[MUSIC] Welcome back to Teach English Now. In the last video, we discussed the importance of writing clear objectives in developing assessments for your learners. And how objectives should guide your assessment design. In this video, we'll discuss different types of assessment and how they work to measure whether your students have actually met your objectives or not. There are really only two types of learning you can measure. Memory, sometimes also called recall and knowledge. You might be thinking to yourself, what is the difference between memory and knowledge, aren't they the same thing? Well, they're really not. And there is a very important difference we're going to talk about in connection with designing assessments. First, let's talk about memory. Memory refers to the type of learning that comes from memorization. For example, children all over the world memorize their multiplication tables. Students memorize definitions of vocabulary words, and scientists memorize chemical formulas. All of these are important in their own right. And all are memory learning. If your objectives call for this type of learning, then you need to be able to measure it in your students. Assessing memory learning is done by asking students to recall items they have learned. For example, if one of your objectives is to have students define a list of vocabulary words, then you might give them a quiz, with the list of words and a list of definitions and ask them to match the definitions with the words. Or you might give them just the list of words and ask them to write down the definition on their own. In either case, you are asking them to recall. Recall the definitions they have learned during the learning activities you designed to help them accomplish your objectives. Some language teachers think that memory learning is less important than knowledge, which I'll talk about in a minute. This is because memory learning tends to be short term. And if it is not used often, learners can easily forget things that they have memorized. That is where practical ideas like spaced repetition and learning vocabulary Is helpful. They promote frequent recall of memory learning to help it stick longer. However, just because memory learning requires a lot of repetition and work to make it stick, it doesn't mean it is less important. Besides definitions, students need to know parts of speech, synonyms, antonyms, and other information about vocabulary they are learning, all of which generally require memory learning. In the beginning, students may memorize useful phrases in the target language to help them get by until they can understand and communicate better. Yes, memory learning certainly has its place in language teaching. The second type of learning is knowledge learning. Knowledge refers to not only just memorizing information, but learning how to apply that information to achieve a specific goal. For example, people studying to get their driver's license have to memorize the rules of the road. But before they take the driving test, they must apply their knowledge of the rules of the road to avoid accidents during hours of driving practice. If you ask someone who has been driving for several years without any accidents, they may not be able to recall the details of every rule they memorized when they first got their driver's licence. But they certainly have shown they know how to apply those rules to safely drive their car. Knowledge learning is generally accessed through performance based assessment, where students are placed in situations that require them to apply the things they have learned to complete a goal. For example, if your objective was to teach students how to write a five-paragraph essay, having the students actually write a five-paragraph essay as their assessment seems only natural. It is authentic and require students to apply what they have learned about writing five-paragraph essays and all those rules to complete the final task. Most teachers would agree that language teaching is more knowledge learning than memory learning, especially when the goal is to use the language for meaningful communication. Effectively using the language requires more than memorizing a list of words or grammar rules. Granted, if your purpose is something other than communication, as in the grammar translation approach or the reading approach, then your objectives might include more memory learning. However, for teachers who align themselves with the communicative approach, your objectives will include a lot of knowledge learning and less memory learning. Now, let's talk a little more about assessing knowledge learning. One of the most important characteristics of performance based assessment, is that it is authentic. This means that the situations the students are placed in during the assessment, are as similar as possible, to situations they may encounter outside the classroom. One important reason for this is the idea of transfer. Transfer refers to the idea of taking something you have learned in one context, and being able to apply it in a different, but similar context. Transfer was first introduced by Edward Thorndike and Robert Woodworth back in 1901, and has had a great influence on the fields of instructional design and education. As a language teacher or any teacher of skills, your goal is to have your students be successful in using these skills in the real world, not just inside the classroom. If your assessments and in connection your learning activities are not authentic, students will have a difficult time taking the things they have learned in your class and applying them in real world context outside of the classroom. Another important characteristic of performance based assessment is the idea of a constructed response that involves higher order thinking. This means that students have to do more than just recall information. They have to create something using what they have learned. Going back to our example of writing an essay. Such an assessment requires students to take what they know about a topic, and what they know about the structure and organization of a five-paragraph essay, and combine the two into a coherent product. Namely, an essay of their own. This involves more than just recalling information. It can also involve higher order thinking. This refers to the idea that there are levels of thinking with tasks like remember, or understand, down at the bottom, and tasks like apply, analyze, evaluate, or create, at the top. As you can imagine, analyzing or evaluating something takes much more understanding of the principles involved than simply remembering or understanding. Thus performance based assessments should do more than just ask students to remember or understand but should require them to synthesize information, analyze details, evaluate ideas and create a product based on what they have learned. Another type of authentic assessment that is commonly used in language teaching is portfolio assessment. A portfolio is simply a collection of work that showcases students' skills and abilities. Artist and photographers used portfolios to show clients what they can do and are often used in job interviews and college applications. Language teachers can use portfolios to track student's progress over time and assess whether they truly have developed the necessary skills they will need when they leave your classroom. Some teachers will have students select which examples of their work are included in the portfolio, which helps motivate students and encourages them to play a greater role in their own learning. As you think about your students and your learning objectives, try to be very deliberate in your use of memory and knowledge learning. Keeping in mind the overall objective of improving your student's english abilities. In our next video we'll talk about some assessment ideas that'll make your life easier. See you then. [MUSIC]
