The purpose of the research was to find out how the procedures for measuring students’ cognitive skills could be incorporated into the university course Language Teaching Methodology. The study was organised within a framework of Anderson’s theory of cognitive skills development and Glaser’s taxonomy of dimensions for assessing achievement. We developed the instrument, which encompassed two empirical questionnaires for treatment groups. Both questionnaires comprised an equal number of tasks but differed in the content of procedures for measuring knowledge acquisition and structure as one of the dimensions of cognitive assessment. Empirical Questionnaire 1, based on a traditional approach to assessment, included multiple-choice questions related to the lecture material. Empirical Questionnaire 2 comprised both traditional and unconventional measures, such as a SVT test; constructed and conversation-based responses; simple and high order rule tasks. Thirty-four third-year students of the Department of Foreign Languages, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University participated in three-stage research-oriented teaching, which lasted ten weeks. Both qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods were employed for the evaluation of learning outcomes. After final testing, we compared the results obtained from the students. The group mean difference (EG vs. CG) was 0.12 points, 95% confidence interval (0.07 - 0.17), two-sample t-test p < 0.0001. Findings suggest that cognitive skills assessment considerably affects and improves student learning. The implications relate to final grades assessment and curriculum design and contribute to expanded uses for cognitive skills testing.
The intent of the article is to study approaches that could be used to assess a language teacher’s professional competence. The authors state that authorities often do not distinguish the concepts “competence” and “competency”, and there is no one unique approach for assessing teachers’ work. We showed that the problem could be investigated within the frames of a competency-based approach. The term competency is wider than competence, and it embraces not only the sub-competencies, such as micro and macro skills, but personal qualities, which should also become the object of assessment. The following competencies of a teacher’s competency were distinguished: professional, social, personal, and pedagogical. For designing assessment standards, we dwelt on a teaching skills competence, which is a complex combination of the following abilities: the ability to formulate and realize lesson goals; motivate students; plan a lesson; conduct a lesson; control and evaluate students’ achievements. Five standards for assessing teachers’ professional competence were proposed. Each standard includes an indicator, which gives competence characteristics, and a grading scale. A survey was conducted among the teachers of secondary schools. Its purpose was to get teachers’ opinion on the content of the standards. We found out that the issues concerning sets of exercises, active learning techniques, critical thinking need more detailed explanation. The following conclusion was drawn. The problem of assessment of teachers’ competency is urgent nowadays; and teachers do really need the assessment professional development guide. With the purpose of measuring the effectiveness of the designed standards, the experiment is planned.
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