Exercising Democracy in Language Assessment: Preliminary Survey for Language and Literature Classrooms in Indonesian Context

The paper explores the role model of assesment in language classrooms named as democratic assesment. Democratic assessment encourages peer-assessment and self-assessment as well as teacher-assessment. Some case studies are synthesized here to show the nature of this so-called role model of assesment. It draws students into personal participation in the evaluation process. Democratic assessment is also characterized by transparency. Such explanations may be accompanied by a scoring rubric, checklist, or other assessment tool as well as samples of students work from previous semesters. The discussion has shown that democratic teachers have the responsibility to assess whether their students have acquired the target skills and concepts and to coach them in areas where they are weak. The discussion has also figured out that democratic teachers, as autocratic teachers, retain the right to the respect of their students; in democratic environments, the students bestow such honor freely and without reservation upon teachers who have earned their respect.