Observation in the Classroom

Every day our classroom environments include big experiences when we start a lesson. Sometimes what students expect in the English class changes; sometimes it grows or sometimes it reduces in certain way, and because of that we have to deal with different attitudes, reactions, thoughts and feelings in the day-to-day classroom practice. It can be said that observation is an important part in the everyday teaching and learning process.  As teachers, we always try to observe what our students do, how they react towards certain topics, how they use the material provided, how they interact during the group work, etc.  Also, it is important to say that Teachers assess what students have and have not learned, they assess the effectiveness of particular teaching strategies, they determine which materials and activities students enjoy.

 Class observation is necessary in the teaching-learning process  due to the fact that “it provides a basis to know and understand what is happening in the classroom and is a guide to know what should follow, it is important for planning instruction of a unit, lesson, or course in the future.” (Genesee and Upshur).  Classroom Teachers, unlike many other people, are engaged not only in teaching and classroom management but also in trying to observe and make sense of their students’ learning process and what it encompasses.  Classroom observation should be concerned primarily with those language skills and language objectives.  It is important to identify the aim of our observations, some of the reasons for doing so are: a) To determine whether students are progressing as planned and are ready to move to the next unit, b) To identify difficulties that particular students are having so that appropriate instruction can be planned for them, c) To assess the appropriateness and usefulness of a textbook, among others.

One to the many tasks that a teacher needs to do is deciding how to record the observations of their students in the learning process and in the classroom.  Like information collection itself is an ongoing process, some record techniques are necessary for the information to be useful such as a) Anecdotal Records, which is a good way to record observations about instruction and students all times of the day, even during recess or lunch time; those anecdotal records can be made on file cards, adhesive labels or clipboards with note paper, etc; and b) checklists and rating scales,  which are relatively structured formats  or lists of items that describe specific aspects of learning and teaching with predesignated categories for recording observations.

To sum up, classroom observation is important to all forms of evaluation and is part of the everyday routine of a teacher.  What is really challenging is to plan a relevant and useful  observation and recording keeping to benefit  the instruction process and the student learning process.

Collecting Information

When a second language is taught, it is important to take into account many factors, especially when instructing, evaluating and assessing.  In order to do this correctly not only is necessary to gather information but also to make an analysis and an interpretation of it (qualitative and quantitative information).  It is necessary to mention that for ESL Teachers it is important to be aware enough about collecting the necessary/ specific information and its possible implications when assessing and making decisions.  As it is said by Genesee & Upshur, all information whether qualitative or quantitative, refers to characteristics of something: students or teachers, textbooks or videotapes, texts or realia, blackboards or ministries of education.  We need to be clear about our information in order to avoid misunderstandings.  For doing so, it is relevant to highlight three principles: Practicality, Reliability and Validity.

When talking about Practicality it is necessary to mention the cost and time of the tools we are using.  Some procedures, such as standardized tests, can be very expensive and therefore their use is limited.  On the other hand, time or administration time can be important especially in schools with fixed class periods.  Trying to schedule questionnaires, tests, activities, etc., that require more time than a single class can cause more problems. (Genesee & Upshur).  Some other attributes to mention when talking about practicality are Compilation Time which is related to the time to score and interpret the information gathered; Administrator Qualifications which is related to how teachers are qualified to use the information collection method and Acceptability which is related to how acceptable is the collected information to students, parents and the community.

As it is said by Genesee & Upshur before, reliability is concerned with freedom from nonsystematic fluctuation.  It can be divided in a) Assessor/rater -related Reliability which has to do with the instability among the people collecting the information; b) Object/ person-related Reliability which concerns the person about whom information is being collected, it can be enhanced by assessing, especially when human abilities or qualities are the object of assessment in second language; and c) Instrument-related Reliability which resides in the procedures used for collecting information, can be improved by using a variety of methods of information collection.  In this way the inaccuracy resulting from the use of one method will be offset by other methods.

Taking into account that Validity refers to the extent to which the information gathered is the information needed, it can be said that in some cases it is difficult to know which information is relevant and wanted; when talking about a second language learning process it is even more difficult because due to the fact that validity can only be valid when is reliable.

Principles of Language Assessment

     H. Douglas Brown, shows us in this chapter how principles of Language Assessment can and should be applied to formal, previously published or created tests and assessments of all kinds.  According to the author, there are five important principles for “testing a test” which are practicality, reliability, authenticity, and washback.  When Practicality is mentioned in the field of evaluating, it means that tests need to be practical. In here a practical test encompasses some characteristics such as a) not being extensive, b) stay in the appropriate time constraints, c) easy to administer and, d) have a specific and time-efficient scoring procedure.

     A second principle is Reliability; it is important to say that when a test is reliable it needs to be consistent and dependable. But tests don’t have it all the time; there are many factors that contribute to the unreliability of a test such as a) Student-related reliability; b) Rater reliability c) Test administration reliability and d) Test reliability.  As a third principle Validity encompasses the extent to which inferences made from assessment results are meaningful and useful for the purpose of the assessment (Gronlund, 1998. P. 226). There are some types of evidence that need to be taken into account when talking about validity which are a) Content-related evidence, b) Criterion-related evidence, c) Construct-related evidence, d) Consequential validity and e) Face validity.

     A fourth major principle of language testing is Authenticity.  Bachman and Palmer (1996, p. 23) define it as the degree of correspondence of the characteristics o a given language test task to the features of a target language task.  In the test, it can be present in the following ways a) the language is as natural as possible; b) there are contextualized items; c) there are meaningful topics and d) items are thematically organized.  Finally a fifth principle of testing is Washback; it includes the effects of an assessment on teaching and learning prior to the assessment itself, that is, on preparation for the assessment.  I large-scale assessment, it refers to the effect that tests have on instruction of how students prepare for the test.

To sum up I can say that I didn’t know anything about all those concepts but now that I’m aware of its meaning and importance it is necessary for me to say that it’ll be a big challenge to be able to design a “real test” taking into account the previous principles.

The context of Second Language Evaluation

      In order to talk about Evaluation in the Second Language, it is necessary to define some important aspects of teaching and learning.  It is important to mention the notions of Instructional purposes, plans, practices and input factors. First of all  Instruction consists of three components: a) the Why, in which the purpose identify the objectives of instruction; b) the How, in which the plans describe the means of attaining those objective and c) the What, in which the practices are what actually take place in the classroom.  It is also necessary to mention other factors or “input factors”.

     Instructional Objectives describe the goals and aims that the teacher sets when teaching; they provide direction for planning appropriate instruction and criteria for assessing the outcomes of the teaching process.  Some types of objectives guide classroom instruction such as: a) Strategic objectives, in which Learning Strategies are conscious processes and techniques that facilitate the comprehension, acquisition and retention of new skills and concepts; b) Language Objectives, which refer to the language skills that learners are expected to acquire and develop in the classroom; c) Socioaffective which refers to the changes in learners’ attitudes and social behaviors resulting from the classroom instruction, d) Philosophical, which refer to the changes in attitudes, and values of a more general natural than those associated with the Socioaffective objectives.; and  e) Methods or process objectives which refer to opportunities or experiences that learners are expected to have in the course of instruction. 

On the other hand Instructional Plans specify what should be taught, and when and how it should be taught.  These instructional plans are necessary to achieve course objectives.  Some of the aspects that are considered in the instructional plans are: Content; b) Organization, c) Material and Equipment and d) Activities and roles.

     There are also Instructional Practices, which include strategies, activities, materials and tasks used by the teacher and students in the classroom. In here it is necessary to take into account some facts such as: a) that classroom practices are separate from plans due to the fact that what is planned not always occur in the classroom.  In other words, classroom practice may not proceed as planned because the students’ reactions cannot be the expected ones; b) when evaluating, it is important to take into account what happens in class rather than what is supposed to happen in order to have real and precise results; and c) It is necessary to compare instructional practices with instructional plans in order to know if things are going as planned in class and to know and decide what changes are needed.  On the other hand, it is also necessary to mention “Input factors” which are those that don’t belong to the classroom instruction itself but can have an important influence in Second Language Teaching and Learning.  Those factors cannot be change, so, it is necessary that instructional objectives, plans and practices should be compatible or alter what is necessary to reach a greater level of compatibility.

Introduction to Evaluation

     Evaluation is mainly about making decisions of instructions in order to improve and enhance the teaching and learning of a second language.  Some types of decisions that can be found  are: decisions about the placement of individual students in particular streams, levels, or courses of instruction; about planning new units of instructions; about ongoing instruction; about textbooks; objectives and plans among others.   In order to make good decisions in evaluation, some important components are presented which are: purpose of evaluation, collecting information, interpretation of the information and decision making.

     In Second Language Evaluation we can also find some kind of participants such as Parents, noninstructional educational professionals, students themselves and teachers.  It is important to say that teachers, more than anyone else, are involved in evaluation due to the fact that they can provide activities in order to help students develop and asses their own progress and  take part of the decision making, collaboration and consultation not only with parents of learners but also with specialists and even school principals.

     Other factors can also be important in the Evaluation process such as the student learning style and strategies, their work habits, their behavior in class, their attitude towards school or themselves and their goals related to the second language learning process.