Ng Chi Wui
Earlier this month, I conducted a trilingual presentation entitled “AI Competency and AI-Facilitated Literacy Development: Voices from Teachers and Students” with Professor Zhang Yue and Professor Weng Xiaojing from the Education University of Hong Kong in Learning and Teaching Expo 2024, which was organized by the Hong Kong Education City. Along with two of my former students, both of whom are now secondary six students, I provided suggestions on effective use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in the English language school-based assessment in Hong Kong senior secondary education. This blog entry serves to summarize the main ideas of my segment of the larger presentation.
School-based assessment (SBA) carries 15% of the total score of the subject of English Language in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination (Curriculum Development Council [CDC] & Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority [HKEAA], 2007). Throughout the three years of senior secondary education, students are required to complete two assessment tasks, one of which is an individual presentation and the other of which is a group interaction (HKEAA, 2023, p.6). The government has been implementing SBA for increasing the range and diversity of task types, enhancing the validity and reliability of oral assessments, and promoting assessment for learning (Berry, 2008; HKEAA, 2023; Ng, 2018). Please refer to the English Language School-based Assessment Teachers’ Handbook for detailed descriptions of the format of and rationale for SBA.
With the advent of GenAI in recent years, HKEAA has implemented an official AI policy in English Language SBA. While acknowledging the innovative opportunities created by AI in learning and completing assignments, HKEAA is highly concerned about the adverse impacts on authentic learning opportunities brought by the overreliance and misuse of AI (HKEAA, 2023, p.14). For such a reason, it is clearly stipulated that student’s use of AI tools “to gain an undue advantage”, such as presenting language generated using AI tools, is considered as malpractice (HKEAA, 2023, p.14). In other words, never does the government ban the use of AI in SBA completely, but it is the misuse of AI that ought to be prohibited. Still, it is observed that some in-service teachers possess a tendency to exaggerate the official policy and warn students not to use AI throughout the entire assessment process, including the preparation stage. This may be detrimental to students’ learning.
Practitioners ought to recognize technological changes in society and embrace the presence of AI in teaching, learning, and even assessment processes. What they should do is to avoid students’ misuse of AI, which indeed deprives students from learning and even creates unfairness in assessments. To achieve such a goal, here are some suggestions.
First and foremost, it is recommended that teachers take heed of the design of assessment tasks in SBA carefully. Authentic and personalized assessment tasks with an appropriate level of cognitive demand should be developed (Tanaka-Ellis, 2024). For instance, questions eliciting literal response, such as “What have you learnt from the book?”, can be asked to less capable students to avoid overwhelming them whilst those eliciting more critical response, such as “Has this book changed your attitude towards life?”, the answers of which can never be generated by AI, can be asked to more capable students. Possessing confidence in comprehending and accomplishing the tasks with their own language competence, students will be less motivated to rely utterly on AI during the assessment process.
Besides that, as SBA is a language assessment, the language produced by AI is not supposed to replace students’ own language production in the assessment process. Instead, enriching the content of language production, use of AI for brainstorming, planning, and searching for additional information on the context of the text is desirable (Xu & Tan, 2024). Teachers are however expected to instruct students on responsible use of AI to ensure that their usage is accountable and transparent (Li et al., 2024).
Last but surely not the least, in view of some teachers’ unfamiliarity with and limited knowledge on AI as emerging technological tools, professional development should be provided to enhance teachers’ AI digital competencies, which are the prerequisites for promoting AI education in the classroom and providing students with guidance on responsible use of AI (Ng et al., 2023).
Next time, I will unveil the current implementation of SBA in local schools and discuss some of the common malpractices that ought to be eradicated.
References
Berry, R. (2008). Assessment for learning. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Curriculum Development Council., & Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority. (2007). English Language Curriculum and Assessment Guide (Secondary 4-6). https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum-development/kla/eng-edu/Curriculum%20Document/EngLangCAGuide_Nov15.pdf
Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority. (2023, August 29). Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination 2025 English Language School-based Assessment Teachers’ Handbook. https://www.hkeaa.edu.hk/DocLibrary/SBA/HKDSE/SBAhandbook-2025-ELANG_Aug2023.pdf
Li, M., Laflair, G., & Crossley, S. (2024, March 16). Leveraging AI and ChatGPT in applied linguistics: Applications and implications. Panel discussion at AAAL 2024 Conference. Houston, TX.
Ng, C. W. (2018). Assessment for/as Learning in Hong Kong English language classrooms: A review. International Journal of Research in English Education, 3 (3), 1-12. http://ijreeonline.com/article-1-104-en.html
Ng, D. T. K., Leung, J. K. L., Su, J., Ng, R. C. W., & Chu, S. K. W. (2023). Teachers’ AI digital competencies and twenty-first century skills in the post-pandemic world. Educational Technology Research and Development, 71 (1), 137-161. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11423-023-10203-6
Tanaka-Ellis, N. (2024, March 16). Could convenience stifle the process of foreign-language learning?. Paper presented at AAAL 2024 Conference. Houston, TX.
Xu, W., & Tan, X. (2024, March 16). Investigating teachers’ perceptions of using ChatGPT in second language writing classrooms. Paper presented at AAAL 2024 Conference. Houston, TX.
