FINDING VALUE IN EVALUATION

Carlos Alberto Aldana

Publicado en Capital Letter No. 4

Noviembre de 2003

Reflections about the Sixth National ELT Conference: Beyond Evaluation.

Evaluation is a daunting topic; it's, in fact, a word with a frightening sound. Yet, each and every day we are all engaged in evaluation. Even a simple response to the greeting, "how are you today?" requires that we make an evaluation. Evaluation is difficult because it is generally perceived under a negative light. For many of us, evaluation is about "judgment", a qualitative statement regarding "good" or "bad" performance or outcomes.

In the frame of the sixth National ELT Conference: "beyond evaluation" held at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, the concept of evaluation was challenged. Many things can be said about "evaluation", and many things were, in fact, said about it. And, although these lines are not enough to explain the richness of the conferences, they seek to show some of the most important topics developed in this important event.

A Key to Learn

Assessment and evaluation have crucial effects on the teaching and learning processes. As a result, it is important to be aware of their differences and similarities. Assessment has to be understood as a qualitative component in education that allows teachers and students to improve and develop abilities, capacities and skills in a wide range of aspects both personal and professional.

Evaluation, on the other hand, is identified as a diagnosis of strengths and weaknesses to measure progress or level of achievement. That is why assessment becomes a "key to learn", an essential factor in the development of students and teachers It is a also a process that enhances personal development and addresses abilities and interests. Thus, effective assessment provide us with elements to judge effectively the process of learning, offering in the same way, tools for an objective feedback on the teaching learning processes.

Resource of information

As it was explained in this 6th National ELT conference, testing is not only an unidirectional process or a simple feedback tool, but the way that makes it possible to check the relationship between what is taught and what is learnt. As a result, tests can help analyze students' learning and progress and also allow teachers to find out about their weaknesses and strengths as well as the programs they are following.

Then, the question is: how to help students in the improvement of their English communicative competence?, and if possible, in which way do we have to lead and develop processes and mechanisms to avoid the use of evaluation as a "revenge" tool? It is imperative to understand that testing has to be student centered, and that students and teachers' roles have to be changed. So, it is of radical importance to change our traditional educational system to become teachers really committed to the socio-cultural changes in modern times.

Testing and Testers' Suspicion

Each and every day we are all engaged in evaluation and even if evaluation is part of our daily life, it is equally true, that this one is one of the most complex issues in the process of teaching and learning. The results of different analysis, exposed during the conferences, have shown that "traditional" forms of testing result inoperative and sometimes useless, apparently because they do not consider neither the student's reality nor a common ground. They, in this way, cause the promotion of students to higher levels without the required elements. If the formal tests do not provide valid and reliable information because of their poor quality or their lack of validity, it is impossible to measure students' progress.

Conclusions of a Successful Event

Evaluation and feedback on a student's progress are enormously important both to students and teachers. Students need information on their overall progress to make long range plans. Teachers need to make evaluations to advise students, to make support decisions, and to give them recommendations. But evaluation and assessment are not an easy thing. They are processes which involve making judgments and decisions based on interpretation of evidence, knowledge and experience.

It is clear that making judgments about students’ performance is, and will always be, a daunting topic.  Nevertheless, one thing that can be drawn as a final conclusion of this event: When evaluation is seen as an opportunity to promote learning rather than as a final judgment, it can show learners their real strengths and abilities as well as the way they can develop further, redirect efforts, make plans, and, finally, the manner of establishing personal and learning goals.