Writing to learn and learning to write

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• Writing to learn and learning to write
• Stories from a foreign language classrom

2

• When the teacher has assessed my written work,
  I put the text in my bag. Either it disappears
  after a while or I put it in a folder after a few
  months.
• (Anne, 16 years)

3

• What impact does assessment culture have on the
  students proficency in writing and learning?

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The aim of the study

• To contribute to increased knowledge of the
  connection between writing, learning and
  assessment in the foreign language teaching and
  to describe and discuss how assessment is a part
  of the teaching approach in a classroom context.

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Hypothesis

• A good assessment culture will have a positive
  impact on the students learning process - on
  their learning skills and on their proficiency in
  the target language.

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Why classroom study?

• Look at the issue in practice
• Identify what students and teacher do and what
  they say they are doing
• Close up perspectives to visualize how
  individuals and groups perceive and experience
  writing, learning and assessment (Goodson/Sikes,
  2001)

7
Research data

• One lower secondary school
• One teacher
• Two classes
• 10th grade Competence after three years
• 8th grade Beginners, portfolio assessment

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Research data

• Students texts
• Questionnares
• Video
• Diary notes from the classroom
• Interwievs with teacher/students

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Research questions

• Assessment culture
• How to characterize portfolio assessment in a
  students and a teachers perspective?
• What kind of individual and collective learning
  processes can be identified in an assessment
  culture using portfolio assessment?

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Research questions

• Patterns in student reflection
• What and how do the students reflect regarding
  their proficiency in writing?
• What and how do the students reflect regarding
  their proficiency in learning?
• What exact proficiency can be identified in their
  writing and learning?

11
Research questions

• Patterns in teachers didactic reflection
  regarding writing, learning and assessment
• What kind of assessment culture does the teacher
  promote?
• What are the teachers pedagogical values?

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Background

• A need for research in writing and assessment in
  foreign language learning
• Is writing in German only grammar and vocabulary?
• German as a foreign language challenges
• A topic for the gifted or talented students
• How do teachers teach German?

13

• I would rather learn another language later.
  (Want to choose an easier language that is more
  useful to me).
• (Ingeborg, 15 years)

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Background

• Educational assessment
• The feedback I get from the teacher on my
  writing is on grammar and vocabulary.
• (Ellen, 15 years)

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Background

• Portfolio assessment
• More visible learning process
• Process writing
• Great opportunities for feedback, but research
  have not given the answer on how effective it is
  and how circumstances and conditions affect it

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Background

• The most fundemential things we do not know about
  feedback are how effective it is and how
  circumstances and conditions affect it.

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Theory

• Sociocultural theories on teaching and learning
• Vygotsky PZD and scaffolding
• Bakhtin Interaction and dialogue
• Learning always occurs in interaction