It is a detailed or small-scale task carried out to find out what a student knows, what he/she does not know, or even what he/she partially knows.
It is one of the assessment instruments. It is used in getting quantitative data. (PDE 705 P50, P36)
See Year 2012 Q5
(a) Student Factors
Socio-economic background
Health
Anxiety
Interest
Mood etc
(b) Teacher Factors
Teacher characteristics
Instructional Techniques
Teachers’ qualifications/knowledge
(c) Learning Materials
The nature
Appropriateness etc.
(d) Environmental Factors
Time of day
Weather condition
Arrangement
Invigilation etc (PDE 705 P70)
Test-retest method: An identical test is administered to the same group of students on different occasions.
Alternate-Form method: Two equivalent tests of different contents are given to the same group of students on different occasions. However, it is often difficult to construct two equivalent tests.
Split-half method: A test is split into two equivalent sub tests using odd and even numbered items. However, the equivalence of this is often difficult to establish. (PDE 705)
It is a mechanism used in the final grading of a student in the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains by taking into account all his/her performances in a systematic way during a given schooling period.
It is done for recording the continuous progress of the candidate.
Therefore, when a teacher conducts few (or less than appropriate) continuous assessment tests, he/she makes the process not a continuous or progressive one. (PDE 705 P43, P57, P45)
Qualities of a good test: A test is not something that is done in a haphazard manner.
A good test should be valid: by this we mean it should measure what it is supposed to measure or be suitable for the purpose for which it is intended.
A good test should be reliable: reliability simply means measuring what it purports to measure consistently. On a reliable test, you can be confident that someone will get more or less the same score on different occasions or when it is used by different people. Again, unit 5 is devoted to test reliability.
A good test must be capable of accurate measurement of the academic ability of the learner: a good test should give a true picture of the learner. It should point out clearly areas that are learnt and areas not learnt. All being equal, a good test should isolate the good from the bad. A good student should not fail a good test, while a poor student passes with flying colours.
A good test should combine both discrete point and integrative test procedures for a fuller representation of teaching-learning points. The test should focus on both discrete points of the subject area as well as the integrative aspects.
A good test should integrate all various learners’ needs, range of teaching-learning situations, objective and subjective items
A good test must represent teaching-learning objectives and goals: the test should be conscious of the objectives of learning and objectives of testing. For example, if the objective of learning is to master a particular skill and apply the skill, testing should be directed towards the mastery and application of the skill.
Test materials must be properly and systematically selected: the test materials must be selected in such a way that they cover the syllabus, teaching course outlines or the subject area. The materials should be of mixed difficulty levels (not too easy or too difficult) which represent the specific targeted learners’ needs that were identified at the beginning of the course.
Variety is also a characteristic of a good test. This includes a variety of test type: multiple choice tests, subjective tests and so on. It also includes variety of tasks and so on. It also includes variety of tasks within each test: writing, reading, speaking, listening, re-writing, transcoding, solving, organizing and presenting extended information, interpreting, black filling, matching, extracting points, distinguishing, identifying, constructing, producing, designing, etc. In most cases, both the tasks and the materials to be used in the tests should be real to the life situation of what the learner is being trained for. (PDE 705 P58)
Purposes of evaluation
1. to provide an objective basis for determining the promotion of students from one class to another as well as the award of certificates;
2. to encourage students to develop a sense of discipline and systematic study habits;
3. to help teachers determine the effectiveness of their teaching techniques and learning materials;
4. to determine the relative effectiveness of the programme in terms of students’ behavioural output;
5. to ascertain the worth of time, energy and resources invested in a programme;
6. to identify problems that might hinder or prevent the achievement of set goals;
7. to make reliable decisions about educational planning;
8. to identify students’ growth or lack of growth in acquiring desirable knowledge, skills, attitudes and societal values;
9. to help motivate students to want to learn more as they discover their progress or lack of progress in given tasks;
10. to provide educational administrators with adequate information about teachers’ effectiveness and school need;
11. to acquaint parents or guardians with their children’s performances;
12. to predict the general trend in the development of the teaching-learning process;
13. to ensure an economical and efficient management of scarce resources;
14. to provide a just basis for determining at what level of education the possessor of a certificate should enter a career.
(PDE 705 P36).