The purpose of this study is to comprehend the assessment and evaluation activities at military academies (during training process, students’ quality and capacity development etc.); i[r]
Trang 1MANAGEMENT OF LEARNING PERFORMANCE
ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION BY CAPACITY-BASED APPROACH AT VIETNAMESE MILITARY ACADEMIES:
CURRENT SITUATION AND SOLUTIONS
Dr Tran Thi Hoai, PhD student Pham Van Phong 1
Abstract: Assessment and evaluation are important activities directly
affecting the training quality of educational institutions Assessment and evaluation not only verify the level of learners but also become effective tools for teaching and learning that help develop learners’ capacity To appraise the actual status of the assessment and evaluation activities, we surveyed 5 out
of 8 military academies (academies with tertiary training) across the country, accounting for 62.5% The results indicate some inadequacies such as the forms of assessment and evaluation are not really suitable for the military occupations; the management decentralization is not clear, etc Especially, learners’ capacity assessment is very fuzzy The paper presents the theories, the current situation of these activities, and proposes seven measures to manage the implementation of capacity-based assessment and evaluation
to ultimately improve the quality of higher education in military academies of Vietnam.
Keywords: Management, assessment and evaluation, learning performance,
military academies
1 Institution for Education Quality Assurance, Vietnam National University Hanoi, 144 Xuan Thuy St., Cau Giay Dist., Hanoi, Phone: 0985982969, Email: hoaitt@vnu.edu.vn;
Education University, Vietnam National University Hanoi, 144 Xuan Thuy St., Cau Giay Dist., Hanoi,Phone: 0983143613;
Email: Phamvanphongqlgd@gmail.com.
Trang 21 Theories
1.1 Literature review
Currently, there have been many researches on assessment and evaluation
in teaching in the world In Europe, especially in the United States, the science
of evaluation in education flourished in the first half of the twentieth century Ralph Tyler was the first to introduce the concept and emphasize the importance of evaluation in education He set the foundation for scientific thinking on evaluation and its practices in education According to Ralph Tyler: “The process of assessment
is primarily the process of determining the achievement level of goals in educational programs” [3, p 32] At this stage, many works mentioned measurement and evaluation in education, including “Educational Measurement and Evaluation”
by Jum C Nunnally (1964) [7] The work by Norman E Gronlund (1969) titled
“Measurement and Evaluation in Teaching” describes essential principles and processes of assessment and evaluation for effective teaching [8] Subsequently, in
1971, B.S Bloom, George F Madaus and J Thomas Hastings published the book named “Evaluation to improve Learning” This book guides lecturers in evaluating learners’ performance The appropriate combination of assessment and evaluation techniques and methods would be an instrument for improving the teaching process [5] There are several reference books on assessment and evaluation such
as “A Teacher’s Guide to Assessment” by D.S Frith and H.G Macintosh (1988) that provides more details on basic theories of classroom evaluation, evaluation planning and marking [6], etc Thomas A America & K Patricia Cross (1993)
in “Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers” orients lecturers to study and apply classroom assessment methods Classroom assessment provide useful information that help teachers approach advanced classroom assessment methods [10, p 109-114, 426] The work “Guidelines for the Assessment of Learning Outcomes” of the Arizona State University (2016) outlines input and output assessment and evaluation measures, designing steps in assessment and evaluation, measurement methods of learning performance, tools, experiments, interviews, etc using the learning results of graduates to improve the assessment and evaluation [9], etc Nguyen Duc Chinh (2012), the author of
“Classroom assessment and evaluation by capacity-based approach appropriate the orientation for the general education program development after 2015”, studies deeply in the learning performance assessment and evaluation, capacity-based approach in education program development, classroom assessment and evaluation towards capacity training, and the procedure of organizing a batch of learning performance assessment and evaluation, etc [1, p.1] Nguyen Thi Phuong Hoa-Vu Hai Ha (co-editor, 2014) in the book “PISA and the Problems of Vietnam
Trang 3Education System” have implemented research on issues related to the evaluation program of PISA international students By comparing and contrasting, the authors initially draw lesson-learnt for general education in Vietnam [4, p 7] Nguyen Thi Kim Dung (Editor in Chief, 2015) in the book “Training of pedagogical professions
by forming professional capacity for students of universities of education” focuses
on the pedagogical capacity required for pedagogical university students in some countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Germany, etc [2, tr 5, 32-36] These documents mentioned above mainly refer to the learning performance assessment and evaluation but do not pay adequate attention to the initial and process assessment and evaluation These authors have not focused on the management
of the assessment and evaluation process by capacity-based approach; Researches
on the management of the assessment and evaluation process by capacity-based approach in the Military Academies are still unavailable
1.2 Assessment and evaluation by capacity-based approach
The goal of assessment and evaluation by capacity-based approach is for the progress of learners or learning development Assessment and evaluation not only provide leaners with teachers’ comments or remarks on their performance but also help them build their own qualities and capacities at certain learning stages The training objectives, programs, contents and lectures should be built
in accordance with the assessment and evaluation by capacity-based and quality-based approaches; Forms of teaching should be corresponding to the forms of assessment and evaluation The form of assessment and evaluation by capacity-based approach is the process of gathering information from learners, assessing and evaluating learners’ capacity and qualities and comparing at certain learning stages Therefrom, evidences of professional competence, social competence and personal capacity are collected In our opinion, assessment and evaluation by capacity-based approach is the assessment and evaluation of learners’ ability to use the knowledge, skills and attitudes to behave, handle situations or solve problems
in accordance with the specific criteria of each specific subject Assessment and evaluation by capacity-based approach is the assessment and evaluation based on the criteria of capacity and expected learning outcomes
In order to obtain the goal for learners’ advancement, it is required to do assessment and evaluation by stages, including diagnostic, process and final assessment and evaluation At present, because of excessive attention on final assessment and evaluation and less emphasis on diagnostic or process assessment and evaluation, stressful psychology in examination is becoming a great concern
of the whole society Therefore, renovation of learning performance assessment
Trang 4and evaluation means focusing on the diagnostic and process phases The learning performance assessment and evaluation in the higher education institutions should
be planned, organized and directed and ultimately the implementation process should be comprehensively checked Assessment and evaluation steps include planning, questioning, preparing professional skills and collecting information, etc Currently, there are 11 military academies in the country, eight out of which offer higher education training The assessment and evaluation at tertiary institutions in general and in military academies in particular do not well-perform the function of the assessment and evaluation which is to help learners improve throughout the learning and training process There have been some shortcomings
in the management of the assessment The solutions for the shortcomings of training by capacity-based approach have not yet been addressed Especially, the progress assessment and evaluation (evaluation of learners’ progress) have not been implemented Thus, in the context of education shifting from the delivery of knowledge and skills to the building capacity and quality, what do the assessment and evaluation question the management in the military academies? The purpose
of this study is to comprehend the assessment and evaluation activities at military academies (during training process, students’ quality and capacity development etc.); identify the shortcomings in the current management process; propose measures to manage the learning performance assessment and evaluation of military students by capacity-based approach and ultimately contribute to the training quality improvement by capacity-based approach
2 Research methods
In order to appraise the current status of assessment and evaluation at military academies, we investigated and collected information by questionnaires at five military academies, including the Air Defense - Air Force Academy, Military Academy of Logistics, Military Science Academy, Academy of Border Defense Force and Military Technical Academy The selected sample size is based on the number of students, lecturers and educational managers, specifically as follows:
Figure 1 Components of investigation subjects
Trang 5Air Defense
- Air Force Academy
Military Technical Academy
Military Academy
of Logistics
Academy
of Border Defense Force
Military Science Academy
Investigation of lecturers and managers: The number of lecturers and educational managers participating in the investigation includes 311 persons, as follows:
Table 1 Structure of educational managers, lecturers by seniority
Seniority in military
academies
Lecturers Educational managers Bachelor MA., Dr Assoc. Prof.,
.Prof Bachelor .MA., Dr
Assoc Prof., Prof
Investigation of students: We investigated 620 of third-year and fourth-year students who have gradually formed full learner capacity
Chart 1 Division of the number of investigated students by school-year
In addition, we interviewed 15 lecturers, 10 educational managers and
15 students to further evaluate the current situation of management of learning performance assessment and evaluation by capacity-based approach We used SPSS software to test the reliability of investigation samples and mathematical statistical method for descriptive analysis and data processing
3 Current status of management of learning performance assessment and evaluation by capacity-based approach at Vietnamese Military Academies
Due to the requirements for innovating training contents, methods and processes of the Military Academies, especially the transformation of tertiary education from “content-based approach” to “capacity-based approach”, it is vital
to change the forms of the assessment and evaluation accordingly To examine the current status of assessment and evaluation at military academies, the authors surveyed 311 lecturers and educational managers, the results with the cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of 0.78 are as follows (Table 2):
Trang 6Table 2 Educational managers and lecturers’ evaluation on the level of management
of learning performance assessment and evaluation by capacity-based approach
Very poor (%)
Poor (%)
Aver-age (%)
Good (%)
Very good (%) 1
Awareness of educational
ers and lecturers on assessment
and evaluation by capacity-based
approach
1.61 10.93 37.62 29.26 20.58 3.56
2 Building and publicizing the plan of assessment and evaluation for each
3
Developing the design skills, the use
of assessment and evaluation tests
of the subjects for various purposes
throughout the school year
0.96 3.54 31.51 25.08 38.91 3.97
4 Building question-and-answer banksby capacity-based approach 1.29 3.54 32.48 28.62 34.08 3.91
5 Applying information technology in assessment and evaluation and in
self-assessment and self-evaluation 0.00 8.04 30.55 27.97 33.44 3.87
6 Collecting and processing learningperformance feedbacks 0.00 8.36 31.51 25.40 34.73 3.86
7
Specialized knowledge and skills in
learning performance assessment
and evaluation by capacity-based
approach for lecturers and
educa-tional managers
2.89 6.11 30.23 21.86 38.91 3.88
8
The process of implementing the
learning performance assessment
and evaluation by capacity-based
approach
5.14 8.68 33.12 29.26 23.79 3.58
In Table 3, we found that the evaluation of educational managers and lecturers
at "poor" and “not good” level accounts for from 0.96% to 2.89% and from 3.54%
to 10.93%, respectively This demonstrates that the current status of management
in learning performance assessment and evaluation still remains limitations and inadequacies, especially in planning and publicizing the assessment and evaluation for each subject These activities are not regularly implemented, or have not yet deployed at some institutions Educational managers and lecturers at some military institutions, are not well-equipped with specialized knowledge and skills The implementation of the assessment and evaluation is only limited to
Trang 7"self-study, self-learning and self-doing, etc" That affects the implementation of the assessment and evaluation in which some activities are performed and some are not Furthermore, the "marking" is mainly implemented by lecturers’ experience Consequently, students only receive “mark” results without lecturers’ feedbacks and could not track their performance The marks are only used by managers for classifying, reporting and rewarding Information technology application is mainly
in military equipment, and lack of software for evaluating the progress of students; because the evaluation is based on knowledge and skills Furthermore, the survey and interview results show that it is necessary to equip the lecturers with methods
of combining different forms of assessment and evaluation in order to assess and evaluate students' capacity based on the forms of teaching organization (on the fields, training yards, military equipment, lecture halls, etc.)
The survey results of 620 military students with the cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of 0.75 are shown in Table 3
Table 3 Students’ evaluation on the management of learning performance assessment and evaluation by capacity-based approach
.No Contents
Very poor (%)
Poor (%)
Average (%)
Good (%)
Very good (%)
1 Lecturers return the tests, give comments, and announce scores
to each student 5.16 9.19 34.35 29.19 22.10 3.54 2
Application of information
ogy in assessment and evaluation
and assessment and
self-evaluation
0.00 8.08 31.34 26.98 33.60 3.86
3 Feedbacks on learning perfor-mance 0.00 9.03 32.26 24.52 34.19 3.84
Table 3 shows that the management of learning performance assessment and evaluation is still limited This correlates with the students’ evaluation of 5.16% at poor level for the criterion: "Lectures return tests, give comments and announce scores to each student" In addition, students also evaluate the criterion of information technology application and feedbacks in learning performance at "not good" level of 8.08% and 9.03%, respectively The results show that the evaluation
of educational managers, lecturers and students fully reflects the current situation This calls for timely and proper solutions
Trang 8Overall, the management of the assessment and evaluation at some military academies basically has many pros, but there are still some cons
as follows: The learner capacity framework, especially for each particular subject, hasn’t been clearly defined and designed corresponding to the form of teaching organization The traditional assessment and evaluation forms are still commonly used by assessors Training of military officers who possess both good professional competencies and moral qualities is necessary nowsadays Therefore, it is crucial to promote the process of tertiary training by capacity-based approach Among 15 lecturers, 10 educational managers and 15 students participated in our interviews and surveys, some says: "The integration of many forms of assessment and evaluation for particular subjects” and “The necessity of designing question sets for assessing the general and specific capacity of students in students’ essays” have not really met the requirements or
at “inappropriate” level Most of educational managers at training departments and Testing Boards in the Military Academies said that: “Some lecturers have not properly understand the requirements of the forms of assessment and evaluation, therefore, detailed syllabus is not closely built to the subject’s objectives and training objectives based on students’ capacity” This confirms the fact that many lecturers have not clearly perceived the forms of assessment and evaluation by capacity-based approach The common practices among lecturers and educational managers are to take single form of assessment and evaluation such as “questions and answers set” or “essay writing”, etc instead
of combining them
The survey results above indicate that educational managers and lecturers have not fully implemented the requirements for management of various assessment and evaluation forms, suggesting that they need to grasp the management requirements
in order to successfully implement the assessment and evaluation of students’ capacity, helping tertiary training in the military academies to be improved In addition, the management of the assessment and evaluation has been regarded as
“poor” and “very poor” from the planning stage to the implementation of tasks such as skills on marking, giving comments, applying information technology, collecting feedbacks and assessment The evaluation process has not been implemented systematically The interview results with educational managers and lecturers show that some educational institutions have not yet developed the comprehensive processes or only have applied separate processes of “marking, assessment/inspection, exam organization, etc.”
Trang 94 Solutions for management of learning performance assessment and evaluation by capacity-based approach at Vietnamese military academies
Solution 1 Raising awareness of “Learning performance assessment and evaluation by capacity-based approach” for educational managers, lecturers and students at Vietnamese military academies
Organizing conferences on “learning performance assessment and evaluation
by capacity-based approach” to raise awareness about the learning performance assessment and evaluation by capacity-based approach for educational managers, lecturers and students The Testing Boards, Training Departments and Political Departments jointly organize conferences for lecturers, educational managers and seminars for students The contents of the conferences include the trend of transferring the training process from “content-based approach” to “capacity-based approach”; the contents of learning performance assessment and evaluation
by capacity-based approach Such conferences will create a transformation from
“perception” to “action” of lecturers and educational managers about the innovation
on learning performance assessment and evaluation, create significant impacts and help them understand the importance of the assessment and evaluation activities The conferences should be held at the beginning of each academic years to facilitate the implementation of learning performance assessment and evaluation by capacity-based approach In order to host these conferences, there should be close coordination between the management levels in the universities and the direct instruction from the directors of the academies
Solution 2 Developing a plan for learning performance assessment and evaluation
by capacity-based approach for each subject
The plan of assessment and evaluation is the basis for implementing the objectives of management of learning performance assessment and evaluation
by capacity-based approach The Testing Board develops a master plan which includes contents such as identifying objectives of training/building the capacity
of students The contents of the plan are the forms of teaching organization, the basis of training/building these capacities, methods and tools for learning performance assessment and evaluation (through questions and answers set, practice or test, etc.) and the time for learning performance assessment and evaluation before, during and after the teaching process The implementation location can be on the training yards, military fields or lecture halls, etc From the general plan of the Testing Board, the faculties shall implement the plan for each specific subject In order to implement this solution, there should
be close coordination between the Testing Board and the faculties during the
Trang 10implementation, especially the inspection and supervision of the Boards of Directors in the Military Academies
Solution 3 Building questions and answers bank by capacity-based approach
The solution of “Building questions and answers bank by capacity-based approach” aims to ensure objectives and scientific requirements in students’ learning performance assessment and evaluation and to facilitate examination organization and management, contributing to training quality improvement The questions and answers bank needs to be aligned with training objectives and becomes a tool for assessment and evaluation of students’ capacity It is essential to build diversified and various questions and answers bank by capacity-based approach, ensuring the objectivity, transparency, absolute confidentiality (with the subjects of military secret) The Testing Board - the governing agency in the questions and answers bank building - should set up the criteria for assessing subjects and rubrics Lecturers build questions and answers sets by capacity-based approach for each subject, based on the matrix of knowledge, skills and attitudes After completing the construction of questions and answers bank, it is compulsory to be appraised
by the Faculty Science Council and submitted to the Testing Board The Testing Board shall combine questions to form exam papers using specialized computer-based exam softwares To facilitate this process, the Testing Board should develop guidelines for building standardized and effective questions and answers sets In addition, the institutions need to allocate adequate funds for the construction of a questions and answers banks
Solution 4 Developing skills for learning performance assessment and evaluation
by capacity-based approach of the subjects for faculties at military academies
Developing skills of designing and using the forms of learning performance assessment and evaluation helps the lecturers build different types of assessment and evaluation in each subject and identify the forms of learning performance assessment and evaluation corresponding to the forms of teaching organization Skills of learning performance assessment and evaluation of lecturers can be developed through equipment with skills of marking, writing comments for each test, returning test papers, comments on each student, announcing scores and use
of scores for each type of learning performance assessment and evaluation At present, the ways of marking, giving comments, returning test papers, comments and especially the use of scores after each examination is not suitable for the humanitarian purpose of learning performance assessment and evaluation With these skills, teachers will know how to use assessment and evaluation as a tool