Assessing reflection in English enhancement courses: teachers’ views and development of a holistic framework

Abstract

The debate about whether and how reflection should/can be assessed has so far yielded inconclusive findings. This paper intends to revisit and further this controversial issue within a specific disciplinary context: the assessment of reflection in English enhancement courses within a second-language environment. Students across majors taking the language enhancement courses in question are often required to provide written or verbal evidence to demonstrate their abilities to reflect, and in turn enhance their linguistic repertoires. However, a potential problem arises when the assessment of ‘reflection’ at times may become the assessment of learners’ English language proficiency, thus casting doubts about the validity and reliability of incorporating reflection as an assessment tool in our context. Drawing on analyses of seven English enhancement courses with a reflection component, and semi-structured interviews with 22 faculty members who had had the experience of assessing reflection, and/or developing assessment criteria for evaluating the quality of students’ reflection, their perceptions of assessing reflection fairly and the challenges encountered during the assessment process were brought to the surface. A holistic framework is proposed to address the challenges encountered, particularly with respect to the differences in emphasis that faculty members place on content vs. language.