1. Talking about Evaluation,
Assessment and Research in TEYL
Lesson 12

2. OVERVIEW
Look at the pitfalls and the principle of evaluation and assessment.
Look at how assessment of students is only part of the overall evaluation of teaching and learning that should happen in the young learner language class.
Think about the important role evaluation and assessment play in the teaching of English to YLs.
Consider the value of carrying out small-scale classroom research.
Look at the need to keep parents and learners informed of classroom practices, as well as evaluation and assessment methods, so that everyone can take part in the child's learning of English.
Analyze some assessment tools and introduce a variety of approaches that can be used to assess students in the young learner classroom.

3. Keeping the Principles of Evaluation and Assessment in Mind
should be aware of the implications his/her methodology and practice have on teaching and learning
should keep the principles of evaluation and assessment in mind as he/she evaluates what actually happens in his/her classroom and as he/she assesses what his/her students have learned
also needs to be aware of the importance of keeping his/her students and their parents informed of what is happening in his/her classes and why
can also carry out small-scale research so that he/she can truly evaluate what is actually going on in his/her classes

4. What is the Difference between Evaluation and Assessment?
Evaluation takes a broad view of learning and teaching by considering a large number of factors that affect what happens in the classroom.
These factors can involve looking at:
how a teaching program is set up
what textbook is used
what approaches are followed when teaching and assessing students.
Assessment is just one area that is considered within the overall evaluation process.
Assessment focuses on the learner and involves the different tools the teacher and students can use such as:
portfolios
self-assessments
assignments
tests
& observations
to measure how students:
perform in class
what progress they have made
& what areas need further attention.

5. Evaluation at Different Levels
A wide variety of evaluation tools can help us look at overall teaching and learning in our classrooms and schools and provide us with a balanced, full and fair view of what is really happening with our learners.
Evaluation can be used at different levels and can serve a huge variety of purposes. Consider these examples of evaluation:
At national or state level Ministry and Department of Education officials compiling results from changes in teaching policy, such as teaching English to all children through a grammar-based course…etc
At regional or district level
English advisors or coordinators evaluating the arrangement that all primary schools in a local region use only one course book to teach English.
At school level An English teacher or a group of teachers and/or administrators monitoring a decision to use a particular type of resource, such as a computer, to supplement English teaching.
Classroom level
A teacher evaluating changes to a particular activity in a unit of work because the activity has not worked very well previously.

6. Carrying Out Research by Way of Evaluation, and Communicating What is Happening to Parents and Students
Although the word research can sound rather daunting and we may think it must involve lots of worrying statistics, it is actually really important and easy for a teacher to carry out small-scale research in his/her classroom regularly to check what is really happening in class rather than just assuming what is happening.
Small-scale research is something that should be encouraged in all trainers.
Once teachers involved in TEYL try classroom-
based small-scale research they realize how
important it is for it to be carried out in the
classroom on a regular basis as it really illustrates exactly what is happening and not what they think
is happening in terms of teaching or learning in
their classrooms!

7. Your research can focus on approaches you take in your teaching as well as responses from your students to what is happening in class. Some examples are noted below:
Example 1: Your interaction with your students
You may want to videotape a lesson so that you can check your interaction with students in the classroom. Choose a different focus each time. You can watch for such things as:
your movements in class. Are you standing in one place or are you moving around the classroom?
your communication with students. Are you talking primarily to the well-behaved students or are you only talking to (and reprimanding) the badly behaved students?
your style of questioning. Are you asking questions and giving your students adequate thinking time or are you rushing their responses?
your explanation of activities. How clearly do you explain to students what is required prior to beginning an activity? How often do you need to repeat or clarify your instructions?
Example 2: Your methods of teaching vocabulary
You can also carry out research on the methods you use to teach. For example, you could try three different methods of teaching vocabulary.
Method 1: List new words on the board. Ask students to learn these.
Method 2: Use new words in a story context and then write them on the board. Ask students to learn these.
Method 3: Pre-teach new words before using them in a story context. Then write them on the board. Ask students to learn these.
After each of these methods, check how many words students remember and understand at the next lesson. Evaluate which method works best for you and your students.

8. Reaching out to Parents
Reaching out to your Students
There are several ways you can inform parents, depending on what your school encourages.
You could send out an English Newsletter or have an English Open Evening in which you explain:
what approach you use to teach English in the class
what topics are going to be covered during that term
how you will evaluate the teaching and learning
what materials and resources are going to be used
what assessment will be put in place
& what they can expect their children to say or do in English over a period of time
It is very important to keep students informed about how they will be learning and using English with you in class.
Before doing any activity, explain to them why they are doing it and also explain what you hope they will be able to do or say after carrying out an activity.
It is also important that you help them learn how to learn and find out from them (through self-assessment) how they feel about their involvement in different classroom activities, given the different cognitive needs of the students.
Encourage students to be reflective and responsible learners and to be successful long-term language learners.

9. Planning Assessment in the YL classroom
Has the teacher in this picture assessed the student correctly?
The answer is “No”, and it could be for a number of reasons. As a teacher, we need to carefully consider how we assess our students.
If our students respond poorly to a certain assessment tool (a test or an activity), it could be that their low score reflects their reaction to an unfamiliar activity or request, rather than their knowledge of the topic they have been studying.
As a result, this type of assessment will be an unfair measurement of what they can or cannot do and will not be measuring what you set out to measure.
Assessment of students in a young learner classroom requires lots of preparation and then careful analysis.

10. Planning when Assessment takes place
Assessment can take place at different times during a school term:
Teachers can also use ongoing assessment throughout the teaching time or term. This is called formative assessment.
Evaluation of results from this type of assessment can show areas where changes to our teaching practice can take place to alleviate problems students may be having with learning, for whatever reason, within the program being delivered.
If it takes place at the end of a term (as with a final test or project) it will be a summative assessment.
Summative assessment results cannot be used to guide changes in the current teaching program (as that program will be over), but they may be used to guide future programs.

11. Considering different types of assessment: Formal, Informal & Self-assessment
Summative and formative assessments can take many forms:
Informal assessment can be carried out in many ways with the teacher observing the students during everyday classroom activities by watching their demonstration of language skills, as well as their participation in activities and overall attitude.
Evaluation of students sometimes tends to be more subjective with informal assessment ,but this is often because the teacher knows the capability of the individual child.
Formal assessment may be required and tends to involve traditional (and objective) test scores.
Students will frequently be expected to demonstrate their understanding of material through paper and pencil tests.
Self-assessment allows students to make notes for themselves of what they have learned and to look for ways they can personally improve.

12. Evaluating the effectiveness of tests: Validity and reliability
When evaluating the effectiveness of assessment tools, we need to look at two areas: validity and reliability.
Validity means you are accurate in testing what you intended to test (based on content as well as skill areas) and that the tools you are using are measuring what you have intended. For example, if you want to judge your students' speaking ability in English you should involve your students in a verbal activity rather than a writing activity.
Reliability involves making sure that the type of test you are administering would give a similar outcome if students were to take the same type of test again, even with a different person administering the test. If the results are not likely to be similar, then the assessment tool would not be considered reliable. Therefore it would not be seen to be very useful in allowing you to evaluate the results and make accurate readings about your students' progress and/or your teaching practices.

13. Ranking Students: Norm-referenced & Criterion-referenced forms of Assessment
There are many different ways to try to rank students through assessment:
Norm-referenced assessment can be used to rank a student by comparing that student's results with others.
Criterion-referenced assessment is more personal and can be used to see how a student has done opposite a list of goals or objectives that the student has been asked to achieve.

14. Looking at Assessment: Issues and Problems
The vast majority of teachers acknowledge the need to assess their students and recognize how such assessment can help their teaching.
If you, like most teachers, are responsible for preparing, marking and keeping assessment records, it is important that you are aware of the implications of assessment in a methodologically sound way.
Some of the reasons why you wish to assess at any one time would be:
Are you trying to check what your students have learned?
Are you trying to see if you have reached your students through your teaching?
Are you simply measuring how many new words they know and can spell?
Are you wanting to check if a particular set of vocabulary items has been understood and acquired by your students?

15. Gathering the Information you Need through Assessment
Once you are clear about what you want to assess and why, you then need to check if the assessment tool you have created, borrowed, or adapted for this task will actually gather the information that tells you what you want to know.
For example, for an assessment of students involved in a lesson that has emphasized listening and speaking about the topic Around the House, perhaps you want to know what vocabulary your learners have understood and acquired.
Look at the two choices below and decide which type of assessment tool is likely to provide you with the information you require.
A paper and pencil test with cloze activities (where single words are left out and need to be filled in);
A dialogue activity where students work in pairs to describe their home to their partners.
The latter tool (involving the dialogue) is likely to be far more valuable in getting the information you are seeking than the former as it will allow students to demonstrate that they can use the vocabulary they have learned.

16. Considering 'paper and pencil' Assessments
Paper and pencil tests are the most common form of assessment used in schools.
When designed and administered appropriately, these tests can provide teachers with an insight into how students are progressing in their studies and how successful the teachers have been with their teaching methods.
While paper and pencil tests may seem straightforward, they can include a variety of question types.
Tests including such question types as multiple choice, true and false, matching, fill in the blanks and listen and draw (or circle) can be relatively easy to mark and score. Others with more open-ended questions provide more challenges in writing and scoring.
Whatever approach is taken, there are many issues to consider when designing these types of tests. After the initial design, look at the test carefully and consider exactly what it is measuring and any problems it might pose in accurately reflecting your students' knowledge. Perhaps it will have the sort of problems that we can see in the following example.

17. Look at the following written test and consider its use in a low level class that focuses on conversational English.
What are some potential questions we should ask ourselves before using this test with our students?
1. Which language skills are being tested? The test deals with language that is used in conversation, but in this case, the language is written down which is unnatural. It would be far more natural to check the students' understanding of the language by having them respond in a dialogue.

18. 2. When do we see these questions written down in real life
2. When do we see these questions written down in real life? Rarely (apart from being introduced through a textbook dialogue that is meant to be spoken aloud). Other than in this sort of test, it is not natural to see this kind of language in written form.
3. Does the assignment in this test reflect a real-life task? No. If students were required to provide this type of information in English on a form, they would most likely see the following:
4. Could anything about this test be confusing for students? The name of the student has already been given alongside the date. Repeating the request for a name might confuse the student.
5. Will students have difficulty with the instructions? The language in the instructions is more difficult than the language in the questions that are the focus of the test. Possibly, it is actually the students' ability to read instructions that is being tested here.
“ After asking ourselves these questions, we are likely to create a decidedly different test for our students.”

19. Creating Desired Results from Assessment
Assessment can have what is called a washback effect (the effect of testing on the teaching and learning processes) on students.
Washback can be positive or negative:
Students get a positive washback:
if the assessment allows students to successfully demonstrate the language they have acquired through a familiar activity.
if they receive positive and constructive feedback from the teacher (Well done! You both know a lot about furniture and can tell each other about the furniture in your homes!), they will
Students get a negative washback :
when the students experience pressure before, during and after assessment. This can be really demotivating.
They can take a negative message from the assessment such as, I can't remember lots of words in English or I can't spell words that I use in English.

20. Assessing in a Child-Friendly, Supportive and Formative Way
There are some useful and supportive types of formative assessment that can be carried out and can help teachers think about how their students are doing.
The teacher can record information on each child in notebooks or files and have this information as the basis for semester-based reports or meetings with parents or students.
Such ongoing assessment encourages teachers and students to acquire a more complete picture of the students' learning challenges and accomplishments.
Observation of usual behavior and work in class.
b) Observation of behavior during specially-created challenges or events.
c) Reports from the child about his or her progress.

21. Different Ways of Helping your Students Express What they have Learned
Encouraging students to reflect on
their work - At the end of any activity,
talk to the class about the activity.
Such an approach helps students
reflect on their learning and start to
think of strategies for their future
learning.
Prepare 'I can' worksheets with
your students. Encourage them
to answer questions as honestly as
possible.
Explain they are designed to help
them think about how they are
progressing in English.
Different Ways of Helping your Students
Express What they have Learned
Keeping examples of the child's work is one way to assess the students'’
progress. Another way to assess their
progress is to keep a language portfolio
of their work at regular intervals during
the year.
Self-assessment forms help our students become more responsible for their own learning and help them learn how to learn.