1 Attitudes and practices regarding monitoring, assessment and feedback

What are your attitudes and practices regarding monitoring, assessment and feedback? Try Activity 1 to find out.

Activity 1: Attitudes and practices

Together with a colleague, read the statements that follow. Decide if you agree or disagree with them either completely or in part. Give reasons for your views.

  • Children find examinations worrying and stressful. This can cause them to underperform.
  • Tests and examinations are often carried out at the end of a period of learning and are not usually accompanied by feedback. This means that their outcomes cannot be acted upon in a timely and continuous manner.
  • Tests and examinations assess aspects of language learning such as comprehension, grammar and vocabulary, but not the skills of listening or speaking.

  • Teachers are usually too busy during their lessons to monitor their students at the same time.

  • Students tend to ignore the feedback provided on their work. They are only interested in their overall grade.
  • Keeping assessment records can be time-consuming. Moreover, the records do not always provide a real picture of a student’s capabilities.

Pause for thought

  • What are the implications of your responses to the above statements for your own classroom practice? What changes can you make to address these points?
  • What information do you consider most useful when you assess your students?

Why this approach is important

2 Monitoring your class