The Application Of Performance Assessment In Chinese Integrated Learning

It's a significant and challenging proposition in the curriculum reform of basic education to examine the application of multiple assessments and to determine how to improve teacher instruction and student learning by assessment. Based on this awareness, this dissertation demonstrates the theoretical foundation and practical effectiveness of the application of performance assessment in Chinese integrated learning.The research hypothesis proposed is that performance assessment is a method that adapts to Chinese integrated learning. Performance assessment can promote the implementation of Chinese integrated learning and improve students'academic achievement (including improve students'test scores). This hypothesis forms the issue of this dissertation:how to promote Chinese integrated learning with performance assessment? This issue is divided into three concrete problems:What evidence can prove the matching between performance assessment and Chinese integrated learning? What is the basic procedure of performance assessment? How does the procedure work?The first part of the dissertation tries to solve the first problem by seeking rationale and evidence. In Chapterâ… , an data analysis of the survey conducted on 180 teachers in three provinces (Zhejiang, Henan and Sichuan) reveals that the Chinese integrated learning is seriously impeded by present assessment methods. Using the 3P Model as a classroom system, the dissertation makes an attributive analysis. These analyses demonstrate the matching between performance assessment and Chinese integrated learning. In Chapterâ…¡, the nature of Chinese integrated learning is redefined as a set of authentic-circumstance-based language activities with an integration of two or more Chinese elements (listening, speaking, reading and writing). The learning objectives include performance skills or/and creative works that match performance assessment. Consequently, four steps in the procedure of performance assessment in Chinese integrated learning are constructed, which are determining learning objectives based on the curriculum standards, designing performance tasks focused on learning objectives, creating rubrics in the light of theobjectives and tasks, and applying rubrics to guide teaching, learning and assessment.The second part of the dissertation tries to solve the second problem by illustrating every step of the procedures in each of the chapters. Chapterâ…¢provides two pathways to determine learning objectives. One solution is to seek learning objectives by unwrapping curriculum standards in a deductive way. The other is to select learning objectives from performance standards which are developed by professional organizations inductively. Meanwhile, this chapter also provides practical skills of decomposing standards based on the international experience.and a framework of Chinese performance standards Chapter IV discusses the characteristics of Chinese integrated learning performance tasks and the shortcomings of teachers'designing in practice by analyzing more than 50 cases. Then, this paper illustrates the scaffolding design of performance tasks and provides several types of scaffolds by comparing differentmother-tongue textbooks at home and abroad. Chapter V addresses the definition and the structure of rubrics, as well as emphasizes the importance of students'involvement in developing rubrics with providing a series of specific strategies. Chapter VI elaborates on strategies for applying rubrics to teaching and learning from the perspectives of clarifying the orientation of teaching and learning, optimizing the curriculum arrangement and providing prompt and accurate feedbacks.The last part adopts the method of Collective Case Study (or Multiple-case Design) to verify the effectiveness of the four-step procedure constructed in this dissertation. This study selected speech and text play as two types of Chinese integrated learning, and conducted experiments in two middle schools. The result showed that performance assessment notably improved the implementation of speech and text play. This reflects in three aspects:the first is that good design of assessment makes the learning more directional and operational; the second is that authentic task circumstance arouses students'interests in Chinese integrated learnig; the last is that multi-channel, timely and effective feedbacks provide the proof of learning and harmonious relationships in the classrooms. As a result, the students'competence in listening, speaking, reading and writing as well as social skills have a significant improvement. In terms of test scores, the average scores of experimental classes in both cases achieved significant improvement, which was most prominent on average and below-average students.