scholarly journals Co-constructing the assessment criteria for EFL writing by instructors and students: A participative approach to constructively aligning the CEFR, curricula, teaching and learning

2020 ◽  
pp. 136216882094845
Author(s):  
Huahui Zhao ◽  
Beibei Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Training Session ◽  
Assessment Criteria ◽  
Local Context ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
English Writing Instruction ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Writing Instructors

The current assessment in language classrooms prevailingly utilizes the criteria provided by instructors, regarding learners as passive recipients of assessment. The current study drew upon sustainable assessment and the community of practice to highlight the importance of involving learners in co-constructing the assessment criteria and argued that using the criteria provided by instructors could lead to discrepancy between assessment, teaching, and learning. It adopted a participatory approach and investigated how to involve learners in co-constructing the assessment criteria with instructors in tertiary English writing instruction in China, based on the European Language Profile (ELP), an evolved version of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Two writing instructors and 146 tertiary students played different, yet interactive roles in adapting the assessment criteria in the local context. Instructors drafted the criteria in line with curricula, teaching, learning and learners. Learners utilized the draft criteria in a training session and suggested possible modifications to the criteria in a survey. Suggestions were used to revise the descriptors alongside teachers’ reflections via reflective logs. A follow-up survey explored students’ perceptions of the feasibility and usefulness of the modified descriptors to investigate the effectiveness of co-constructing the assessment criteria for learning and reveal further improvement if necessary. Vigilant decision-making processes were thickly described regarding how assessment descriptors were selected, arranged, and modified to constructively align them with curricula, teaching, and learning. Statistical and thematic analyses were conducted to examine the accessibility, feasibility, and usefulness of the assessment descriptors prior to and after the modifications. Results substantiated the effectiveness and thus the importance of co-constructing assessment criteria for enhancing the quality of assessment criteria and developing learners’ cognitive and metacognitive knowledge of writing and assessment. Implications for language tutors regarding co-constructing assessment criteria in local contexts were deliberated on at the end of the article.

scholarly journals THE USE OF FACEBOOK AND DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-145
Author(s):  
Ni Made Anggi Arlina Putri
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Junior High School ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Class Discussion ◽  
Learning Potential ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Efl Teacher ◽  
The Social ◽  
Teaching Learning

This  qualitative  study  investigates  the  extent  to  which Facebook supports EFL teaching and learning, potential and challenges of using Facebook on English writing subject, and teacher and students’ responses toward Facebook implementation. Conducted at a junior high school  in  Surakarta,  this  study  involved  one  EFL  teacher  and  five students as participants. Data from classroom observation, interview, and documentation suggest that the use of Facebook as a technology-based media  in  English  writing  classroom  enhances  the  discussion  and participation in teaching-learning activities. After a class discussion on Facebook facilitated by the teacher has allowed the student to visit the Facebook and to have a group discussion. The social media has provided students with a better learning process through a variety of multi-media resources  which enhance autonomous learning strategies and improves their achievement of English writing.

Encountering the cosmos; negotiating conflicting worlds through learning and engagement

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 180
Author(s):  
Zahra Hussain
Keyword(s):  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
Development Organizations ◽  
Constrained Environments ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Isabelle Stengers ◽  
Social Landscapes ◽  
Post Disaster

Interventions by the state or development organizations in post-disaster landscapes or through infrastructural development have long been criticized for their incongruity in project design and implementation which tend to ignore the local cultural, political and social landscapes. This paper discusses an educational program called Laajverd Visiting School that attempts to question the simplistic and linear frameworks (often one-size-fits-all) adopted by intervention projects which usually disregard local context resulting in half-baked, ill-equipped projects. Inspired from Isabelle Stengers’ cosmopolitics, as means of constructing a common world, the Laajverd Visiting School program engages with multiple actors which are equally part of composing landscapes that we sought to explore. This paper is positioned to highlight the interconnections between teaching, learning and research (Harland, 2016). It unpacks experiential learning (Hooks, 1994; Shor, 1992; Wink, 2005) as means of attending to the more-than-human worlds. Specifically, it explores pedagogies of experiential learning; of being immersed in the field and remaining open to its terrains, hurdles, surprises and discomfort. It highlights methodologies employed in the field to allow learners/participants to explore multiple ways of approaching and understanding these landscapes; the threats and challenges they face, and how communities continue to live in constrained environments.   Keywords: Landscapes, Disasters, Worlds, Cosmopolitics, Open inquiry, MappingHow to cite this article:Hussain, Z. 2020. Encountering the cosmos; negotiating conflicting worlds through learning and engagement. -Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. 4(2): 180-196. https://doi.org/10.36615/sotls.v4i2.127.This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

scholarly journals EFL Students’ Responses on Learning Academic Essays in Indonesian Higher Education

AL-TA LIM ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-46
Author(s):  
Syayid Sandi Sukandi ◽  
Riny Dwitya Sani
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Thesis Statement ◽  
Writing Instructors

This article provides investigation on EFL students’ responses related to learning writing academic essays in the context of higher education in one of private universities in Indonesia. The gap that is studied in this research is related to rarity of English writing instructors in identifying what their students’ responses towards their learning process after completing an essay writing course and how the responses present significant ideas on improving writing instructors’ pedagogical practices in writing classrooms. Scope of this research is teaching and learning English writing within the context of English as a foreign language. Field of this research is English composition studies. This research applies a quantitative non-experiment design, with descriptive as its method and questionnaire as its instruments. Findings show that students view English writing in neutral attitude; meanwhile, writing thesis statement in an academic essay is the most difficult part to write (40.59% of all respondents), and grammar and punctuation in writing essay is the most difficult aspect of essay writing (51.96% of all respondents). In brief, this research shows that recognising which aspect of the academic essay that is difficult for the students and which element is hard for them is crucial for adjusting pedagogical practices for English writing instructors and improving quality of their teaching gradually in Indonesia

scholarly journals English writing instruction in Norwegian upper secondary schools

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
May Olaug Horverak
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Writing Instruction ◽  
Teaching Material ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Detailed Instruction ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
English Writing Instruction ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Upper Secondary Schools

AbstractThis article presents a study of current English writing instruction practices in a selection of Norwegian upper secondary schools and discusses how this draws upon ideas within genre-pedagogy. The data comprises individual and focus-group interviews, observation reports and some teaching material. The study shows that English teachers focus on teaching genre requirements and adjustment of language to task and context. However, despite agreeing on the importance of teaching how to write specific text-types and to adjust to the situation at hand, there seems to be different opinions about how detailed instruction should be. Some teachers fear that too explicit instruction may hinder creativity, while others emphasise the need to learn how to structure a text, and to open up for creativity within certain writing frames. In spite of the differences, the practices revealed in this study comply quite well with genre-pedagogy. From the findings in this article, it seems like there is a need to develop and make available teaching material in English to be used in writing instruction, and also to improve the English teacher education with regard to the teaching of writing.Keywords: Writing instruction, genre-pedagogy, teaching-learning cycle, con-text and modellingSammendragDenne artikkelen presenterer en studie av engelsk skriveundervisning i et utvalg norske videregående skoler, og diskuterer hvordan disse praksisene samsvarer med sjangerpedagogikk. Innsamlet data består av individuelle og fokusgruppe-intervjuer, observasjonsrapporter og undervisningsmateriale, og studien viser at engelsklærere fokuserer på å undervise sjangerkrav og det å tilpasse språk til oppgave og kontekst. Til tross for at det er enighet om at det er viktig å undervise i spesifikke tekst typer, og det å tilpasse skriving til situasjon, er det ulike meninger om hvor detaljert skriveundervisningen bør være. Noen lærere frykter at for eksplisitt instruksjon kan hindre kreativitet, mens andre understreker behovet for å lære å strukturere tekster i detalj, og åpner opp for kreativitet innen bestemte skriverammer. Til tross for ulikheter, så samsvarer praksisene presentert i denne studien i stor grad med sjangerpedagogikken. Ut fra funnene i denne artikkelen, kan en konkludere at det er et behov for å utvikle og gjøre tilgjengelig undervisningsmateriale for skriveundervisning i engelsk, samt at det er et behov for å forbedre engelsklærerutdanningen når det gjelder opplæring i skriveundervisning.Nøkkelord: Skriveundervisning, sjangerpedagogikk, undervisnings-lærings syklus, kontekst og modellering 

Challenges Posed by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for South African Higher Education Institutions

10.28945/2679 ◽  
2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
ME Herselman ◽  
HR Hay
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Revolutionary Change ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Teaching Learning

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are the major driving forces of globalised and knowledge-based societies of a new world era. They will have a profound impact on teaching and learning for two decades to come. The revolutionary change which is taking place in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), has dramatic effects on the way universities carry out their functions of teaching, learning and research, particularly on the creation, dissemination and application of knowledge. These developments pose unprecedented challenges to higher education institutions (HEIs) in developing countries particular in South Africa as South Africa is viewed as the leading country on the continent.

scholarly journals Technology-mediated teaching and learning process: A conceptual study of educators’ response amidst the Covid-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingsley Okoye ◽  
Jorge Alfonso Rodriguez-Tort ◽  
Jose Escamilla ◽  
Samira Hosseini
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Linear Trend ◽  
Univariate Analysis ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Learning Tools ◽  
Main Challenge ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Efficient Learning ◽  
Teaching Learning

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many areas of the human and organizational ventures worldwide. This includes new innovative technologies and strategies being developed by educators to foster the rapid learning-recovery and reinstatement of the stakeholders (e.g., teachers and students). Indeed, the main challenge for educators has been on what appropriate steps should be taken to prevent learning loss for the students; ranging from how to provide efficient learning tools/curriculum that ensures continuity of learning, to provision of methods that incorporate coping mechanisms and acceleration of education in general. For several higher educational institutions (HEIs), technology-mediated education has become an integral part of the modern teaching/learning instruction amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, when digital technologies have consequently become an inevitable and indispensable part of learning. To this effect, this study defines a hybrid educational model (HyFlex + Tec) used to enable virtual and in-person education in the HEIs. Practically, the study utilized data usage report from Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Emotions and Experience Survey questionnaire in a higher education setting for its experiments. To this end, we applied an Exponential Linear trend model and Forecasting method to determine overall progress and statistics for the learners during the Covid-19 pandemic, and subsequently performed a Text Mining and Univariate Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to determine effects and significant differences that the teaching–learning experiences for the teachers and students have on their energy (learning motivation) levels. From the results, we note that the hybrid learning model supports continuity of education/learning for teachers and students during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study also discusses its innovative importance for future monitoring (tracking) of learning experiences and emotional well-being for the stakeholders in leu (aftermath) of the Covid-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Its Effect on Teaching and Learning Process in the Higher Educational Institutions

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-107
Author(s):  
Harshavardhan Reddy Kummitha ◽  
Naveen Kolloju ◽  
Prakash Chittoor ◽  
Venkatesh Madepalli
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Training Programmes ◽  
Teaching Learning

In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, most of the higher education institutions (HEIs) across the globe have replaced conventional teaching with online teaching. However, the technological preparedness of countries of varied nature differs significantly. In this context, the purpose of the study is to answer the following research question: how are the HEIs mitigating the difficulties that have resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate online teaching–learning process? The study is carried out based on a cross-sectional study from 281 academic professionals who are employed in HEIs in India and Ethiopia. The findings from this comparative study highlight that digital divide and lack of institutional preparedness are found to be major problems that constrained the effective implementation of online teaching/learning. Besides, this study also found that training programmes for the faculty members to utilize web resources and facilitate online teaching were found to be limited in both the countries. The article concludes by offering suggestions and policy advice to minimize the digital divide and for successful implementation of online teaching in HEIs.

scholarly journals Embedding Formative Assessment in Blended Learning Environment: The Case of Secondary Chinese Language Teaching in Singapore

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 360
Author(s):  
Kwong Tung Chan
Keyword(s):  
Blended Learning ◽  
Formative Assessment ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Assessment Literacy ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Lesson Delivery ◽  
Teaching Learning

The fast global spread of COVID-19 has resulted in the mass disruption of teaching, learning, as well as assessment, in mainstream schools in Singapore. Teachers were caught unprepared and this jeopardised the quality of classroom delivery and assessment. The Ministry of Education has since shifted to an online asynchronous mode of teaching whilst attempting to keep the face-to-face method of lesson delivery, to which it is called ‘blended learning’ (BL) in the local context. Besides being propelled to learn and use new technology tools for online lessons, teachers also need to quickly explore to embed formative assessment (FA) in the new BL environment to substitute traditional classroom assessment. In this context, I argue that teachers’ language assessment literacy (LAL), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and e-pedagogy are vital to the success of embedding FA in BL. Following, I also describe some tentative predictions for future challenges and opportunities of embedding FA in the BL environment of secondary Chinese Language (CL) teaching in Singapore. On this basis, I discuss the ways in which current conceptualisations of language assessment literacy will need to shift in response to these challenges. Finally, I make some recommendations for practice based on this argument.

Receptive Skills: Reading & Listening (ReaL) Resource Pack with App Support

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Nur Ain Abdul Malek ◽  
Nor Syamimi Iliani Che Hassan ◽  
Nor Hairunnisa Mohammad Nor ◽  
Hanis Kamarudin
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Lesson Plans ◽  
Independent Learning ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Technology In The Classroom ◽  
Support Materials ◽  
Language Classrooms

Educators all over the world have been incorporating smartphones specifically by using mobile applications (apps) in teaching. However, many educators encourage students to use smartphones especially for independent learning without any guidance. It is easy to assume that students would know how to use a certain app on their own. Barrs (2011) asserts that students demonstrate greater interest to continue self-directed learning using mobile devices when they are provided detailed guidance and explanation on how to use smartphone appropriately in classroom settings. This suggests that guided lessons using apps may increase the level of effectiveness in language teaching and learning. The objectives of the resource pack designed are to offer guided approach to the use of apps in language classrooms and to provide support materials to consolidate the lessons. Meanwhile, the novelty lies in the comprehensiveness of the lesson plans and materials while incorporating new technology in the classroom. The resource pack will give a valuable contribution to instructors in the teaching of English particularly on receptive skills like reading and listening. The development of this resource pack which is based on two apps: NST Mobile and LEB English is timely to educators who have interest in incorporating mobile devices in language teaching. Basically, this resource pack underscores a compilation of exciting and meaningful lesson plans meant for educators to conduct listening and reading instructions. Knowing time constraints often experienced by educators in preparing for their classes, worksheets are also included for the proposed lesson plans so that learning outcomes can be achieved at the end of the lessons.

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