Using the Intended–Enacted–Experienced Curriculum Model to Map the Vision and Change Core Competencies in Undergraduate Biology Programs and Courses

This study applies the intended-enacted-experienced curriculum model to map the Vision and Change core competencies across undergraduate biology courses. A five-department pilot of a curriculum mapping survey is followed by a deep dive of 10 courses to provide a rich snapshot of current core competency teaching and assessment practices.

Impact of Formative Assessment Practices on Student Motivation for Learning the English Language

This study aimed at exploring the impact of formative assessment practices on student motivation for learning the English language. As Leahy, Lyon, Thompson, and Wiliam (2005) stated, education needs to change its function from collecting the results of right or wrong, and to encourage teachers in gathering information that will affect the educational decisions. This study is a non-experimental, correlational study, to describe the relationship between formative assessment practices and motivation for leaning. The instrument used was a questionnaire on high school students from public and private schools, who were selected randomly by stratified sampling. They belonged to three major high schools of Durres, Albania. The findings of this study showed that factors like strategic questions used by the teacher during formative assessment, student’s portfolio, self-assessment, and peer assessment affected positively the motivation for learning the English language. The results of the regression equation revealed that from four independent variables, the factor that had the greatest impact on motivation for learning were strategic questions used by the teacher during formative assessment, followed by self-assessment, peer assessment and student’s portfolio. This study identified ways of intervention to promote motivation for learning the English language. The study will contribute in the Albanian context showing how assessment practices made an impact on student motivation. It will help educational institutions and policy makers, foreign language teachers in improving the assessment practices to promote student motivation in learning the English language.

Assessment practices in Saudi higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study determines the assessment practices used by teaching staff in Saudi universities, explores how these assessment practices have changed during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, and investigates how teaching staffs’ priorities and preferences for education on assessment during the pandemic were shaped. To support professional development, the study also aims to raise teaching staffs’ awareness of assessment practices. Teaching staff in Saudi universities were invited to complete the Approaches to Classroom Inventory survey. The results showed that the most highly endorsed practices included giving feedback, linking assessments to learning objectives and learning outcomes, using scoring guides, and monitoring and revising assessment approaches. The least endorsed practices included mapping summative assessment to curriculum expectations, responding to the cultural and linguistic diversity of students, and accommodating students with special needs/exceptionalities in assessments. Further, during the pandemic, formative assessments were rarely used. Although faculty members from various colleges and fields of specialty showed similar patterns in endorsing assessment practices, they differed in their preferences and needs for assessment education.

Swedish and Finnish Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of Summative Assessment Practices

Summative assessments are an exercise of authority and something that pupils cannot easily appeal. The importance of teachers being able to assess their pupils correctly is consequently both a question of national equivalence and individual fairness. Therefore, summative assessment is a paramount theme in teacher education, and we aimed to investigate the perceptions and competence of student teachers regarding common summative assessment practices. The study was conducted at three universities, two in Sweden and one in Finland involving prospective language teachers responding to an online survey (N = 131). In addition, interviews were carried out with 20 Swedish and 6 Finnish student teachers. The analysis of the data indicates that student teachers value practices that enhance communication and collaboration as well as the curricular alignment of summative assessments. With respect to perceived competence, the respondents in general felt most confident with deploying traditional forms of summative assessment, while they were more uncertain about process evaluation and oral skills. Regarding significant differences in the participants’ perceptions of competence among the three universities, Finnish university students reported higher levels in all variables. However, room for improvement was found at all universities involved.

DIGITAL TEACHER FEEDBACK AS A TRANSLATION ASSESSMENT TOOL

This paper analyses the opportunities of digital feedback delivery, its use in the translation classroom, and its application as the tool of active instruction and formative assessment at university level. A mixed research design involved 33 third-year students of Poltava University of Economics and Trade majoring in Translation. They participated in the study voluntarily in the spring term of 2019/2020 academic year. The effectiveness of the digital teacher feedback of different modality was estimated with the help of a questionnaire from two perspectives: students’ behavioral engagement associated with feedback convenience in use for translation revisions and their affective engagement concerning emotional saturation of the suggested type of digital feedback. Students’ preferences were collated with their results in leading sensory channel test and acquired translation competency level. According to the received data, overwhelming 69.7% of undergraduate translators appeared to be digitals as per their leading sensory channel, which had no statistically significant impact on the preferred feedback modality inversely to students’ translation competency level. The observed correlation proved the viability of both suggested digital feedback modalities at different stages of the training process. It was concluded that digital teacher feedback promotes the development of the students’ translation skills in particular and leverages formative assessment practices in the translation classroom in general.

Student Self-Assessment Practices in Lower Secondary Education in Kosovo

Self-assessment has a direct impact on students’ achievement. Through self-assessment students have the opportunity to assess themselves in regards to learning goals and assess their achievement. The purpose of our research is to reflect on the use of the self-assessment practices of students in schools, as well as the impact that student self-assessment has on their achievement. Another purpose of this research is to evaluate if students compare their knowledge with other students in the class and to evaluate if students during the self-assessment process can overestimate or underestimate themselves. Two hundred and two students, from four classes of seventh grade (n=112) and four classes of eighth grade (n=90) of lower secondary schools from five urban schools and five rural schools in Kosovo, in the subject Civic Education, participated in the research. The results show that there is a significant difference between seventh-graders and eighth-graders on the use of student self-assessment. There is also a difference between schools in the city and schools in the village. There is a significant difference between classes and based on residence even when the students are asked if they are encouraged to have self-confidence and be independent. Received: 13 October 2021 / Accepted: 26 November 2021 / Published: 3 January 2022