La Promoción Automática y sus efectos en el proceso de aprendizaje de inglés en el Colegio Jose Asuncion Silva

(1)

1 Automatic Promotion and its effects in English learning process at Jose Asuncion Silva

School

ARIETA CECILIA BELTRÁN CASTRO

Code: 20061165060

CARLOS ADRIAN FLOREZ GARCIA

Code: 20052165009

Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas

School of Sciences and Education

Bogotá D.C

(2)

2 Automatic Promotion and its effects in English learning process at Jose Asuncion Silva

School

ARIETA CECILIA BELTRÁN CASTRO

CARLOS ADRIAN FLOREZ GARCIA

Monograph work presented as final requirement for obtaining a Bachelor Degree in Basic

Education with a Major in English as a Foreign Language

ADVISOR: PILAR MENDEZ RIVERA

Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas

School of Sciences and Education

Bogotá D.C

(3)

3 NOTE OF ACCEPTANCE

ADVISOR

_____________________________________

Professor: PILAR MENDEZ RIVERA

EVALUATOR

_______________________________

(4)

4 TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES ... 6

LIST OF CHARTS ... 7

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ... 10

LIST OF ANNEXES ... 14

ABSTRACT ... 15

INTRODUCTION ... 16

JUSTIFICACTION ... 20

CHAPTER 1 ... 22

Problem Statement ... 22

Research question ... 26

Objectives ... 26

CHAPTER 2 ... 27

Literature Review... 27

School and Educational Policies ... 27

Evaluation from the 70s to the Present day ... 36

Automatic Promotion, its origin and implementation... 45

Decree 1290 of 2009 ... 51

Analysis of Decree 1290 Of 2009 ... 53

Impacts of Automatic Promotion ... 54

Educational Normativity, Speeches and Effects ... 63

(5)

5

Perception Characteristics ... 83

Subjectivity and Subjectivation ... 84

Components of concept on subjectivity... 85

CHAPTER 3 ... 92

Research design ... 92

Type of study ... 92

Methodology ... 95

CHAPTER 4 ... 99

Analysis and Findings ... 99

Students „Profile ... 99

Students Perceptions from the Family and the School aspect: a glimpse to their behavior 103 Students‟ opinions towards evaluation in an EFL context analysis ... 123

Students‟ understanding of Automatic Promotion ... 130

Parents‟ perceptions analysis on automatic promotion, evaluation and EFL context ... 132

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS ... 135

(6)

6 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 ... 100

Figure 2 ... 101

Figure 3 ... 101

Figure 4 ... 102

Figure 5 ... 133

Figure 6 ... 238

Figure 7 ... 242

Figure 8 ... 245

Figure 9 ... 249

Figure 10 ... 253

Figure 11 ... 255

Figure 12 ... 258

Figure 13 ... 261

Figure 14 ... 264

Figure 15 ... 267

Figure 16 ... 269

(7)

7 LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1 ... 100

Chart 2 ... 101

Chart 3 ... 117

Chart 4 ... 122

Chart 5 ... 124

Chart 6 ... 124

Chart 7 ... 125

Chart 8 ... 125

Chart 9 ... 126

Chart 10 ... 126

Chart 11 ... 127

Chart 12 ... 128

Chart 13 ... 129

Chart 14 ... 129

Chart 15 ... 224

Chart 16 ... 225

Chart 17 ... 226

Chart 18 ... 227

Chart 19 ... 228

Chart 20 ... 229

(8)

8

Chart 22 ... 231

Chart 23 ... 232

Chart 24 ... 233

Chart 25 ... 234

Chart 26 ... 235

Chart 27 ... 241

Chart 28 ... 241

Chart 29 ... 244

Chart 30 ... 244

Chart 31 ... 248

Chart 32 ... 249

Chart 33 ... 252

Chart 34 ... 252

Chart 35 ... 254

Chart 36 ... 255

Chart 37 ... 257

Chart 38 ... 258

Chart 39 ... 260

Chart 40 ... 260

Chart 41 ... 263

Chart 42 ... 264

Chart 43 ... 266

(9)

9

Chart 45 ... 268

Chart 46 ... 269

Chart 47 ... 271

Chart 48 ... 271

Chart 49 ... 275

(10)

10 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Illustration 1 ... 144

(11)

11

(12)

12

(13)

13

(14)

14 LIST OF ANNEXES

ANNEX 1: CONSENT FORM IN BLANK ... 144

ANNEX 2: STUDENTS‟ CONSENT FORMS SIGNED ... 145

ANNEX 3: INSTRUMENT 1 (QUESTIONNAIRE 1) ... 156

ANNEX 4: INSTRUMENT 2 (ARTIFACT B1) ... 160

ANNEX 5: INSTRUMENT 3 (ARTIFACT B2) ... 161

ANNEX 6: INSTRUMENT 4 (ARTIFACT C) ... 162

ANNEX 7: INSTRUMENT 5 (QUESTIONNAIRE 2) ... 163

ANNEX 8: INSTRUMENT 6 (PRE-TEST) ... 166

ANNEX 9: INSTRUMENT 7 (POST-TEST) ... 168

ANNEX 10: IINSTRUMENT 8 (STUDENTS SURVEY 1) ... 170

ANNEX 11: INSTRUMENT 9 (PARENTS‟ SURVEY) ... 171

ANNEX 12: INSTRUMENT 10 (TEACHER‟S SURVEY) ... 172

ANNEX 13: STUDENT‟S, PARENTS‟ AND TEACHER SAMPLES OF THE INSTRUMENTS... 174

ANNEX 14: STUDENTS‟ SURVEY ABOUT ATUOMATIC PROMOTION ... 189

ANNEX 15: STUDENTS‟ DRAWINGS ... 201

ANNEX 16: CHARTS FROM PERCEPTION FINDINGS ... 224

ANNEX 17: SUBJECTIVATION PROCESS FROM PARTICIPANTS ... 236

ANNEX 18: STUDENTS' LETTERS ... 277

ANNEX 19: ECONOMY AND SOCIAL IMPACT ... 298

(15)

15 ABSTRACT

This paper is meant to describe and explain the impacts caused by Automatic Promotion

at Jose Asuncion Silva School. This is a compilation of theory related to the meaning of

evaluation to be promoted known as Automatic Promotion and the perception of students,

teachers, and parents from School Jose Asuncion Silva.

Issues that seem to be unrelated with the Automatic Promotion as evaluation, assessment

worthy of merit arose as intrinsically connected with learning process of English.

The purpose of this academic paper is to report the consequences and implications of

Automatic Promotion in a specific setting and population explaining the reasons why it was

implemented and later repealed in 2009 throughout a theoretical reflection. The paper also shows

some contradictory elements of Colombian law with education principles by describing how the

government repealed Automatic promotion in legal terms but it is currently instilled in our

classroom.

Key Words: Automatic Promotion, Evaluation and Assessment, Effects, Perceptions,

Decree 1290, learning, Self, teaching, Process, educational policies, economic and political

(16)

16 INTRODUCTION

To analyze and reflect on the impact of the Automatic Promotion as a type of evaluation

system in Public Educational Institutions is key to understand both, the lack of interest of

students to learn, the quality in education as well as, the reasons why there was a change in the

evaluation system.

Automatic Promotion had effects in the way in which students and parents understood

education that is worthy to analyze to identify the lack of coherence between education and

teaching principles and the new rules to be promoted.

Automatic promotion legally known as Decree 230 was implemented in 2002 with the

objective of reducing students drop outs and educational costs. This law changed evaluation and

assessment since it proposed that no more than 5% of students could fail the academic year. No

matter how many subjects students failed, he/she could present recovery activities on those

subjects that he/she had weaknesses on. This change made teachers disappointed and hopeless

towards education principles and teaching. From teachers‟ perspective, they argued that they

would lose their authority, their role in the classroom would be nonsense, education would not

have quality and also that students would become lazy.

For students, this change in education principles was a window for them to start

disrespecting teachers and to become indifferent towards learning process. The ones who did not

make efforts for presenting homework and passing quizzes and tests were aware that no matter

what, teachers had the obligation to pass them to the next year. They would even say to teachers:

“I don‟t care about your subject, anyway, you‟ll pass me at the end of the year” Those students

(17)

17 other students who were not as disciplined as them or studied as hard as they did, passed to the

next year. They would say to the teacher: “why do I have to do this assignment if any way others

do not do it and they still pass?” Therefore, students came to a point where there was no

difference between trying to do their best and not doing anything.

Consequently, among parents there was a controversy at first because as well as teachers,

they said to disagree with this law since quality in education would diminish or disappear with

Automatic Promotion. However, for them was convenient to send their children to school and at

the end of the year, no matter how many subjects he failed he would not fail the year which

meant a reduction in education expenses and less years at school. For that reason, what parents

perceived as negative at the beginning of the implementation of decree 230 changed and became

a positive solution for them and their children.

Later in 2009, after seven years of experience with what teachers called the disastrous

Automatic Promotion, the Decree 230 was repealed as a consequence of teachers‟ actions,

debates, and negotiations with the government. They achieved what seemed impossible; to

establish again education principles where evaluation and assessment were worthy of students‟

merit. At that moment, the government amended article 9 and now more than the 5% of the

students could fail the year.

During the revision of several important documents such as: Decree 230, Decree 1290,

and the constitution, the lack of consistency between what is decreed and the education

principles guided us to analyze how the government seeks to meet all the demands that

international organizations draw on global education conferences. These requirements are based

on all thoughts of capitalist globalization; that is, it is intended that the individual is formed to

(18)

18 about our reality in Colombia or what our population needs. Besides, technification of

individuals seeks to maintain economic relations with other countries and foreign investment.

Thus, (FECODE, 2007, pág. 17) says: the government “asks schools to be responsible for the

productivity and human capital that promotes competitiveness and give the basis of training for

the type of productive and consumerist citizenship.”

It is important to analyze different voices to understand the arguments against Automatic

Promotion and to show how students and parents perceptions vary.

From the psychological aspect, (Merani, 2007) argues that Automatic Promotion instills

students with the imaginary of least effort, and transmitting an ideology that life is easy and

recoverable.

(FECODE, 2007) states that the government sympathizers sectors blame teachers and

schools as responsible of all the problems occurring. This only seeks to legitimize an extreme

position for automatic promotion and ignores that the causes of its origin are economic. On the

one hand, this policy aims to reduce the costs of those who repeat the school year. On the other

hand, automatic promotion prevents schools from advancing on their development and autonomy

in order to institutionalize mediocrity, and academic poverty. As consequence, the ones who

study under that policy are characterized for having serious limitations that allow them to be

docile citizens and low-cost laborers.

Among the consequences, the educational system is conceived as a business more

obviously considered a trading activity that justifies its existence if it produces and reports

financial profits. (Díaz J. , 2007, pág. 25) declares that:

(19)

19

organizations. The Decree 230 and its amendment in 2002 represent the application of automatic promotion in Elementary and High school. The decision of governmental entities relies on statistics and economic perspective.”

The payment of Colombian external debt has an impact on public policies on education

that are manifested in two tangible ways: coverage and quality. Coverage meant to be for all the

population and the country but it was misunderstood and reduced to increase the number of

students in a classroom. And at the same time, the quality in this case was affected by the

implementation of the automatic promotion.

This research project is focused on the Automatic Promotion as a limiting factor of

learning English. When taking this specific topic is possible to expose the whole educational

policy and the real impact in a real context at School Jose Asuncion Silva in Bogota. This project

is an overview of the different obstacles and limiting factors of learning English, related to

implementation of the Automatic Promotion.1

1

(20)

20 JUSTIFICACTION

The consequences that directly affect users of the public education system can be positive

or negative resulting from the implementation of inappropriate policies. The consequences are

social, economic, academic, and labor, in regard to the future of students. Everything related to

quality depends on future success or failure of the student. We consider that this is the case of

the students who are paying the consequences of having being under mediocre educational

policies such as the Automatic Promotion, which has brought overcrowding in the classrooms

and low quality opposite to high standards in education.

All those students who once were under Automatic Promotion policy have had all sorts of

difficulties, for example, some of them have failed the ICFES exam and others who have been

able to be accepted by an university have had difficulties in reading, writing, expressing ideas

and arguments verbally, communicating in English, etc., making the academic performance in

universities very poor.

According to (FECODE, 2007, pág. 13) on the debate about Decree 230 and the

academic failure:

“Automatic promotion deprived evaluation from its educational and pedagogical sense and changed the meaning and content of the educational process, to establish skills and standards that are an appropriate control instrument to impose the minimum, unique, and homogenizing curriculum, and an “evaluation” that favors the culture of the most sagacious, individuality and the least effort.”

The positive or negative impact of education policies has a direct involvement in both

teachers and students, depending on the level of assertiveness of those policies, their real

(21)

21 academic, social, and economic effect where the possibility to strive to a higher social class is

not accomplished.

An evident impact of the Automatic Promotion is present in the perception of students,

the chaos it has brought to the classroom, and the impact on the academic routine, which has

(22)

22 CHAPTER 1

Problem Statement

In our pedagogical practice we faced diverse situations in regard to the learning and

teaching process. One of the biggest phenomena that we saw in the classroom is a series of

chaotic behavior of students versus the learning process. We noticed a lot of indiscipline, lack of

respect for the teacher and among the students themselves, lack of interest in taking notes, asking

questions, or working in class, etc. When we confronted students about their lack of interest,

most of their answers revealed adaptation to the new rules of promotion, motivation decreased,

indifference toward learning, etc. In the case of English class, some of the students said they did

not like the subject stating that they did not need it because what they were interested in was

other subjects or they just wanted to finish school soon so they could start working to help their

parents financially.

The main concern that emerged from our experience was with regard to the merit

required in English learning process to be promoted. Some few English students lovers expressed

their feelings of discontentment with the measure while some others, the lazy ones, took

advantage of it to set their own conditions or pace within the classroom. These lazy students

would be distracted playing with something, doodling on their notebooks, writing briefs notes to

their classmates or talking to a classmate, forcing us to interrupt the class constantly to make a

tremendous effort to catch their attention and try to motivate them. We believe that automatic

promotion curtails evaluation, which regulates behaviors of students in terms of their learning.

(23)

23 The system of automatic promotion contradicts evaluation thus making the foundations of

education collapse. That is to say, evaluation was a tool used to measure how much the student

had learned about a topic. Due to evaluation, students felt compelled to pay attention in class,

have a good behavior, do homework and class assignments and study hard to pass quizzes, tests,

questionnaires or other forms of evaluation.

Automatic Promotion was implemented to promote students to the next year because the

law forced educational establishments to do so regardless students‟ basis or knowledge in a topic

or a subject. By implementing Automatic Promotion, teachers lose their faculty to decide

whether or not a student is ready to continue to the next level throughout evaluation, making

teachers feel powerless and hopeless into the education system. Therefore, demotivated to do

their job the best way possible, and students do not feel the necessity to do their best or at least

try because in the end they will be promoted. In other words, this education principle called

Automatic Promotion nullifies evaluation, since this is not important anymore, what is important

is students‟ promotion. Henceforth, the circumstances described before develop teachers‟

indifference as perceived by students; indifference to teach and indifference to learn.

Dealing with the laziness of the students is difficult for teachers because students know

that they will be promoted to the next grade by making little effort or no effort at all. According

to (Castillo, 2007) on the debate about Decree 230 and the academic failure:

An aspect that this decree does not observe is that, students who once were good and outstanding in their academic performance lost their motivation when they saw that other students were promoted even when they were not good or did not make any effort. This policy has created a subculture of “I can be promoted with little effort” or “¿When can I recuperate, teacher?”(p. 10)

On the one hand, students know that if they are undisciplined in the classroom or

(24)

24 consequences to face. They conform to be sent to school just to sit down and not to be

productive. They do not care if they study or not, because they will be promoted anyway by a

constitutional law that promotes mediocrity and demotivates others who are interested in having

an excellent academic performance. On the other hand, it‟s necessary to consider teachers point

of view where is not pleasant to be forced to pass students who lack cognitive an intellectual

advance. As (Castillo, 2007) points out:

“Why don‟t we think that students who are good suffer from demotivation in regards to the lack of thoroughness and the increase of flexibility towards the decisions made? Besides this decree invalidated a rating scale in which there were two ranges; insufficient and deficient. That indicated what was the MINIMUM students were supposed to obtain but they did not get. Therefore, what is the motivation to have a better academic performance if at the end all students are promoted anyway? If at the end, a raffle is done to determine who fails?” (p. 10)

According to the Ministry of Education one of the principles of education in public

schools is to ensure an integral education in which students can build their national identity with

the purpose of achieving an intellectual, financial and technological goal which has been

promoted by the country. However, the main concern is how the government thinks of ensuring

an integral education if what they proposed for the new generation evaluation system is

characterized by rules based on promotion rather than evaluation itself.

The Ministry of National Education reformed the educational system in regard to

evaluation in 2002 and they proposed the learning of English being guided by the standards from

the European framework of 2004. If learning a language depends on the motivation, discipline,

and effort students make, how are students supposed to achieve the best results on the learning of

(25)

25 The main motivation is to have a better understanding of an educational policy

implemented that did not work and was accepted by the society. Revising the Automatic

Promotion, its background, implementation, results and how it limits the learning process of

English, we agreed that it was complete failure.

There is also a secondary objective which is to get students to have the opportunity to

change their consciousness about issues not common in everyday student and user. This system

of education is influenced and corrupted by all sorts of trends, political and economic influences,

dogmas and social dynamics that ultimately and gradually affected the schools in a direct or

indirect way, as well as the hidden curriculum does. In addition, the economic policies from

multilateral agencies like the International Monetary Fund suggests a type of education that

should be given to children and young people in all countries in which multilateral entity has an

(26)

26 Research question

- What is the effect of Automatic Promotion in students‟ perceptions and its impact in

English classroom?

Sub-research questions

- What were the reactions of students and parents to set goals of learning in an English

classroom?

- How Automatic Promotion influenced the evaluation process into English classroom?

Objectives

Main objectives

 To describe the effect of Automatic Promotion in an educative and English

context.

 To analyze the impacts and consequences of Automatic Promotion in the

perception of the members of the educational community.

 To determine whether or not Automatic Promotion was a distortion of the

evaluation concept.

Specific objectives



To describe the perceptions, speeches, and behaviors from government, teachers,

parents and students in regard to the Automatic Promotion



To describe reactions caused to students and parents by automatic promotion.



To determine the influence of Automatic Promotion on Evaluation in an EFL

(27)

27 CHAPTER 2

Literature Review

School and Educational Policies

The school and education have been historically considered instruments of power and

social change. The same knowledge is used in multiple ways according to the circumstances and

conveniences of the human being and his constant struggle for power. According to (Heidegger,

1938), knowledge in many cases is only used as sterile or encyclopedic.

(Heidegger, 1938) Analyzes and separates each of the components of the human

knowledge and the subsequent use of knowledge, the initial objective of the field of knowledge

and finally the way how it deviates from its initial objectives.

Usually the new sciences and field of knowledge looks for giving and finding real

solutions about human beings‟ problems focused on humanity‟s well-being, but the reality is

other, in fact, it has disappeared. Human being loses his status as subjects and become a “thing”.

In this widespread phenomenon the subject loses its dignity, is alienated and reduced to statistics

where the subject becomes an object that can be used, disposed, bought or sold.

The same educational policies handle a kind of speech that makes effects in the minds

with the purpose of keeping a unique status quo. There are not neutral speeches or statements;

indeed, they are based on particular interests. According to (Foucault, El orden del discurso,

1970), the speeches independent of objective have a semantic structure; what to say, how to say

them and why to say them. Throughout this way it is possible to determine the real goal of the

(28)

28 Foucault, 1970, describes the way in which the speech is manipulated and shaped in order

to use and abuse the knowledge. The same discourse depends on the intentions and objectives

that result as a consequence of mankind ambition to achieve or maintain power.

This status quo uses education and the school as a social control device. The school itself

is a true benchmark of the society in which it operates. It generates a cycle of social segregation

that can be explained and analyzed from the Cultural reproduction theory and the anthropology

of education, introduced to the sociology of education by (Bourdieu & Passeron , 1996). There

are certain groups that have been guaranteed with success or failure depending on their social

position and the kind of education they are allowed to access.

Additional to the above constraints, the school and the education system handles and

practice explicit symbolic violence, according to Basil Bernstein and his concept of

socio-linguistic codes. It can be concluded that the EFL context is a clear example of symbolic

violence and restricted and closed codes, since it reproduces the dominant cultural capital in

order to apply the cultural transmission. At the same time, the ones who fail in this process take

the failure on their own. The fact of accepting the failure on their own, legitimizes socially and

culturally this model of School and Education. For EFL context, the code is restricted to what the

student brings from his social circle and the code of the subject of English is called elaborated

code.

Through time, education changed its exclusive and restrictive characteristic to have

become a mass education. On the one hand, education takes up again its oldest and segregating

aspect, since the ones who have the financial resources can access to a quality education that in a

certain way guarantees their social success. On the other hand, the ones who do not have the

(29)

29 failure in order to prevent the social permeability. This is other manifestation of the theories

proposed by (Bourdieu & Passeron , 1996).

For example; in the Colombian reality, it was repealed an educational policy that

guaranteed social failure. This educational policy changed evaluation paradigm by means of

eliminating it. That policy was known as Automatic Promotion.

The Automatic Promotion is not a new law. It stretches back from August 3rd 1987 when

officially started in the public system of education. It is presented and justified in a context

where mass poverty prevailed in the country. The justification of the implementation of this new

paradigm of evaluation relies on blaming the teacher and their pedagogy for the social and

economic failure that took place in the eighties.

Automatic Promotion was applied in a poorly way that is to say; it did not meet the

minimum requirements to implement it. It also demanded a significant increase of infrastructure

and to hire more teachers. In 1987 the reality had sentenced the premature failure of automatic

promotion because it was necessary to have the least resources. Many years before the adoption

of the law, a pilot project had been carried out in Colombia with elementary schools for over 12

years. The purposes of this law were to reduce the students drop out, to assure that they will

finish the school year, to offer coverage to all children within the national territory and to foster

equity.

Analyzing educational policies and their impact on basic education and the public system

of education, it is necessary to establish its exact origin. This is the case of the beginning of the

Automatic Promotion in our context. The origin and evolution of the Automatic Promotion

demands an account of concepts like education, educative code, evaluation, assessment, and

(30)

30 The educational policy is inherently social; new academic concepts about them, from

academic fashions of turn, affirm that the educational policies and education are not limited to

just simple fight of social classes, but also lie on an accomplishment of political and economic

needs (Parra, 2009). To illustrate that situation, today users receive collective or mass education

where the educational public system sacrifices quality to obtain coverage.

In our context of developing country, different from any society of social welfare, the

local context presents a fact; the knowledge is commercialized. This situation is more evident

than anywhere else in the world where knowledge commercialization is supported and

legitimized by the state throughout educational policies from bureaucratic institutions as the

ICETEX, which in a direct way with a financial portfolio of loans from the same State

legitimizes the commercializing of knowledge turning it into merchandise and turning the

student into the category of client.

In terms of coverage and providing a good service, the government has committed in

different forums and political meetings to achieve certain goals with the purpose of receiving

more financial support from international supporters. In doing so, our government is advised to

carry out accountability, where they present figures that prove everything works fine (Albornoz,

2009).

By transforming and reducing the student to the category of customer, consequently

brings the development of other particular dynamic into the educational institutions; reducing

knowledge to expensive merchandise and unattainable by most of the population increases even

more the unsolvable present social breach between rich and poor people. Although education is

a right recognized, at least on paper, the legal and institutional recognition of this right is not

(31)

31 Local context has established social and educational dynamics in which the complicity of

educational policies has been legitimized socially. The education system offers an education

destined and designed for poor people, where the quality shines absent in public elementary, high

school and higher education.

Another type of quality education, is exclusive only to those who can afford their high

financial cost; with own recourses or by means of a credit that demands meeting certain

requirements. Then, dutifully pay the claim, in a country with a failed economy unable to

generate new jobs. As a result of this situation, knowledge is understood as a commercial

practice from wild capitalism where the strongest ones will only survive but which consequently

brings a high social cost.

Globalization has scrounged fields such as economics, politics and technology as drivers

of this global dynamic. These various fields have been without a doubt, great factors of change in

our contemporary society in which both men and education have been involved. Therefore, it

should be noted that science, art, technology, information and the theoretical, scientific and

practical knowledge have acquired great utilitarian, pragmatic and strategic value for individuals,

organizations, institutions, society, the State and countries (Pulido & García , 1994).

Moreover, the education is differentiated for rich people and for poor population. This is

another variant of an existing brutal social reality: the lack of coverage; just a fraction of the

population has accessed to public higher education in Universities. More than 35 years ago, the

State had not founded a new university, in spite of the demographic explosion in the main urban

centers of the country. There is another reality that would further make the panorama worse even

more, and that is the high rate of desertion (students drop out of school), which results in loss of

(32)

32 analysis of the damage that the administrative corruption does to the elementary and higher

education system. In this specific case, higher education has made itself an unviable institution

financially-wise.

In an elementary exercise of comparing education; when determining the position of the

local universities, with regard to other universities at the world-wide level, it is found that

Colombian universities do not even appear in the worst positions within the ranking. This

exposes the impact of the public policies implemented in Colombia in terms of competitiveness

and quality of education.

According to (Ponce, 1933) the teacher is a simple slave whom has been led to believe

that he is a kind of priest or prophet who can lead or be an architect of social change. This

statement is more valid than ever, because these days teachers in training and in exercise are

convinced that they can change the current society. A sad reality or truth after analyzing the

referring educational policies, it could be concluded that teachers labor reality is alienated and

reduced to be slaves with a small salary. At the same time, they are required to be the magic

solution to all social problems, psychosocial and even economic difficulties of the students and

their families.

In the case of the catholic church and its obscurantist characteristics and the damage

against the reason using the injury and prejudice in massive way to keep its absurd system,

without mentioning that they have turned to the educative institution in center of reproduction of

all possible forms of classism, segregation and discrimination. (Bourdieu & Passeron , 1996)

The other negative influence comes from the market, concrete and undue interference in

educational policy, which actually is a usurpation of the same educational policy. Through all the

(33)

33 curricula. In the case of learning English in Colombia, the schools have to follow the contents of

those books sold by those publishing houses. As a result of these phenomenon seen in our

context, we conclude that not even the cause of the problems associated with inappropriate or

unsuitable curricula, are not neither educational system or from the educational policies.

Added to this chaos caused by different kinds of interests and influences in the education

system, it is necessary added the hidden curriculum. We have all the ingredients that can be

summarized as utilitarism. This hidden curriculum which (McLaren, 2003) refers to in his book:

“Life in Schools”, says that the curriculum should be relevant to the needs of the population with

which it is working.

When analyzing the dynamics in the actual school, is impossible not to mention Freire

who has exposed the continuing and reiterative failure of the education by means of critical

theories. From Freire‟s: “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, “Pedagogy of the Autonomy”, “Pedagogy

of Hope”, “Pedagogy of Indignation and the City”; it is reflected that hope is something that has

been taken off from generations of victims of educational system. That is to say, the educational

system treats them like containers that exist to be filled of knowledge, without concerning their

needs and their particularities.

The actual educational policies do not accept differences inside the classrooms.

According to (Viera & Martín, 2000) the difference is based on parents‟ characteristics,

children‟s personal characteristics, family and socioeconomic factors.

(Freire, 1973) exposed the vice and constant faults of the system of education of Brazil,

which particular structures are similar to the ones of the rest of Latin America, where dominant

(34)

34 own practice with key issues such as: why to educate others? What world to educate? What is to

educate for? Are we alphabetized political, ethical, and theoretically to teach?

In this new crisis of the 20th century subject, critical theories expose the main problem

caused by the educational system to our current society. One of the main exponents and the

pioneer about critical theories in Latin America, Simon Rodriguez quoted by (Lashera &

UNESR, 2004), criticizes the social discrimination and how the education system operated

during his time. He made recommendations like: to include everyone in the education system,

regardless their social or cultural background. Moreover, he suggested that education should be

managed and operated by the state and not by the church, other author that did the same

recommendation was Hegel, his specific recommendation was to separate the church from the

state, mainly on educational activities. Hegel‟s recommendations were similar to Rodriguez‟s

concepts about the necessity to separate education and religion, and to keep the distance with the

church in all state‟s institutions.

According to (Lashera & UNESR, 2004), Simon Rodriguez defended the implementation

of public education, despite his social position, considering the inconvenient and interference of

dogma in education. In Hegel there is a clear contradiction, gives the wing as domain and subdue

the proletariat to the bourgeoisie, while advocates for public education of the same proletariat.

The critical theory independent of its origin, seeks to overcome the issue caused by the

educative code and its hidden curriculum. In fact, the hidden curriculum is the effective way to

keep the segregation culture into educational system. This culture of segregation is the same

exposed by Simon Rodriguez, Freire and Peter McLaren, but the segregation culture has two key

devices into Public Educational System: the Teacher and the symbolic violence (Bourdieu &

(35)

35 Colombian educational system is provided with cowardly, illiterate, teachers, who ignore

their condition, make the situation worse and avoid finding the solution. According to (Vargas,

Tejada, & Colmenares, 2014) the teacher accepted things without having a constructive critical

position about the imposition of the wrong standards in public education.

There are several evident facts that expose the repetitive contradictions and wrong

policies about education. According to (Usma, 2009) in his recent research about educational

policies, shows the cause of many of the contradictions and ambiguities in the public education

system in Colombia. The background of educational policies lies on globalization and several

famous international icons such as, Word Bank, The International Monetary Fund, The World

Trade Organization and Transnational Corporations, which at the same time are cheated by the

Colombian State. Those corporations suggest perfect plans to the Colombian government but the

reality about the implementation of those plans in the country as bilingualism, for example, is a

real utopia, as a result of prevailing demagogy.

The educational policies continue to be wrong with the called “standards” that should

better be called: “minimum quality criteria”, which area common control device. This

circumstance minimizes the production capacity of the teacher, and the text from the publishing

industry imposes and says to teacher how to think, and what to think.

Other phenomenology that takes place in Colombia is when teachers who think in a

different way, compromise their physical integrity according to Adriana Gonzalez in her research

project. These conditions are given in a context where crimes against teachers are normal events

and the impunity grows every day more. As a result, new generations are influenced by the

(36)

36 Evaluation from the 70s to the Present day

The current concept of evaluation was developed within the capitalist industry at the

beginning of the XX century. At first, education was characterized by the traditional model

which foundations were elements such as curricula, exam and score that articulated the

qualitative approach. It was by means of this traditional education that many generations were

promoted, punished or taken out of the education system, since numbers or the measurement of

those numbers were its main objective.

It was not until the 70s that students could appeal to a strategy called “grading on a

curve” where it was under teachers discretion whether or not they would average scores up.

Later, in the 80s appeared repetition tests, and the summer schools or recuperation in order for

students to be promoted to the next year. Such quantitative approach in education, evaluation and

promotion based on numbers measurement was changed by constitutionalizing education in

1991. This Act guaranteed students continuity within the education system through the

transformation of evaluation. It came from traditional or conventional exams where students

needed to memorize the contents for the day of taking the exam to a more flexible sense of

evaluation.

An explanation of the diverse concepts around evaluation from the 90s to the present day

is given by (Alcaldia Mayor de Santa Fe de Bogota D.C.; quoted by Albornoz, 2009, p.73):

(37)

37 Therefore, evaluation has become a recurring topic in the didactic discussion. From the

didactic discussion, it is important to consider the different methods or approaches that can be

used to evaluate both the teaching activity and the performance and advance of a student in his

learning process.

Within the education process there are various aspects to take into account. Evaluation

and assessment are features of promotion that will be defined from the teachers, parents, and

students and government perspectives. Evaluation is a widespread practice in the school system

at all levels of education.

For some teachers it can be conceptualized as a practice or activity that serves multiple

functions such as being informative and summative, judgmental, diagnostic, and formative

(Castorena, 2011). It is based on a series of ideas or ways that provide answers to particular

constraints of institutionalized education.

Therefore, evaluation not only refers to tests, quizzes and questionnaires and workshops

applied to verify how much the student has learned as some other teachers believe, but also

refers to assessment which consists of making decisions that directly impact other people‟s lives.

It is a practice that involves an ethical dimension and a reflective process to assume a position of

critical analysis of the actions that are carried out along with the intentions being pursued. That is

to say, it is necessary to ask what is intended, what values are involved, how it is performed,

what effects it has, and what is the role assumed by teachers and evaluators, etc. In words of (De

la Orden, 1989):

(38)

38 It is always necessary to evaluate in order to make decisions. It is not enough to collect

information on the outcomes of the educational process and issue a rating or score only, but

when a decision is made there is a real evaluation (García, 1989). Besides, the study of

evaluation implies analyzing the practiced pedagogy reflected on all its components. This seeks

to sensitize teachers to avoid worrying about providing counseling model or specific assessment

techniques. Consequently, we must ask how we educate values and personal growth.

Evaluation is understood as a complex process of making pertinent and relevant decisions

regarding the teaching and learning context. It is the study of different aspects and issues that

appear when teaching or learning and that may need a changes or improvements. (Martinez &

Herrera, 2002), said that to evaluate means to make a judgment on a particular matter, after a

research process is carried out and which gives elements to cast a judgment.

When we refer to this term there are aspects to be kept in mind. (B. McDonald, 1971;

quoted by Castorena, 2011, p.5) argues that “Evaluation should be holistic, that is, to consider all

possible components of teaching: processes, outcomes and contexts”. On this same current (R.E

Stake, 1975; cited by Castorena, 2011, p.6) stated that “assessment should be conducted through

a pluralistic, flexible, interactive, holistic, development-oriented approach.”

Despite the mentioned above, inside the classroom for instance, evaluation corresponds to

the methods used to measure and describe learning processes. Consequently, evaluation gives the

criteria to promote students to the next level.

From the parents and students point of view evaluation is a critical part of the promotion.

They perceive evaluation as the addition of scores obtained after having taken an exam. Students

(39)

39 includes a set of questions in a specific subject, and the second refers to the grades obtained at

the end of the two-month period and the accumulation of those grades at the end of the year.

According to a questionnaire implemented on this thesis (see annex 13), students

understand evaluation as a means of answering questions that would result in a grade which will

determine their promotion. Besides, according to a diagnostic survey done during the

investigation phase, parents understand evaluation as the promotion to the next level depending

on the grades obtained during the school year and that those grades are synonymous of learning.

If students do not achieve the yearned goal of being promoted to the next year, then appears

something called “recuperation” which in that case is understood by parents and students as

assessment.

This assessment would provide feedback on the weaknesses of the students learning

process and abilities and thus the students would have a chance to either improve or learn the

minimum they need in order to be promoted to the next level, the next two-month period or the

next year.

Through this explanation, we can note that both parents and students perceive the concept

of evaluation in the same way; as a means that not only demonstrates what the students have

learned but also as a way of being promoted. They consider one is the next step for the other to

occur, and that assessment only takes place when there is a weakness to be overcome or a

specific knowledge to be reached or obtained.

Outside the classroom, the evaluation serves the purpose of sponsoring changes in

pedagogical practices. Those changes are likely to be implemented or decreed by the

government. From the government perspective evaluation not only refers to test done by the

(40)

40 and teachers „performance, content, curricula, methods, etc., since they are in charge of carrying

out the provision of a public service as is education. They need to find a way which guarantees

the money is being given is producing a positive result in terms of economic outcomes. That is

the reason why they need to implement a series of tests to students, teachers, and institutions

along with funds control that demonstrates the fulfillment of the political and economic

accountability.

Thence, their concept of evaluation lays on evaluation of education as a whole, given in

the article 80 of the General Law of Education, 1994:

“In accordance with Article 67 of the Constitution, the Ministry of Education, in order to ensure quality, compliance with the purposes of education and the best moral, intellectual and physical development of students, establishes a National Assessment of Education to operate in coordination with the National Testing Service of the Colombian Institute for the Promotion of Higher Education, ICFES, and local authorities and is the basis for the establishment of improvement programs of public education services. The system designs and applies criteria and procedures for evaluating the quality of education provided, the professional performance of teachers and head teachers, student achievement, effective teaching methods, texts and materials used, administrative and physical organization of educational institutions and the efficiency of the service.”

As for the government we can note that they implemented this overview of evaluation of

education based on international overviews such as the one given by Joint Committee on

Standards for Educational Evaluation (UNICEF, 2003) where evaluation is “the systematic

prosecution of the value or merit of an object. Besides, the government has the perspective of

education as a business. From that point of view, the authority has to check whether or not the

business is working properly and they decide that by implementing evaluation that will give

(41)

41 Finally, the government gives the funds to the school and the whole reason of evaluation

is to make sure the money is being used properly and is not being wasted. That is the reason why

the new trends on evaluation as the Decree 230 of 2002 and Decree 1290 of 2009 seek to

maintain that harmony between the money given to sponsor education and the students‟

continuity and promotion levels.

Having considered some aspects mentioned above about the implementation of policies,

our historical context, and the perspective on evaluation of each instance: the government,

teachers, parents and students, it is also necessary to contextualize all these components within

an EFL context EFL stands for English as a Foreign Language. When we discuss about a context

where a foreign language is taught we have to go back to the reason why it became a new trend

and is implemented in schools, different perspectives from government, teachers, parents and

students in regard of English, and then describe students, parents, teachers, and government,

perspectives involved when evaluating learning English.

To start with, we had mentioned before that educational policies implemented in

Colombia are a result of international demands to continue to survive in what is called the global

village. In that sense, needs to be in accordance with international standards are created. Due to

the opening of markets and the development of economic and political relations, the globalized

world requires us competition in an additional language. (Gonzalez, A, 2008; cited by Albornoz,

L, 2009). We are in the internationalization and positioning of English, which is key in

communication, technological, scientific, commercial, cultural and academic processes.

The reason why this dynamic is given, responds to the formation of subjects to participate

in the globalized world. That implies that the individual not only knows, but also does his best to

(42)

42 applies to what he has learned. This leads to the creation of relevant, valuable, creative,

innovative and socially useful knowledge. All this to give added value to the training we

received and the impact we create as individuals in organizations, institutions, society and

humanity.

According to the (Ministerio Nacional de Educación) in the web site “Colombia

Aprende” teaching English as a foreign language attends to any society‟s need to be part of

global dynamics of academic, cultural, economic nature, etc. For them “improving levels of

communicative competence in English in a particular society or population necessarily involves

the emergence of opportunities for its citizens and the recognition of other cultures and

individual and collective growth, increasing the chances of social mobility and more equal

conditions for development.”

In this sense parents and students have the same perception in terms of learning English.

They both consider that English is very important in order to get better jobs, travel to other

countries or improve their financial situations at home. They perceive English as a relevant

knowledge to have in this globalized world where they think they might have any kind of

interaction with people from other countries.

Along with the vision of English mentioned above, teachers of the new generation try to

give certain relevance to English learning by saying things such as: you need to learn this

sentence or these expressions, otherwise if you visit another country how can you communicate?

They also insist on: if you do not know how to give directions how you are going to help a

foreign person who is lost in your city and needs help? If you meet someone you may be

(43)

43 not only to contextualize learning English but also to link English to their potential needs in their

future.

Concerning evaluation the government gives guidelines for the evaluation process to

happen and the respective concepts for assessing the knowledge in a foreign language. Firstly,

the government through the foreign language curriculum guidelines in Chapter 2 Elements and

Approaches to Foreign Language Curriculum determines that it is responsibility of the school to

ensure the teaching-learning processes and an optimal development of those processes. These

processes relate to the ability of students to make sense of the world around them and construct

meaning and knowledge through creating their own realities, the process of learning and

expertise in which they strive to develop all dimensions and learning styles and different rhythms

to advance. Therefore, “the assessment and evaluation practices are legitimate only to the extent

that supports to achieve these goals… These features not only permeate the curriculum

components worked as the methodologies and contents etc., but they are a constituent part of the

evaluation process itself” (Ministerio Nacional de Educación)

From the M.E.N perspective the evaluation does not limit to test students‟ knowledge

when getting to the middle or the end of a course. Instead, it consists on continuous assessment

done by the teacher and the students. Teachers are responsible for constantly monitoring

students‟ learning and for assessing the level they start with in order to learn whether or not

students have advanced or learned. They suggest that evaluation is divided into four stages:

expected learning outcomes, program plan, assessment indicators and assessment of

achievements.

In this regard, and in line with (Triall, 1995; cited by MEN), the assessment process

(44)

44 of the others: formulation of expected goals of learning, designing a plan or a program evaluation

based on indicators of achievement and evaluation based on achievements. The optimal

development of these phases depends on the domain specific knowledge by teachers in terms of:

the student, the theory of language learning and mastery of the code itself; the learning process

and constantly learning to teach.

Inside the classroom, teachers evaluate the learning of English throughout different

methods of evaluation like presentations, quizzes, grammar tests, comprehension questions,

written exercises, oral exercises, homework, class participation, etc. These elements plus

students‟ behaviors and class productions give teachers instruments to determine if the students

have learned the contents proposed for the two-month period or for the year. Teachers see the

progress of students inside the classroom, so they can discern when a student has made an effort

to learn a language or not.

For the academic community, parents and students perceive evaluation represents all the

methods mentioned before in order to determine if students have learned something or not. The

intention is to find out if students master those contents of English they are supposed to know by

the end of a certain period of time or to have an idea to what extent a student is able to apply

what he/she has learned. In this respect, it is important to mention that for the society, what a

student can produce within the EFL classroom determines his or her academic success and

performance.

Up to now, different perspectives on evaluation, assessment and promotion in and EFL

context have been presented. Now it is relevant to compare those perspectives with the origin,

(45)

45 Automatic Promotion, its origin and implementation

Automatic Promotion emerges from the government‟s necessity to comply with

international commitments they have been signing for decades in response to the globalization.

That is to say, from the economic aspect, it was not profitable to have many students failing the

school year. Colombian State needed to show their rates on education were positive to secure

foreign investment in the country. The only way to change those rankings was throughout the

creation of a policy that could guarantee students continuity in schools. Those statistics would

show a different side of Colombia.

As a result, the country is under economic domination, which makes the government

respond with legislation acts of all kinds. Here we can perceive the clear connection between the

economic and the political aspect. From the political point of view, first we must define the term

politics and then describe how this aspect is also relevant in the explanation of emerging policies

such as Automatic Promotion.

Politics is defined as the art of governing and in the context of globalization refers to the

macro processes, frameworks of action, macro and micro policy. Currently, the macro processes

make up the intellectual capital development and competitiveness, whose determinants are: the

economy, technology, education and human talent.

The frameworks of action are defined by supranational policies that guide the actions of

nations sheltered under globalization to topics such as health, economy, trade and most

importantly, education. Those frames of action are the ones proposed by organizations like the

WTO (World Trade Organization) on issues such as quality of education, assessment processes

(46)

46 The macro policy refers to the policies of economic globalization, such as: the bilingual

Colombia and Bogotá, for example. While referring to the micro-institutional educational

policies or school projects such as: achievements (known in Spanish as “logros”), indicators of

achievement (“Indicadores de logro”), competences (competencias), standards for teaching

English as a foreign language, decree 230 of 2002, Decree 1290 of 2009, among others.

Having revised the historic, economic and political context of our country is necessary to

give the background of Automatic promotion. It was stated before that it emerged as a response

of globalization. Although it is necessary to present information related to its origin in the

country and the processes that the country went through before seeing it reflected in the reality.

It was back in 1970 where the ideal of Automatic Promotion first appeared as a potential

solution to solve problems like students dropping out, not enrolling to school, accessing school at

old ages, repeating school years and even the first school year, not learning much in school, etc.

In order to accomplish this change, it was necessary to adjust educational policies and reality.

According to a slide presentation online (Parra, 2009) there are three important moments

in 1975; first, a revolutionary process occurs with the National Programme for Qualitative

Improvement of Education. In the second, there is a change of paradigm going from traditional

teaching model to a more participatory model. Finally, in the third moment, the first steps from

quantitative to qualitative assessment were taken.

In 1976, (M.E.N & President of the Republic, MinEdcuación, 1976) the Decree Law 088

of January 22nd, 1976 restructures the Colombian educational system. In Article 8° is established

the automatic promotion from one grade to another as a mechanism for promotion in elementary

(47)

47 Later on, through Decree 1419 of 1978, (M.E.N & President of the Republic,

MinEducación, 1978) established the basic rules and guidelines for curriculum management in

pre-school, elementary and high school education, middle vocational and intermediate

professional.

At the end of this decade it is promoted a career development and vocational training, in

which the educational process should be student-centered so that he develops harmoniously and

integrally as a person and as a member of the community. In addition, educational programs

must maintain a balance between theoretical conceptualization and practical application of

knowledge. Therefore, the curriculum planning should be a dynamic system which contributes to

the personal development and social integration. Consequently, the educational process should

promote the study of the issues and current events of national and international life.

After a long experimenting process of curricula implementation, appears the Decree 1002

of April 24th, 1984 (M.E.N. & President of the Republic, MinEducación, 1984) which defined

the curriculum as a structured set of definitions principles, standards and criteria, depending on

the purpose of education. It directed the learning process through the formulation of objectives

by levels, identifying areas and modalities, organizing time distribution and establishing

methodological guidelines, evaluation criteria and guidelines for its implementation and

administration.

Furthermore, evaluation was regarded as an essential part of the educational process and,

as such, should not be limited to the score and promotion, but it was programmed and developed

for each teaching unit in its processes and results, in order to improve the quality of learning.

Consistent with Resolution 17486 of 1984, promotion was understood as passing from

(48)

48 learning objectives, proven in the evaluation process. Subsequently (M.E.N. & President of the

Republic, MinEducación, 1987 ) in their Decree 1469 of 1987 regulated Article 8 of Decree 088

of 1976 on automatic promotion to the extent of elementary school only. Thus, the Automatic

Promotion was defined as the process by which after continuous monitoring of school

evaluation, all children who pursue a degree at the level of elementary school, are promoted to

the next grade at the end of the school year or before if his skills and accomplishments allow it.

In addition, recuperation activities are proposed: they were determined as the set of actions

planned and developed throughout the school year, in order for the student to achieve the grade

objectives not reached in the different areas of training.

Ironically, Colombian government planted the seed for automatic promotion since the

mid-seventies, however, according to (Torres, 1997) in a paper appearing on the website of the

Ministry of Education, education in Latin America and the Caribbean in the 80s was

characterized by the following statistics: 15% of children were outside the school. Between 10%

and 15% of children entering school did so at a later age than the officially stipulated in each

country. Despite 85% to 90% of children of school age entered school, only 47% managed to

finish elementary school. On average, it was estimated that a Latin American student took 1.7

years to be promoted to the next grade.

Throughout the region, each year 32.2 million students repeated the school year ranging

from elementary to high school, representing an annual waste of 5.2 billion. About half of the

students repeated first grade because of problems encountered in the teaching and learning of

reading and writing, and in the case of students coming from low-income families, this

(49)

UNESCO-49 OREALC, half of the students who finished the fourth grade in the region did not understand

what they “read”.

In the 90s appeared Law 115 February 8th (Congress, President of the Republic and the

Ministry of Education, 1994) which stated as its objective that education is a lifelong process,

personal, cultural and social training that is based on a comprehensive conception of the human

person, his dignity, his rights and duties. In the same current, Decree 1860 of August 3rd, 1994

partially regulates Law 115 of 1994 on the general pedagogical and organizational aspects such

as PEI, evaluation, and evaluation of achievements. After June 5th, 1996 Resolution 2343 was

issued, by establishing the indicators of curricular achievements for formal education.

In the 1860 decree, the main purposes of evaluation are to determine the collection of

achievements as defined in education projects. Define progress in the acquisition of knowledge.

Encourage the consolidation of values and attitudes. Encourage each student to develop their

skills and abilities. Identify personal characteristics, interests, evaluation of development and

learning styles or (flexible curriculum). Contribute to the identification of the limitations or

difficulties in consolidating the achievements of the training process. Offer students

opportunities to learn from success, error and mistake, in general, experience, and finally to give

the teacher information to refocus and strengthen their teaching practices. It is also under this

decree that the Decennial Education Plan is regulated and which states the importance of

reviewing the current evaluating system and automatic promotion.

Afterwards, in 2002 the decree 230 or also called Automatic Promotion appeared and was

implemented in all public schools within the nation and extended to high school. (M.E.N.,

Congress, & President of the Republic, 2002) stated that no more than 5% of the students