According to the Nebraska Department of Training
(NDT), "[i]n order to become lifelong learners, students need to learn the
importance of self-evaluation. They can do this by filling out self-evaluation
forms, journalizing, taking tests, writing revisions of work, asking questions,
and through discussions. When students evaluate themselves, they are assessing
what they know, do not know, and what they would like to know. They begin to
recognize their own strengths and weaknesses. They become more familiar with
their own beliefs, and possibly their misconceptions. After they self-evaluate
they will be able to set goals that they feel they can attain with the new
knowledge they have about themselves."
When I first entered the
teaching profession, I was primarily interested in working in the social
sciences with high schools students. I
desired to empower students to be more active socially in their societies, i.e.
in terms of improving their workplaces, NGOs, and government organizations.
However, over the subsequent two-and-half decades, I have come to primarily
work teaching foreign languages in a dozen different countries. During these
years, I have often tried to integrate my social science training into my
curricular developments in foreign language education. I have done so because I found early-on that
social science topics and social-studies-inspired activities, such as
conducting surveys and debating, were motivating for many students. This was true for native speakers and for and social studies for many L2 learners.
As part of the continuing
assessment movement of the early 1990s, I chose to adapt (See Rubric 1 below) for my second language students in
Rubric 1:
Group Discussions & Problem Solving
Note : 1 is low score, 5 is high score
Cooperation
5 All members of the group participate in an outstanding manner throughout the activity.
4 Most of the members of the group participate most of the time in the discussion and in achieving a solution.
3 At least half of the members of the group participate most of the time in
the discussion and work towards achieving solutions for the activity.
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