Assessment For Learning
Wednesday, 22 February 2017
Wednesday, 3 August 2016
Monday, 11 July 2016
TYPES OF TEST ITEMS
TYPES OF TEST ITEMS
The
objective type are constructed on educational achievements aptitude, and
intelligence objective type test much more precise than essay type tests. The
objective types test are standardized this type test mainly used in research
work, guidance and counseling and also in administration for selecting
candidates for different jobs. The obtained scores are transformed into
standard scores which can be easily interpretable and understandable.
R-L Ebel and D.A Frishe (1986) define an
objective tent as “one that can be provided with a simple predetermined tent of
correct answers that objective opinion or judgement in the acoring procedure is
eliminated.”
W. Wiersma and S.G. Jurs (1990) states,
“objective items are items can be objectively scored, items on which persons
select a response from a list of opinions.” There are three type of objective
type tests are following.
1.
Alternate
– Response test item
2.
Matching
type system
3.
Multiple
choice type system.
ALTERNATE-RESPONSE
TEST ITEM
According
to N.E Gronlernd (1985), “the alternative response test item consists of a
declarative statement that the pupil is
asked to mark true or false, right or wrong , correct or incorrect, yes or no,
factor opinion, agree or disagree and the like. In each case there are only two
possible answers. Because the true-false opinion is the most common, this item
type is most frequently referred to as true false item.”
In the alternative-response test, one of two
responses only one is correct. Some of the common variations of the alternate
–response test are
a)
True of False b) Yes-No
c) Right-wrong d) Correct-incorrect.
For example : The Vedas are the religious
books of the Hindus Yes/
No
MERITS OF ALTERNATE-RESPONSE
TEST ITEMS.
1.
It is
easy to correct them
2.
They
are capable of sampling very quickly a wide range of the subject matter.
3.
They
are more suitable for young children who have poor vocabulary.
4.
They
are more reliable per unit of testing item.
5.
They
can be scored objectively.
6.
They
are adaptable to most content areas.
7.
They
are early to construct.
8.
They
are time savers.
9.
They
provide simple and direct means for measuring the out comes of formed
instruction.
LIMITATIONS
1.
Generally
they emphasis rote memorization.
2.
The
examinees are not required to apply principles to new
situations.
3.
These
are only two choices, they allow a high degree of guessing.
4.
They
may motivate students to study and accept only over
simplified statements of facture details.
5.
There
can be attempted even by those who know nothing of
the subject matter.
6.
They
are largely limited to learning out comes in the knowledge domain.
SUGGESTIONS FOR TRUE OR FALSE ITEMS.
1.
Be
sure that the item as written can be classified unequivocally as aided true or
false.
2.
Avoid
ambiguous and indefinite terms of degree or amount.
3.
Keep
true or false statements approximately equal in length.
4.
Employ
a random occurrence of true or false statements to avoid giving irrelevant
clues.
5.
Avoid
double negative statements.
6.
The
direction regarding the answers should be very clear.
7.
Long
and complex statements should not be used because they measure regarding.
Comprehensive also and which may not be the objective of the examiner.
MATCHING
TYPE TEST ITEM
N.E. Gronlund (1985), “The
matching exercise consists of two parallel columns with each word, number or
symbol in one column being matched to a word, a sentence or phrase in the other
column. The items in the column for which match is sought are called premises
and the items in the column from which the selection is made are called
responses.
There are several varieties of matching
tests. In the traditional format of a matching test consists of two column. The
examinee is required to make some sort of association between each premise and
each response in the two columns he pairs the corresponding elements and
records his answers.
MERITS
OF MATCHING TESTS
1.
Many
questions can be asked in limited time between they
require little reading time.
2.
Reliability
of the test increases as they afford as an opportunity to have a large sampling
of the content.
3.
Scoring
is comparatively easier.
4.
Matching
test can be constructed relatively easily and quickly.
5.
There
is less scope for guessing as compared with true –
false tests
6.
A good
deal of space can be saved.
LIMITATIONS
1.
They
are not well adapted testing for the acquision of
knowledge or understanding of and ability to
use relatively complete interpretive ideas.
2.
They
may encourage serial memorization rather than
association
is sufficient care is not taken in their construction.
3.
Generally
they provide clues.
4.
It is
at times difficult to get dusters of questions that are
sufficiently
similar questions that a common set of response can be used.
SUGGESTIONS FOR CONSTRUCTING
MATCHING TESTS
1.
Keep
each lists relatively short.
2.
Each matching
tests should consists of homogeneous
items.
3.
Avoid
an equal members of premises and responses.
4.
All
items of the tests should be on the same page.
5.
Do not
more statements or responses highly dissimilar in
character.
6.
Avoid
using matching tests for testing small units of the
subject
matter
MULTIPLE CHOICE TYPE TEST ITEM
“
According ti N.E Gronlund (1985)”A multiple choice
item consists of a problem
and lists suggested solutions. The problem may be stated as direct acquisition
or an incomplete statements and is called the stern of item. The tent of
suggested solutions may include words numbers, symbols or phrases and are
called alternatives. The pupil is typically requested to read the stem and the
list of alternatives and to select the one correct or best alternative” A
multiple item of two parts.
1.
The
“stem” which contains the problem.
2.
Options
or responses it list of suggested answers. The stem be stated as direct
question or an incomplete statements.
FORMS
OF MULTIPLE TESTS
a)
The
correct answer form
It contains
three or more choices but only one of them is correct.
b)
The
best answer form
One or
more all choices may be correct but one of them is the best answer the examine
is required to select the best one.
c)
The multiple response them
The correct answers may consist
of more than one choices and the examine is asked to identify all those which
are correct.
d)
The
complete statement form the stem is incomplete and can be completed by the
correct choice. The examinee is asked to select one.
e)
The
substitution form
The word
outline the stem is to the substituted by the
correct response. Responses
are given are the examinee is asked to select one which can substitute the
desired word.
f)
The
combined response form
The
choices are different spaces or sentence or paragraph.
The examinee required to
correct order of the phrases or sentences.
MERITS OF MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST ITEM
1.
They
can measure cognitive levels better than true false items because examine do
not score for merely knowing whether the statement is true or false but for
knowing which is the correct answer.
2.
They
can measure from the most element the knowledge lent to the most complex level.
3.
A
substantial amount of the subject matter can be tested because the examinees do
not require much time for righting the answer.
4.
They
are objective in scoring because they key for the correct answer is prepared
along with the test.
5.
They
reduce the effect of guessing because there are three or four choices.
6.
Their
format is helpful in item analysis to find out he areas of weakness of the
examinee.
7.
They
can be easily adopted for machine scoring.
LIMITATIONS
1.
They
donot permit the exminees to express their own views
2.
They
cannot measure attitudes or motor skills .
3.
It is
difficult to find four choices for each item out of which thir may be plausible
in correct answers.
4.
they
cannot evaluate the ability to organize any present ideas.
5.
They
require more time to construct.
6.
They
check only limited knowledge
SUGGESTIONS FOR MULTIPLE CHOICE
QUESTION
1.
Be
sure the stem of the item clearly formulates a problem
2.
Include
as mush of the item as possible in the stem and keep options as short as
possible.
3.
Include
in the stem only the metric required to make the problem clear and specific.
4.
us e
the negative sparing the amid stem of the item
5.
Repetition
of words in the options should be avoided
6.
Unfamiliar
and difficult symbols and vocabulary should avoided.
MERITS OF OBJECTIVE TYPE TEST.
1.
The
new type examinations are motive objective in their scoring they are free from
personal factor of the teacher.
2.
They
may be very comprehensive and can be made to cover a great deal more material than the old type
of examinations
3.
They
are very easy to score.
4.
They
are more education for the pupils.
5.
It
discourage examine and encourage thinking observation and scrutiny
6.
They
are more reliable
7.
Objective
tests can be standardized by applying before hand to a large numbers of
students of the same age group before the actual examination
LIMITATIONS
1.
The
pupil does not have an opportunity to show his ability to organize his thoughts
.
This type of tests are not diagnostic in that
they do not tell where the pupils reasoning process goes wrong or where he
stops reasoning all together and starts guessing.
2.
It is
commonly said that this type of tests fail to check cramming
Short-answer
questions are open-ended questions that require students to create an answer.
They are commonly used in examinations to assess the basic knowledge and
understanding (low cognitive levels) of a topic before more in-depth assessment
questions are asked on the topic. Short Answer Questions do not
have a generic structure. Questions may require answers such as complete the
sentence, supply the missing word, short descriptive or qualitative answers,
diagrams with explanations etc. The answer is usually short, from one word to a
few lines. Often students may answer in bullet form.
§ Short
Answer Questions are relatively fast to mark and can be marked by different
assessors, as long as the questions are set in such a way that all alternative
answers can be considered by the assessors.
§ Short
Answer Questions are also relatively easy to set compared to many assessment
methods.
§ Short
Answer Questions can be used as part of a formative and summative assessment,
as the structure of short answer questions are very similar to examination
questions, students are more familiar with the practice and feel less anxious.
§ Unlike
MCQs, there is no guessing on answers, students must supply an answer.
§ Short
Answer Questions (SAQ) are only suitable for questions that can be answered
with short responses. It is very important that the assessor is very clear on
the type of answers expected when setting the questions, because SAQ is an
open-ended questions, students are free to answer any way they choose,
short-answer questions can lead to difficulties in grading if the question is
not worded carefully.
§ Short
Answer Questions are typically used for assessing knowledge only, students may
often memorize Short Answer Questions with rote learning. If assessors wish to
use Short Answer Questions to assess deeper learning, careful attention (and
many practices) on appropriate questions are required.
§ Accuracy
of assessment may be influenced by handwriting/spelling skills
§ There
can be time management issues when answering Short Answer Questions
§ Design
short answer items which are appropriate assessment of the learning objective
§ Make
sure the content of the short answer question measures knowledge appropriate to
the desired learning goal
§ Express
the questions with clear wordings and language which are appropriate to the
student population
§ Ensure
there is only one clearly correct answer in each question
§ Ensure
that the item clearly specifies how the question should be answered (e.g.
Student should answer it briefly and concisely using a single word or short
phrase? Is the question given a specific number of blanks for students to
answer?)
§ Consider
whether the positioning of the item blank promote efficient scoring
§ Write
the instructions clearly so as to specify the desired knowledge and specificity
of response
§ Set
the questions explicitly and precisely.
§ Direct
questions are better than those which require completing the sentences.
§ For
numerical answers, let the students know if they will receive marks for showing
partial work (process based) or only the results (product based), also
indicated the importance of the units.
§ Let
the students know what your marking style is like, is bullet point format
acceptable, or does it have to be an essay format?
§ Prepare
a structured marking sheet; allocate marks or part-marks for acceptable
answer(s).
§ Be
prepared to accept other equally acceptable answers, some of which you may not
have predicted.
ESSAY TYPE TEST
The
word essay has been derived from a French word ‘essayer’ which means ‘to try’
or ‘to attempt’.
“Essay
test is a test that requires the student to structure a rather long written
response up to several paragraphs.” -William
weirsama
The essay test refers to
any written test that requires the examinee to write a sentence, a paragraph or
longer passages. Essay questions provide a complex prompt that requires written
responses, which can vary in length from a couple of paragraphs to many pages.
Like short answer questions, they provide students with an opportunity to
explain their understanding and demonstrate creativity, but make it hard for
students to arrive at an acceptable answer by bluffing. They can be constructed
reasonably quickly and easily but marking these questions can be time-consuming
and grader agreement can be difficult.
Essay questions differ from
short answer questions in that the essay questions are less structured. This
openness allows students to demonstrate that they can integrate the course
material in creative ways. As a result, essays are a favoured approach to test
higher levels of cognition including analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
Characteristics of essay test:
1. The
length of the required responses varies with reference to marks and time
2. It
demands a subjective judgment: Judgment means making judgment or assessing
whereas subjective means not fair enough i.e. it differs from person to person.
3. Most
familiar and widely used:Essay has become a major part of a formal education.
Secondary students are taught structured essays format to improve their writing
skills.
Types of Essay Test
1. Restricted response questions:
The restricted response
question usually limits both the content and the response the content is
usually restricted by the scope of the topic to be discussed limitations on the
form of response are generally indicated in the question another way of
restricting responses in essay tests is to base the questions on specific
problems. For this purpose, introductory material like that used in
interpretive exercises can be presented. Such items differ from objective
interpretive exercise only by the fact that essay questions are used instead of
multiple choice or true or false items. Because the restricted response
question is more structured it is most useful for measuring learning outcomes
requiring the interpretation and application of date in a specific area.
2. Extended response questions:
No restriction is placed in
students as to the points he will discuss and the type of organization he will
use. Teachers in such a way so as to give students the maximum possible freedom
to determine the nature and scope of question and in a way he would give
response of course being related topic and in stipulated time frame these types
of questions.
The student may be select
the points he thinks are most important, pertinent and relevant to his points
and arrangement and organize the answers in whichever way he wishes. So they
are also called free response questions. This enables the teacher to judge the
student’s abilities to organize, integrate, interpret the material and express
themselves in their own words. It also gives an opportunity to comment or look
into students’ progress, quality of their thinking, the depth of their
understanding problem solving skills and the difficulties they may be having.
These skills interact with each other with the knowledge and understanding the
problem requires. Thus it is at the levels of synthesis and evaluation of
writing skills that this type of questions makes the greatest contribution.
Merits of essay writing:
1. It is relatively
easier to prepare and administer a six-question extended response essay test
than to prepare and administer a comparable 60 item multiple choice test items.
2. It
is the only means that can assess an examinee’s ability to organize and present
his ideas in a logical and coherent fashion and in effective prose.
3. It
can be successfully employed for practically all school subjects.
4. Some
of the objectives – such as ability to organize idea effectively ability to
criticize or justify a statement, ability to criticize or justify a statement,
ability to interpret etc. can be measured by this type of test.
5. Logical
thinking and critical reasoning, systematic presentation etc. can be best
developed by this type of test.
6. Its
helps induce good study habits such as making outlines and summaries,
organizing the arguments for and against, etc.
7. The
student can show their initiative, the originality of their thought and the
fertility of their imagination, as they are permitted freedom of response.
8. The
response of the students need not be completely right or wrong. All degrees of
comprehensiveness and accuracy are possible.
9. It
largely eliminates guessing.
Demerits of essay writing:
Every
coin has 2 sides same ways in essay test if there are merits than demerits are
also there so we will see demerits of essay test writing.
1. Limited
sampling of the content: -
It means few questions can
be included in given test. Example if in one particular book 18 chapter are
given, teacher cannot ask question from all the chapters. They have to neglect
some areas.
2. Subjectivity
of scoring:
If all students are writing
same answer of one question, why they get different marks? In essay test answer
of question are scored differently by different teacher. Even the same teacher
scores the answer differently at different times.
3. Halo
effects:
It means teacher knows the
particular student very well and has good impression because of his previous
paper and writing skills.
4. Mood
of the examiner:
The general feeling of all
students after writing your S.S.C board paper what you had discussed with your
fried. I hope the teacher who is checking my paper has not quarreled with some”
5. Ambiguous
wording of the question:
Sometime essay questions
are so worded that students do not know the exact implications of the
questions.
6. Examiner
contaminated by various factors:
The examiner is
contaminated by various factors like hand writing, spelling, grammar etc some
students who has good verbal knowledge may write many things on an essay topic.
7. It
requires an excessive time on the part of students to write while assessing
reading essays is very time-consuming and laborious.
8. Only
a teacher or competent professionals can assess it.
9. The
speed of writing can influence the performance of the learner. This results in
low scores even if the learner may know the correct answer of all questions.
10. It may not
provide a true picture of the comprehension level of the leaner. Grammars may
get good marks.
Suggestions for improving essay questions:
1. Restrict
the use of essay questions to those learning outcomes that cannot be
satisfactorily measured by objective items. Such functions as ability to
organize’ to express, to interpret and to elicit understanding may be tested
through essay questions.
2. Do
not start the essay questions with words such as what, who, when, enumerate
etc. in general start with compare, contrast, discuss, explain etc.
3. Write
the essay question in such a way that the task is clearly and unambiguously
defined for each examinee.
4. Directions
for the test should be explicitly written.
For example, (a) each
question carries 20 marks (b) Marks will be deducted for spelling mistakes.
5. Avoid
the use of optional questions. A fairly common practice in the use of essay
questions is to provide pupils with more questions than they are expected to
answer. When pupils answer different questions, it is obvious they are taking
different test and the common basis for evaluating their achievement is lost.
6. Students
are found to be misinformed about the meaning of important terms used in essay
questions. For example: students frequently discuss or describe when asked to
define. A solution would be to supply the necessary training to the students in
writing essay questions.
7. Allow
liberal time limit so that the essay test will not be a test of speed of
writing. While setting up the question paper s that it can be answered in the
allotted time, leaving some time for reading the question, drawing up an
outline of the answers and finally for revision.
8. We
have seen that the essay examination suffers from lack of adequate sampling.
This defect can to some extent be overcome by increasing the number of
questions any limiting the length of their answers. A question paper with 10
questions would represent a better sample than one with 5 questions only.
9. One
of the favourite questions of examiners is :
for example: write short
notes on: 1. Social education. 2. Homework.
This
type of question is worse than the one mentioned in above. The student dos not
know the limits and he goes on writing pages after pages. The better way to
write is e.g. write short notes on (a) objectives of social education (b)
misuse of homework.
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