Education of the republic of uzbekistan national university of uzbekistan named after mirzo ulugbek

CHAPTER3. ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT AS MODERN REQUIREMENT OF TEACHING ENGLISH

3.1. Brief introduction to alternative assessment

Today there is much talk about the significance to evaluate student achievement and current knowledge during or after teaching and learning process as it plays a very important role in education. Alternative assessment is a form of student performance grading that allows for a more holistic approach to student assessment. The traditional form of student assessment involves the average grading of a cumulative set of work for a given time period. With alternative assessments, students are enabled to provide their own responses rather than simply selecting from a given list of options.⁸

Alternative assessment can also encompass a portfolio of work to represent an entire use of concepts, similar to the way a traditional final examination is intended to be a cumulative demonstration of material learned over a given time period. But there is no one sole way to assess in EFL courses. EFL is an approach; as a result, there is no particular kind of language, teaching material or methodology which defines these languages. The focus is definitely placed on what the students know and can do and on what they do not know. Alternative assessment can be thought as performance assessment since it emphasizes processes and competencies, while it de-emphasizes theoretical scoring outcomes.

Alternative testing is a strategy based on the permanent assessment of students' linguistic level, which is why it is also called formative assessment. There are however methods of alternative assessment such as the portfolio or the project which, due to the amount and the complexity of information involve to share the characteristics of formative and summative evaluation, especially if their deadline is the final of the semester or of the academic year.

Learning the very names of the concepts used to define the new type of assessment, there are two characteristics, two terms that are repeated: performance

and authentic, which concentrate in themselves the most important characteristics of AA(alternative assessment): performance - that is, the student has to produce a directly or indirectly observable response by means of a product - and authentic, which means that the nature of the task and the context in which the assessment made are relevant and represent aspects of real life.

The purposes of the alternative testing methods are considerably wider than those of traditional tests for the very reason that they are themselves much richer and offer a wide range of possibilities. Alternative testing may contain the demonstration of certain abilities by the student, the writing of specific papers, the formulation of answers to open questions.

It is not only the final product that can be evaluated and graded, but also the very process of reaching the result, which demonstrate the quality and complexity of the learners' process of thinking. The teaching-learning process moves thus to a superior, richer and more reflexive level of critical thinking and reflection. From the point of view of the communicative approach, conventional or traditional testing is neither authentic nor communicative. And as far as the teaching and learning of foreign languages are concerned this phenomenon is more visible and stronger than in the case of any other academic subject.

AA (alternative assessment) methods are competence concerned and they are based on cognitive abilities and affective learning. The interactive nature of modern teaching extends to the assessment stage of learning, turning it into a valuable tool of practicing communication abilities and competences. These alternative evaluation methods are best considered as complementing rather than replacing more traditional test and assessment formats.

Alternative assessments are used to encourage student involvement in their assessment, their interaction with other students, teachers, parents and the larger community. Alternative assessments measure performance in forms other than conventional paper-and-pencil, short answer tests. Often because of class size or as a method for saving time in grading, traditional testing has been utilized.

Alternative assessment gives the student the opportunity to demonstrate the depth and scope of what they have learned rather than being limited to just a few responses on a traditional test or exam. The compression of an entire semester of work into a single hour of testing that can account for a major portion of a grade can often be a misrepresentation of the efforts of students.

A portfolio of work is an example of alternative assessments where a student has selected or developed the work they think best depicts their study skills and understanding of concepts. It is also an overall great teacher resource for showing what lesson plans were effective and which were not. In the same way that traditional assessments can show the flaws of poorly understood concepts when viewed at a holistic classroom level, the same can be true with alternative assessments.

The teacher resources available to assist with the deployment of alternative assessments in the classroom setting should include more than simply testing options. The study skills required to ensure sufficient supporting information prior to an actual alternative assessment event are critical to the success of students. Worksheets can help a student with the overall development of their responses, but overall, lesson plans should ensure ample time to help students become familiar with the alternative assessment model.

There are teacher worksheets available to assist with improving the study skills of students who are learning the alternative assessment methods. Just as many students feel they have an inherent inability to successfully complete multiple choices or traditional testing, there will be students who find the alternative method difficult. By continuing to foster a sense of ownership and student accountability for their contributions to their own assessment, many of these students will become more effective with their overall assessments.

Alternate assessments provide a mechanism for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, and for other students with disabilities who may need alternate ways to access assessments, to be included in an educational accountability system.

According to data that was taken from the August 1993 issue of Visions, the newsletter of the Education for the Future Initiative, which was sponsored by Pacific Telesis.

Alternative Assessment.The utilization of non-traditional approaches in judging student performance.

Assessment.The act or result of judging the worth or value of something or someone.

Authentic Assessment.The multidimensional process of judging students' acceptable performance behaviors in life-like role applications.

Culminating Outcome.An ultimate synthesis and application of prior learning in significant performance contexts.

Descriptor. A set of signs for determining the student's level of achievement in a performance or product.

Exhibition. An authentic assessment activity by which students demonstrate or perform what they have learned. An exhibition might be a project, an essay, an oral or written report or performance, a portfolio, or piece of artwork. Effective exhibitions define essential learning and focus the curriculum, teacher and students.

Goal.Achievement toward which effort is directed. Concerned with ultimate outcomes and usually phrased in general or global terms.

Holistic Scoring.Score based on an over-all impression as opposed to conventional test scoring which counts up performance on parts to make a total score.

Model.A standard or example for imitation or comparison.

Needs Assessment. The process by which one identifies needs and decides upon priorities among them. A need may be defined as a condition in which there is a discrepancy between and acceptable state of affairs and an observed state of affairs.

Objective.Statement of short-term behavior that taken together with goals are thought to contribute to the envisioned final goal.

Open-Ended Thinking.When one is presented with a problem or question with no “right” answer or the best answers can be obtained by an almost infinite variety of solution paths. Typical writing prompts are open-ended; by contrast, multiple-choice tests are not open-ended.

Outcome. Culminating demonstration of learning that really matters.

Performance Assessment.To "act upon and bring to completion." Involves displaying one's knowledge effectively to bring to fruition a complex product or event. Performance assessments typically involve the creation of products.

Portfolio.A purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student's efforts, progress and achievements in one or more areas. The collection must include student participation in selecting the contents, the criteria for selection, the criteria for judging merit and evidence of student self-reflection.

Process.Refers to intermediate steps students take to reach the final performance or end-product. It thus includes all strategies, decisions, rough drafts and rehearsals - whether deliberate or not - used to complete the task.

Product.The tangible and stable result of a performance or task. An artifact from which we can infer a good deal about both a student's ability to perform and the processes that led to the product.

Rubrics.The quality criteria and standards by which a product, performance or outcome demonstration of significance will be developed and or assessed.

The details of alternative assessment are often reviewed when pre-service teachers take assessment courses. After that, however, it is up to the individual, the school, and the district to decide whether or not to use it in the classroom. Alternative assessment requires students to demonstrate the skills and knowledge that cannot be assessed using a timed multiple-choice or true-false test. It seeks to reveal students' critical-thinking and evaluation skills by asking students to complete open-ended tasks that often knowledge take more than one class period to complete. While fact-based is still a component of the learning that is assessed, its measurement is not the sole purpose of the assessment.

Alternative assessment is almost always teacher-created and is inextricably tied to the curriculum studied in class. The form of assessment is usually customized to the students and to the subject matter itself.

Alternative assessment takes many different forms, according to the nature of the skills and knowledge being assessed. Students are usually asked to demonstrate learning by creating a product, such as an exhibition or oral presentation, or performing a skill, such as conducting an experiment or demonstration.

Many people attribute the move toward alternative assessment to changes that have occurred in the workplace. In the past, public schools prepared students for manufacturing jobs that were the backbone of the economy. Schools focused on base skill sets and fact-based knowledge. Paper-and-pencil tests adequately measured the fact-based knowledge used in the old economy.

Alternative assessments help schools prepare students for the complex tasks that will be required of them when they become adults by focusing on thinking skills rather than memorization. Alternative assessment, often called authentic, comprehensive, or performance assessment, is usually designed by the teacher to gauge students' understanding of material. Examples of these measurements are open-ended questions, written compositions, oral presentations, projects, experiments, and portfolios of student work. Alternative assessments are designed so that the content of the assessment matches the content of the instruction.

Effective assessments give students feedback on how well they understand the information and on what they need to improve, while helping teachers better design instruction. Assessment becomes even more relevant when students become involved in their own assessment. Students taking an active role in developing the scoring criteria, self-evaluation, and goal setting, more readily accept that the assessment is adequately measuring their learning.

In ELT, research indicates that the portfolio process is beneficial when compared to traditional assessment, because its emphasis is on learners' strengths as opposed to their weaknesses. The portfolio process is considered a more holistic and equitable approach than traditional quantitative testing methods, which receive criticism as the sole criterion for evaluating performance, in that it encourages self-esteem and the motivation to continue developing. Learners are evaluated based on observing performance of activities that demonstrate essential skills or knowledge. In other words, there is a practical point to evaluating the extent to which a learner can do the task. Methods such as utilizing learner portfolios rely on direct observation, using checklists and rubrics. This can, therefore, be thought of as authentic assessment, in that this is a more individual evaluation approach that replicates the real world. Furthermore, we, in our role as the assessors, are able to avoid communication problems that arise in traditional testing modes.

Alternative assessment methods such as portfolios by and large necessitate the active participation of learners in the evaluation process. This naturally translates into greater interaction between learners and teachers. Another benefit is that learners become more engaged in the learning process, as well as building up a more intimate understanding of the particular skills and critical knowledge being appraised. By increasing the involvement of learners in the evaluation process, they gain a better understanding of their personal strengths and weakness.

Alternative assessment offers a broad spectrum of assessment possibilities to address the different learning styles. Assessment can be used to adapt instruction and to provide feedback for monitoring students' learning. Assessment for learning provides both students and teachers with understandable information in a form they can use immediately to improve performance. Principally, through evaluation, both teachers and learners can get positive and negative output in teaching.