The six Swiss cantons located along the German-French language border (Bern, Basel Landschaft, Basel Stadt, Fribourg, Solothurn and Valais) have issued an inter-cantonal agreement on a new concept for foreign language education at schools. The agreement stipulates that German-speaking students learn French before English.
As of the school year 2011/12 (2012/13 in Basel Landschaft), French has been taught in accordance with the Passepartout curriculum. In many respects, the objectives, content and structure of the Passepartout curriculum and the accompanying textbook “Mille feuilles” differ greatly from earlier French language lessons. One of the defining features of the Passepartout curriculum is the focus on three areas, each of which is assessed separately: I) communicative competence; II) linguistic and cultural awareness; and III) competence in learning strategies. In the scope of the project, a result-based evaluation of the skills of students in their 8th year of schooling (as calculated in HarmoS) as well as a survey of teachers and students will be conducted; synergies with the EDK education monitoring system (verification of the attainment of Basic Competences) are taken advantage of.
The aim of the results-based evaluation of student achievement is to enable target-oriented statements on the outcomes in areas I and III in the 8th year of schooling; the focus is placed on the evaluation of communicative competence (area I) in listening and reading comprehension, and in interactive and productive speaking. It is furthermore expected that application of the various evaluation instruments will allow reliable statements to be made on how many students in the Passepartout region have attained the Basic Competences set by EDK as well as on how many students have achieved the higher skill levels targeted by the Passepartout curriculum. In addition to other areas of application, results from the student survey can be used to explain any existing differences in student performance. In general, the results from the student and teacher surveys should allow tentative conclusions to be drawn on the effectiveness of teaching French with Passepartout materials as well as on how well the concept has been implemented and where improvements are necessary.
Financed by the credit dedicated to the result-based evaluation of French teaching in the Passpartout region.