Hi Anke,
Thank you so much for your post!   If you go to the LINCS Assessment
Special Collection you’ll find a few resources there that could be of
interest to you.
Go to:   <http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/>
http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/
And click on the green Students icon.
At that page are resources focused on the student as test-taker.
There’s one that comes to mind:
<http://sabes.org/resources/adventures/vol16/16hambleton.htm> How to Do
Your Best on Standardized Tests: Some Suggestions for Adult Learners
that provides some information on minimizing test anxiety.
Does anyone have suggestions around test anxiety for Anke?
Also, you wrote:  “As we speak German, we cannot use the ETS PDQ – does
anything alike exist in other languages? Are there other nations on this
list who face the same problem? Do you use standardised tests to check
literacy gains?”
 
Can any subscribers speak to Anke’s questions here?  I’m wondering if
perhaps you might find some information on this at the UNESCO website
(http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/efa_2000_assess/index.shtml), but I
don’t know for sure.  I know that I have recently heard about or read
about a foreign language literacy assessment, but I had no luck
searching around for this.  Does anyone on the List know about these
assessments?
 
Thanks!


Marie Cora
Assessment Discussion List Moderator
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov]
On Behalf Of Grotlüschen
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 4:34 PM
To: assessment at nifl.gov
Subject: [Assessment 632] Assessment in GER
 
Hello everybody, 
 
sorry for not writing fluently in English. I am a German researcher and
lurking here since the beginning of the year. I learn a lot from your
round-the-world-discussion and I really appreciate your work and
exchange of tools. I do not know the “netiquette” here and if I ask too
much questions or make anyone feel uncomfortable, please take it as a
“beginners’ mistake”, thank you!
 
Well, in your latest mails I thought “this really describes what we face
here” – lots of classes, but no clear ways of assessment. As we speak
German, we cannot use the ETS PDQ – does anything alike exist in other
languages? Are there other nations on this list who face the same
problem? Do you use standardised tests to check literacy gains?
 
Anyway, we face very much the same problem in GER as well, like Alison
said for NZ. You can attend a literacy class, learn nothing (if you feel
bored) and in case you get a job later, this would count as “success” of
the literacy training. The most important figure for literacy
legitimation is employment. But nobody checks whether your employment
has anything to do with literacy. You can be a dishwasher – it would
count as success.
 
Of course everyday practice is different and adults do learn a lot in
the classes and they like the atmosphere (mostly offered by
“Volkshochschule” – kind of public institution for adult education). But
if authorities question the efficiency of these classes and talk about
shortening the funding, there is little in our hands to prove that these
classes are successful.
 
Adult learners here fear the testing situation, that’s why we have
little experience with adult assessment (neither summative nor
formative). How do you meet the fears of the learners against tests?
Don’t they have any? What if you use ETS PDQ, don’t people refuse to
participate? Do you hand the results to the participants or do you (as
teachers, institution, researchers) keep them for reporting? 
 
Tons of questions, sorry for that -
 
Yours, 
Anke Grotlüschen 
 
 
 
 
Prof. Dr. Anke Grotlüschen
Juniorprofessur für Lebenslanges Lernen
grotlueschen at uni-bremen.de
Universität Bremen
Fachbereich Erziehungs- und Bildungswissenschaften
Bibliothekstraße, GW2 Raum A 2100
28359 Bremen
www.ifeb.uni-bremen.de
 
Tel. 0421-218-3083 oder 0421-8383 519
Mobil: 0176-2384 7995
 
 
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