Course: Educational Measurement and Evaluation (6507)
Semester: Autumn, 2022 Level: MA/M.Ed.
Assignment No.1
Q.1 Keeping the item development rules in view develop 5 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) and 2 essay type questions from any secondary level textbook.
Multiple choice test questions, also known as items, can be an effective and efficient way to assess learning outcomes. Multiple choice test items have several potential advantages:
Versatility: Multiple choice test items can be written to assess various levels of learning outcomes, from basic recall to application, analysis, and evaluation. Because students are choosing from a set of potential answers, however, there are obvious limits on what can be tested with multiple choice items. For example, they are not an effective way to test students’ ability to organize thoughts or articulate explanations or creative ideas.
Reliability: Reliability is defined as the degree to which a test consistently measures a learning outcome. Multiple choice test items are less susceptible to guessing than true/false questions, making them a more reliable means of assessment. The reliability is enhanced when the number of MC items focused on a single learning objective is increased. In addition, the objective scoring associated with multiple choice test items frees them from problems with scorer inconsistency that can plague scoring of essay questions.
Q.2 Which factors can be helpful in minimizing the test adminisration problems and how scoring of subjective type test items can be made more reliable at secondary level.
Assessing the quality and quantity of learning has been, and always will be, a regular feature of classroom practice in every public school. For teachers to establish whether their pupils have been learning, they have to set, administer, score and grade examinations. Testing provides information about the examinees’ abilities and performance. It also enables meaningful observations and comparisons to be made of the kind of behaviour learners acquire during the teaching-learning process
Similarly, performance by students should reflect similar grade, in the same test, and similar results should be obtained by groups of comparable candidates using the test on other occasions, even when marked by a different examiner. This kind of result may only be obtained if among others the test is carefully administered; implying that the quality of test management and administration ensures its validity and reliability
It is, therefore, incumbent upon persons entrusted with the management of tests to learn the principles and good practices of test administration to ensure these qualities of a test are upheld in testing. When test administrators are not conversant with the principles of test administration, the overall aim of examination process fails and more often than not, the examiner and the examinees suffer the consequences.
Across the world, a number of scholars have documented vast and interesting literatures regarding principles of test administration and good testing practices in schools. Gronlund and Linn (1990), for example, suggest that tests can be successfully administered by any conscientious teacher or test administrator, as long as the prescribed testing procedures are rigorously followed. They maintain that test administration becomes simple if:
Q.3 What is the link of course objectives with test items? Keeping the principles of content selection in view develop a table of specification for twenty items from any secondary level textbook.
A course objective specifies a behavior, skill, or action that a student can demonstrate if they have achieved mastery of the objective. As such, objectives need to be written in such a way that they are measurable by some sort of assessment. Course objectives form the foundation of the class. Everything in the course should work together to ensure students master the course objectives.
WHAT DO GOOD COURSE OBJECTIVES LOOK LIKE
Good course objectives will be specific, measurable, and written from the learner’s perspective. Here’s a good formula for writing objectives:
- Start your course objectives with: By the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Choose an action verb that corresponds to the specific action you wish students to demonstrate
- Explain the knowledge students are expected to acquire or construct
- [Optional]: explain the criterion or level students are expected to reach to show mastery of knowledge
You will also want to make sure that you have thought of a way to assess students’ learned knowledge when writing course objectives. For example, if you always test students’ knowledge of content matter with a multiple choice test, the course objectives cannot ask that students evaluate or create something, as multiple choice tests cannot assess those levels of learning with a high level of accuracy.
Q.4 Why Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) are widely used types of test items? Criticize the frequent use of MCQs in high stake testing.
Who knew that a question type could be so shrouded in controversy? The multiple choice question (MCQ) may be a “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” favorite, but it’s also the most widely debated question type when it comes to efficacy and outcomes reporting. Why all the buzz? The multiple choice question is forever associated with standardized tests, Scantron sheets, #2 pencils, and all of the above. But like any question type, there are benefits and downfalls, there’s a time and place, and there are a slew of best practices. Let’s weigh the pros and cons and figure out when to best use this traditional testing favorite.
The Multiple-Benefit Question Type
Like any question type, the format alone is useless without proper usage, wording, and subject pairing to make it effective. The following benefits make multiple choice an attractive option for fact-based content.
· Easy on the GraderThink about the instructor with no TA and 500 students in their 101 course. Essays and short answer questions, while effective, will inevitably delay grading. Auto-graded multiple-choice questions allow instructors to test their students quickly and efficiently, without hiring additional graders.
Q.5 Explain the qualities of a good test? In which situations equivalent form of reliability can be a good measure of reliability?
One of the major goals of education is to prepare students for the next step in their future. They have to make sure that their learners have acquired enough knowledge about the field of study. Only good tests ensure this. A good test is not only a score that learners struggle to ace.
It’s feedback a student receives to improve his skills and knowledge and a good teacher loves to get back to, always, to make sure their teaching strategies are on point and whether they need development or not.
It’s also a feedback for decision-makers in all educational institutions and governmental positions who need good data to get to the next step of the institution or the State’s education plan.
It’s not something centric that students spend days of anxiety on, wondering how well they will do in a given test and how well the test questions are actually written and whether they are questions they do know the answer to or not.
What is a good test in education? It is an evaluation through which teachers measure learners’ abilities and points of weaknesses and strengths. It gauges their knowledge in the field of study and provides both sides with real feedback.
A good test should ensure that learners are ready to move to the next step whether this step is a high school, college, or even the military.