Unit 4: Measuring Success in Cultural Competence: Feedback and Evaluation
From KNILT
Introduction
This unit focuses on creating and utilizing various assessment tools and feedback mechanisms to measure the effectiveness of cultural integration in language teaching. Educators will learn how to construct assessments that are sensitive to cultural nuances and linguistic competencies, and how to use feedback for continuous improvement.
Case Study
Background: An international exchange program involves students from multiple countries attending a summer language school in Beijing to improve their Mandarin skills, focusing particularly on practical language use in social situations.
Scenario: During a cultural excursion, a local vendor tries to compliment an American student by using the situation-bound utterance (SBU), "您真会挑啊!" intending to express admiration for the vendor's skill in selecting goods. However, the phrase, which can also imply that the person is picky or too discerning, causes confusion and a slight offense.
Driving questions: How can assessment methods be designed to measure learners' proficiency in using SBUs appropriately within Chinese cultural contexts, and how can feedback mechanisms be implemented to support their ongoing development?
Share- Share your insightful ideas with your peers in the community or to your family members
To Do as Instructor
Discuss- the different types of assessments that can be used to measure cultural awareness in the context of CSL. Focus on the pros and cons of each type in terms of assessment for/of/as learning.
Apply-the designed assessments in a live or simulated classroom setting to measure how effectively students can navigate cultural nuances after the activity.
Reflect- and develop a brief strategy on how you might improve or adjust the teaching and assessment methods to better address the cultural concepts that challenge your students.
Revisit & Revise-Given a second thought, what is your ideas on the secenario-driving questions?
To Create as Designer
In this unit, you will think more in your own course parts of I-Implement and E-Evalutaion as how to:
Develop and utilize diverse evaluation tools to assess cultural knowledge and language proficiency.
Implement formative and summative assessment strategies to refine teaching practices and enhance learning.
Leverage technology to streamline the evaluation process and provide timely feedback.
Foster a collaborative and reflective learning environment to drive continuous improvement.
AI as Mentor: Providing Feedback
Effective feedback pinpoints gaps and errors, and offers explanaitons about what learners shoud improve. Especially, when feedback is at regular intervals and coupled with practice, it enhances in creating deep learning environment which help participants learn in an efficient and effective way. Participants can work with AI by tailored questions in the process of feed-up, feedback and feed-forward. For example,
Which assessment method received the most positive response from students, and why do you think that was?
Were there any cultural or linguistic aspects that students consistently found challenging? How can you address these in your future assessments?
What specific changes or innovations are you considering to enhance the cultural relevance of your course?
What have been the most significant changes in student engagement since implementing your current assessments?
Based on the assessments, which areas of cultural competence do students excel in, and in which areas do they need further development?
How do you plan to measure the success of your teaching goals? What new or modified assessment tools will you use?
References:
Larson, M. B., & Lockee, B. B. (2019). Streamlined ID: A practical guide to instructional design. Routledge.
Mollick, E., & Mollick, L. (2023). Assigning AI: Seven approaches for students, with prompts. arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.10052