Educational Podcast

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning)

Evaluation process

Hello everyone, I am Laura Arco, I hope you are doing well.

Welcome to a new podcast, in this episode I'm going to talk about evaluation processes, to be exactly the linking question: How to analyze and use the evaluation results to understand the impact of the evaluation on the improvement of educational processes in the region?

First of all, I would like to mention what an evaluation is and what it is not. Assessment is commonly confused with a measuring instrument that can add a quantitative value to an individual's performance and that mostly brings concern to teachers if the student does not achieve the goal established in their subject of study. In this sense, when talking about evaluation, it is a tedious exercise for teachers to design a resource with whom to evaluate a population. Likewise, there is the anxiety and fear that students develop when they have to take a test.

However, one thing that is not fully recognized about evaluation is the feedback that it can offer in the teaching-learning processes, by diagnosing the lacking needs in the educational field, if it is necessary to change strategies, methodologies or even the evaluation materials. It is necessary to emphasize that evaluation can be carried out in different ways, through observation, a classroom activities, a worksheet, among other tools.

Regarding the above, the linking question is based on the administrative practice, which consists of designing and applying a placement test in the Faculty of Education Sciences, Bachelor's Degree in Foreign Languages-English, for each of the semesters. The aim of the placement test is to guide the communicative competences that the students develop in the language. In addition, it is a way of working with the needs of the community and the institution's commitment to the integral training of individuals through an infra-structured pedagogical model.

On the other hand, it is no secret that it has been a great challenge for Colombia to work towards becoming a bilingual country, different approaches, materials, strategies and so on have been proposed, yet there is still much to be done. It is absolutely true that as future teachers we have a challenge in our country to break with many stigmas about teaching English and this is one of the reasons why it is a concern for the Unidad Central del Valle to maintain a high level of quality in the program, as well as for the students who must achieve a C1 level of proficiency in English at the end of their studies.

In conclusion, the research seeks to present an idea of how to design and apply a proficiency test in English degree programs and improve communicative competencies through a formative evaluation that allows to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of the students.

That's all, thanks for listening. See you next time.