What and Why?
There are two main ways in which Evaluation is important in learning. The first way is in relation to what and how much students have learned - such as through tests and quizzes (see Tests). The second way, however, is in relation to how the students have been learning - whether groupwork, for example, is effective, whether they receive enough guidance, and so on. The first aspect of evaluation is the most common in language teaching. The second aspect is not often considered in much depth, although it is obviously extremely important. In CES, this second aspect of evaluation is introduced in a number of places, particularly in the Revision units, where students talk about their reactions to the preceding units. The aim through this kind of evaluation is to involve the students more in thinking about how they are learning, to encourage them to take more control over their learning and to give you, the teacher, an insight into how the studen ts see their English classes.
Practical ideas
- For practical ideas in the what and how much aspects of evaluation, see tests.
- Initially, it is likely that the students' evaluation of how they have been learning will be very superficial. Just like learning itself, evaluation requires practice. The more they do it, the better they will become at it, and the more able they will become to accept responsibility.
- Limit the time for an evaluation discussion and give the students a clear focus for any group discussion. For example, to come up with a list of their points.
- Evaluation by the students requires the teacher to be open to listen and discuss, and make changes if necessary.
- Evaluation can be done in writing directly to you. This can avoid problems with `public' discussions.
- Avoid, initially at least, asking the students questions such as `What things did you like?' `What things didn't you like?' Negative questions will produce negative answers. It is better to ask `What do you think about...'?
- Evaluation of how the students have been learning/working comes mainly in the Revision units. However, you can involve the students in evaluation (oral or in writing) after any major piece of work or period of time (for example, after a topic unit and Language Focus, before they do the Activity.)
Researching the Classroom
- Before giving the students a test give them a list of what they will be tested on. Then, before they do the test ask them to write down what mark they think they will get in each part of the test. If you do this before each test, you can see if the students ability to assess their own strengths in English improves, and if the gap between what they think they will get and what they actually get closes.
- After a lesson, ask the students to write down a list of what they think they learned in that lesson. Think back over the lesson (or tape-record it) and try to identify when and how they things that they remembered came up. Do this for a few lessons and see if a pattern emerges.
- If you have one or more classes using this coursebook, you can involve one class in a lot more evaluation discussions. You can then see if more student evaluation activities produces more involved learners. You could give each class an anonymous questionnaire to discover how much time they devote to English in a week, how high their motivation is, which aspects they like best and so on. In the long term, you could also see if more student evaluation/planning activities produces better abilities in English.
- you could ask some students to keep a diary of their studies in English, what precisely they study outside the classroom, how long they spend and so on. This could also give you some idea of the learning strategies they use.
- You could interview a few students to find out how they go about their studies.
- A Word Association technique is very useful in giving you a 'snapshot' of the students impressions. Read out a list of key areas in language learning, and after each one pause for a minute or so. Ask the students to note down their thoughts in relation to that area. This can be anonymous, of course. You can then collect in the papers to get a picture of what is going on in the students' head. Key areas might be: topic lessons, grammar, listening to English in class, writing in English, and so on. You could also try a word association on how they feel about things to do with English, English culture and so on (which will be related to their motivation). Key areas might be: English, 'Me speaking English', English things, English-speaking people, 'my English book', 'doing English homework' and so on.
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