1. Assessment Foreign Language Pedagogy EA 125

2. What is assessment for?  What do we want to assess?  How do teachers benefit from assessment?  How do students benefit from assessment?  How much assessment is necessary and appropriate?  What is the relationship between assessment results and student motivation/self-efficacy?

3. Types of Testing (p. 391)  Achievement Test  Proficiency Test

4. The Purpose of the Assessment (p. 392)  Administrative Placement/ Exemption Certification/ Promotion  Instructional Diagnosis/ Evidence of progress Evaluation of teaching/curriculum  Research Evaluation/ Experimentation

5. Teaching and Testing  Teach for the Test. Criticism for standardized tests. Is this really bad?  The test should reflect what students have learned.

6. --Testing-- Sampling principle of testing  Tests=small sample of large domains  Valuable inferences are about the domains, not the samples  Scores are useful only if one can generalize from them to mastery of the domain  (from lecture ppt by Dr. Jimmy Kim)  Observed test score=true score + error

7. Some threats to test-based inferences  Performance fluctuations (over time)  Scoring inconsistency  Inappropriate test preparations (and cheating)  Biased items  Excessive difficulty or easiness  Idiosyncrasies of items used (from lecture ppt by Dr. Jimmy Kim)

8. Core concept of validity  Validity characterizes the ‘inference’ based on test scores, not the test itself.  Validity is an evaluation of the adequacy and appropriateness of the ‘interpretation and uses of assessment results.’ (from lecture ppt by Dr. Jimmy Kim)

9. Grading -Purposes of Grades-  1. For administrative purpose  2. To give students feedback about their progress and achievement  3. To provide guidance to students about future course work  4. To provide guidance to teachers for instructional planning  5. To motivate students.  (Marzano, 2000)

10. De-grading -Argument by Kohn (1999)-  Primary reasons for de-grading  1. Grades tend to reduce students’ interest in the learning itself.  2. Grades tend to reduce students’ preference for challenging tasks.  3. Grades tend to reduce the quality of students’ thinking.

11. De-grading -Argument by Kohn (1999)- More reasons for de-grading  Grades aren’t valid, reliable, or objective.  Grades distort the curriculum.  Grades waste a lot of time that could be spent on learning.  Grades encourage cheating.  Grades spoil teachers’ relationships with students.  Grades spoil students’ relationships with each other.

12. Why do we teach?  Good teachers tell.  Excellent teachers explain.  Superior teachers model.  Great teachers inspire.  (Author unknown)