When we think
about evaluation, immediately comes to our minds things related to grading.
However, it is important to take into account some details which involve evaluation
that will make us understand that evaluation is more than giving a score or
deciding whether students should pass or fail.
Language
evaluation in the majority of cases is concerned with making decision about
instructions or plans for instruction. Teachers are the mainly responsible and
continuously involved in second language evaluation. Nevertheless, parents and
students themselves are also important participants in evaluation.
Second
language evaluation relies on many different kinds of information, for example:
student behavior in class, their attitudes towards school or themselves, their
goals and needs concerning the outcomes of second language, learning styles and
strategies.
On the other hand, tests can be useful in
collecting information for second language evaluation. But tests are limited;
they can only tell us about some aspects of student’s achievement. There are others
ways to gather information; it could be through observation of student behavior
during routine lessons, from comments by students during individual conferences,
etc. All these can give us important data about student learning and the effectiveness
of instruction, and based on that information, a decision can be made and
different kind of interpretations will be drawn.
That is the reason why knowing and differentiating the concepts of evaluation and assessment is important for teachers. Evaluation has nothing to do with the learning process; it focuses only on the product (end-result). While assessment is an on-going process that affects learning directly and whose score is a feedback. The way it affects students’ learning process depends on the decision the teacher makes after gathering enough information by different sources; no just bay testing, which is the most used in schools nowadays.
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ResponderEliminarFortunatelly, nowadays it is more known the fact that it is different evaluation from grading; so it makes us think that we as techers must start changing the way in which we evaluate students to help to generate real and efficient learning processes.
ResponderEliminarThere are many misconceptions when it comes to education and the way educators assess and evaluate students. Many people think of assessment as a way of scoring a paper in order to have a grade at the end of a period or class. All these mistaken thoughts confuse students, parents and in some cases teachers who are not well informed or not familiarized with this important topic. Having a good understanding on the differences regarding assessment and evaluation is pretty important since it really influences and affects students' learning processes.
ResponderEliminarAnd I consider we are in charghe of breaking that gap which limits the teacher with the development and process of students... we have to plant on people´s mind the seed of how assessment is relevant and crucial at education matters.
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