Teach Middle East Magazine Apr - Jun 2020 Issue 3 Volume 7 | Page 11

Sharing Good Practice
information has a magnitude of value.
“Not all parents can – or have a chance
to – support and guide their children’s
learning during this isolation period,”
Dr Wallinheimo notes.
Apart from assessing learning, learning
analytics may help educators to take
notice of aspects of student well-
being. Has an eager learner become
demotivated towards their studies?
Has a student, who was formerly
unable to concentrate and thus
under-performing, suddenly begun
thriving? These sorts of changes in
a student's behaviour and attitude
can be identified through formative
assessment, and it helps the teacher
to understand the student's life-
situation better.
Formative Assessment
Takes The Driving Seat
As teachers have limited possibilities
to teach their students, teaching
will actually be very much about
assessment – formative assessment
that is. Formative assessment refers
to ongoing, qualitative feedback
between student and teacher, and it
also has aspects of peer assessment.
Summative assessment measures
students’ understanding of a given
subject and is usually graded. Many
school systems emphasise summative
assessment.
“Even adults can find self-study hard.
Now it is time to find a balance
between formative and summative
assessment. Formative assessment
can be done continuously, but I
would advise being more careful with
summative assessment. It could be
cut up and done in smaller segments,”
Dr Wallinheimo advises.
5 Tips for Digital
Assessment
1. Self-regulation is hard
The situation we are facing in teaching
requires amazing self-regulation skills
from students. Children are spending
their time studying, often with exactly
the same technology they use to
play videogames, communicate with
their friends or watch Netflix. We,
adults, know how tempting it is to
catch up with social media when
we actually should be working, so
one can only imagine what sort of
challenges children are experiencing.
But this is also a great time to learn
about students’ self-regulation skills,
and then to develop them through
formative assessment.
2. Students may surprise teachers
Even in an inclusive class, there tends
to be a number of students who have
special needs. Some students need
more assistance with their reading
skills, some have trouble in their
capacity to concentrate but others, for
example, those with hyper-sensitivity
issues, may find it actually quite
relaxing to study remotely. Digital
learning and assessment actually
does make it possible to differentiate
learning experience very effectively,
and teachers should be ready to learn
new aspects about their students.
3. Parents are not Teachers
We all knew that digital learning is
a thing of the future and we should
be prepared for it, but most likely
none of us thought that we might
be forced into it in a matter of weeks
because of a global pandemic. While
parents definitely should be there
for their children to ease children’s
experience of studying in isolation,
parents should not worry too much
about learning outcomes. Once the
situation stabilises, teachers will help
the students catch up with learning.
“Parents should also accept that
their children might not want their
advice on the same scale that they
are ready to listen to their teacher,” Dr
Wallinheimo reminds us.
Teachers would be wise to use this
time to learn about digital possibilities
in teaching and assessment and
brush up on their skills. This is a time
to be brave and try new techniques
and innovations with an open mind.
“Many teachers are now seeing
opportunity in technology even when
they might have had a somewhat
negative attitude towards it before”, Dr
Wallinheimo says.
5. Go easy with summative
assessment
This is not a great time to do a strict,
summative assessment. Many children
are experiencing pressure in their daily
life, families are trying to figure out
how to adapt to this new situation,
and teachers are testing new ways to
teach. We all should have mercy on
ourselves and concentrate on what
we can do well with the technology
we have in our hands in our present
situation. It could very well be that
learning through play and fun has
never been more true. “With some
students, especially with many in
their teens, the main job is to try to
keep up their motivation to study,” Dr
Wallinheimo says.
4. The future is here
It is a bit of a cliché, but a crisis really
is also an opportunity. Learning and
teaching will not return to “normal”
after the coronavirus pandemic is over,
but things have changed for good.
Kirsi Wallinheimo has been a University Lecturer in foreign language education
at University of Helsinki since 2003. Her pedagogical and research interests
include the implementation of digital learning environments in teaching
and learning, playful approach to learning and digital online assessment.
She is also a member of The Finnish Matriculation Examination Board.
Further details: https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/fi/persons/kirsi-wallinheimo
Class Time
Term 3 Apr - Jun 2020
11