Assessment of/as Intercultural Learning

The shift to more online teaching and learning has included increased opportunities for online professional development. Recently, I attended the webinar "Assessment of/as Intercultural Learning in World Languages" offered through the ACTFL Special Interest Group on Culture. Dr. Tatjana Babic Williams and Dr. Aletha Stahl from Purdue University led participants through a thoughtful discussion of why and how learning can be assessed and then provided concrete examples of intercultural learning assessment tools and practices designed for use in language courses. In this post, I share highlights from their presentation, but I highly recommend looking at their presentation slides, which contain a wealth of information and links to useful resources. 

Assessment of Learning  /  Assessment as Learning

When we talk about assessment, we often differentiate between formative and summative assessment. Formative assessment usually occurs during the learning process and helps the instructor align future activities with learner needs; summative assessment happens after the fact and helps the instructor measure what students learned. Assessment AS learning, however, is a student-centered metacognitive process.Students learn through the process of setting goals, monitoring their own progress, and reflecting on their own learning. A great example of this is the BOSSA, a set of self-assessment surveys and protocols created here at the U of M to help students take greater ownership of the development of their speaking skills.                    

Backward Design for Integration of Intercultural Learning in a Language Program

In our language programs, we strive to chart a path across a sequence of courses for students to develop greater proficiency in reading, speaking, listening, and writing. What is unique about the Italian program at Purdue University, is that they have added intercultural learning to their curricular goals. Using backward design, they have identified desired outcomes, determined acceptable evidence, and aligned learning experiences targeting intercultural learning. For example, in the first-year, intercultural learning focuses on affective attitudes, such as openness and curiosity. In second-year, the focus shifts to cognitive skills, such as self-awareness and cultural worldview-frameworks. In the third-year, behavioral skills, such as empathy and verbal and nonverbal communication, are emphasized. 

          

Tools and Examples for Assessment of Intercultural Learning

In the Italian courses at Purdue, students complete intercultural simulations and exercises, followed by reflection assignments and debriefing sessions. Students measure their progress along a continuum (developing - emerging - proficient) based on the AAC&U VALUE Rubric for Intercultural Knowledge and Competence. 

Instructors, in turn, do not award credit based on where students fall along the continuum, but rather on the completion, complexity, and effort demonstrated in their self-reflection.                     

In addition to these self-reflection assignments, students also complete pre and post likert-scale surveys. These surveys are based on the AAC&U VALUE rubrics for both Intercultural Knowledge and Competence and for Global Learning. In contrast to the written text format of the self-reflection assignments, these surveys are a quick tool to prepare students for a learning experience and to summarize what they have learned.  

Shared Resources through the Intercultural Learning HUB at Purdue University

The final highlight of the webinar was the introduction to the Intercultural Learning HUB, an online repository of classroom exercises, assessment tools, scholarly papers, research projects and more. Access to the HUB is free. Once you are logged in, be sure to check out these two collections: Activities Easy to Adapt for World Language, and Assessment of/as Intercultural Learning in World Languages.                    

Intercultural learning is an aspect of language education that has been gaining attention and traction in recent years. In addition to the 2019 ACTFL publication "Teaching Intercultural Citizenship Across the Curriculum: The Role of Language Education," there are frequent announcements of online webinars, such as two offered by CERCLL in May. In the future, we hope to have more discussion about intercultural learning at the U of M.