Thank you Nafisah. I appreciate everyone’s generosity with information and advice. There is lots to think about.
Is anyone planning to use a non-accredited route for students who might not attend/perform well in exams?
Zoe
From: Nafisah Graham Brown [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 25 November 2014 15:45
To: Zoe Williams
Cc: lern london
Subject: Re: ESOL Quals
Hello all,
Good discussion so far focusing on institutional need to have good achievement rates and tutors' professional knowledge development. I think it's about what's best for the student. We use a combination of examining boards and types (internal vs external) depending on cohort need and situation. The majority of our students we work with are hard-to-reach with multiple needs including health needs. The flexibility of internal assessment suits these types of learners who often have reliability issues and may be absent on the day of the external exam because of health problems (not to mention the effect of stress of an external exam on students' attendance). Once they have progressed for a length of time, it is more suitable to move to external assessment to show personal skills development.
Hope that helps you Zoe to make a decision, or at least to develop a case to present to your stakeholders (the ones who are putting pressure on you to change?)
Best regards,
Nafisah Graham-Brown
On 25 November 2014 at 13:49, Zoe Williams <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Thanks Diana – I know we will all pick upon the point about extra work(!) but I do take your point about being able to act quickly on feedback.
From: Diana Tremayne [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 25 November 2014 12:58
To: Zoe Williams;
[log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: ESOL Quals
Even if you do internally assessed quals it certainly shouldn’t be seen as rubber stamping if good quality assurance procedures are in place. This is key really – do staff do standardisation/IV etc. If this is thorough then feedback etc can be quickly acted on by staff – can be easier to do internally than externally sometimes. If the EV is also thorough then they will pick up areas for improvement. It is definitely extra work for staff though – even if assessments rather than portfolios.
Diana Tremayne
E2 ESOL Course Leader / Advanced Learning Practitioner
Calderdale College
Francis Street
Halifax
HX1 3UZ
Tel: 01422 357357 ext 9403
Calderdale College Francis Street Halifax HX1 3UZ
01422 357357
email:[log in to unmask]
www.calderdale.ac.uk
From: ESOL-Research discussion forum and message board
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Zoe Williams
Sent: 25 November 2014 12:34
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: ESOL Quals
Hello Frances
Thanks for the response. I suppose the institutional assumption is that candidates can be given a number of chances to pass and can be coached into performing well in the assessment. I will take forward your point about teachers being better informed about criteria and levels and standards . That certainly gives us a more positive perspective.
Zoe
From: Frances Nehme [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 25 November 2014 12:16
To: Zoe Williams
Cc: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: ESOL Quals
Morning Zoe
I have past experience of using both. From the point of view of teachers, externally assessed was much less time-consuming and allowed a lot more emphasis on teaching and learning, rather than portfolio building. However, it did mean that teachers were really au fait with the criteria and clearer about levels and standards, as they were involved at all stages and took part in setting assessments, marking and internal moderation. This may have improved/impacted on their own performance. I believe the institution we worked for chose this firstly because it appeared to be the cheaper option, though with the additional internal paperwork and paper trails, the huge amount of admin and expense around portfolios, and time given to external moderators, report writing and so on, this may have been misguided. Not entirely sure how it could definitely improve outcomes on success data, unless the internally-assessed model somehow worked as a rubber-stamp? There are still the issues of deadlines, non-completion or poor quality portfolios to balance against non-attendance or failure at exams. Whatever internally-assessed model is used, it presumably still has to be externally approved or moderated?
Frances
On Tue, Nov 25, 2014 at 9:57 AM, Zoe Williams <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Good morning everyone
We are a small ESOL department reviewing the new QCF quals and trying to choose an awarding body/assessment method. We have used Cambridge and Trinity in the past and favour the end of year externally marked exam as ensuring good quality of teaching and learning, but we are under some pressure to move to an internally assessed model, in order to ensure the highest outcomes in terms of success data.
Would anyone have a perspective on this? I am aware that there have been threads relating to this topic in the past but am interested to know what your final decisions have been.
We are finding it difficult to make a decision without sight of all the sample papers.
Many thanks
Zoe Williams
ESOL Lecturer
New College Durham, Framwellgate Moor Campus, Durham DH1 5ES
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New College Durham, Framwellgate Moor Campus, Durham DH1 5ES
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Nafisah Graham-Brown
Head of Skills for Life and Work
ELATT Connected Learning
260-264 Kingsland Road
