Autonomy, Authenticity and Agency in Language education: Mapping the Terrain of Authentic Assessment

1. Autonomy, Authenticity and Agency in Language education: Mapping the Terrain of Authentic Assessment Viljo Kohonen LEND Conference Trento 4.3.2010

2. “Seeing with new eyes” The Real New Voyage of Discovery Consists of Not Seeking New Lands but in Seeing with New Eyes

3. Outline of presentation • Perspectives to (language) education • Perspectives to the pupil’s role in FL teaching/learning 3. Autonomy, authenticity and agency in language education 4. Mapping the terrain of authentic assessment 5. Enhancing the teacher’s professional growth as a language educator

4. 1. Some perspectives to (language) education • Teachers/ teacher educators work in a historical context (Carr & Hartnett 1996): > School as part of local/European societies > schools to practice democracy: aim at responsible citizenship education > what kind of teaching culture in our school? >> How do I see my task as a (language) teacher? European Commission (Report 2007):teachers have a crucial role in providing high quality education for personal fulfilment and better social skills

5. European Commission: (Report 2007)... • Teacher is a significant social actor in education: partnerships between educational institutions and community groups > aim at reducingmarginalization in society • Prepare pupils/students to be autonomous lifelong learners and persons • Social/ cultural dimensions of education: EUcitizenship perspective: respect of common cultural base + rich national/regional diversity • Development of teacher competences and qualifications as a key priority

6. Global learning: building the future in today’s school(Suárez-Orozco 2007) 1. Multicultural life contexts > own cultural identity-work> autonomy as a person 2. Building capacity as an interculturalactor 3. Skills for communication, interaction, networking and collaboration 4. Reflective orientation to learning 5. Critical thinking > meta-cognitive capacity 6. Learning for life: rational + affective education 7. Tolerance of ambiguity and uncertainty

7. Harald the Terrible

8. Harald the Terrible

9. Well-intentioned ”Curling”-parenting?/ teaching? What space for personal intentions? Goal-setting? Learning skills? Management of own learning? Reflection? Interaction? Engagement? Autonomy?

10. 2. Perspectives to the pupil’s role in FL education • How do we see our pupils/ students? What kind of images/ beliefs do we have: how do wetalk about them? >How do weactin classes? • Educational beliefs: “opinions and ideas that learners [and teachers] have about the task of learning a second language” (Kalaja & Barcelos 2003) • Socially constituted, interactively sustained images and assumptions on the roles/duties of the participants in the social teaching-learning process (often unconscious) >> can be changed/ modifiedthrough social interaction: awareness

11. Educational beliefs as a resource in teaching • Philip Riley (2003): talking about teaching – like ”weaving a cloth”: we createour pedagogicalreality by theconceptswe use • Need to be mindful about how we weave our professional ”cloth” of our daily language education > our classroom action is guided by our educational beliefs >> critical awareness of beliefs through reflection and sharing/interaction >> need for a culture of interactive,collaborative learning/teaching (Woods 2003)

12. Notions of the language ”learner”: three metaphors Philip Riley (2003): seeing the learners as... (1) Physical organism (extrapolated from stimulus-response theories of behaviourism; 1970s–) • Generalised model of a ”processor” of (language) information (cognitive research – a reduced personality; 1980s) (3) Goal-oriented,autonomous person with a social identity (”Voice” in sociocultural theories: Jiménez, Kohonen, Lamb, Lantolf, van Lier, Little, Vieira, Vygotsky)

13. ”Learner”: facing an intimidating task? Language errors = deficiencies, shortcomings: what the learner cannot do:”Just keep climbing up, and some day you will ...”

14. ”Learner” --> as a language user? Focus on what you can do with the language in functional terms; Engagement; Risk-taking; Peer modelling; Support, feedback: Scaffolding; Progress in small steps; Accessible goals

15. Pupil as a language user: • Aperson: the right to USE the FL, from the beginning > having something meaningful to say +the courage and (sufficient) skills to do so > ”communicative self-confidence” • Action-oriented view: the pupil as a social actor> fosteringindependence with social responsibility:individual freedom constrained by the social context > citizenship educationfor multilingual and multicultural Europe (Common European Framework, CUP 2001) • New goal for language education: teaching pupils to becomeintercultural actors: developing intercultural communicative competence(”Handlungskompetenz”)

16. 3. Autonomy, authenticity and agency in FL education Autonomy(< Greek autós ‘self’ + nómos ‘law, rule’) > self-governance, independence, separatedness > universal human capacity for developing as a person in interaction Authenticity (<Greek authentees ‘originator, author’) > initiative-taking, being an authentic self, finding one’s personal ‘voice’: being the “subject”/”author” of one’s own learning; authenticity of encounter in the classroom Agency: identity as somebody who acts, experiences ordoes; socioculturally mediated capacity for interaction with environment (potential for using opportunities) > Intertwined, closely connected concepts: whole-person educational approach through experiential learning

17. Perspectives to autonomy... • David Little (1991, 4), learner autonomy:"capacity – for detachment, critical reflection, decision-making and independent action" • Jiménez, Lamb & Vieira (2008, 1): “Competence to develop as a self-determined, socially responsible and critically aware participant in (and beyond) educational environments, within a vision of education as (inter)personal empowerment and social transformation” > involves knowledge + skill + affective component> applies to teachers AND pupils: parallelprocesses of personal growth • Little (2004), three principles of autonomy: (1) learner engagement,; (2) learner reflection; (3) appropriate TARGET language use

18. Perspectives to autonomy... • Charles Taylor (1991): we are what we are because of participationin a community (recognition by significant others) > enhancing one’s personal values as a life-long pursuit • Authenticity as a person: self-definition in dialogue: personal encounter, commitment to values and norms in community • Social context necessary for autonomy development: shared norms, respect • Develops in a personal relation with the world, through participation/ connectedness

19. 4. Mapping the terrain of authentic assessment From ”utopian dreams” to viable (language)pedagogy through three conditions: 1. Coherent theoretical framework outlining tangible educationalprinciples and defining the concepts to guide classroom action >> understanding(“emic” perspective) 2. Appropriate pedagogical tools> translate the goals into consistent pedagogical action: concrete practices and ground rules 3. Sustainable progress in manageable steps over time: “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” > commitment to shared site-based goals; time, effort

20. Mapping authentic assessment... Basic principles of language education: • Support the pupil’s own goals and autonomy • Foster personal engagement in learning • Encourage pupil initiative and responsibility • Enhance meaningful learning as a whole person approach • Emphasis on reflection, interaction and self-/peer-assessment > develop self-regulation • Integration of social and affective learning with cognitive and meta-cognitive goals

21. Mapping... properties of authentic assessment 1. Comprehensive:assessment asintegral part of teaching throughout the process: needs > aims > contents > monitoring > assessment 2. Time span:continuous, over a long period 3. What is assessed: both the learning process and the outcomes of learning - communicative meaningfulness of lang. use - pupil as an individual, and as a member of the local learning community - criterion-referencing: in relation to the aims, and with regard to personal progress

22. Mapping ... properties of authentic assessment... 4. Data:mainly qualitative, collected in a number of ways > the pupil to make individual choices > set aims 5. Use of the data: (1)to improve learning: assessment as“interface”between learning and teaching (2) to support autonomy: development of the pupil’s reflective skills, self-assessment, initiative and critical thinking >> increased independence/ interdependence (3) to become an intercultural actor:encourage cooperative learning and socially responsible group membership/interdependence

23. Mapping... two perspectives: A.Assessment for learning:process • Pedagogic function: assessment in the service of learning, to foster pupil learning > to enhance autonomy(as a person, as a learner, as an FL user, in intercultural contexts) > sense ofunderstanding the task B.Assessment of learning: product - Reporting function: to report learning outcomes (e.g. to stakeholders, for grading, student selection, placement, employment purposes etc) > sense of accomplishment

24. Mapping authentic assessment... tools • FL as the medium of teaching/ interaction; oral interviews • Writing tasks (guided variety of topics/registers) • Projects and exhibitions (with open-ended oral or written reports; ICT, e.g. video clips on mobile phones) • Constructed-response items (to open-ended questions) > increased openness/ pupils’ options: contents and processes • Teacher observation (of pupils’ work in class, making notes) > basis for pedagogical guidance: knowledge of the pupil • Portfolios (focus on progress over time, with self/peer-assessment of spoken/written tasks)

25. 5. Enhancing language teachers’ professional growth as educators Al Gore: two ways of progressing(Nobel Prize Interview Dec. 2007): If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. (an African saying)

26. Two dimensions in teacher growth... 1.Professional development and teaching within the individual-cognitive dimension: cultural socialization for teacher isolation(cf. Dan Lortie 1975, Schoolteacher) 2.Professional growth and work within the social-interactive/ sociocultural dimension: cultural socialization for collegial collaboration

27. Teacher Isolation ”I did it my way...” Individual - Cognitive Dimension

28. Teacher Collaboration ”I did it our way...” Social-Interactive Dimension

29. Teacher growth: becoming/ being a social actor… A. Language and linguistics expertise:traditional “FL” identity as a linguist B.Pedagogical expertise:knowledge of pupils > how to guide them individually > facilitate their language/ study/ social skills > pedagogicalidentity as a curriculum developer C.Capacity for school development: understand personal/ institutional change processes > develop school as a collegial work place > collegial identity as a social actor in school/ community -> networking and collaboration (also cross-curricular undertakings)

30. Professionalism as collective knowledge creation… • Innovative knowledge creation: going beyond the frontiersof current knowledge > work at the edgeofunderstanding > take on new challenges > stretching out:“surpassing ourselves” (Bereiter & Scardamalia 1993; Bereiter 2002). • Collective professional empowerment: work on increasingly challenging tasks >collegial interaction/dialogue as an essential source of professional renewal.

31. Understanding FL classrooms • FL classrooms as communities of practice with complex social relationships (Lave & Wenger 2003) • Situated classroom discourse: participants talk to each other in the context of a shared history of interaction > focus on understanding the contextual nature of classroom “problems” in the first place > a puzzle-orientedview of classroom life, inviting the participants (teacher + pupils) to be seekers after their understandings: ”exploratory practice” (Allwright 2006)

32. Four major elements in ”new” FL acquisition theory(Swain & Deters, MLJ 91/2007) • Sociocultural theory: importance of complex interaction (”ZPD”, Vygotsky; Bruner: ”scaffolding”) • Situated learning: becoming a member of the community through participation; degrees of access to resources >developagency (Lave, Wenger) • Poststructuralism: creating personal positions/ meanings/ identities in social practices/discourse • Teaching/learning as dialogue: significance of interaction for agency (Bakhtin; Buber: ”I – thou/ it”) > shift from cognitive to also social and affective learning >> more complex understandingof FL learning >> qualitative research: ethnography, (auto)biography, narrative, reflection, observation

33. To conclude with the conference organizers: “I Understand My Special Opportunities, Can Promote my Individual Career and Have Choices I can make”