Gvozdeva M. Oxymoron and metaphorical nature of modern assessment procedures in Russia. LIFELONG EDUCATION: The 21st Century.
2014. № 4 (8). DOI: 10.15393/j5.art.2014.2650

Modern scientific vocabulary of lifelong learning

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Oxymoron and metaphorical nature of modern assessment procedures in Russia

Gvozdeva M
PhD, associate professor, director of the Institute of Foreign Languages at Petrozavodsk State University
(Petrozavodsk)
gvozdeva@petrsu.ru

Keywords:
pedagogical control (grading)
assessment
expected outcomes (educational results)
backwash.

Abstract: the article discusses the assessment in contemporary Russia within the framework of lifelong learning. The term “oxymoron” is used to describe the eclectic and heterogeneous assessment, the peculiar pedagogical juxtaposition of the contradictory practices. In the reality this juxtaposition is caused by the misapplication of assessment procedures and instruments. The author shows the difference between pedagogical control (grading) and assessment, comparing their educational philosophy, pedagogical paradigm, approach, tasks, educational outcomes and major types. The article describes different types of educational standards (normative, criterion and individual) as bases for expert evaluation. The language of the assessment and of the result interpretation is a key element. The implementation of adopted assessment procedures and tools on the one hand, and the lack of unambiguous terminology, on the other, causes the necessity to resort to metaphors. Metaphors explain the nature and the meaning of the novel practice in education. Many borrowed terms originally contain metaphors.
Furthermore, the article seeks to identify the pedagogical definition of the term “backwash/washback” as a characteristic of assessment, to study its development within educational theory terminology, to compare the original term with its Russian equivalent and to analyze the metaphorical meaning of the term. The following methods are used: analysis of theoretical sources as well as Russian and English internet resources, generalization, content-analysis and the description of the metaphorical model of the term. The article describes the role of backwash in lifelong learning context. The conclusions presented in the article are debatable and may give an impulse to further professional discussion.

Paper submitted on: 11/08/2014; Accepted on: 12/20/2014; Published online on: 12/24/2014.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15393/j5.art.2014.2650