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error is not the students) Yet, these students suffer the consequences of the
error. Despite its weaknesses, test remains to be a potent device to indirectly
assess the outcomes of instruction. Teachers should critically analyze the
way tests are prepared and administered, as well as test results are
interpreted.
Educators realize that there is a need to critically analyze test results
according to acceptable standards. According to Kubiszyn & Borich (2000),
we are concerned that test users often uncritically accept test scores. These
concern us for three reasons. First, tests are only tools, and tools can be
appropriately used, unintentionally misused, and intentionally abused.
Second, test, like other tools can be well-designed or poorly designed. Third,
both poorly designed and well-designed tools in the hands of ill-trained users
can be dangerous.
Classroom teachers can appropriately use tests for classroom evaluation.
The appropriateness of the usage of tests should be preceded by the
teachers expertise in the arena of test construction. All teachers have the
potential to design and construct good tests. Test development undergoes a
tedious process. The difficulty, which the newly hired teachers experience, is
quite justifiable. Being inexperienced, they really upon copying items found
in their textbooks. Most of the tests used for classroom evaluation are taken
verbatim from the text a clear violation of the principles of test construction.
For example, in a mathematics book, one item found in the activities section,
is stated in this manner, Find the sum of 45 and 36. The same is copied as
an item in the test. During test administration, one child asks the teacher,
Where shall I find the sum, maam? it is funny because in the teachers
mind she wants to determine whether the student knows how to compute
the sum; however, in the childs mind, he is thinking about where the sum is
located.
As the length of a teachers experience increases, he is expected to have
developed expertise in test construction. HE can develop this expertise from
his previous experiences, through in-service training, and from his interaction
with his peers. Every day, the teacher constructs test. The good test items
identified in the process must be included as a part of his test bank. Through
in-service training, he can learn the knowledge and skills for test
construction from the experts. He can modify his approaches for test
construction through his frequent interaction with peers.
Teacher, as users of tests, should be guided by sound principles in their
construction and utilization to assess students academic achievements.
Decisions should be based on sensible and justifiable interpretation of test
results.
Tests can either be written, oral, or performed. Written tests are the most
widely used type of tests. Here, only the cognitive domain of learning is
given attention. Evaluation based on the results of tests alone does not
picture out the total development of an individual learner.
Teachers, as classroom managers, are bound to make decisions. Decisions
are difficult to justify if evaluations are not based on well-analyzed test
results. Critically evaluated test results should be combined with the results
from a variety of other measurement procedures (e.g., performance and
portfolio assessments, observations, checklists, rating scales). These results
should be integrated with relevant background and contextual information
Chapter 2
Evaluation and the Teaching-Learning Process
For the lessons of life, there is no better teacher than the look in
the eyes of a child.
---Air Supply, In the
eyes of a Child
Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
a) discuss the roles of evaluation in the teaching and learning process; and
b) generalize that evaluation is important because teachers make decisions.
This chapter deals with the roles of evaluation in the teaching-learning
process. Education is considered as one of the most important social
services, which the government delivers for its populace through the
establishment of schools. The delivery of this service requires huge amounts
of money for its operation. The money, which the schools spend, comes from
the taxes paid by the people. This means that the administrators and
teachers are accountable to the people. This accountability should be
considered in the evaluation of students learning. There should be a balance
between governments expenditure and the amount of students learning.
The amount of students learning can be empirically shown through the
results of classroom evaluation.
The evaluation of educational outcomes is one of the primary roles of
classroom teachers. Educational outcomes need to be evaluated with the
purpose of improving the teaching and learning process. As one of the
teachers primary roles, evaluation should utilize appropriate, valid and
reliable instruments that can gather sufficient data so they can make a
decision such as: 1) to reteach the lesson taught or proceed to the next
lesson; 2) to provide rating for certification purposes; 3) to determine
students weaknesses in order to provide remedial instruction; and, 4) to
determine where the teacher should begin or start teaching.
Teachers should utilize efficient and effective strategies and approaches to
evaluating students performances in the classroom. To make these
strategies and approaches efficient, teachers should use appropriate
assessment tools that can give immediate results. The teacher should be
familiar with the different roles of evaluation so that he can answer the
question: Why do we evaluate?
Assessment in the Three Domains of Learning
According to the goals of Philippine education as stipulated in Article XIV,
Sec. 3, par. 2 of the 1987 Constitution, all educational institutions shall
inculcate patriotism and nationalism, foster love of humanity, respect for
human rights, appreciation of the role of the national heroes in the historical
development of the country, teach the rights and duties of citizenship,
develop moral character and personal discipline, strengthen ethical and
spiritual values, encourage critical and creative thinking, broaden scientific
and technological knowledge, and promote vocational efficiency. These
goals need frequent revisiting if teachers want their decisions to be relevant
for the education of Filipino youths.
There are three domains of learning, namely: 1) cognitive; 2) affective; and
3) psychomotor. The cognitive domain includes knowledge, comprehension,
application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The affective domain
comprises receiving, responding, valuing, organization and characterization.
students
weaknesses
for remedial instruction
(DIAGNOSTIC)
Evaluation is used to
determine
if instruction objectives
are achieved
(FORMATIVE)
Chapter 3
The Guiding Principles For The
Assessment of The Student Learning
Principles are lighthouses. They do not move.
We cannot break them; we can only break ourselves against them.
-Stephen R.
Covey
Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Discuss the principles hat guide the assessment of students learning;
2. Analyze each principle in the light of their applicability for classroom
assessment; and,
3. Relate the guiding principles with students experiences ass subjects of
previous assessment and evaluation.
Introduction
Frank Koch in Proceedings, the magazine of the Naval Institute, cited by
Stephen Covey (1989) - the author of the bestselling Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People. This story pertained to maritime navigation. The story goes:
one night, while a ship was sailing in the ocean, the man on the bridge (Third
Officer) shouted to the captain;
Captain! Captain! Theres a light dead ahead and it wont get out of
our way!
The captain said, Send the message!
The message was sent, Hard Starboard! Hard Starboard!
In maritime navigation, Starboard is a command, so that when
followed, the ships navigating in opposite directions take the right course so
that their left or port side is facing- the target. This is Maritime Rule No. 14
on Head- on Situation of the International Regulations for Preventing
Collisions at Sea (1989) which states that when two vessels are meeting on
reciprocal courses so as to involve risk of collision, each shall alter her course
to starboard so that each shall pass on the port side of the other.
However, the message was sent back, Starboard yourself!
The captain murmured, I cant believe this! Dont they know who I am?
Send the last message!
The message was sent, Hard starboard! This is the Mighty Missouri!
(Missouri is one of the largest American warship).
The message was sent back, This is a lighthouse!
Principles are lighthouses. They serve as our guides. They do not
move. They are permanent. We cannot break them. We can only break
ourselves against them (Covey, 1989). Assessment and evaluation are also
guided by sound principles. They serve as our lighthouses-references as we
perform our function of evaluating the outcomes of the learning process. The
following are the guiding principles:
The item in the test should be stated as, Enumerate the cities and
municipalities of Negros Occidental.
The level of performance (75 percent proficiency) must be the basis the
evaluating whether the teaching and learning process is successful or not.
This level of performance is implicitly stated in the instructional objectives.
The term implicitly means that the phrase that specifies the level of
performance is not stated in the objectives; it is presumed that teachers
already understand this criterion. The teacher can assess whether students
actual performance level has met the predetermined criterion. Performance
levels of 75 percent and above reveal that the teaching and learning process
is successful. Any level of performance that falls below the preset
performance level is a failure.
Teachers make daily lesson plans. These plans serve as their guides as they
perform their teaching tasks. In their plans, they are required to state their
objectives clearly in behavioral terms. Specific objectives must be specific,
measurable, attainable, result-oriented, and time-bound (SMART). They
should use infinitives, which specifically denote the behaviors that students
are expected to manifest after instruction. These objectives serve as bases
for construction and using assessment instruments to assess students
learning. The expected behaviors are somehow related to either of the
following, but not limited to: 1) knowledge; 2) reasoning; 3) skills; 4)
products; or, 5) affects.
papers, oral reports, and science reports. These works are products
that would, more or less, reflect students ability to use knowledge and
reasoning. For example, during the term, the teacher and students
have agreed that the students submit is a product which manifests the
quality of their own learning.
Affects. The term affects refers to the activities that show values,
morals ethics, ideals, and standards in life. Snatrock (2004) states that
affects refer to the emotional responses to the tasks, which involve the
participation of students. Students can show some degree of
commitment and emotional intensity. Affective targets are students
emotions, feelings and values. For example, in the classroom activity,
while the students are working on the activity, the teacher has the
opportunity to observe how the students behave. He can quantify his
observation through the use of an observation rating scale. After the
activity, the teacher may also require students to write in a journal
describing what they feel and experience as they do the tasks.
Objective test. Objective tests are those that require one and only one
correct answer and no other possible answers. Reganit, et al. (2004)
posits that an objective test is made up of items for which correct
responses may be set up in advance. In an objective test, students
may give right or wrong answers to an item, so each item can be
marked objectively. The scoring becomes consistent when the items in
the test are objective type. For example, an item like this is an
objective item; I am a number less than 60. Two of my factors are 4
and 7. I am a multiple of 8 and 14. What number am I?
The above-stated mathematics problem has only one correct answer and
there is no other possible answer. There are no other answers that can
satisfy the question, What number am I? No other number from 1-59 (less
that 60) is divisible by 4,7,8 and 14 except 56. If this item is checked by
different teachers at different settings and time, the answer 56 is always
correct; other answers are wrong.
There are different types of objective test item formats, which te3h teache3r
can choose from. His choice is dependent upon the clearly stated objectives.
These are: 1) supply type; 2) matching type; 3) alternate-response type; 4)
labeling; 5) enumeration; and, 6) multiple-choice. Teachers should take note
that the national examinations from the elementary level up to college, are
given in the multiple-skills in the multiple-choice formats is a great challenge
to classroom teachers. In order to meet this challenge, teachers should
possess necessary skills for constructing and using multiple-choice test
formats to assess students learning.
In an English class, a test for the assessment of students writing skills are
often considered as subjective because it requires the teacher to rate a piece
of work based on his personal interpretation. The teachers interpretation
may differ from that of other teachers interpretations. In the classroom,
students may be required to write a friendly letter. They need to think about
their target friend-the receiver of the letter. The teacher can help students by
emphasizing the importance of identifying the elements such as: 1) main
content; 2) context; and, 3) format. These three elements can be the bases
for quantifying students writing skills. A highest point can be assigned for
each element by determining the total highest point and dividing it
proportionately for each element. For instance, the teacher decides that the
highest point for a piece of writing output is 20. He may distribute these
points into: 1) 8 points can be assigned for main content; 2) 7 points for
context; and, 3) 5 points for format. The total point is 20. The teacher can
work on scoring rubrics by identifying sub-components for each element in
order to objectivize the scoring of students piece of writing output. The
raters can assign corresponding points depending upon the quality of the
piece of writing output.
Performance test. When the objective of the lesson requires that at the
end of the3 lesson the students are required to perform in an activity,
the appropriate test to measure the achievement of this objective is a
performance test. This test is appropriate when teacher wants to
determine whether students have acquired the necessary kills to do
the tasks in the learning activity.
Oral Reasoning. When the instructional objective states that at the
end of the lesson, the pupils orally defend their stand on the issue,
then, an oral reasoning test is appropriate. This type of test is used to
determine students critical thinking and other meta-cognitive
processes in oral presentation.
Observation. Reed and Bergamann (2001) observation is one effective
means of learning how students respond to classroom environment.
This assessment method can be done by the teacher, co-student, or
even parents. Observation checklists or rating scales are examples of
assessment instruments that can be utilized to determine students
performance, behavior, skills, values, and achievement. These are
considered as non-test assessment instruments.
Self-Reports. Students may be required to write personal opinions,
journals and reflections about a learning activity. From these self-made
reports, the teachers evaluate whether or not these students have
learned the concepts taught in the classroom. Self-reports contain
personal accounts of students participation and involvement in the
teaching and learning process. Teachers, who practice this method for
classroom assessment, comply with the requirement that evaluation
should allow students to evaluate themselves (ipsative assessment).
Face Validity. Face validity pertains to whether the test looks valid to
the examinees who take it (Catane, 2000). One consideration that the
teacher should focus on as he develops the assessment instrument
appears to the examinees, to some degree, affects their performances.
The directions, readability, correctness of grammar and structure,
spacing, and suitability of words used have direct or indirect effect on
the accurateness of students responses in the assessment instrument.
The validators must provide their judgment whether the appearance of
the assessment instrument is desirable.
Content Validity. Oriondo & Antonio (1989) stress that content validity
is related to how adequately the content of the test samples the
domains about which inferences can be made. This means that,
through this method, the validators have to ensure that the contents
taught, as stated in the objectives, are similar with the contents
portrayed by the assessment instruments. It has been a classroom
reality that, at times, teachers include items in a test that are sampled
from the contents that were not discussed. When students raise an
issue that the item was not discussed, after a bit of introspection, he
announces to the class that he is giving it as a bonusjust to save his
face. What a shameful scenario. To avoid such a mess, the teacher
should ensure that the assessment instrument he administers has
content validity.
Construct Validity. This type of validity involves a systematic
examination of the test content to determine whether it covers a
representative sample of the behavior domain to be measured
(Catane, 2000). The statement of the expected behavior in the
instructional objectives makes it imperative that the assessment
instrument must capture the extent to which the students have
displayed the expected behaviors. Through this method, the validators
provide information about the capacity of the assessment instrument
to portray the expected students behavior. It has been a notion that
the display of such behaviors serves as an indicator that students have
learned.
There are times that the teacher needs to statistically prove that the
assessment instrument is valid. He may decide to utilize Criterion-related
because it uses some criteria as bases for showing that the assessment
instrument possesses a desirable degree of accuracy. These criteria can
either be students previous performance or an assessment instrument with
already known validity. If the result of the assessment instrument matches
the criterion used, then this instrument is valid. There are two types of
criterion-related validity. These are:
To prove that assessment instrument provides consistent data over time, the
teacher may use a test-retest method. This means that one form of the
instrument is conducted to a group of students, twice (test administration is
one week before the second administration). In this method, the results of
the first and second administrations are compared.
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