Professor David CarlessProfessor in Educational Assessment
Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong |
David Carless is Professor of Educational Assessment at the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong. He holds an MA in Applied Linguistics from University of Birmingham, and a PhD focused on educational change from University of Warwick. Two of his main works are published by Routledge: Carless, D. (2015). Excellence in university assessment: Learning from award-winning practice; Winstone, N. & Carless, D. (2019). Designing effective feedback processes in higher education: A learning-focused approach. His current research focuses on teacher and student feedback literacy to enhance the impact of feedback processes, and how and why teachers change their feedback practices. He also tweets about assessment and feedback practice @CarlessDavid. The latest details of his work are on his website: https://davidcarless.edu.hku.hk/.
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Keynote Speech 1: Feedback requests in ELT and beyond
Feedback processes carry significant potential to enhance student learning but are complex to implement effectively. One of the dangers in feedback processes is that learners are often positioned passively as merely receivers of feedback information. Unwanted consequences include lack of student agency, failure to engage with teacher inputs and wasted teacher effort. Feedback requests, also known as feedback seeking behaviors, are a useful means of activating the student role in feedback processes.
Feedback seeking behaviors are defined as learners intentionally eliciting information about their own work for the purposes of improvement. Eliciting feedback information on self-identified priority areas forms part of the characteristics and repertoire of feedback literate students. Feedback literacy denotes teacher and student capacities to make the most of feedback opportunities.
Some examples of feedback requests are discussed from ELT, EAP, higher education and the workplace. Some of the benefits and challenges of feedback requests are aired, including the need for teachers to model and encourage feedback seeking strategies. Supportive course cultures and trusting relationships create a climate to encourage feedback requests in which admitting doubts through eliciting information from others is a normalized aspect of lifelong learning.
Wider implications include the prospects of feedback requests closing gaps in teacher and student perceptions of feedback processes; and thereby carrying potential for the mutual development of teacher and student feedback literacy. It is also suggested that applied linguistics research can benefit from more sustained synergies with its parent discipline of education. The applied linguistics notion of written corrective feedback is critiqued as representing a rather limited perspective on feedback processes. Further directions for transdisciplinary feedback research and practice are proposed.
Feedback processes carry significant potential to enhance student learning but are complex to implement effectively. One of the dangers in feedback processes is that learners are often positioned passively as merely receivers of feedback information. Unwanted consequences include lack of student agency, failure to engage with teacher inputs and wasted teacher effort. Feedback requests, also known as feedback seeking behaviors, are a useful means of activating the student role in feedback processes.
Feedback seeking behaviors are defined as learners intentionally eliciting information about their own work for the purposes of improvement. Eliciting feedback information on self-identified priority areas forms part of the characteristics and repertoire of feedback literate students. Feedback literacy denotes teacher and student capacities to make the most of feedback opportunities.
Some examples of feedback requests are discussed from ELT, EAP, higher education and the workplace. Some of the benefits and challenges of feedback requests are aired, including the need for teachers to model and encourage feedback seeking strategies. Supportive course cultures and trusting relationships create a climate to encourage feedback requests in which admitting doubts through eliciting information from others is a normalized aspect of lifelong learning.
Wider implications include the prospects of feedback requests closing gaps in teacher and student perceptions of feedback processes; and thereby carrying potential for the mutual development of teacher and student feedback literacy. It is also suggested that applied linguistics research can benefit from more sustained synergies with its parent discipline of education. The applied linguistics notion of written corrective feedback is critiqued as representing a rather limited perspective on feedback processes. Further directions for transdisciplinary feedback research and practice are proposed.
Professor Antony KunnanPrincipal Assessment Scientist, Duolingo Inc.
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Antony John Kunnan is a principal assessment scientist at Duolingo Inc. He is a specialist in language assessment with many areas of interest including validation, fairness, ethics theory and practice. Previously, he was a professor at universities in California, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and a Fulbright Professor at Tunghai University in Taiwan. He has authored and edited 90 publications, was the president of the International Language Testing Association and founding president of the Asian Association for Language Assessment. He was also the founding editor of Language Assessment Quarterly. He has given invited talks in over 35 countries and trained teachers from Argentina to the U.S.
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Keynote Speech 2: Innovative approaches in language assessment
Two new learning-oriented assessment approaches to counter traditional ways of conducting language assessment are discussed in this talk. These two approaches have the capacity to motivate test takers psychologically and linguistically while they are taking a test. These approaches can also be seen a way of removing random tasks, activities, and skills that are thrown at test takers and, thus, not helping test takers to learn from assessments.
The first approach is the concept of scenario-based assessments where language learners are required to use language in goal-oriented tasks. These tasks “are composed of a series of related tasks that unfold within an appropriate social context. The goals include to communicate how the tasks fit into a larger social activity system; to set standards for performance; to give test takers a clearer idea of how to allocate attention and give focus to their deliberations; to provide opportunities to apply strategic processing and problem solving; and to have learners evaluate and integrate multiple sources of information in a meaningful, purpose-driven context” (Sabatani, Bennett and Deane (2011, p. 10). This approach could be highly motivating to test takers as they are asked to slip into the shoes of the people in the scenarios and complete activities without noticing the various tasks.
The second approach is the use of integrated skills (Listening-Speaking or Reading-Writing or Listening-Reading-Writing) as opposed to separate skills which are still the dominant method of language assessment. These integrated skills tasks require language learners “to integrate source reading or listening material into their writing or speaking performance in ways that stimulate the cognitive, communication, and literacy demands of real‐life academic or vocational tasks” (Cumming, 2014, p. 1). The rationale for these initiatives is that abilities to write or speak coherently for relevant ideas, to read and understand source documents appropriately, and to demonstrate understanding of the knowledge of the source texts are primary abilities required for the successful language performance in many contexts including school, college, university and in the workplace.
I believe tasks organized around these approaches will help test takers keep up their motivation to complete tasks as well as perform on tasks that use integrated skills. Illustrative examples of classroom assessments using technology will be discussed.
Two new learning-oriented assessment approaches to counter traditional ways of conducting language assessment are discussed in this talk. These two approaches have the capacity to motivate test takers psychologically and linguistically while they are taking a test. These approaches can also be seen a way of removing random tasks, activities, and skills that are thrown at test takers and, thus, not helping test takers to learn from assessments.
The first approach is the concept of scenario-based assessments where language learners are required to use language in goal-oriented tasks. These tasks “are composed of a series of related tasks that unfold within an appropriate social context. The goals include to communicate how the tasks fit into a larger social activity system; to set standards for performance; to give test takers a clearer idea of how to allocate attention and give focus to their deliberations; to provide opportunities to apply strategic processing and problem solving; and to have learners evaluate and integrate multiple sources of information in a meaningful, purpose-driven context” (Sabatani, Bennett and Deane (2011, p. 10). This approach could be highly motivating to test takers as they are asked to slip into the shoes of the people in the scenarios and complete activities without noticing the various tasks.
The second approach is the use of integrated skills (Listening-Speaking or Reading-Writing or Listening-Reading-Writing) as opposed to separate skills which are still the dominant method of language assessment. These integrated skills tasks require language learners “to integrate source reading or listening material into their writing or speaking performance in ways that stimulate the cognitive, communication, and literacy demands of real‐life academic or vocational tasks” (Cumming, 2014, p. 1). The rationale for these initiatives is that abilities to write or speak coherently for relevant ideas, to read and understand source documents appropriately, and to demonstrate understanding of the knowledge of the source texts are primary abilities required for the successful language performance in many contexts including school, college, university and in the workplace.
I believe tasks organized around these approaches will help test takers keep up their motivation to complete tasks as well as perform on tasks that use integrated skills. Illustrative examples of classroom assessments using technology will be discussed.