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Improving EAL learner outcomes through enhancing teacher assessment literacy

The School of Education at the University of New South Wales (UNSW),  in partnership with Educational Assessment Australia, has been commissioned by the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD), the Catholic Education Commission, Victoria (CECV) and Independent Schools Victoria (ISV), to research and develop an innovative e-based toolkit of assessment tools and advice to assist teachers in developing pedagogically sound and useful approaches to assessing the English language development of  EAL students across all years in Victorian schools. Research has demonstrated that to improve learning and teaching,  teachers of such students need to have a deep understanding of assessment for learning principles as well as access to a bank of appropriate assessment tools and tasks, exemplars and work samples, and networks of supportive and engaged peers so that they can make trustworthy assessment decisions.  This interactive workshop will explore some of the issues and challenges in building such online assessment for learning communities in Victorian schools.

 

The workshop will first highlight the theoretical background to the project and the various components of the project designed to develop and support EAL teachers’ assessment literacy, at the same time providing selected findings on various aspects of the research and development process. The workshop will then focus on the tools being developed to assess students’ language skills. Samples of EAL learners’ work in response to some of the assessment tasks will be presented, and participants will be involved in rating the performance of learners, using the draft criteria and documentation being developed in the project. Participants will compare their ratings of the students’ performances, and reflect on the usefulness of the task and accompanying documentation. The implications of this for classroom teaching and assessment will be explored.

 

Presenters:

Professor Chris Davison is Head, School of Education, UNSW, an Honorary Professor, University of Hong Kong and a past president of ACTA. She has worked in teacher education, including at Melbourne and La Trobe University, for over 30 years, and before that, as an ESL teacher and consultant in AMES, TAFE, secondary schools and English language centres. Chris has published extensively on ESL development, language and content curriculum, and English language assessment. She is a series editor for Springer’s new series on English language education and also editor and contributor to a two volume handbook on teaching English internationally (with Jim Cummins). She has undertaken large-scale curriculum and assessment projects in Hong Kong, Singapore and in Brunei, and is currently leading the research and development of a teacher-based assessment framework for EAL learners in Victorian schools, funded by the Department of Education and Early Childhood (DEECD), the Catholic Education office and Independent Schools Victoria.

 

Janet Saker is a consultant to the project and has worked for over 20 years in the ESL/EAL unit of the Department of Education, Victoria, developing range of EAL assessment materials (including the ESL Companion to the CSF), curriculum and teacher professional learning materials, and EAL policy documents.

 

Dr Alan Williams has worked in EAL and TESOL teacher education at La Trobe University and the University of Melbourne for over 30 years. He is currently working part time on a number of projects, including the TEAL project.