3º Meeting

“Teachers… have to respond to the demands made by testing regimes and students´ desire to pass tests. It is therefore about evaluating the impact that test use may have on teaching and learning, in the broadest sense. The effects of the use of language tests are measure of the meaning of the test in practice. If the test has been well designed, with its purpose and effect in mind, we might expect to see many positive effects …” (Fulcher 2010)

This was what has helped me to reflect about the tests I give my students. Now, I understand the concept of WASHBACK. It is "extent to  which the introduction and use of a test influences language teachers and learners to do things that they would not  otherwise do that promote or inhibit language learning".

The washback hypotheses (Anderson and Wall: 1993) widened my view about tests and their consequences in my students. I've realised that test affects some learners more than others, and some teachers more than others. Tests also influence and affect me.

It's crucial to reflect on these hypotheses:

  

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• What teachers teach
• How teachers teach
• What learners learn
• How learners learn
• The rate and sequence of teaching
• The rate and sequence of learning

Attitudes to the content, method, etc. of teaching and learning

I've found this and I want to share it with you (http://jalt.org/test/bro_14.htm)

Another topic we dealt with in this meeting has to do with CONSTRUCTS. I've learnt that they are "abilities of the learner that we believe underlie their test performance, but which we cannot directly observe. These begin as 'concepts', and we can identify them because they are usually abstract nouns".
Some of them could be: intelligence, attitude, responsibility, fluency... 
I really know that I have to investigate deeper this concept because not all the ideas are clear for me. What a challenge!!!! Isn't it?