The teaching and assessment of English in primary education should be age appropriate and congruent with teaching and learning goals, however, research in Portugal has identified a mismatch between recommendations in national guidelines and age-appropriate approaches to assessment and actual primary English classroom practices. Reasons for this include teachers’ limited assessment literacy, together with professional precarity, professional isolation and stakeholder pressure. In my talk I will present a plan to upgrade Portuguese primary English teachers’ assessment literacy through a blended Massive Open Online Course (bMOOC). This hybrid approach aims to nurture communities of practice to combat professional isolation, while teachers participate in the bMOOC and develop their understanding of the connection between the purposes of assessment and the tools and approaches at their disposal to reach curriculum goals.
Period
28 May 2022
Event title
Primary English education in Portugal Semimar 2022