Alternative_assessment[1] Assignment (final)

MLS014

January 09

Alternative Assessment

Concept Paper: Changes to Assessment of English and Mother Tongue Languages at Primary School Leaving Examination to Minimize Its Limiting Effect on Learning with Formative Assessment Practices To Enhance Learning ________________________________________________________________ “It is now thirty years since serious doubts were raised about examinations, yet despite the fact that there has been no serious shortage of critics since then, very little has changed.” R Cox (1967) from Elton, 2004. The Current Situation In the face of globalization and its challenges, the current outcomes of language learning should be pegged at its ability to equip pupils with effective communicating skills to survive and thrive in contemporary community and environment. Critical literacy and listening should be incorporated into language teaching and learning from the foundation levels, when communicative skills are formed and established in children. Authentic forms of assessment of learning should be utilized in place of current standardized national high-stake assessment for primary schools, the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE). As according to Romer (2002), “To ‘have learned’ is to be able to participate more competently or more fully in the communities of practice offered by a particular profession” (from Boud and Falchikov, 2006) Focusing on Language assessment in primary schools, the current standard practice in schools has it that summative assessments are conducted 2-4 times a year, namely the Continual Assessments and Semestral Assessments. The assessments comprise of 4 components namely Oral, Listening Comprehension, Composition and the main paper which consists of grammar, vocabulary and comprehension test items. Assessments from Primary 1 to Primary 5 are schoolbased. At Primary 6, all pupils are to undergo a high-stake national assessment, the PSLE, the outcome of which has a strong impact on pupils’ secondary school placement eligibility. The Problem School administrators may have been enlightened on the benefits of Alternative Assessments which may include formative and summative assessments. As highlighted by Candy et al. (1994), “Traditional assessment practices can, as we have seen, undermine students’ capacity to judge their own work. Importantly, this works to constrain the lifelong learning agenda.” (from Boud and Falchikov, 2006). However, the current system has left it very much to the individual schools to incorporate formative assessments into their curriculum with the flexibility of including various forms of alternative assessments. This has brought about much anxiety amongst parents who felt that time and the tremendous effort spent on projects and portfolios are of no value in the end as at Primary 6, only the pen and paper PSLE Examination grades really matter. As the benefits of the Rosnidar

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Alternative Assessment

formative and alternative assessments become more obvious, the challenge is thus to ensure any forms of formative and alternative assessment implemented school-based between Primary 1 and Primary 5 still remain relevant at Primary 6 when the outcome of the Primary 6 high-stake assessment is of detrimental to the pupils’ future. The Possible Solution It is undeniable that the acquisition of language skills is fundamental at the foundation stages. As the current practice may suggest, strong language foundation should have already been established by the time pupils have completed Primary 4. Currently, language teachers begin familiarizing pupils with PSLE Examination topics and test items at Primary 5. Therefore, the last 2 years of primary school education is primarily focused on developing pupils’ ability to apply language knowledge and skills learnt towards answering the high stakes examination items. The relevance and reliability of the test items in assessing authentic language ability in real life is highly questionable as the items are technical in nature and highly compartmentalized into components and sections. As described by John Biggs (1992), “To take a cross-section of isolated aspects of learning at any point in the learning sequence, and see which ones are “correct” and which “incorrect”, does not do justice to the way the learning takes place.” Given that pupils’ fundamental language acquisition process should have already been completed by the end of Primary 4, a more spontaneous and relevant language usage assessment is called for at Primary 6. The assessment should be relevant in the context of its practical use as well as in the context of contemporary real-life situation. The assessment should remain as assessment of all three necessary language skills, namely, aural, oral and written. However, formative assessments of these skills should be built into the teaching packages throughout the 2 final years which should develop into the final synthesis of all three skills in its summative assessment, set within an authentic contemporary context. Practical Usage and Contemporary Life Context The proposed assessment should involve the assignment of projects to pupils at Primary 5 and Primary 6 levels. Pupils are to work on the agreed projects throughout the year with supervision from teachers and feedback from peers as formative assessments. Documentation of the process of producing the deliverables as well as pupils’ oral presentation of the products at different stages and the verbal feedback from peers are recorded throughout the production process as formative assessments of oral, listening and writing skills. This leads to the summative assessment at the end of the year whereby pupils’ are awarded marks based on set rubrics. Marks are awarded for their oral presentation of finished products which should also include effective use of ICT, written description and promotion of products with use of IT, and spontaneous feedback Rosnidar

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Alternative Assessment

given to other pupils’ presentation as assessment of Listening Comprehension. Rubrics should include marks for creativity as well as critical thinking displayed along with the 3 skills. Projects: Pupils are to be given the freedom to decide on the products that they wish to produce according to their ability. This is in line with the requirements of Alternative Assessments that learners be given the empowerment to decide how they wish to display or demonstrate their acquirements of knowledge or skills. As the assessment is not on the quality of their products but on the quality or effective use of language as communication tool, the complexity involved in the production of the product should have no bearing on the marks awarded. The focus should be on pupils’ ability to accurately describe and convincingly promote their products verbally and in written form, as well as their ability to listen critically to the presentation of products by others. Formative Assessments: Daily lessons in class are planned and packaged such that guidance and samples are illustrated and provided for pupils to help pupils design their own presentation and essays, as well provide demonstrations and practice sessions on good critical listening. Demonstrations and hands-on activities should also be amply provided on the use of ICT. Pupils are to record any feedback and advise provided by teachers and peers as well as their own reflections and journals throughout the process of producing their deliverables as informal forms of formative assessments. Booklets and/ or forms for these recording purposes may be provided to help pupils build up their portfolio. A minimum of 4 formal formative assessments for each individual pupil should be scheduled to allow them to practice for the summative assessment at the end of the year whilst providing them with constructive feedback on areas for improvement. Grades may be awarded during these formative sessions based on the actual rubrics to enable pupils to gauge their own achievement levels. However, these formative grades should have no bearing on the grades/ marks awarded for summative purposes at the end of the year. Summative Assessments: At the end of Primary 5, pupils are to be formally and summatively assessed at school level, in a format that should be similar to a revised PSLE format. In this new format, pupils, with the use of ICT, are to individually present their finished products to a panel of teacher examiners as well as fellow classmates/ schoolmates. The panel of teacher-examiners are tasked with first assessing and awarding marks for pupils’ oral presentation skills as well as effective use of ICT. At the end of the presentation, the panel invites the floor of fellow pupils to ask questions and/ or provide comments based on the presentation. Pupils, who should be seated according to marked arrangement for identification purposes, would be awarded marks for their critical listening skills. The panel is also tasked with prompting pupils who have difficulty asking Rosnidar

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Alternative Assessment

questions or providing comments by asking them questions based on the presentation. Answers provided by these pupils should be awarded marks in accordance with the Listening Comprehension rubrics and not be penalized in any way for requiring prompting. The written examination comes in the form of essay writing only. Pupils are to describe and promote their finished products in writing, with the use of computers. Pupils are to type their essays in the form of Word Documents. Graphs and tables should be allowed where necessary. A suitable standardized time and word limit should be imposed for the essay writing in order to curb overaccessorizing of essays. Pupils are to be made aware that marks are awarded based on effective use of language in providing description and not on graphic illustrations. Pupils should be given the choice of sitting for the written or oral and listening examination first and be grouped accordingly for management purposes. The whole Primary 5 language curriculum and assessments are therefore geared towards preparing pupils for the revised high stakes PSLE examination which has an identical format. Results of pupils’ End-of-Year Examination for English and Mother Tongue at Primary 5 should be recorded in pupils’ Report Books in the form of grades derived by adding up pupils’ awarded marks for the 3 synthesized components based on PSLE rubrics. Parents are to be made aware of pupils’ performance to help them gauge their children’s potential performance at PSLE. Benefits of Revised PSLE and Primary 5 Assessment Format Based on both Bloom’s and Solo’s Taxonomy, this proposed form of assessment would have the ability to measure pupils’ language learning to the highest levels. The effective use of the proposed assessment format at Primary 5 and Primary 6 should compliment current standard formative and summative assessments between Primary 1 and Primary 4 so that between Primary 1 and Primary 6, learning outcomes could be effectively measured from Knowledge to Synthesis and Evaluation according to Bloom’s Taxonomy and from Pre-Structural (at Primary 1) to Relational and Extended Abstract (at Primary 5 and 6) according to Solo’s Taxonomy. The proposed assessment model, with the combined use of formative and summative tools, would be effective in developing and assessing all necessary language skills to thrive in a contemporary society and environment in the face of globalization, such as creative and critical thinking and use of ICT along with effective impactful communication. The learning process and corresponding assessments are therefore more authentic and practical. Pupils’ portfolio of learning journals and formative assessment grades should serve as evidence of teaching and learning that have taken place throughout the Rosnidar

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Alternative Assessment

year and as record of progress made. The portfolio together with the Summative grade obtained should help anxious parents to analyze their children’s areas of weaknesses and provide additional home coaching in those areas should they find it necessary and so desire. The portfolio should be made available to parents prior to the end-of-year summative assessments. The fact that Primary 5 assessment format compliments Primary 1 to Primary 4 assessment formats and is identical to the PSLE format, should clear any form of anxieties in parents in preparing their children for examinations. Challenges and Conclusion The biggest challenge for effective implementation of the proposed assessment format for PSLE is in 2 main areas of training and resources. Rubrics, as a vital resource and assessment reference tool, should be well deliberated on prior to establishment, to ensure pupils with different ability levels, socio-economic backgrounds and physical handicaps may be fairly assessed solely on their language and thinking skills as well effective use of ICT. Extensive and massive training of teachers on the use of assessment tools and effective implementation require enormous amounts of time, funds and resources. Assessment standardization sessions should also be regularly conducted for teachers to ensure reliable and competent levels of implementation at all times. Convincing teachers on the benefits and feasibility of the new format should first be looked into. For this purpose, trial implementations with real and critical outcomes should be conducted involving schools of different pupil profiles. Difficulties and obstacles encountered should be revealed along with benefits and achievements. The proposal should only be implemented when all discovered obstacles have been effectively dealt with. **************************

References Biggs, J. (1992). A Qualitative Approach to Grading Students. HERDSA News, 14 (3), 3-6. Elton, L. (2004). A Challenge to Established Assessment Practice, Higher Education Quarterly, 58 (1), 43-62 Boud, D. and Falchikov (2006). Aligning Assessment with Long-term Learning, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 31 (4), 399-413

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