Pedagogy 2025
Abstract
In this paper, we examine transformations of the evaluative encounter and teacher-student dynamics in the classroom through material interactions, and how these demonstrate an extension beyond classroom walls, providing a site of learning and transformation. The paper draws on case material within cross-cultural spaces of in-country, adult second language (L2) education, focusing on material aspects of interaction and reflection, arising out of a cross-national project between university researchers, and regional and local non-profit actors. We contrast two forms of L2 evaluation: structured CEFR-based testing and a newly developed course activity. In the latter, the teacher’s intent to create an evaluation tool resulted in a paper-based map with interactive tokens representing the learner’s daily life, embedded within a sequence of teacher-led activities. We analyze the case using concepts from dynamic assessment, interactional competence, and design anthropology to contrast summative and formative L2 evaluation, where a specific three-hour evaluative encounter becomes a demonstration of one site along the learner’s journey. Through zooming-in on a specific sequence of course activities from the perspectives of an L2 speaker/teacher and learner, and challenges in development of the activity, we demonstrate how these mapping activities are designed as dialogic tools that emphasize novel practices of specificity, pointability, and modifiability, enabling learners to situate experiences across past, present, and future. Within this process, we argue, evaluation shifts from judging correctness to assessing shared activity, adaptability, intentionality, and transcendence—positioning assessment as a participatory and transformative site of learning in relation to participation in society at large.
Brendon Clark is an Associate Professor in Design Anthropology at Umeå Institute of Design, Umeå University. His research and teaching explore how designers engage diverse people and materials to create new ways of organizing daily life, with a focus on improvisational and emergent practices in design encounters. Drawing on participatory design, design anthropology, and performance theory and practice, he work spans contexts from surgical environments to language learning in everyday settings.
Magda Vanmontfort is a psychologist and has a master degree in cultural sciences. In the 1990s she researched the influence of the use of multimedia on the second language acquisition of adult language learners and designed a usage-based second language learning approach for children and youngsters with learning difficulties while working at the Center for Language and Education of KULeuven. She currently works for the Support Center of Education of the Flemish province of Limburg, Belgium where she is designing a Second Language Learning in-the-Wild approach for adult language learners in an educational setting in collaboration with Professor Brendon Clark (Umeå University).
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Friday 21st November, 2025