ES lista de control / CAT llista de control / FR liste de contrôle / DE Checkliste

A checklist (also referred to as a control or verification list) is an assessment tool that details the criteria to be followed in order to carry out a learning activity efficiently and the indicators showing clearly that those criteria have been met. These criteria and indicators of achievement are listed. From the perspective that sees assessment as communication, checklists are negotiated and shared by all the participants in the teaching and learning process, thta is, teachers and students. Thus, both during the activity and once it has finished, the list guides the learner down the best path to carry out a task. Therefore, it is a very powerful tool to help learners develop their autonomy and self-regulation.

In order to develop plurilingual discursive competence, checklists are created that detail the most prominent characteristics of every discourse genre, in their different dimensions. Thus, to assess that competence, checklists need to include criteria and indicators of achievement of the sociocultural dimension of the genre, its pragmatic dimension, and also its textual dimension. These criteria are the goals of language learning. To a large extent, the quality of the information gained using checklists depends on the quality of the descriptors chosen, as well on the students’ direct participation in the assessment process.

References

• Stobart, Gordon (2008). Testing Times: The Uses and Abuses of Assessment. Abingdon: Routledge.