great importance to us training teachers, because it
5. provides us with guidelines and directions that are a mean of instructive manual to a good
practice, so that we can apply them to the improvement of our teaching methodologies
within the classroom. Moreover, we can highlight the principles of authenticity, for it is an
excellent way of contextualizing the learning process to create meaningful knowledge and
provide the opportunity for students to actually produce the target language effectively.
Another principle we believe is remarkable to be mentioned and applicable is the concept
of validity; because students must be measured on the contents they have reviewed in class
and not be asked to do tests or present something they have never covered or they are not
familiar with. The last concept we consider to be indispensable is washback, because, as we
have previously stated, it is fundamental that learners know about their mistakes and their
strengths to reinforce motivation and increase the studentsâ active participation on their
own learning process.
In order to conclude, language assessment principles are essential to be known and
applied, not only for us training teachers, but also to those educators who have more
experience, since they may need to adjust their methodologies and take into consideration
the learnersâ needs, feelings, background and abilities, when testing and teaching. It is
important to mention that it is compulsory for people who are involved in the educational
system to know about the difference between the concepts of assessment, testing and
evaluation, since misconceptions of these three elements will definitely affect teaching
practices on the studentsâ learning.It is our task to have these principles in mind when
becoming teachers, for they are transcendent elements that will affect and will have a huge
and long-life impact on both the individual learner and society.
6. References:
-Bachman, L. F. & Palmer, A. (1996). Language testing in practice: designing and
developing useful language tests. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press
-Brown, H. D. (2004). Language assessment principles and classroom practices.New
York: Pearson Education
-Coombe, C., Folse, K. Hubley, N. (2007). A practical guide to assessing English language
learners. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.