Aims, objectives, outcomes and assessment in TBL
4.6.3.1
Action point
4.6.3.2 Professional duty
4.6.3.3 Aims and objectives for a process syllabus
4.6.3.4 Outcomes-based assessment
4.6.3.5 Approaches to task-based assessment
4.6.3.1
Action point
Go back to the syllabus that you examined at the start of this activity
cycle.
- Does it contain, or is it related to, a specification of learning objectives and / or outcomes?
4.6.3.2
Professional duty
Syllabuses are usually linked to student assessment of some kind, and
although assessment is a huge topic in its own right (see DELPHI modules
13 and 14),
I include a very brief consideration here because helping students to
prepare for, and do well in, their end of course assessment is a serious
professional duty of every teacher.
Changing to a task-based approach could have serious repercussions in terms of students' test performances unless the assessment requirements are identified and incorporated into the syllabus and lesson planning process right from the start. The suggestions I give here are a starting point only - if your students' assessment counts towards their degree, you should seek further advice on designing valid and reliable tests for your task-based course.
4.6.3.3
Aims and objectives for a process syllabus
With a process syllabus, course aims and objectives will be expressed
rather differently to those related to traditional product syllabuses.
Instead of things like 'by the end of the course, students will have learned
...', we will need to describe the communicative interaction types and
topics in which students will have engaged: 'By the end of the course,
students will be able to participate in a group discussion with peers
to solve a simple logic problem', for example.
4.6.3.4
Outcomes-based assessment
Of course, quality controllers and test administrators tend to like product
syllabuses because students' achievements can relatively easily be measured
against them, and testing appears to be objective, but it seems perverse
to continue to use such product-focused lists when by doing so, we are
in danger of preventing students from developing their communicative competence
as much as they could in the time available.
But as Breen (2001: 156) points out, in many educational settings the emphasis for assessment is changing towards 'outcomes-based education', meaning 'statements describing what the learner may be able to do with the language'. Such outcomes must be assessable, and in language education are often expressed in terms of the four language skills, although they may also mention language functions or topics. For example, 'A successful participant will be able to give an oral description of family relations', where the skill = speaking, the function = describing, and the topic = family relations. Performance is assessed at different levels against sets of criterion-referenced rating scales, or band descriptors (see Module 13, section 13.1.6, and Module 14, sections 14.2.1 and 14.8).
4.6.3.5
Approaches to task-based assessment
If your syllabus and lessons are going to be based around tasks, you
will need to draw up a list of the sorts of learning outcomes that you
anticipate from your students. Since for each task you devise you should
have a clear idea of the task outcomes, this should not be as difficult
as it sounds.
You will then need to think about how these outcomes can be assessed, and against what criteria. Continuous assessment in class is obviously an attractive option if it is permitted and doable. For example, once students are familiar with the task-plan-report cycle, you could tell them that you will grade them each time they make a report in class. At the end of the course you will base their course assessment on their best five (or whatever) report grades.
An alternative is to set up a separate exam session when students work on tasks similar to some of those done in class in pairs or small groups, and assess their performance here. Obviously for some students the idea of having performance assessed during group work will be new, so I would recommend including some writing tasks too, if appropriate to your course aims.
If you are interested in this topic, I recommend you now do Reading 4 (see 4.6.7).
