VALUES AND ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT 4

On the one hand, the field as a whole supports student autonomy, responsibility, and empowerment; we teachers sometimes question whether there is even such a thing as “teaching,” and we portray ourselves rather as “people who help others to learn.” Yet on the other hand, we know both intellectually and personally that there is such a thing as teaching, and that there are considerably better and considerably worse ways of doing it, and we take personal responsibility for the successes and failures of our learners. It is terribly difficult to figure out where the responsibility of the teacher ends and that of the learner begins. The notion of the teacherstudent relation to some extent addresses this conundrum, suggesting that it is neither one nor the other, but the rela-tion between them that is the key factor. Yet at the end of the (school) day each of us teachers is an individual, and each of us wonders about our own agency, its moral obligations and moral limits. The practice of portfolio assessment is one attempt to shift the balance of this dynamic in one particular direction, but the underlying dynamic remains. The last moral dilemma I examine in relation to student portfolios is this: How exactly are we to evaluate them? It is here that the paradox of subjectivity in testing comes back to haunt us, along with Noddings’ (1984) problem of the moral dissonance that occurs when teachers become evaluators. The fact is that although the other desirable characteristics of portfolios—student choice, lack of stress, a capacity for capturing both deeper understanding and development over time—remain in place, many of the moral dilemmas attendant on traditional testing are still present. How is student work to be graded? As before, do we reward progress over time, or final ability, or hard work, or all three? In what combinations? Also as before, though the evidence in portfolios is considerably richer than that in multiple-choice tests, it is still only indirect evidence, and still must be filtered through the interpretive understanding of the teacher. 75 Values in English Language Teaching Moreover, the apparent flexibility of the portfolio also conceals another uncomfortable moral dynamic: The greater the freedom and flexibility of the design of the portfolio, the harder it is for the teacher to evaluate it. If I allow one student to write an essay for one component, and another student to write a poem for the same assignment how can the
two be compared? Furthermore, when it comes to grading, I face the same problems mentioned earlier. If I give a student extra leeway for a poorly done assignment handed in at a difficult personal time for that student, am I using or abusing the special relation I have with him and with other students? Conversely, how can I grade evenly and yet also reward outstanding work that I believe deserves special recognition?