Atta Gebril
Atta Gebril is professor and TESOL program director at the Department of Applied Linguistics, the American University in Cairo. He obtained his PhD in Foreign Language and ESL Education with a minor in language testing from the University of Iowa. His dissertation work focused on score generalizability of academic writing tasks. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Language Testing, Language Assessment Quarterly, and Assessing Writing. He joined the editorial team of Language Assessment Quarterly in 2018 as an associate editor. His work has appeared in top-tier journals including Language Assessment Quarterly, Language Testing, Assessing Writing, Second Language Writing, Assessment in Education, English for Academic Purposes, Teacher Development, and TESOL Journal. His book entitled Assessment myths, coauthored with Lia Plakans, was published by the University of Michigan Press in 2015. His edited volume "Applied Linguistics in the Middle East and North Africa" was published by John Benjamins in 2017.
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The volume begins by introducing learning-oriented assessment (LOA) and the context around its growing popularity, especially in accountability-oriented settings which favor summative large-scale tests. The first part of the book charts the development of LOA’s theoretical and conceptual underpinnings, outlining the ways in which they have been informed by theories of learning and key elements. The second part demonstrates LOA in practice, drawing on examples from different countries and instructional settings to explore such topics as the role of technology in LOA and developing feedback materials based around LOA principles and developed for core literacy skills.
Offering a holistic view of learning-oriented assessment and the real-world affordances and challenges of its implementation, this book is key reading for graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in language testing and assessment, TESOL, and language education.
The book opens with an introduction that reviews many key assessment terms and concepts.
The myths examined in this book are:
Assessment is just writing tests and using statistics.
A comprehensive final exam is the best way to evaluate students.
Scores on performance assessments are preferable because of their accuracy and authenticity.
Multiple choice tests are inaccurate measures of language but are easy to write.
We should test only one skill at a time.
A test’s validity can be determined by looking at it.
Issues of fairness are not a concern with standardized testing.
Teachers should not be involved in preparing students for tests.
Implications for teaching and an agenda for needed research are discussed in a conclusion.