THE END-LESS STRUGGLE ON FLT AT PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN COLOMBIA

On my search for new literature to use on my consultancy project, I found an interesting document that I have shallow read long time ago. As I was reading it, I realized that many things are marvelous when they are written on a piece of paper (document). However, put them into practice it is a hard task to achieve, taking into consideration all the disadvantages and the lack of resorces we have to deal with in public education.

The second section of the Decreto 1290 del 16 de abril de 2009 talks about Classroom Evaluation and what a teacher needs to do in order to make all the students reach the objectives proposed. All the parameters included for the final aim are specially conducted to the evaluation of young learners and how the teacher must use all the possible strategies to help every single child to get the goals. So, as far as I understood, the loaded charge on the learning-teaching process is given to the teacher. Yes, off course it also expresses the role that stakeholders play into the process, but at the end of the day if the students do not fulfill the indicators, the teacher is going to be the responsible for it. I found this unfair, because I have seen many teachers that even giving a 110% there is still a low performance on second language competence, and I blame not only the lack of commitment from students,because they are spoiled by all those laws, but also the poor stimulus from government to the educational guild.

I am affraid that as long as they change some of the policies, education in Colombia is not going to get better. I let you the doument and you can read it if you want and have your own conclussion.

http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/1621/articles-213769_archivo_pdf_evaluacion.pdf

A further consideration on test design

Tests are needed when assessing certain skills, for instance when learners are going through a process which involves different levels or stages, how to go from one stage to another without an ‘objectively’ tool, or a measurable way to assess. My point is that tests are for sure needed when assessing students in order for them to reach the following level. The main concern will be then the design of those sources.

From my personal experience, designing a test is not that easy, even though you have the concise guidelines, topics, and even a grill to design it. As teachers without professional training on those fields, we tend to design  quizzes, tests, work sheets, etc; without having in mind all the characteristics and features regarding testing design, just because we are not aware of them. For example, when selecting an activity the principal feature that is taking into consideration is the topic, but forgetting about the objectives, the implications, or the real purposes and the usefulness for the student itself, just to mention.

To design a well and accurate test, teachers need at least a grasp knowledge about the matter on the table, for me it is absolutely necessary that teachers or people in charge to design tests are experts or as I already mention, have a grasp idea of the task. 

USING PROTFOLIOS TO ENHANCE DIFFERENT SKILLS

There are many different ways to assess, as we have already seen throught the readings. One of these important tools is the portfolio, which I believe is very useful to encourage students towards being more active than passive in their learning process. By using portfolios they are producing motivated to be more independent and resposible for their own process. Furthermore, students can enhance their own critical voice, perceptions and thoughts which are captured inside the protafolios. 

As it is a more or less  independent activity, students are not prepared to carry this task out by their own, a kind of control is still needed. Another aspect that limits the acuracy of portfolios is the fact that teacher´s subjectivity sometimes plays a role when it comes to grading different student´s assigments, so they will vary according to the teacher´s personality or ideas. So, in order to avoid these subjectivity, and used the portfolio not just for the matter of grading, it could be more meaningful for students to understand that using protfolios is good for them to improve their skills.

The habit of reading

As reading should be a-must in all countries and cultures, there are certain cultures, as  Latin-American, where reading is taken as a “hobby”, which means that there is a big percentage of the population who read as an obligation more than as a necessity or opportunity to learn.

The act of reading is implicit in many dimensions (academic, personal, job-related), so people need to read as a way to communicate.  However, this communication is developed in basic levels, basic commands and basic instructions, without taken it further. For academic purposes, reading performance needs to be higher. The development of assessing strategies for reading skills has achieved many outcomes: visuals aids, interactional activities, etc; the real problem for teachers is how to encourage students to read.

Although there are people who are curious and more interested into acquire new knowledge and information, there are many others who are not. Students perceive reading as a boring and tiring activity. Actually, teacher’s struggle along the years has not been to design strategies to assess reading, but to encourage students to perform the act of reading itself.  The challenge is still there, perhaps, parents should get involved and embrace a new attitude towards their children’s skills development, and teach them at home to love reading and become this in a habit more than an obligation. 

Test design improvement pro-quality education

Although there is a big range of ways to assess learners, tests are, by far, the most common and necessary when assessing. However, there are some features tests designers need to take into account to develop good tests. 
 

The vast majority of the institutions and schools, at least in Colombia, do not have especialists on test design, the adminisstrators of the education just lean on teachers` backs and give them the task of test-design. These designs are based  on grids and many teachers just design tests, quizzes, etc. without taking into account the different characteristics a good test need to have and mainly, being careless of the students` needs. Following, the principal features for a good test are listed.


Each one of the characteristics are in the same level of importance, but some of them are more complex than the others in different ways. First, Brown (2000) mentions practicallity, which means that any test should not be expensive, it also must be time efficient to take and to score, easy to administer, and easy to evaluate.

Second, a test design needs to consider many  factors that can affect , somehow, the test score and may result in an unreliable test; these factors can be from the student/taker as temporal iiliness, a "bad day", etc, or just basing the scores on subjectivity, bias or a simply human error, as many test evaluators could  have experienced from time to time. Tests administrators must guarantee the appropiate conditions to take a test, not just in terms of resources,  but also in terms of  infraestructure, and enviromental issues. The test itself also could be a limitant for reliability.


The validity  is perhaps the most complex of the characteristics a test has. This validity is the accomplishing of the objective  by having some references of what the test is measuring. According to the test-taker`s needs, the test is designed to cover the abilities he/she needs to reach a higer level to demostrate a better proficiency.

Authenticity, is defined by Bachman and Palmer as "the degree of correspondence of characteristics of a given language test task to the features of a target language task". Test should not only be taken in the formal pattern, but everything is taught/learnt with a practical purpose. In language learning, four abilities are tested just because they are needed to achieve communicative approaches of the language.

Last but not least, washback, which "is the effect of testing on learning and teaching ". Sometimes, testing could be meaningless, because students work for a simple grade to get the other level, and they know that the most effective way to reach that goal is by passing exams. So, students just get ready, and study to take the exam and have a high grade. However, this ephemeral preparation tends to put the learning process into a vague process; it could be said that students learn for the moment to take the exam, but then, they forget about what the studied, so they end up knowing anything.

This testing process should not be taken so lightly, it is  important to know how to design a test, taking into account all the implications this task has. Institutions need to wake up and have the space for teachers to be trained in fields as Test design for the sake of quality education.

Assesment criteria

As it is illustrated in the text "Languge assesment Principles and classroom practices", there are different concepts to take into account when measure learner´s abilities. Testing is just a tool to measure those abilities in an homogenous way in an specific group. However,  assessment is a wider scenario to observe and understand each student´s performance. As it has been shown, intelligence is developed in different skills depending on each person, so, teachers should not be closed-minded when evalute students.

Teachers need to design practice activities and be awared of the students competences during the development of those activities rather than focusing just on measurable tests. Teachers need to understand a single person as a single world. Based on picture a learner as a unique being, teachers have to give a accurate feedback on  each single student and sustain the grading on it. As a matter of fact, and for the sake of saving time, testing is a need  tool to use.


Also, something to  have in mind are the learner´s needs. Teachers have to asses depending on what  the student´s goals are when he/she is taking an specific course. It is because of it that there are so many appoaches to the English learnig practice, and the teachers should focused the activities concerning those student´s needs.