What is Low-Stakes Assessments and Activities

This chapter explores the implementation of a teaching and learning strategy that lends itself propitiously to social constructivist-oriented introductory translation courses. Team-based learning, a methodology developed by Michaelsen, Knight, and Fink (2004) that purports to foster accountability, cohesion, and solidarity among fixed work teams proved itself to be ideally suited to the undergraduate translation studies environment according to the results of a survey-driven assessment tool. Students revealed their perceptions of the effectiveness of learning teams – teams that were assessed in general for a specific course's course components and learning outcomes as well as in relation to the core make-up of the learning teams themselves. The chapter describes a variety of empowerment-building assignments as well as discusses the implementation of team-based learning in this context. Finally, the degree to which the methodology contributed to students' perceptions of their learning experience is examined.