Abstract:

This paper presents the results of a teaching innovation project implemented during the 2015-2016 academic year in two first year subjects of undergraduate studies in Early Childhood and Primary Education at the University of Valencia. Based on self-report responses, the study describes the perceived proficiency about the students’ competence in assessment skills and their opinion about the assessment procedure design. In order to encourage and go deeply into the development of basic competences for their professional future, professors tried a learning-oriented assessment (EOA). Its challenge looked to promote and maximize learning environments in which students gain autonomy identifying language learning problems, performance and results. One of the objectives was to clarify and refine the teaching-learning process of the two official languages (Catalan and Spanish). The studied attributes relate to teaching-learning process assessment projection, such as analyzing one’s work, as well as the colleagues work, worthrough clear and precise criteria, identifying weak areas and strong points for decision-making in order to improve the evaluated object, to contemplate the participation of different agents in the assessment tasks or to perceive control over the learning process itself, among others.

In other words, assessment influences what and how students learn, and the design considers the assessment act as a process of improvement and learning. But, are language learners able of making value judgments about the progress they make in learning language? Do teachers get it during their initial training in Higher Education?

Keywords:

Formative assessments, assessment skills, teacher training.