Module description: proposed methods of assessing learning
المؤلف:
Rosario Hernández
المصدر:
Enhancing Teaching and Learning through Assessment
الجزء والصفحة:
P268-C23
2025-07-17
513
Module description: proposed methods of assessing learning
'Becoming a Writer in a Foreign Language' is a twelve-week module, that is, one semester long in the university structures, with a total of twenty-four teaching hours. The number of places allocated to this module is normally twenty, although twenty-two students participated in this course in 2003-04, when the study was conducted. At the beginning, a session is devoted to a briefing on the course. Learners are presented with the learning outcomes, the proposed teaching methodology and assessment procedures. They are also invited to negotiate all those aspects of the course, as well as setting their own learning outcomes.
The aim of this module is to develop the learners' communicative competence in writing Spanish.
Four specific learning tasks are adopted as means to attain this aim, namely written activities, a learning journal, a writing portfolio and a written examination.
The intended learning outcomes are listed below. At the end of this module, the participants will be able to:
1. Demonstrate their familiarity with and application of the writing process, in terms of planning, elaboration and revision;
2. Produce a variety of texts written in Spanish;
3. Use appropriately and correctly a writing style that incorporates a range of vocabulary and complex linguistic structures;
4.Engage in self- and peer-assessment of writing activities;
5. Reflect on their learning process;
6. Have greater confidence in their ability to write in Spanish.
The four assessment methods adopted in this module are aligned to the learning tasks:
1. Writing activities in class and outside the classroom. The tasks involve individual writing as well as pair and group writing and assessment. The first draft is assessed formatively by the teacher or by the students, and the feedback provided allows the learners to re-write their assignment or to improve certain areas. No mark is allocated for these learning activities.
2. Learning Journal. Its aim is to facilitate learners' reflection about their own learning and a way to document the process of learning.
3. A writing portfolio. This instrument is formative as learners compile it during the course. However, it also has a summative function in that it incorporates all the learning activities undertaken during the course and the improved versions, as well as the reflection that is part of the journal.
4. A written examination at the end of the course. That is a compulsory requirement, at present, according to the university's regulations.
These assessment methods are considered innovative according to the two criteria that were mentioned above: as introducing something new or as using known practices in new ways. The writing activities method was an assessment that students were familiar with; however, it is considered innovative because it is given a strong formative element, with the emphasis on the provision of feedback, and the revision of drafts to facilitate the integration of assessment with teaching and learning. Thus, the writing activities method of assessment tries to achieve something new. Similarly, the written examination is a method that students are familiar with. However, students approach the examination as another element of the assessment process rather than as the main factor in deciding their final grade. The use of the learning journal and the writing portfolio as methods of assessment are innovative because students have not used them before.
The purpose of the assessment practices introduced is two-fold. Firstly, they aim at being formative by helping the learners to learn how to improve their writing skills. Emphasis is given to assessing the process of writing as well as the product. Secondly, this module is an attempt to involve learners in the assessment of their own learning, and in that of their peers by introducing self- and peer-assessment practices. Both purposes of assessment allow the integration of teaching, learning and assessment because assessment becomes part of teaching. Furthermore, these methods of assessment are considered appropriate because they allow assessment of the process as well as the product, which is considered essential in a module that entails the development of writing skills.
It has been argued that part of the success of introducing innovative assessment methods is to present them in a transparent way to the learners (McDowell & Sambell, 1999), with the appropriate criteria adopted to assess the students' learning. Providing learners with the criteria that were adopted to assess their learning was one of the main aims undertaken at the beginning of the course. The assessment criteria applied to the assessment of the portfolio focuses on four elements, namely the quantity, quality, variety and improvement of the written texts produced by learners. Descriptors for each of the four headings are provided to students. The learning journal is assessed on the basis of evidence on reflection about the learning process, and on how learners have developed self-regulation2. Making sure that the criteria are applied to students' work allows them to internalize and understand such criteria. During the course learners are also involved in devising criteria to assess their peer's written activities, as well as their own (Hernández, 2004).
The remainder focuses on the impact that these innovative assessment practices, introduced in this module for the first time, had on the students' learning.
2 It has been decided not to include a copy of the assessment guidelines because such guidelines are written in Spanish. As criteria are generally context specific, it is suggested that criteria need to be developed in the context were the module is being taught in order to address the specific learning outcomes. Criteria could also be adapted from available literature.
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