Planning a class room

test
Importance of acquiring test
development skills
 To help a teacher clarify the behavior that
he/she feels important for students to
learn.
 Skills and knowledge acquired; firstly, can be
applied to other aspects such as curriculum
planning and development
 Secondly, may evaluate the quality of
commercial testing materials.
 Well constructed classroom tests can lead to
more objective and fairer procedures for
judging and evaluating students.
The test development
process
 Classroom testing should be part to the
teaching/learning process;
-to provide information to you and students.
i) what a student is prepared to learn next
ii) how a student’s study of a given topic might best
be carried out.
-whether a student has mastered a specific
instructional objective.
-whether a review of past learning or an integration
of such learning is needed.
Relating instructional to testing
procedures
 Teachers bring to actual test construction
process some degree of understanding of:
i) their own value and belief;
ii) the cognitive, affective and psychomotor
characteristics of students
iii) the behaviors they would like their
students to achieve;
iv) the goals and structure of the curriculum
they follow.
Basic decisions
 The four basic decisions that need to be made
about each individual;
 1. placement decisions: deciding where in the
instructional sequence the learner should begin to
avoid repeating unnecessary what the learner
already knows.
 2. Diagnostic decisions: deciding the learning
activities the learner should engage in to increase
the chances of learning the objectives, the teacher
has set for the individual
Basic decisions
 3. Monitoring decisions:
-deciding whether the students appears to be
attending to instruction .
-If the assigned learning activity is working or
whether a new learning activity to be
assigned.
 4. Attainment decisions:
-deciding at the end of a particular segment
of instruction, whether the students have
acquired the instructional goals.
Basic Decision
 5. A student’s educational development and maturity
will determine on both the instructional approach
and the testing procedure used. (Older, more able
students might be able to participate in their own
tests).
 6.The way a curriculum is organized will place a
restrained on the nature of the testing program.
 7.The available instructional resources frequently
determine the nature of the tests developed.
Developing a blueprint for a
Test
 Making a blue print or table of test specifications.
-This advanced planning allows a teacher to view
the test as a whole.
-Describing the content and the behavior expected
of the students.
-Numbers of questions on the test; correspond to
the amount of time devoted to the objectives in
class.
-The test need not to be too easy nor too hard for
the students.
Developing a blueprint for
a Test
 Based on the diagram:
 The row headings along the left margin are
the major topics the test will cover.
 The column headings across the top are the
major classifications of the Bloom et al,
taxonomy.
 Notice that there is an increasing complexity
from left to right in the types of behavior.
Developing a blueprint for
a Test
 Behaviors which demonstrate knowledge or
comprehension, are lower level cognitive
performance;
 While those behavior reflecting the ability to
synthesize or evaluate are higher level cognitive
performance.
 Most of the objectives are at the lower and middle
levels of the taxonomy.
 The decision of how many questions to include on a
test is based on the importance of the objectives,
the type of questions, the subject matter and the
amount of time available for testing.
Developing a blueprint for
a Test
 Suppose that a teacher planned to use 40
test items for this unit.
 The blueprint shows that of these forty, the
teacher has decided that 20% or 8 items
should be used to test instructional objectives
 Of the 8 items, the teacher decided that 2
items should deal with the knowledge level
objective and the remaining 6 items with the
application level objective.
Developing a blueprint for
a Test
 The two dimensional forces (objective and
application). But this unit test emphasizes the
application objective.
 Notice that …..% of the test questions deal with the
higher taxonomic levels of application
 Therefore, this advanced planning for developing a
classroom test allows a teacher to view the test as a
whole.
 In this way the teacher can balance the content
coverage, so that the test need not be too easy nor
too hard for the students
Evaluation Program
 Major questions or decision:
-Planning instruction- What is to be studied?
Where should instruction start?
 Guiding instruction:
-How should instruction be carried out?
-When is the class ready to move on?
 Evaluating results of instruction
-Have pupils mastered retained important
learning outcomes.
Evaluation Program

 Basis for Planning:

-Planning instruction-Course outline,
specification of units and objectives
-Guiding instruction- Identification of possible
instructional alternatives
-specification of mastery criteria for objectives
-Evaluating results of instruction-
Specification of essential content and skills
Evaluation Program
 Specific types of information needed-
-Do students have mastery of the course content?
-Have students mastered what they have been
studying (objective, topic and Unit)
-Have students retained the essential content and
skills?
 Possible sources of information-
-Course pretest, student records, aptitude tests
-Quiz covering a given objective or topic, interview
-End of course exam, projects and observation
Overall considerations when
Planning Classroom Tests
 Define the purpose for testing at this time.
 Specify the performance and processes to be
observed and tested
 Select the types of test items or the methods
to be used to observe and to test the
performance.
 Develop the initial drafts of the test exercises.
What should be specified ahead
of Time?
 Formats of test items to be used
i) Choice formats –Objective items
true-false, multiple-choice, matching exercises
ii)Short answer/completion format
iii)Essay format
iv)Performance observation formats- checklists,
rating scales, sign and category systems
v)Interview, in-depth observation
vi)Long-term activity formats-projects, extended
written assignments, laboratory exercises
Cont…..
 Number of items of each format:
-The amount of time available for testing. Tests with
more items are mor reliable that shorter tests.
 Types of performances to be observed:
-Develop a test blueprint to specify the various
levels of performance to be observed.
 Number of performances within each type:
-The number of objectives within each taxonomic
category is delineated.
Cont……
 Content to be covered by the test:
-The test blueprint can be the vehicle for delineating
the content or topics the test will cover.
 Number of items to test each content
topic/taxonomy category combination:
-The number of items testing each objectives.
 Complexity level and item difficulty:
-The percentage of pupils answering the item
correctly is called the item difficulty level.
-Depends on the ability of the pupils and the quality
of instruction.
Cont…..
 The difficulty levels of choice format items:
-True-False - 75% and 85% passing
-three-option
multiple-choice – 67% and 77% passing
-Four-option
multiple-choice - 63% and 74% passing
 If each objective has been taught and studied
conscientiously, then the test should be of
appropriate difficulty.
Criteria for Judging Testing
Procedures
 Validity:
-Test determines the extent to which each pupil has
attained the important objectives.
 Reliability:
-The consistency with which a given testing
procedure reports a pupil’s performance
i)longer tests are more reliable than short tests.
ii)essay questions are less reliable than objective
procedure
-possible sources of unreliability:
i)fluctuations of judgments of the quality of a pupil’s
work
Cont….
 Objectivity:
-A test procedure is said to be objective if two or
more observers of pupils’ performance can agree on
the report of the performance.
 Comprehensiveness:
-The extent to which a test can be a representative
sample of behaviours from the objectives of
instruction contribute much to the success of a test.
-taxonomy with a content outline and a test blueprint
help to ensure that the behaviours are tested.
Cont…
 Ease of construction and scoring:
-How easy it will be to devise the test tasks and to
score them.
 Economy of pupil time:
-Some procedures such as interviews and individual
observations of pupil performances require longer
time to complete.
 Economy of teacher time:
-essay tests, term papers, projects and written work
require much teacher time to grade and evaluate.
End of lesson

 “Learners should look testing as

feedback about their accomplishments
and as opportunities for guidance
toward their chosen goals.” (Nitko,
1983)