First of all I want to explain the difference
between the terms evaluation, assessment and testing. They are often confused
and we use them as if they were the same. To clarify this I would like to
explain the differences between them.
-
Evaluation àis the way to know if you are reaching
the goals you want. Some tools of the evaluation process are test, textbook
analysis and observation.
-
Assessment à it includes all the methods used to collect
information about children’s knowledge, ability, attitudes and motivation. You
can use many different instruments and it can be formal or informal.
-
Testing àit is a procedure to assess a
child’s performance. Test have an objective, for example, to see if a child
understands the photosynthesis. You use
quantifiable results to mark the students.
(Sophie Loannou-Georgiou & Pavlos Pavlou, 2003
Assessing young learners)
Why assess young children?
Assessment is necessary for teaching and learning, and can be useful for some purposes like:
Assessment is necessary for teaching and learning, and can be useful for some purposes like:
-
Be
aware of what the children know and what they found difficult to understand. If
you use assessment you should focus in each child, personally.
-
To
give children evidences of their progress. As much as possible is better to
give positive assessment, so maybe we have to establish closer goals after the
main goal, because when they achieve these goals, it will encourage them to get
the main goal.
-
It
also benefits the teacher because you can evaluate your work and develop some
methods to help children’s individual needs.
-
Other
people will be informed on the children’s progress.
(Sophie Loannou-Georgiou & Pavlos Pavlou,
2003 Assessing young learners)
Assessment
processes can be divided into summative & formative assessment.
-
Summative
à it
is linked with testing at the end of the unit. It is an assessment on the
capability of the learner in that point. It is useful to give feedback to the
learner and also to the school and the learner’s parents.
-
Formative
à this
has more direct impact because your purpose is to impact immediately on the learner.
It is also interesting for the teacher because he/she can change the planning
and practice during the lesson and not after as the summative.
What are the main issues for assessment in
CLIL?
We have
some questions which can show us the needs and demands of a CLIL context.
-
What
do we mean by assessment in CLIL?
-
Do
we assess language or content first?
-
Do
we sometimes assess one and not the other? If so which and when
-
What
about cognition and culture?
-
Who
assesses?
-
When
do we assess?
-
How
do we assess?
-
What
is the role of standard examination systems?
Now I’m
going to answer one question mentioned on the book “CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning”.
Language or content?
“In this
question the how is the most important thing. CLIL units contain clear
objectives around the 4Cs. Even if a different approach is taken by the CLIL
planners, they had to construct statements regarding the content which is to be
covered by the unit and one more statements regarding the language. Language
objectives may relate simply to communicating the content effectively. It is
important to have a clear head about that priority”
In this
book I think they choose content as the most important objective because they
think language is the way to get the content, and it is contained in the own
content.
(David Marsh, 2010 CLIL: Content and Language Integrated
Learning)
To sum up I
want to say that I chose this topic because I didn´t like the way I was “assessed”
at school. I thought it was disgusting and also bad for my motivation. I have
read a lot of valuable information for assessment, and I was impressed by some
sentences like “Teachers should choose the most direct method which uses the
least language” (“CLIL: Content and
Language Integrated Learning”) , and these kind of information convinced me
that we should assess children in a positive way, and not only with tests or
exams. This kind of “evaluation” would be harder for the teacher than making an
exam, but for children it would be more satisfactory and they would appreciate
more school than they do nowadays.
Thank you
for reading.
REFERENCES
books:
Sophie Loannou-Georgiou & Pavlos Pavlou, 2003 Assessing young learners
David Marsh, 2010 CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning
