Department of Teacher Education Autonomy, Authenticity and Reflection in Language Education – Developing Authentic Assessment, with Reference to Portfolio-oriented Learning Viljo Kohonen LEND Conference Trento

Department of Teacher Education Outline of presentation 1.Core principles and concepts for pupil autonomy/authentic assessment 2.Why reflection in FL education, and how to facilitate it in the FL classroom? 3.Common European Framework (CEFR 2001) and the ELP: central principles and concepts 4.How to get started with the ELP in practice? 5. Teacher development: encountering an educational change

Department of Teacher Education Core principles/concepts for pupil autonomy/authentic assessment 1.Coherent theoretical framework outlining tangible educational principles and defining the concepts to guide classroom action 2.Appropriate pedagogical tools for participants >> translating the goals and principles into consistent pedagogical action: concrete learning/ teaching practices 3. Sustainable progress in manageable steps over time > shared commitment to site-based aims: culture of sharing and collaboration

Department of Teacher Education Work in groups: getting started for collaboration 1.Form groups of three participants with your neighbours 2.Introduce each other (name, school, grade level, languages) 3.Share (briefly) an important recent event in your (school) lives 4.Suggest 1-2 things that you, as a group, would like to know more about during this workshop

Department of Teacher Education Core principles and concepts... 1.Theoretical framework: develop autonomy- oriented learning culture in class, to support autonomy in learning to learn and learning to use the FL -> intercultural communicative competence: knowledge + skill + attitudes - reflective, collaborative learning: negotiate the tasks and responsibilities > pupils to plan, monitor, reflect on and assess their learning (self/peer-assessment) - teacher to guide and support the process; give feedback, shift responsibility to the pupils

Department of Teacher Education Pedagogical tools Consistent pedagogical action, with maximal use of the foreign language -learning diary to support reflection; portfolio to manage the material and report outcomes -ground rules for peer reflection/assessment (”everybody’s work is valuable”) -reporting to teacher > individual counselling sessions (during lessons) > tailored feedback -supporting materials (school library; internet..) >> pupils to understand the purpose of autonomous learning: what?/why?/how?

Department of Teacher Education Sustainable progress Proceed in the goal-direction, in small (manageable) steps; cross-disciplinary work Justify the practices, negotiate the goals and tasks (common core + optional contents/processes), provide individual options for personal decision-making Shift real decisions to the pupils > give space and expect responsibility-taking Model desirable practices in class (ask for feedback from the pupils, reflect together)

Department of Teacher Education Fishing... Give the man a fish, and he won’t be hungry that day. Teach him to fish, and he won’t be hungry for the rest of his life. Pedagogical fishing... Teach the teacher (and the pupil) to reflect on his/her educational ”fishing”, and (s)he will develop it... and also teach others to ”fish”.

Department of Teacher Education 2.Why reflection in FL education? (Kohonen 2001; Kolb 1984; van Lier 1996) Experience (language/ communication/ learning processes/ cultural learning) is the key to language learning – but not sufficient as such Experience needs to be processed consciously: notice learning -> develop awareness -> understand > take charge of learning tasks Transform observation/ information into personal understanding and knowledge Learning has to be done by the pupil

Department of Teacher Education Why reflection in foreign language education... Leo van Lier (1996, 11): “To learn something new one must first notice it. This noticing is an awareness of its existence, obtained and enhanced by paying attention to it. Paying attention is focusing one’s consciousness, or pointing one’s perceptual powers in the right direction, and making mental ‘energy’ available for processing”.

Department of Teacher Education What is reflection? John Dewey (1938, 87-88): “To reflect is to look back over what has been done so as to extract the net meanings which are the capital stock for intelligent dealing with fur- ther experiences.” Interplay between looking ahead (action directed by some idea) and looking back. Learning as a continuous process of recon- struction of experience: anticipate -> act -> observe -> organise ideas for future use.

Department of Teacher Education Experiential learning - David Kolb (1984) Personal experience gives the life, texture, and subjective personal meaning to abstract concepts. Learning is a holistic process that involves the whole person, including the emotional, social, physical, cognitive and spiritual aspects of personality.

Department of Teacher Education Facilitating reflection in FL classroom:

Department of Teacher Education How to facilitate reflection in FL class? 1. Personal awareness: Guide pupils to reflect on their beliefs of language learning/ their task and role, as part of the language lessons: –What strengths/ shortcomings do you have as a (language) student? –How do you see your role as a language learner? –What expectations do you have for your language teacher?

Department of Teacher Education How to facilitate reflection in FL class Process and situational awareness –How are you going to work on your aims for this course (week, etc)? –How might you improve your work/ working habits? –What is a good group member like in our language class? Why? –How might you improve your participation in your groups?

Department of Teacher Education How to facilitate reflection in FL class... 3.Task awareness: –How do you understand (intercultural) communication? –What elements and skills does language learning include? –What aspects of the (X) language are easy (difficult) for you? –What skills are you good at? What to improve? - What aims to set for yourself for the this course (this week, etc)?

Department of Teacher Education Reflection… Cooperative learning: 5 principles (Johnson & Johnson 1992) 1. Positive interdependence: shared goals, resources, functional roles in group 2. Individual accountability: responsibility for own and the group's learning 3. Promotive face-to-face interaction: shared decisions about group plans, monitoring and outcomes; reflection on the process 4. Collaborative skills: decision-making, trust, communication, conflict-management 5. Group processing: reflection on goal- achievement; group working relations

Department of Teacher Education Cooperation… zone of proximal development, ZPD (Vygotsky 1978, 87) Distance between what a person can do when acting alone when acting under adult guidance or in colla- boration with (more capable) peers “what a child can do with assistance today, she will be able to do by herself tomorrow” >proceeding from other-regulation to self-regulation > increased autonomy

Department of Teacher Education Cooperation...scaffolding: peer/teacher support (Bruner 1983, 60) A process of ‘setting up’ the situation to make the child’s entry easy and successful > then gradually pulling back and handing the role to the child as he becomes skilled enough to manage it Increased repertoire as an independent actor > autonomy through agency

Department of Teacher Education 3. Common European Frame- work (CEFR 2001) & ELP Action-oriented approach: FL learner seen as a social actor and language user, a whole human being with a unique personal identity > develops through the enriching experiences of cultural otherness > Plurilingual/-cultural competence to which all knowledge/ experience of language contributes and in which languages interrelate and interact > develops as a life-long task: motivation, skill, confidence (CEFR 2001, 4-5)

Department of Teacher Education General competences: Declarative knowledge Procedural knowledge Existential competence Ability to learn 3. Pragmatic Competence: “Discourse cohesion and coherence” 1. Linguistic Competence: “Accuracy” lexical syntactic morphological phonological orthographic 2. Socio-linguistic Competence: “Acceptability” 5. S t r a t e g i c Competence: “Fluency of action” reception production interaction mediation 4. Intercultural Competence: ”Appropriateness”

Department of Teacher Education “CEFR-pedagogy” “Users of the Framework may wish to consider and where appropriate state:…”, i.e., consider different options to arrive at well-informed decisions, in the local context. Language teacher to develop an inquiring professional mind -> reflective approach CEFR as a comprehensive “TOOLBOX” containing a set of well-defined concepts

Department of Teacher Education The European Language Portfolio (ELP) TOOL as part of the CEFR, with two complementary functions: (a)Pedagogic function: to organize > take charge of the learning process: specify the objectives > monitor/ reflect on the processes in the social context of learning > develop autonomy (>> Language Biography & Dossier) (b)Reporting function: to assess > document the outcomes in a transparent way, using the Common Reference Levels (A/B/C, Language Passport; Dossier) > international mobility

Department of Teacher Education The European Language Portfolio (ELP)... THREE sections: 1. Language Passport, 2. Language Biography, 3. Dossier Significant instrument for documenting the language user’s progress towards plurilingual and pluricultural competence over time > self-/ peer-assessment. Recording of learning experiences and results > self-assessment of proficiency in all languages known > making FL and intercultural learning more visible > deeper understanding of com- munication > autonomy, agency, reflection.

Department of Teacher Education ELP Principles: the common European core of the ELP 1. Tool to promote plurilingualism/-culturalism 2. Property of the learner: who “owns” learning? 3. Values the full range of language and intercultural competence and experience (acquired within or outside formal education) 4. Tool to promote learner autonomy 5. Pedagogic and reporting functions 6. Based on the CEFR (with the A/B/C Levels) 7. Encourages learner self-assessment, and the recording of assessment by teacher etc.

Department of Teacher Education ELP - ”ownership” of learning: a pupil’s voice “Dear Diary, I don’t know how to begin. There is much to say and so little time…. It is time to say goodbye soon. Time to leave behind my Portfolio [in German] … I feel longing … the fond feeling is increased when I read the old beautiful tasks (with so many errors) and notice how I made mistakes and what I had in mind at that time when I was ‘little’. At times I feel like laughing, then again like crying… these tasks are so nice no matter how many times I was crying when I was doing them, but still. I would not want give up a single day…” (Upper secondary school pupil, end of school)

Department of Teacher Education The CEFR & ELP (2001)... Learner autonomy through an interactive process of learning to learn and learning to use language for authentic communication. Paradigm shift: plurilingualism/-culturalism. ELP: an important resource for developing, and a format for documenting, the language user’s progress by recording the FL learning outcomes > formal recognition of proficiency (eg. EUROPASS).

Department of Teacher Education ELP: making the CEFR (more) concrete/ accessible to the pupil ELP: brings the concerns, aims and per- spectives down to the level of the pupils: what they can DO in the FL (at the A/B/C levels) Descriptor: a clear, transparent, positively formulated communicative act (performing a task) > Self-assessment Grid: descriptors with an independent, stand-alone integrity Self-assessment: pupils to consider and specify the level and quality of their learning products or FL use

Department of Teacher Education ELP CEFR: an example of descriptor ”SPOKEN INTERACTION” Level A1: ”I can interact in a simple way provided the other person is prepared to repeat or rephrase things at a slower rate of speech and help me formulate what I’m trying to say. I can ask and answer simple questions in areas of immediate need or on very familiar topics” (CEFR, 26).

Department of Teacher Education ELP CEF: example of SPOKEN INTERACTION Checklist (A 1) I can say basic greetings and phrases (e.g., please, thank you etc) I can say who I am, ask someone’s name and introduce someone I can say I don’t understand, ask people to repeat what they say or speak more slowly, attract attention and ask for help I can ask how to say something in the TL or what a word means I can ask and answer simple direct questions on very familiar top- ics (e.g., family, school) with help from the person I am talking to I can ask people for things and give people things I can handle numbers, quantities, cost and time I can make simple purchases, using pointing and gestures > “Can do” Checklists useful for: goal setting > monitoring > self-assessment > more transparent, concrete, accessible objectives for action.

Department of Teacher Education 4. How to get started with the ELP in practice? Teachers need to understand well the goal of autonomy and the nature of the pupils’ learning task, and the educational goals for developing a reflective, ELP-oriented approach > essential for success (> collegial collaboration) Begin from where the pupils are > facilitate them to understand the aims of the ELP > see themselves as language users > learn a reflective orientation, working on their personal experiences of language learning/use.

Department of Teacher Education How to continue the ELP journey? Negotiate curriculum-based ELP tasks: (written/spoken) done alone or in groups (e.g, “My hobbies/ home town/ favourite music”; review of a book/movie; a play/poem/ short story/argument about a topic; CV/ job application/ company presentation) > present & discuss in groups, using the target language Provide specific help and support to design/ carry out the project work, reflection and self-/ peer-assessment > as part of doing real, relevant and challenging communicative tasks

Department of Teacher Education ELP as a pedagogical tool... (Kohonen 2006) ELP: tracking authentic evidence of progress over time > self/peer- assessment > reflective learning > new educational culture Reflection and recording of learning experiences and results > makes FL learning (more) visible > deeper understanding of communication > autonomy as a language learner/ user/ person

Department of Teacher Education ELP: Some "invisible" learning outcomes Tolerance of ambiguity in concrete communicative tasks and situations Responsibility-taking in real learning tasks Communicative risk-taking/ avoidance Ability/attitudes for self/peer-assessment Learning skills, strategies and attitudes Reflective awareness of language/learning Social responsibility, team skills, initiative, leadership; project management skills >> Self-understanding as a (FL) learner >> Authentic data for teacher observation

Department of Teacher Education Pupils’ voices: realizing the benefits of ELP work Evaluating others helps me to evaluate myself ‘cause it helps me to discover my mistakes. I understand better when my friends explain it to me. They explain it in a different manner and use simple examples. Collaboration improves your conversation skills, encourages you to speak up and to believe in your coping. Doing the portfolio has made me realize that I do this for myself, for my own good, not for the grades or for the school. It’s my responsibility to learn, I’m the one that has do it. The teacher can’t always be there.

Department of Teacher Education Pupils’ voices: puzzlement about ELP-oriented learning I don’t see any point in self-assessment, you just have to put something there to keep the teacher satisfied. Sometimes it’s difficult to think what to say. Sometimes I think of writing something but then I don’t want to criticize him ‘cause I think he might be offended or something... It was a bit awkward to assess yourself at the beginning but in the end, it’s part of the learning process and part of knowing yourself. The foreign language is just as Finnish, it’s not just grammar, etc.

Department of Teacher Education ELP as a pedagogical tool... Flexibility of the ELP: use at all levels of proficiency: do something personal with the FL > gain “power” over the FL > Beginners: small modifications, based on textbooks > Intermediate users: more open-ended, demanding tasks > stretch out FL skills > Advanced users: handle a variety of texts, produce own discourses, interact fluently

Department of Teacher Education ELP as a pedagogical tool... Teacher: significant role in fostering reflection: personal comments on the progress > specific, concrete feedback as an important source of motivation for the pupils; laborious for the teacher to do Teachers need to understand the goal of autonomy/ ELP well, and how to develop a reflective approach; pupils need a great deal of explicit support

Department of Teacher Education Authenticity of the teacher: Pedagogy of Encounter Teacher authenticity based on professional ethics: fostering the human growth of the pupil > Genuine interest in the pupil as a human being; open, supportive presence in the classroom > being connected with the pupils; authentic encounter of the Other in the class (Heidegger 1927)

Department of Teacher Education Encountering the change: teachers’ voices “Being a teacher is not changed unless the teacher’s values and conception of man are changed” “Knowledge transmission and authority were not the basic idea of being a teacher. What then? Could it be that the teacher is also a human being in class, someone who can also make mistakes and admit them?”

Department of Teacher Education Teachers’ voices.... “I still ‘teach’, of course, and am still a certain authority and adult in my class, but I have also become a counsellor of my pupils’ learning. I attempt to create a positive climate in my classes. I have become an observer of learning and encourage my students …” “When I have got high enough I notice that flying does not take energy any longer. I can just glide up there and let the currents in the air (that is, the new ideas and projects) carry me further. Now that I have learned to fly I also have the courage to visit new lands and enhance my experiential world.” “Will these doings of mine have any bigger significance? I feel that while gliding among the clouds I have been a too hopeful idealist ”

Department of Teacher Education Teacher growth: towards transformative professionalism 1Realise the significance of interaction for professional growth > new collegial culture 2Open, critical stance to professional work 3Reflective attitude: critical events/ incidents in life/ classroom practices (why? what?) 4New self-understandings in work contexts 5 Conscious risk-taking: act in new ways in classes/ work community > social actor 6Acceptance of ambiguity: living in uncertainty

Department of Teacher Education Teacher’s professional growth: encountering an educational change Potentially threatening: some skills get obsolete > need to be replaced by new skills, attitudes and self- understandings > conflicting tensions: familiar safety discomfort, feelings of insufficiency Rewarding feelings: success (“empowerment”) Skill learning: “DIP” phenomenon (Decrease In Performance, Fullan 1996) > feelings of “phoney” behaviour, losing control, doing less well > resistance Emotional work: reflect, share, give up something old to make space for new understandings (“grief work”) > question of time, commitment and effort > collegial support: dialogue, trust and sharing crucial

Department of Teacher Education Intentional Conceptual change: 3 conditions (Margarita Limón Luque 2003) 1. Metacognitive/-linguistic condition: knowl- edge & understanding of what needs to be changed, and why 2. Volitional condition: motivation for the change (willingness > engagement > commitment) 3. Condition of self-regulation: self-regulation of process (goal-setting > make content choices > monitor > self-assessment)  Reflection as an essential element in these > needs to be facilitated > taught explicitly

Department of Teacher Education Teacher Development : some quotes There is no curriculum development without teacher development (Lawrence Stenhouse 1975). There is little significant school development without teacher development (David Hargreaves 1994). It is teachers who, in the end, will change the world of school through understanding it (Stenhouse1975).