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Assessing and Giving Feedback to Learners by Carlo Domingo Casinto, Ph.D., FHEA

This is the third episode of the five-part series about writing your professional teaching practice for the purpose of Advanced Higher Education Academy of UK fellowship application. In this episode, I will explain how I assess learning and give timely feedback to learners. References will be appended in the last episode.


            To complete the teaching-learning cycle, I administer assessment and give due feedback to my students (Wiggins, 2012) which would be the  focus and emphasis of all post-assessment learning activities (Millar and Hames, 2003). Mindful of this constructive alignment, I assess what I have taught. Prior to formal assessment, a Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) standardized diagnostic test is administered to determine and verify students’ language proficiency insofar as the learning outcomes are concerned. Results of the test have essentially informed what is in the learning outcomes, all my assessments therefore must be constructed to measure my students’ language abilities in terms of meeting the standards set in the learning outcomes. Having said this, I pre-moderate my assessments in terms of how valid they are vis-à-vis with the learning outcomes and how reliable they are in terms of their appropriateness to the level of my students’ language proficiency under CEFR (Wyatt-Smith, 2010).  

When the standards are not met, I confer thereupon and point out to my students the criteria or areas that they need to improve on as a wash back effect of their learning. In the language courses I have taught recently, writing, speaking and research assessments feedback is disseminated through Moodle using Turnitin software. Coded feedback marks, including links to self-study online resources in grammar and vocabulary, are provided. This feedback is the initial benchmark from which my student’s progress will be generated from regularly. The mastery of a specific language skill and the ability to strengthen their metacognitive intelligence through autonomously reflecting on the growth of their learning are the ultimate goals of formative feedback (Roll, I. et al, 2006).

Depending on determined learning needs documented in formative feedback, I design my “no student left behind” strategies for my students who are academically “at risks”. Regularly, tutorial sessions are held to serve this purpose. However, in some cases, I refer my students to the Polytechnic’s writing centre and/or to their academic advisors where they are given individualized catch up sessions on their identified personal and/or writing needs. I work collaboratively with the centre’s tutor and/or advisor to serve this purpose. When students’ needs are at the forefront of their learning, they take ownership of it and consequently perform better in assessments. Consistent student experience surveys indicate perceived value on academic learning support. This informs my practice that support should not just be limited to giving feedback.

Finally, summative feedback is generated after the assessment and eventually given to students to feed forward to their future assessments that will require an extended demonstration of their working knowledge of a particular language skill. In conjunction, post-moderation is also drawn out as benchmarks to guide future amendments and ensure consistent quality of testing and academic advising within the teaching and learning continuum.

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