Aligning Teaching, Learning and Assessment in College English Context: Classroom Formative Assessment Strategy and Its Validation

We analyse the importance of meaningful learning and the use of a formative assessment strategy, promoted by peer learning methods centred on the students, in a curricular unit (CU) pertaining to a degree in Exact Sciences, in a Higher Education Institution. Five students from the CU were questioned, through a focus group; the teacher was interviewed. Data of 12 hours of lessons was analysed and categorised using webQDA. We conclude that emphasising the students’ engagement in teaching, learning, and evaluation, has the power to drive the methodological teaching options to incline towards active methods that involve students in activities that foster meaningful learning. And the use of systematic formative assessments, integrated in the teaching-learning process, by using effective feedback, is most likely to make students and teachers responsible for an overall improvement in learning.

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

Education Sciences ◽

10.3390/educsci11070360 ◽

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.

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