The seminar attracted the participation of many managers of functional departments, lecturers, students from various faculties.
Speaking at the seminar, Principal Hoang Anh Tuan highly appreciated the initiative of the School Union in proposing to organize practical activities, closely related to the expertise and actual needs of lecturers and students. Testing and evaluation is one of the very important steps to improve the quality of training and innovate teaching methods. Currently, the forms of testing and evaluation are very diverse, so lecturers also need to flexibly apply appropriate forms for learners to fairly and accurately assess the learning and training results of students, while encouraging and motivating students to be creative and proactive in learning. Through this seminar, the School wants to listen to the opinions and propose solutions from lecturers, students, and functional departments to improve and innovate the work of testing and evaluating learning results, improving the quality of training.
Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan, Rector of University of Social Sciences and Humanities attended and gave a speech.
In her opening speech at the Seminar, Dr. Ngo Thi Kieu Oanh, Chairwoman of the School's Trade Union, emphasized that the objective of the Seminar is a forum for lecturers and staff who directly teach as well as related functional departments as well as students to share the current situation and shortcomings in the work of testing and evaluating student results. The Seminar is a multi-dimensional perspective and assessment from the School, lecturers and students on the activities of testing and evaluating students' results.
The Executive Board of the Trade Union invited 3 speakers: Dr. Pham Huy Cuong, Director of Training Quality Assurance, Dr. Nguyen Hoai Phuong, lecturer of the Faculty of History, Dr. Vu Van Anh, lecturer of the Faculty of International Studies, presenting multi-dimensional and comprehensive perspectives from managers and lecturers directly teaching general subjects as well as specialized subjects.
Based on open discussions, the Seminar will propose a number of solutions to improve and innovate this work according to the criteria: fairness, correct assessment of learners' abilities and encouragement of creativity and initiative in learning - emphasized the Chairwoman of the School's Trade Union, Ngo Thi Kieu Oanh.
With the presentation "Continuing to improve the effectiveness of testing and evaluation activities to meet the conditions for ensuring training quality", Dr. Pham Huy Cuong gave very specific analysis on the position of the K&A stage in ensuring training quality according to AUN-QA standards, regulations in circulars and training regulations on K&A, specific forms and objectives of this work. Based on the recommendations of the External Evaluation Team for training programs, Dr. Pham Huy Cuong emphasized some shortcomings: there are no detailed instructions on K&A according to output standards (CDR), K&A mainly measures the breadth of the CDR, that is, the level of implementation of test/exam contents, while vertical measurement (depth) has not been clearly described; K&A methods are mainly traditional, not really diverse. Based on those analyses, the report of the Center for Quality Assurance proposed a number of solutions to improve the effectiveness of testing and evaluating learners' learning outcomes: developing a scoring rubric, developing a question bank for courses, building a timely feedback mechanism on assessment results so that learners can improve their learning, strengthening review, planning to improve assessment quality, etc.
Dr. Pham Huy Cuong shared at the seminar
Dr. Nguyen Hoai Phuong (Head of the Department of Cultural Studies and Vietnamese Cultural History, Faculty of History) shared practical experiences in testing and evaluating the course of Vietnamese Cultural Foundations - a compulsory course for all students of VNU (except for the University of Foreign Languages). With the characteristics of a class with many students, in order for the testing and evaluation activities to be truly effective, the teacher can evaluate the learners at many times, in each lesson, each chapter, each credit... the evaluation process at all stages needs to be clearly defined: content, lesson objectives, implementation methods, evaluation methods, forms and evaluation tools. Testing and evaluation activities are not only oriented towards evaluating "achieved" results but also oriented towards developing autonomous capacity, inspiring passion, and actively exploring of new learners, which is a higher task of testing and evaluation activities. To achieve the above goal, there needs to be proactiveness from both teachers and learners, as well as assessment records from managers. Teachers need to overcome the familiar "rut" to innovate assessment methods (investing time and effort); learners need to be active, adaptable, and learn so that assessment activities are not simply "returning lessons" but also an opportunity to stimulate creativity, satisfy the passion for learning and researching new knowledge of both teachers and learners.
Dr. Nguyen Hoai Phuong shares the advantages and difficulties in conducting assessment of students' learning outcomes in general subjects.
Based on the practice of teaching the International Negotiation course, Dr. Vu Van Anh, lecturer of the Faculty of International Studies, has interesting analysis and suggestions "Combining Bloom's scale and Rubric in assessing students' learning outcomes". Based on the analysis of specific assessment criteria based on Bloom's scale associated with the course's learning outcomes, combining Bloom's scale into the Rubric assessment criteria system, lecturer Vu Van Anh makes a few recommendations: Regarding Bloom's scale, criteria related to cognitive and skill aspects can be assessed, but the attitude/level of autonomy and responsibility aspects are very difficult to assess (because they mainly rely on the lecturer's observations without specific evidence); Regarding the overall Rubric: The overall Rubric will be difficult to apply to courses with many assessment criteria. However, combined with Bloom's scale, the overall Rubric can be the first step to specify the component points (smaller levels) for assessment). Detailed rubrics can be better applied to courses that require multiple assessment criteria. In order for assessment to truly reflect the results of learners on the criteria: knowledge, skills and attitudes, while encouraging learners' initiative and creativity, each lecturer needs to flexibly apply assessment tools as well as testing methods, build a rich, high-quality question bank, closely following the learning outcomes for each specific course.
Dr. Vu Van Anh gives some suggestions for combining sets of standards to be able to assess most comprehensively and accurately reflect the learners' abilities.
The discussion also received many exchanges, shares as well as questions and suggestions from lecturers and students of the faculties. Opinions agreed on the importance of assessment in improving teaching quality and improving students' learning outcomes; at the same time, some suggestions were made: assessment plans should be announced at the beginning of the semester (time, form, assessment criteria) so that students know and proactively plan their review to achieve good results, diversify assessment forms as well as have forms of encouragement and extra points for diligence when students actively participate in extracurricular activities.
Student Tran Hoang Hai Anh, K67, Faculty of Archival Science and Office Administration, exchanged suggestions from the perspective of a learner. According to some lecturers, to improve the quality of assessment activities, each lecturer needs to be proactive in building a specific question bank for each subject, and at the same time, there needs to be professional assessment from the department and support from the Training Department to ensure consistency throughout the school.
Concluding the discussion, on behalf of the Board of Directors of the University, Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan thanked the enthusiastic participation of the staff of departments, faculties, lecturers, students and students, and shared the enthusiasm of the three speakers. The University listened to the suggestions from lecturers and students, and directed the functional departments to research and propose improvement plans to further improve the quality of KTG work, with the motto of taking learners as the center and creating a truly fair, practical and humane learning environment at VNU-USSH. President Hoang Anh Tuan once again appreciated the initiative and creativity of the University's Trade Union and hoped that in the coming time, the Trade Union Executive Committee would continue to promote, propose and organize more useful and practical activities for the teaching and learning of lecturers and students.
Some pictures from the discussion
