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Bachwash & Fairness in Examinations and Evaluation (Both Formal and In-House Designed Tests)

1. Backwash, or washback, refers to the influence of examinations on teaching methods - either positive or negative. Positive backwash occurs when test content and techniques align with course objectives, while negative backwash happens when they are misaligned. 2. Both practice tests and mock tests can provide benefits if used properly, such as building students' exam skills and confidence, but overuse of testing risks demotivating students and focusing too much on passing exams rather than learning. 3. Developing exam subskills from an early stage helps students acquire useful skills for a variety of situations, not just exams, and ensures skills are retained longer since they are developed gradually over time rather than just for short-term

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132 views4 pages

Bachwash & Fairness in Examinations and Evaluation (Both Formal and In-House Designed Tests)

1. Backwash, or washback, refers to the influence of examinations on teaching methods - either positive or negative. Positive backwash occurs when test content and techniques align with course objectives, while negative backwash happens when they are misaligned. 2. Both practice tests and mock tests can provide benefits if used properly, such as building students' exam skills and confidence, but overuse of testing risks demotivating students and focusing too much on passing exams rather than learning. 3. Developing exam subskills from an early stage helps students acquire useful skills for a variety of situations, not just exams, and ensures skills are retained longer since they are developed gradually over time rather than just for short-term

Uploaded by

marcaicedo
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© © All Rights Reserved
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BACHWASH & FAIRNESS IN EXAMINATIONS AND EVALUATION

(Both Formal and In-house Designed Tests)


Manizales May 2011
Martin Horkley
English Language & Evaluation Consultant.

Backwash or Washback; its the direct or indirect effect of examinations on
teaching methods.

Negative Backwash:
- Test content and test techniques are in variance with course objectives.
i.e. Preparing for a multiple choice test wont have space for developing
all skills (writing)
Positive Backwash:
- Test content and test techniques are in line to the objectives of the
course.

Exam Preparation.
- Overt: Doing a lot of past papers or adapting the teaching methods used
in class, as preparation for an exam
Vs.
- Convert:

Practice Tests: to practice the skills needed for the real examinations.
Objective: to practice different item types of the future examination. Benefits:
build Ss confident exam skills. Benefit to school: improve chances of success in
formal exams and improve statistics. Implications in the classrooms: grades are
not formally assessed.
Mock Tests: matched to the associated proficiency examination.

Many teachers are tapped in an examination preparation cycle where
communicative and humanistic methodologies are luxuries that teachers cannot
afford
Abuse of testing occurs when it is not the final stage learning, but is the
beginning, middle, and end of the whole process
Testing may be a short cut to extrinsic motivation; BUT overuse of testing is the
teachers failure to make intrinsic motivation work and will demotivate the
learner
Classroom arrangement can send a power message

Backwash The apparent imbalance
Positive backwash:
- Greater awareness of the exams and the conditions.
- Independent evaluation tool for Ss levels and the syllabus.
- Validation that things are going well.
- Develop skills that have a wider use for Ss now and the future.
- Offers a common goal for both Ss and T.
Negative backwash:
- Stressing.
- Grading.
- Mock tests need More than 1 lesson.
- Demostrate general weakness.
- Ts and Ss associate testing with passing or failing, and the negative
consequence.

Developing Grading Skills.

Grading is more than just checking the answer with the answer sheet.
Surface or content errors?
Is spelling important? it depends to whats important.
How are the errors graded? You dont count errors. You assess the
impact of the error.
Objective and subjective grading. (Move from Subjective grading to
Objective grading) Speaking and writing.
How can you manage this?
Teachers handbooks.
Online support.
Experience Mocks Real
Annual Teacher Training

Dangers of only focusing on the exam.
- Teacher complacency
My Ss are good enough lets play
- If you teach the exam, the Ss pass or fail.
- Skills built up over the shorter term are more likely forgotten.
- The institution stagnates and doesnt move forward.


Build sub-skill development for exams from the lowest level.

Developing cognitive thinking strategies.
Develop cross-curricular skills.
Work as a bigger team All Ts stressing good writing skills to benefit al
subjects.
Ss will have useful skills that they can use in a wider variety of situations
in the future.
Skills will last longer as they were developed in a longer period of time.

Sub-skills:
- For exam practice;
Infer attitude
Understand sentence order
Understanding instructions
Recognize the features of connected speech
Identify specific information
Differentiate the message from distracters

Activity Draw the 10 boxes then give tasks. (Look at picture)


Are exam sub-skills so different from the general sub-skills we ned in our daily
lives?
- In reading Ss need to be able to:
To read instructions
To read the questions
To extract the salient points from a text
To assess mood in a text
To understand and use paragraphs to aid reading

So, What are we saying?
- You want your Ss to write a letter of complaint
What do they need to know to be able to do this effectively?
Produce the correct format
Choose appropriate lexis and collocations
Appropriate grammar
Expressions
Organizational choice and content
Paragraphing, punctuation and capitalization
Within the syllabus, how are we developing these sub-skills from an early
stage?
Why from an early stage? They learn to identify those sub-skills from day
one.

Lets think again about exam practice;

- Sub-skills development is not practice
- Even multiple choice requires processes of:
Critical thinking


Creating beneficial backwash.

In the syllabus:
- Increase Ss motivation and confidence by:
Buildiong general skills in communication
Combining language sub-skills and those needed for particular
examination tasks type
Planning over
In the classroom:
- Like pronunciation Exam preparation
- Build on cooperative work by encouraging sharing
Establish the idea of:
o Test as a group activity negotiating answers
o Justifying and supporting sub-skill development
- Ensure smooth linking of the stages of the lessons


Examination preparation is not just practice;
How can we start preparing IELTS / FCE at elementary level?
- Use of process writing or genre analysis
Identify different genres
Identify key elements of the genre
Identify the target audience and purpose

- Paragraphing:
Identifying main topic
Identifying the purpose
Identifying and understanding general statements

Creating beneficial Backwash.

In the syllabus:

The focus of the syllabus is only in the preparation

Turn Testing into Teaching.

Errors Learning from errors
Marks (pass/fail) Achievement
Judgement Support
Individualism and Competition Collaboration

Most preparation for examinations should be unnoticed by the Ss.

Evaluation and Assessment Standardization.


Fairness.


Lets think about the considerations that international examinations should take
in to account when testing Ss from around the world.
- What makes a test fair?
- Why is this important?

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