Unit II

Learning
activities

Experimental task 2
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activities

Experimental task Unit II

Second Language Acquisition

Objective:
To verify the students´ linguistic level, learning styles and strategies through the application of a
diagnostic test.

(10 points)

Activities to be carried out:

 Search on some theoretical issues about the psycho-pedagogical diagnosis

In the modern theory and practice of higher education, there is a number of problems that are
determined by the social and psychological characteristics of the modern student community
(Hemmati, & Valadi, 2016, pp. 101-124; Barros et al., 2014, pp. 102-103; Yu, & Wright, 2016, pp.
49-64). In this respect, special attention should be paid to the adaptation and self- adaptation of
the developing personality of a future professions and the formation of his or her social and
professional identity. Essential, conceptual, organizational-activity, and resultative characteristics
of adaptation are related to more than just the adjustment to the rhythm of the educational
organization, acceptance of the requirements and rules of conduct and interaction, and
satisfaction with life in a new situation (Sandel, 2014, pp. 1-29; Tong, 2014, pp. 83-100; Mansur et
al., 2016, pp. 41-45). To a greater extent, adaptation is related to a special area of professional
activity of teachers and psychologists during the support of students. This implies the creation of
favorable socio-psychological conditions for the effective learning and psychological development
of students in situations of interaction during the educational process.

According to I.A. Zimnyaya (2002) and her co-authors, a crucial characteristic of positive personal
development is the general culture of the student, which serves as a foundation for successful
professional development. Considering the abovementioned problems in the development of
higher education with regard to the social, psychological, and pedagogical characteristics of the
modern student community, the pressing issue is to study comprehensively the personal and
professional characteristics of future graduates. In this regard, in order to take into account the
age-related and socio-psychological characteristics of a personality, as well as the specificity of its
personal and professional development, it is necessary to design a holistic system of social,
psychological, and pedagogical diagnostics, which would be logically incorporated into the
educational process and could help solve a series of complementing problems related not only to
the professional development of students’ personalities, but also to the prevention of personal and
professional disadaptation and, if necessary, the correction of existing professional and personal
disharmonies (Shchelina, 2013, pp. 69-82; Shchelina, 2012, pp. 79-85; Shchelina, Begantcova, &
Markeyeva, 2014, p. 4446).

During comprehensive psychological and pedagogical diagnostics, it is possible to compose a

holistic social and psychological profile of a group with regard to the individual and personal
features of students majoring in different subjects and their length of study at the higher
educational institution, which allows determining the general trends that characterize the features
of professional self-determination of modern students at various stages of their professionalization.

In order to distinguish the peculiarities of the professional and personal development of modern
students, the psychological and pedagogical service of the Psychology and Pedagogy faculty of
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the Lobachevsky University Arzamas branch uses a special complex of psychodiagnostic
methods. This complex is aimed at determining the professional orientation of the personality of
modern students, their motivation, attitude to the profession, life and value orientations, the
features of their self-consciousness, characterological features, and personal relationships in a
team. The diagnostic complex includes a method for studying the motivation behind the choice of
a profession and professional orientation of a person (J. Holland’s method, modified by A.A. Azbel
and A.G. Gretsova) A.M. Etkind’s color attitude test, life-purpose orientation test (based on the PIL
(Purpose in Life) test (Haugan, & Moksnes, 2013, pp. 296-319) by Crumbaugh & Maholick,
modified by D.A. Leontyev and M.O. and O.E. Kalashnikovs), a M. Rokeach’s method for
determining value orientations, a method for determining the actual structure of value orientations
(Bubnova, 1995), the Dembo-Rubinstein self-esteem measurement method, Schwarzlander’s
Level of Aspirations method (Schwarzlander’s method n.d.), K. Leonhardt’s method for studying
personality accentuation (modified by H. Schmieschek), and J. Moreno’s sociometry.

Knowing the difficulties that a student may present is essential to ensure that he is able to acquire
the knowledge required in the school curriculum. Otherwise, the child may be left behind, have
serious problems in the future, mixed with frustration and loss of interest in studying.

The main objective of the psychoeducational diagnosis is to detect the difficulties in the student,
Then design guidelines to improve their learning capacity by involving both teachers and their
families.

Below, we will see more about this tool, what are its objectives, what functions it fulfills, what
elements must be involved in its realization and what dimensions it evaluates.

Psychopedagogical diagnosis is the process by which it involves describe, classify, predict and, if

necessary, explain student behavior in the school context, By linking it to other systems involved in
their education, such as family and community. This process includes all of the individual or
institution’s measurement and assessment activities to provide advice on the student in question.

Psychopedagogical diagnosis is a very important part of the work of educational professionals,

such as educators, teachers and promoters of learning. The process aims to assess the level of
development and learning of children, Evaluate their skills, abilities and habits, as well as know the
quality of their affective processes. Knowing all this, it is a question of making known to the
educator the most appropriate means to promote the development of the child.

The objectives of the psychoeducational diagnosis are diverse, although they can be summarized,
basically, in the following.

It aims to check the student’s progress towards the educational objectives defined in the school
program. These objectives include, basically, three domains: the cognitive, the emotional and the
psychomotor..

The objective is to identify the factors of the teaching-learning context which can interfere with the
development of the individual.

In other words, that is to say it aims to know the possibilities and limits of the child in terms of
learningBoth clean and from the environment in which it is raised, such as disturbances such as
unfavorable family economic situation.
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Finally, it is a question of adapting the teaching-learning situation, that is to say of adapting the
pedagogical strategies so that the individual acquires the knowledge required in the academic
course. To achieve this, it will be necessary to take into account the way in which the pupil is
progressing, helping him to overcome difficulties and, if they occur, correcting delays in learning
school content.

From the objectives that we have just seen on the psychoeducational diagnosis, we can highlight
the following functions of this tool.

It allows to know the possibilities and the limits of the individual, because thus anticipate their
development and the course of learning in the future.

As its name suggests, this tool is diagnostic and therefore has the function of discovering the
causes, both personal and environmental, which hinder the development of the student.

Once the student’s needs have been detected, the psycho-educational diagnosis is used to design
an intervention plan, The guidelines are focused on solving and improving the development and
learning of the individual.

If you want reorganize the current situation of the individual through the implementation of the
intervention, With all the necessary recommendations.

When carrying out a psychoeducational diagnosis, a series of principles must be followed to make
it as exhaustive as possible. The intention of all this is to ensure that the application of a tool that
can mark the future of the child is properly managed.

Ignoring basic aspects of a child’s life and assuming that their problems may be due to a learning
disability, such as ADHD or dyslexia, ignoring possible socio-cultural conditions can do more harm
than good to their children. children. that’s why the educational psychologist must ensure that he
takes into account the following four principles in the realization and application of this tool.
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 Elaboration of the diagnostic test

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 Application in the group of students

Different authors as Brínguez (2010), Páez (1998), Recary Fernández. S (2003), Castellanos
Simons. B (2004), Del Pino, J.L (1996), among others, consider pedagogical diagnosis as a
continuous, dynamic, systemic and participative process that consists on describing, analyzing,
interpreting and understanding the nature of the educative reality to express concrete judgments.
In this sense, it also permits:
- To design, evaluate and modify teaching and learning strategies.
- To interpret the students ́ diversity and to provide an adequate individual treatment.
- To elaborate different learning tasks for measuring the students ́ development, potentiality and
learning styles.
- To predict possible personal transformations.
Arias (2002), sustains, that pedagogical diagnosis should be organized using principles that give
clarity for its further application:
- Individuality. Each person is unique.
- Multidisciplinary. Different approaches should be considered in correspondence with the school
performance of the learner and under the base of different subjects.
- Continuous. It can be applied in different moments to evaluate the students ́ transformations.
- Scientific and objective. Scientific instruments are applied to compile concrete information about
the students ́ bio-psychological-social reality.
The concepts and principles analyzed above allow the authors of this paper establishing the
essential phases that typify the pedagogical diagnosis as an integrative, holistic process:
First phase: characterization of the phenomenon being researched, establishing the starting point
or initial state.
Second phase: making prognostics of the tendencies of possible changes and previewing possible
transformations.
Third phase: projecting actions that potentiate changes towards the desired state. (Final state)
Hence, teacher trainers who mentor future foreign language teachers must be prepared
consciously, scientifically, objectively and efficiently, in order to apply pedagogical diagnosis
through dimensions that spring from the careful analysis of the system of contents ; and in general
in all the system of formation of a given major. That is to say, the different academic, scientific and
labor components, which comprise the formation system.
In this sense, the pedagogical diagnosis provides parameters containing measurable and reliable
indicators, which permit to evaluate the future foreign language teachers ́ pedagogical
performance that contribute in the formation of their personality.
During the application of the pedagogical diagnosis, the teacher trainer uses a series of
instruments that facilitate to get close to the educative reality of the teacher-to-be and later on
make prognostics of his evolution. Specific and general instruments can be used according to the
subjects’ characteristics. Some of them are:
- Systematic, partial and final evaluations.
- Interviews
- Observations
- Documentary analysis
From the perspective of personalized teaching, all the information that is provided by the already
mentioned instruments, ease the elaboration of pre-service trainees’ profiles. Departing from this,
it is possible to precise their strengths, potentialities and weaknesses which enable the design of
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strategies for pedagogical interventions, according to their educative needs and future decision
making for curricular adjustments. Relevant physical, mental, linguistic, emotional, social
developments are also analyzed, as well as family relationships, motivations, learning styles and
learning strategies.
The information compiled from the instruments helps in deepening into the development of basic
learning capacities, such as: perception, attention, memory, comprehension and reasoning during
the initial developmental stage , and their real future potentialities , the image they have of
themselves, self- esteem, respect for the others, and the capacity to receive and offer help.

 Data compilation as registered from the test applied, to develop a concrete analysis and
stand out the most relevant results in reference to the linguistic level of the students, and
their learning styles and strategies. ( To annex the instrument and evidence)

2. classification of a fact (numerical value) in relation to a benchmark (performance

evaluation).
The yardstick in performance assessment is called the reference standard:
Classical test theory
- Basic assumption: observed test value = true value + measurement error.
- Quality criteria: Objectivity, reliability, validity
Reliability
- Degree of accuracy with which the tested characteristic is measured
- perfect reliability: test measures true value T without measurement error (not in
practice)
- Reliability coefficient: indicates to what extent measured values obtained under the
same conditions on one and the same test person agree, to what extent the test
result is reproducible
- Estimation method: parallel test reliability
o Parallel forms are homogeneous forms with the same mean and the same
standard deviation
- Estimation method: Split-half reliability
o Split of tests into two parallel halves (calculated as correlation of results of both test
halves)
- Estimation method: Consistency analysis
o Intercorrelation of all items (internal consistency)
Objectivity
- describes whether the results of the administration, scoring and interpretation of the
test are independent of the test administrator
- Verification: Do two different test administrators arrive at the same results with
regard to one and the same test person?
- Prerequisite for reliability and validity
Objectivity of administration, scoring, interpretation
Validity
- Degree of accuracy with which the test actually measures what it is supposed to
measure or purports to measure.
- a reliable test does not need to be valid, on the other hand there is no validity
without reliability
- reliability is a necessary but not sufficient condition for validity
- Predictive validity: a test can predict the nature and extent of future behavior.
Diagnostics of learning prerequisites & observations of behavior in the classroom
Model of professional competence of teachers
Diagnostic competence
- is the ability of teachers to assess characteristics of their students appropriately
- accurate assessment of the difficulty of learning and task demands
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- Judgmental quality of teachers' judgments about certain school characteristics:
degree of agreement between teachers' judgments and results in standardized test
procedures.
- 3 components of diagnostic competence: level component, difference component,
comparison component
- Subject-specificity of judgment: Judgmental quality of teachers varies as a function
of subject
Sequence of the diagnostic process:
1. question (problem, occasion) and its specification
2. hypotheses
3. obtaining diagnostic data (selection and application of methods)
4. diagnostic judgment (incl. hypothesis testing)
5. judgment (and if necessary expert opinion)
more or less conscious passage through these 5 phases:
- Occasion individual problem: very detailed
- Occasion determination of learning requirements/results: less detailed
Central recording/measuring methods of educational-psychological diagnostics
- Questioning (diagnostic interviews, conversation, ...)
- Observing (classroom observation, ...)
- Testing (formal achievement and ability tests, developmental tests, ...)
- more specific assessment methods (learning diary, error analysis)

 Evidence can be shown through photos and recordings.

No evidence because we are on summer break at this time.