Assessment of the prospective language teachers’ learning achievements at australian universities

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Assessment of the prospective language teachers' learning achievements at australian universities

Ключевые слова: письмо, каллиграфические минутки, требования к графическим навыкам. calligraphic second teacher letter

Studied a form of calligraphy writing improvement - calligraphic moments and their conduct in the primary school. Studied the experience of leading teachers.

The article reveals the nature of the assessment of the prospective language teachers' learning achievements, the principles of assessment of the Bachelor's and Master's students' learning achievements. The types and forms of the prospective language teachers' achievements assessment are classified. The samples of assessment tasks for prospective language teachers are given.

The rationale. Ukraine aims to comply with the world standards concerning the quality of educational services provided by higher educational institutions. So far, there have been the researches mainly exploring the scope and the nature of teacher education in English speaking countries of the Western Europe and North America (N. Avsheniuk, V. Bazurina, I. Gushlevska, V. Dykan, I. Zadorozh- na, L. Karpynska, T. Koshmanova, O. Leontyeva, N. Mukan, S. Nagach, T. Osadcha, A. Sokolova and N. Yatsyshyn etc). Nowadays the whole world can witness a diverse and rapid growth of Australia, and this country has already obtained the world acknowledgment of its high-class higher education. However, the issues of teacher education in Australia have not been studied yet.

The analysis of the last publications. Ukrainian and Russian scientists have only begun to scratch this surface, namely they have dealt with school education reforming (A. Volkova), gifted children teaching (A. Pereverzev), multicultural teacher education (L. Golub), the trends of higher education reforming (S. Koreshkova) etc.

The aim of the article is to reveal the scope and the nature of assessment of prospective language teachers' learning achievements assessment at Australian universities.

The delivery of the main data. In Australia, they define the quality of higher education considering the degree of the educational aim fulfillment and the value of this fulfillment [3, p. 6]. The main approaches relating to the higher education quality definition are outlined in the concept “Repositioning quality assurance and accreditation in Australian higher education”, which was elaborated by Australian Ministry of Education, Training and Youth [3]. Pursuant to this concept, in the course of acquiring the high quality higher education, the students develop the features that reflect their professional competence, social values and the prospective capability to satisfy the society needs and create conducive conditions for the personal growth as well.

The analysis of the publications has shown that Australian pedagogy distinguishes between the terms “students' learning achievements” and “students' learning outcomes”. The term “learning achievements” denotes the quality of the knowledge and skills obtained in the end of a module or a degree, whereas, the term “learning outcomes” is used to refer to the quality of knowledge, skills and values, which students need to acquire after a module or a degree completion [2, p. 9].

The level of the students' learning achievements is determined in the course of assessment that supposes diagnosis and record of the achievements. The students and the teachers can track the students' progress considering the assessment results that exist in the form of the feedback (oral or written teacher's remarks), a mark (quantitative point) and a grade (qualitative point) [2].

The assessment of the students' learning achievements is based on a standard-based and a ranking approaches. A standard-based approach presupposes the diagnosis and the reporting of the learning achievements in accordance to the modules' standards and accomplished teachers' standards. This approach is used in the course of providing the students with educational services. The ranking approach allows outlining the ranking curve of the learning achievements of all the students of the country, the state or the university over a definite period. This kind of the approach helps to determine the list of the candidates for the awards, grants and scholarships etc.

The learning achievements of Bachelor's and Master's students are reported differently. That is the Bachelor's students get marks that are definite sets of quantitative points, whereas the Master's students are given grades, which are the quantitative points. The rationale of this practice is underpinned by the fact that the majority of the Master's students are already in-service teachers, so that means that they have already achieved the accomplished teachers' standards. Hence, it is not reasonable to judge whether they have met these standards at 50 or 70 points.

Australian teachers collaboratively with the boards of the Faculties of Education and Arts elaborate the norms and the criteria of assessments tasks.

It is necessary to underline that Australian pedagogy prefers the tasks that teach students to express their minds explicitly, coherently, with sufficient profound underpinnings; make their own conclusions upon the analysis of the scientific publications; develop innovative and creative thinking etc.

Therefore, there are the following criteria for assessment tasks: 1) understanding of the concept of the task; 2) the meaningfulness of the supportive documents; 3) the quality of the publications' analysis; 4) the logic, clarity and originality of the delivery; 4) literacy (the work is checked for grammar, punctuation and spelling mistakes); 5) the references.

The completed assessment tasks of Master's students are granted the following grades: Fail, Pass, Credit, Distinction, High Distinction. It is up to the lecturer to award the corresponding grade. The Bachelor's students' assessment tasks are marked in accordance to the following straightforward procedure: 100 points are split among three-four summative assessment tasks, so that each task is marked pursuant to the assessment criteria, then all the points are added. The marks correspond to the grades in the following way:

- 0 - 49 - Fail;

- 50 - 64 -Pass;

- 65 - 74 - Credit;

- 75 - 84%- Distinction;

- 85 - 100 - High Distinction.

In the edge of the 21st century the educational community realized non-effectiveness of the reproducing method of learning. Due to this, the method in question was substituted by learner-centered method. The switch to the learner-centered method was determined by the acknowledgement of the concept developed by John and Black regarding the assessment as a life-long learning [1]. According to this concept, the assessment is to be combined with self-assessment and reflection of the achievements.

Therefore, the acquired skills of reflection are highly welcome to turn into continuous self-assessment and hence provide the person with the opportunities for permanent personal and professional growth.

Australian educators A. Scarino and A. Liddicoat elaborated a guide to assist the deans, lecturers and tutors of the faculties that conduct language teacher training and the language teachers of schools in assessing students' language and culture learning achievements. Pursuant to these recommendations, it is essential to consider the following issues:

1. To set the criterion or a set of criteria for assessment tasks. It may be 1) the level of the foreign language knowledge (grammar, spelling rules, variety of vocabulary, complexity of syntax), 2) the level of accuracy and lexical appropriacy; 3) the quality of pronunciation; 4) the level of intercultural self-identification etc.

2. To determine and measure the students' learning achievements by means of written tasks (projects, tests, retelling, essays) and oral tasks (presentations, debates, role-plays, discussions, answers), direct communication in target language with students concerning the issues of intercultural interaction or any general topic, students' self-reflection.

3. To award the mark or the grade in accordance to the set assessment criteria and norms.

4. To verify the validity of the obtained conclusions as for students' learning achievements. The lecturer is responsible for the validity of these conclusions. Moreover, it is possible to judge the validity by means of peer-viewing, comparison of the students' assessment tasks on the level of a region or a state [4, p. 71].

We are going to characterize the types of the assessment that are widely used at Australian universities at the Faculties of Education on the grounds of the following classification:

a) subject to periodicity:

- formative assessment (conducted every session to track students' current knowledge, skills and understanding in forms of tutor's feedback on students' performance in the class);

- summative assessment (exists in the form of the assessment tasks that are to be submitted by the due date upon the module completion);

The formative assessment of the learning achievement of the prospective language teachers fulfills in Australia pedagogy, as well as in Ukrainian one, the following functions:

1) Learning, which favors deepening, broadening, improving and reinforcing the knowledge on foreign language and culture, pedagogy, in particular issues of language teaching.

2) Corrective, which helps to determine and rectify the gaps and misconceptions in students' knowledge, skills and values.

3) Educational, that spurs students towards the constant diligent work regarding foreign language level increase and maintenance; foreign language teaching skills in mainstream and special education as well; developing the responsibility for educational advocacy etc.

4) Developing, which intends to foster memory, critical thinking, organization skills, public speech confidence, creativity, learning interest, self-reflection capability development;

5) Motivational, that aims to form an adequate self-esteem, assures the chances of successful obtaining of the professional competences.

It is necessary to mention that marks and grades are awarded only for the summative assessment

tasks. The formative assessments ends up with the lecturer's / tutor's oral or written feedback. In spite of the fact that the summative assessment is carried out in the end of the module, the students work on its tasks completion within the semester. Usually students are supposed to complete three-four assessment tasks, wherein the portfolio is an obligatory part of almost all the module's tasks.

b) subject to what item of learning achievements is assessed:

• assessment of the theoretical knowledge;

• assessment of skills;

• assessment of student's personal characteristics;

• assessment of the quality of the performed task (coherency, accuracy, relevance to the topic, proper referencing, theoretical underpinnings, spelling, grammar, lexical, punctuation accuracy);

c) subject to the assessor

• assessment by the lecturer / tutor, that exists in the form of teachers feedback or awarding a mark or a grade;

• peer-assessment, that is used at tutorials, seminars, workshops and independent work and exists in the form of peer analysis of the performed tasks over the semester;

• self-assessment, which is provided by 1) reflexive journals maintained by the students over the course of their professional experience and 2) various portfolios being created over the semester time.

Now we would overview the assessment tasks for the Bachelor's students (BEd + BA (Languages)), involving the University of Sydney as an example.

PORTFOLIO

Portfolio enables the students to conduct self-reflection of their progress in terms of knowledge and skills. Moreover, portfolio helps the lecturers to trace the students' professional growth, students' paths towards the professional standards.

Australian pedagogy mainly involves the following types of portfolios:

a) growth portfolio;

b) best works portfolio;

c) working portfolio.

Growth portfolios outline students' progress in one or two definite areas. In particular, prospective language teachers reveal in growth portfolios the ways and means of maintenance and increase of foreign language level and pedagogy competence.

Best works portfolios show the most significant students' achievements over a definite period.

Students in course of work upon their individual assignments use working portfolios.

To prove their professional growth students can compile their portfolio folder with articles' analysis, conference materials, reports, essays, audio and video records of the lessons, pamphlets, leaflets, pictures, photos, letters etc. 1) student's profile; 2) Summary on the topic “How I see the language teaching issue in Australian schools”; 3) Summary of publications regarding languages teaching in primary schools; 4) Summary of the legislative acts that regulate languages teaching and learning in Australian schools;

5) personal view of the pros and cons of foreign language teaching methods in primary school; 6) a list of materials and resources that can be used in the course of foreign language teaching in primary school.

LESSON PLANING

Students need to prepare three interrelated lesson plans as for foreign language teaching for the students of a definite stage. They must include into the assessment task folder the following items: 1) three lesson plans with the assessment tasks; 2) materials and resources for the lesson; 3) a list of the references to assist in task completion; 4) a list of used publications to prepare this assessment task.

INTERVIEW

The students design and conduct an interview of the pupils who study foreign languages. The aim of the interview is to find out the key factors that influence pupils' motivation of languages learning, the degree of the interrelation of the marks and learning motivation. The questions for the interview are highly recommended to be negotiated with the lecturer. The completed assessment task has to contain the following components: 1) the report upon the interview; 2) the list of the interview questions; 3) the list of the publications devoted to the issues of the motivation and assessment (at least five);

PROFILE

The students write the essay where they characterize the usage of the foreign language by people of the region or the country. It is necessary to reveal the following aspects: 1) stages of the foreign language learning (pursuant to the corresponding Board of Studies documents); 2) a list of the schools where this foreign language is taught (at the level of a state and the country); 3) overview of 2 websites regarding language self-learning; 4) links to the 3-5 websites with the language learning games; 5) overview of the website that contains the resources to assist teachers in lesson planning; 6) overview of the website that keeps the info about the country, which language is being taught.

Conclusions and prospects of further researches.

In conclusion, we would claim that such kind of an approach to understanding the scope and the nature of students' learning achievements allows not only to diagnose the level of students' knowledge and skills, but also avails the space for the continuous raise of teachers' professional competences. The issues of the modules' contents-wise assessment seem to the reasonable perspective of the further researches.

References

1. Black P. Formative assessment and the learning and teaching of MFL: sharing the languages learning road map with the learners / P. Black, J. Jones // Language Learning Journal, 2006. - Issue 1. - P 4 - 9.