Unit 1: Perspectives on Assessment and Evaluation

1(a) Meaning of Assessment, Measurement, Tests, Examination, Appraisal, and Evaluation and their
interrelationships; Principles of assessment and evaluation,
Meaning of Assessment
In education, the term assessment refers to the wide variety of methods that educators use to evaluate,
measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, and skill acquisition of students from
preschool through college and adulthood. It is the process of systematically gathering information as part
of an evaluation. Assessment is carried out to see what children and young people know, understand and
are able to do. Assessment is very important for tracking progress, planning next steps, reporting and
involving parents, children and young people in learning.
Meaning of Measurement
Measurement is actually the process of estimating the values that is the physical quantities like; time,
temperature, weight, length etc. each measurement value is represented in the form of some standard units.
The estimated values by these measurements are actually compared against the standard quantities that are
of same type. Measurement is the assignment of a number to a characteristic of an object or event, which
can be compared with other objects or events. The scope and application of a measurement is dependent on
the context and discipline.
Meaning of Tests
A procedure intended to establish the quality, performance or reliability of something, especially before it
is taken into widespread use.
Meaning of Examination
The act of examining or state of being examined (Education). Written exercises, Oral questions or practical
tasks, set to test a candidate‘s knowledge and skill (as modifier): an examination paper.
Meaning of Appraisal
An assessment or estimation of the worth, value or quality of a person or thing. Impartial analysis and
evaluation conducted according to established criteria to determine the acceptability, merit, or worth of an
item.
Meaning of Evaluation
Evaluation is a broader term that refers to all of the methods used to find out what happens as a result of
using a specific intervention or practice. Evaluation is the systematic assessment of the worth or merit of
some object. It is the systematic acquisition and assessment of information to provide useful feedback about
some object.
Interrelation among Assessment, Evaluation and Measurement
Though the terms assessment and evaluation are often used interchangeably (Cooper, 1999), many writers
differentiate between them. Assessment is defined as gathering information or evidence, and evaluation is
the use of that information or evidence to make judgments (Snowman, McCown, and Biehler, 2012).
Measurement involves assigning numbers or scores to an "attribute or characteristic of a person in such a
way that the numbers describe the degree to which the person possesses the attribute" (Nitco and Brookhart,
2011, p. 507). Assigning grade equivalents to scores on a standardized achievement test is an example of
measurement.
PRINCIPLES OF ASSESSMENT
Reliability
A test can be reliable but not valid, whereas a test cannot be valid yet unreliable. Reliability, in simple
terms, describes the repeatability and consistency of a test. Validity defines the strength of the final results
and whether they can be regarded as accurately describing the real world.
Validity
The word "valid" is derived from the Latin validus, meaning strong. The validity of a measurement tool
(for example, a test in education) is considered to be the degree to which the tool measures what it claims
to measure; in this case, the validity is an equivalent to accuracy.
Relevance and transferability
In education, the term relevance typically refers to learning experiences that are either directly applicable
to the personal aspirations, interests or cultural experiences of students (personal relevance) or that are
connected in some way to real-world issues, problems and contexts (life relevance).
Relevance is the concept of one topic being connected to another topic in a way that makes it useful to
consider the first topic when considering the second. The concept of relevance is studied in many different
fields, including cognitive sciences, logic, and library and information science. Most fundamentally,
however, it is studied in epistemology (the theory of knowledge).
Transferability implies that results of the research study can be applicable to similar situations or
individuals. The knowledge which was obtained in situation will be relevant in another and investigators
who carry out research in another context will be able to utilize certain concepts which were initially
developed. It is comparable to generalizability.
Transferability in research is utilized by the readers of study. Transferability can apply in varying degrees
to many types of research. Transferability doesn‘t involve broad claims, but invites readers of research to
make associations between elements of research and their own experience. For example, lecturers at a
school may selectively apply to their own class‘s results from a research indicating that heuristic writing
exercises aid students at the university level.

1(b) Behaviorist, Cognitivist and Constructivist Perspectives of assessment

LEARNING THEORY
Learning theories are conceptual frameworks describing how information is absorbed, processed and
retained during learning. Cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences, as well as prior experience,
all play a part in how understanding, or a world view, is acquired or changed and knowledge and skills
retained. Behaviorists look at learning as an aspect of conditioning and will advocate a system of rewards
and targets in education. Educators who embrace cognitive theory believe that the definition of learning as
a change in behavior is too narrow and prefer to study the learner rather than their environment and in
particular the complexities of human memory. Those who advocate constructivism believe that a learner's
ability to learn relies to a large extent on what he already knows and understands, and the acquisition of
knowledge should be an individually tailored process of construction. Transformative learning theory
focuses upon the often necessary change that is required in a learner's preconceptions and world view.
Behaviorism
Behaviorism is a philosophy of learning that only focuses on objectively observable behaviors and
discounts mental activities. Behavior theorists define learning as nothing more than the acquisition of new
behavior. Experiments by behaviorists identify conditioning as a universal learning process.
There are two different types of conditioning, each yielding a different behavioral pattern:

 Classic conditioning occurs when a natural reflex responds to a stimulus. The most popular example is
Pavlov's observation that dogs salivate when they eat or even see food. Essentially, animals and people are
biologically "wired" so that a certain stimulus will produce a specific response.

 Behavioral or operant conditioning occurs when a response to a stimulus is reinforced. Basically,

operant conditioning is a simple feedback system: If a reward or reinforcement follows the response to a
stimulus, then the response becomes more probable in the future. For example, leading behaviorist B.F.
Skinner used reinforcement techniques to teach pigeons to dance and bowl a ball in a mini-alley.
How Behaviorism impacts learning:

 Positive and negative reinforcement techniques of Behaviorism can be very effective.

 Teachers use Behaviorism when they reward or punish student behaviors.

Cognitivism
Jean Piaget authored a theory based on the idea that a developing child builds cognitive structures, mental
"maps", for understanding and responding to physical experiences within their environment. Piaget
proposed that a child's cognitive structure increases in sophistication with development, moving from a few
innate reflexes such as crying and sucking to highly complex mental activities.
The four developmental stages of Piaget's model and the processes by which children progress through
them are:
The child is not yet able to conceptualize abstractly and needs concrete physical situations. As physical
experience accumulates, the child starts to conceptualize, creating logical structures that explain their
physical experiences. Abstract problem solving is possible at this stage. For example, arithmetic equations
can be solved with numbers, not just with objects. By this point, the child's cognitive structures are like
those of an adult and include conceptual reasoning.

Piaget proposed that during all development stages, the child experiences their environment using whatever
mental maps they have constructed. If the experience is a repeated one, it fits easily - or is assimilated - into
the child's cognitive structure so that they maintain mental "equilibrium". If the experience is different or
new, the child loses equilibrium, and alters their cognitive structure to accommodate the new conditions.
In this way, the child constructs increasingly complex cognitive structures.
How Piaget's theory impacts learning:
Curriculum - Educators must plan a developmentally appropriate curriculum that enhances their
students' logical and conceptual growth.
Instruction - Teachers must emphasize the critical role that experiences, or interactions with the
surrounding environment, play in student learning. For example, instructors have to take into account the
role that fundamental concepts, such as the permanence of objects, play in establishing cognitive structures.

Constructivism
Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences
we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Each of us generates our own "rules" and
"mental models," which we use to make sense of our experiences.
Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences.

The guiding principles of Constructivism:

Learning is a search for meaning. Therefore, learning must start with the issues around which students
are actively trying to construct meaning.
Meaning requires understanding wholes as well as parts and parts must be understood in the context
of wholes. Therefore, the learning process focuses on primary concepts, not isolated facts.
In order to teach well, we must understand the mental models that students use to perceive the world
and the assumptions they make to support those models.
The purpose of learning is for an individual to construct his or her own meaning, not just memorize the
"right" answers and repeat someone else's meaning. Since education is inherently interdisciplinary, the only
valuable way to measure learning is to make assessment part of the learning process, ensuring it provides
students with information on the quality of their learning.

How Constructivism impacts learning:

Curriculum - Constructivism calls for the elimination of a standardized curriculum. Instead, it promotes
using curricula customized to the students' prior knowledge. Also, it emphasizes hands-on problem solving.

Instruction - Under the theory of constructivism, educators focus on making connections between facts
and fostering new understanding in students. Instructors tailor their teaching strategies to student responses
and encourage students to analyze, interpret and predict information. Teachers also rely heavily on open-
ended questions and promote extensive dialogue among students.

Assessment - Constructivism calls for the elimination of grades and standardized testing. Instead,
assessment becomes part of the learning process so that students play a larger role in judging their own
progress.

1(C) Purposes of Assessment: Prognostic, Monitoring of Learning, Providing Feedback, Promotion, Placement,
Certification, Grading and Diagnostic

PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT
Teaching and Learning
The primary purpose of assessment is to improve student’s learning and teacher’s teaching as both respond
to the information it provides. Assessment for learning is an ongoing process that arises out of the
interaction between teaching and learning.

What makes assessment for learning effective is how well the information is used.
System improvement
Assessment can do more than simply diagnose and identify student’s learning needs; it can be used to assist
improvements across the education system in a cycle of continuous improvement:
 Students and teachers can use the information gained from assessment to determine their next teaching
and learning steps.
 Parents and families can be kept informed of next plans for teaching and learning and the progress being
made, so they can play an active role in their children‘s learning.
 School leaders can use the information for school-wide planning, to support their teachers and determine
professional development needs.
 Communities and Boards of Trustees can use assessment information to assist their governance role and
their decisions about staffing and resourcing.
 The Education Review Office can use assessment information to inform their advice for school
improvement.
 The Ministry of Education can use assessment information to undertake policy review and development
at a national level, so that government funding and policy intervention is targeted appropriately to support
improved student outcomes.

1(d) Classification of assessment:

• based on purpose (prognostic, formative, diagnostic and summative)
• scope (teacher made, standardized),
• attribute measured (achievement, aptitude, attitude, etc.),
• nature of information gathered (qualitative, quantitative),
• mode of response (oral and written; selection and supply),
• nature of interpretation (norm referenced, criterion referenced) and
• context (internal, external)

CLASSIFICATION OF ASSESSMENT
Based on purpose
There are three types of assessment: diagnostic, formative and summative. Although are three are generally
referred to simply as assessment, there are distinct differences between the three.
Prognostic Assessment
A prognostic assessment expands the findings of an assessment with analysis of abilities and potentials with
a further dimension: the future development of the concerned person, as well as the necessary conditions,
timeframe and limits. Finding the right person for an executive position needs a reliable comprehension of
the personality as well as the possibilities and limits concerning the personal development. Even an
experienced and keen observer of human nature may get deluded, even recognized and proven test
procedures may be incomplete or leading to wrong results – and misjudgments can become expensive in
substantial and immaterial ways.
Six Goals of the Prognostic Personality and Abilities
Assessment Analysis of existing abilities and interests, including the not (yet) known ones and the
development to be expected.
 If needed, a comparison with job description and profile of requirements.
 Basic conditions and needs for the development: how it can be enhanced and ensured.
 Period: how long the development will take until the defined goals can be reached.
 Limits of developmental possibilities, either referring to the defined goals (selection assessment),
or generally, with a realistic time frame of 3 to 5 years.
 Quality assurance and sustainability: how the results can be monitored and ensured in the long
term.
The prognostic assessment is suitable for all management levels including executive board and
administrative council, but likewise for young people with the aim of a comprehensive potential analysis.
Typically, the prognostic assessment is accomplished as an individual one day-assessment. The objectives
are defined individually.
Formative Assessment
 Formative assessment provides feedback and information during the instructional process, while learning
is taking place, and while learning is occurring. Formative assessment measures student progress but it can
also assess your own progress as an instructor. A primary focus of formative assessment is to identify areas
that may need improvement. These assessments typically are not graded and act as a gauge to student’s
learning progress and to determine teaching effectiveness (implementing appropriate methods and
activities).
 Types of Formative Assessment:

 Observations during in-class activities

 Homework exercises as review for exams and class discussions

 Reflections journals that are reviewed periodically during the semester

 Question and answer sessions, both formal—planned and informal—spontaneous

 Conferences between the instructor and student at various points in the semester

 In-class activities where students informally present their results

 Student feedback collected by periodically

 Diagnostic Assessment:
Diagnostic assessment can help you identify your student’s current knowledge of a subject, their skill sets
and capabilities, and to clarify misconceptions before teaching takes place. Knowing student’s strengths
and weaknesses can help you better plan what to teach and how to teach it.
Types of Diagnostic Assessments:

 Pre-tests (on content and abilities)

 Self-assessments (identifying skills and competencies)

 Discussion board responses (on content-specific prompts)

 Interviews (brief, private, 10-minute interview of each student)

Summative Assessment
Summative assessment takes place after the learning has been completed and provides information and
feedback that sums up the teaching and learning process. Typically, no more formal learning is taking place
at this stage, other than incidental learning which might take place through the completion of projects and
assignments.
Types of Summative Assessment

 Examinations (major, high-stakes exams)

 Final examination (a truly summative assessment)

 Term papers (drafts submitted throughout the semester would be a formative assessment)

 Projects (project phases submitted at various completion points could be formatively assessed)

 Portfolios (could also be assessed during its development as a formative assessment)

 Performances

 Student evaluation of the course (teaching effectiveness)

 Instructor self-evaluation

Based on scope
Teacher-Made vs. Standardized Assessments
In the broadest sense, assessments may be classified into two categories: teacher-made and standardized.
Teacher-made assessments are constructed by an individual teacher or a group of teachers in order to
measure the outcome of classroom instruction. Standardized assessments, on the other hand, are
commercially prepared and have uniform procedures for administration and scoring. They are meant for
gathering information on large groups of students in multiple settings (Karmel and Karmel, 1978).
Based on Attribute
ATTRIBUTE MEASURED
Achievement
Academic performance should be measured in multiple manners and methods such as: teacher observation,
benchmark assessments, student portfolios, rubrics, progress monitoring tools, standardized assessments
and other local assessments.
―Using multiple assessments helps educators determine what is working and not working… and eventually
can lead to better outcomes for students.‖
Aptitude
The terms intelligence, ability and aptitude are often used interchangeably to refer to behaviour that is used
to predict future learning or performance. However, slight differences exist between the terms. The tests
designed to measure these attributes differ in several significant ways.
 How can one be improve Aptitude?
Although studies seem to suggest that aptitude test scores cannot be improved, other research shows that
that may not be the case. Tests such as the Scholastic Aptitude Tests contain many questions that are
content-specific, particularly in math areas. Performance on these specific types of items is trainable. Some
experts feel that short-term cramming might not affect aptitude test scores.
However, long-term instruction in broad cognitive skills might improve general test performance. Cognitive
theory and research suggest that learning ability can be improved by training students in learning strategies.
Improving academic aptitude may be possible through a systematic curriculum that complements direct
training in learning strategies with both the development of general thinking approaches and the application
of those approaches over a variety of different tasks and content areas.
What has been learned about training to improve aptitude can be summarized as follows:
* Attempts to train aptitude must go well beyond practice and feedback. What's needed is intensive training
in strategies involved in task performance along with higher level monitoring and control strategies
involved in guiding performance and in transferring skills to new areas.
* Educational efforts to improve aptitude need to be long-term.
* Abilities of students and methods of training interact. Attempts to train strategies must fit the tested
aptitudes of students.
* Practice and feedback can be effective when students are already proficient in the ability to be trained.
* Intrusive training may be harmful to high aptitude students.
* Training ability works best when treatment utilizes some of the student's other strengths.
* Some aspects of intellectual aptitude may be more easily trained than others.
Attitude
Most simply put, attitudes are likes and dislikes. Social psychologists have given various definitions of the
concept. Most of them view attitudes as inclinations or predispositions.
According to Gordon W Allport defined an attitude to be a mental and neural state of readiness, organized
through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual's response to all objects
and situations with which it is related.
Milton Rokeach defined it as a relatively enduring organization of beliefs around an object or situation
predisposing a person to respond in some preferential manner. Our response to an object is often in line
with what we believe about and how we feel toward that object.
Attitudes are, thus, said to have a knowledge/belief (cognitive) component, an emotional or affective
component and a Conative or behavioral component. Having an idea or belief about the object is the
minimum condition for having an attitude with regard to it. When the object of which you have an idea
becomes associated with pleasant or unpleasant events or with your aspirations and goals, you attach a
corresponding affect or an emotional tinge to that object.
This affected belief energizes and directs your response with regard to the object. An attitude may thus be
understood as an idea or belief charged with emotion predisposing an individual to act in a particular way
to persons, things, situations, issues, etc.
Based on Nature of information gathered (qualitative & quantitative)
Research methods are split broadly into quantitative and qualitative methods.
Quantitative Research
Quantitative research is perhaps the simpler to define and identify. The data produced are always numerical,
and they are analyzed using mathematical and statistical methods. If there are no numbers involved, then
it‘s not quantitative research. Some phenomena obviously lend themselves to quantitative analysis because
they are already available as numbers. Examples include changes in achievement at various stages of
education, or the increase in number of senior managers holding management degrees. However, even
phenomena that are not obviously numerical in nature can be examined using quantitative methods.
Sources of Quantitative Data
The most common sources of quantitative data include:

 Surveys, whether conducted online, by phone or in person. These rely on the same questions being asked
in the same way to a large number of people;

 Observations, which may either involve counting the number of times that a particular phenomenon
occurs, such as how often a particular word is used in interviews, or coding observational data to translate
it into numbers; and
 Secondary data, such as company accounts.

Qualitative Research
Qualitative research is any which does not involve numbers or numerical data. It often involves words or
language, but may also use pictures or photographs and observations. Qualitative analysis results in rich
data that gives an in-depth picture and it is particularly useful for exploring how and why things have
happened.
Sources of Qualitative Data
Although qualitative data is much more general than quantitative, there are still a number of common
techniques for gathering it. These include:

 Interviews, which may be structured, semi-structured or unstructured;

 Focus groups, which involve multiple participants discussing an issue;

 ‘Postcards’, or small-scale written questionnaires that ask, for example, three or four focused questions
of participants but allow them space to write in their own words;

 Secondary data, including diaries, written accounts of past events, and company reports; and

 Observations, which may be on site, or under laboratory conditions‘, for example, where participants
are asked to role-play a situation to show what they might do.
Based on Mode of Response
Mode of Response
Oral Response and Written Assessments
Student oral responses are longer and more complex, parallel to extended written response questions. Just
as with extended written response, one evaluates the quality of oral responses using a rubric or scoring
guide. Longer, more complicated responses would occur, for example, during oral examination or oral
presentations.
Written assessments are activities in which the student selects or composes a response to a prompt. In
most cases, the prompt consists of printed materials (a brief question, a collection of historical documents,
graphic or tabular material, or a combination of these). However, it may also be an object, an event, or an
experience. Student responses are usually produced ―on demand, i.e., the respondent does the writing at a
specified time and within a fixed amount of time. These constraints contribute to standardization of testing
conditions, which increases the comparability of results across students or groups.
Selected-Response
Tests Characteristics Selected-response tests are so named because the student reads a relatively brief
opening statement (called a stem) and selects one of the provided alternatives as the correct answer.
Selected-response tests are typically made up of multiple-choice, true-false, or matching items.
Quite often all three item types are used in a single test. Selected-response tests are sometimes called
"objective" tests because they have a simple and set scoring system.
If alternative (b) of a multiple-choice item is keyed as the correct response and the student chose alternative
(d), the student is marked wrong, regardless of how much the teacher wanted the student to be right.
Advantages
A major advantage of selected-response tests is efficiency -- a teacher can ask many questions in a short
period of time. Another advantage is ease and reliability of scoring. With the aid of a scoring template (such
as a multiple-choice answer sheet that has holes punched out where the correct answer is located), many
tests can be quickly and uniformly scored.
Disadvantages
Because items that reflect the lowest level of Bloom's Taxonomy (verbatim knowledge) are the easiest to
write, most teacher-made tests are composed almost entirely of knowledge level items (a point we made
initially in Chapter 7). As a result, students focus on verbatim memorization rather than on meaningful
learning. Another disadvantage is that, while we get some indication of what students know, such tests tell
us nothing about what students can do with that knowledge.
Supply - Response Tests
Fill –in-the- Blank
Fill –in-the- Blank with a word bank is just another form of matching and only test the lower cognitive
levels.
Rules
Rule I: Position in the blank at the end of the statement.
Poor Item
A -------------- is used to keep food cold.
Better Item
To keep food cold use a -----------------
Rule II: Limit the number of blanks in a statement.
Poor Item
A -------------- sends ------------of electrical current through ---------------.
Better Item
Pulses of electrical current are sent through wore by a (n) -----------------
Rule III: Keep blanks the same length
Poor Item
American flag is composed of ------ and ------------------------.
Better Item
American flag is composed of ---------------- and -----------------.
Short-Answer
Tests Characteristics Instead of selecting from one or more alternatives, the student is asked to supply a
brief answer consisting of a name, word, phrase, or symbol. Like selected-response tests, short-answer tests
can be scored quickly, accurately and consistently, thereby giving them an aura of objectivity. They are
primarily used for measuring foundational knowledge.
Advantages
Short-answer items are relatively easy to write, so a test, or part of one, can be constructed fairly quickly.
They allow for either broad or in-depth assessment of foundational knowledge since students can respond
to many items within a short space of time. Since students have to supply an answer, they have to recall,
rather than recognize, information.
Disadvantages
This item type has the same basic disadvantages as the selected-response items. Because these items ask
only for short verbatim answers, students are likely to limit their processing to that level, and these items
provide no information about how well students can use what they have learned. In addition, unexpected
but plausible answers may be difficult to score.
Essay Tests Characteristics
The student is given a somewhat general directive to discuss one or more related ideas according to certain
criteria. One example of an essay question is "Compare operant conditioning theory and information-
processing theory in terms of basic assumptions, typical research findings, and classroom applications".
Advantages
Essay tests reveal how well students can recall, organize, and clearly communicate previously learned
information. When well written, essays tests call on such higher-level abilities as analysis, synthesis, and
evaluation. Because of these demands, students are more likely to try to meaningfully learn the material
over which they are tested.
Disadvantages
Consistency of grading is likely to be a problem. Two students may have essentially similar responses, yet
receive different letter or numerical grades. These test items are also very time consuming to grade. And
because it takes time for students to formulate and write responses, only a few questions at most can be
given.
NATURE OF INTERPRETATION
Norm-referenced
Norm-referenced assessments compare individual scores to those of a norm-reference group, generally
students of the same grade or age. They are designed to demonstrate "differences between and among
students to produce a dependable rank order" (Bond, 1996, p.1) and are often used to classify students for
ability-grouping or to help identify them for placement in special programs. They are also used to provide
information to report to parents.
Criterion-referenced
Criterion-referenced assessments determine the specific knowledge and skills possessed by a student. In
other words, identify "the kind of performances a student can do in a domain, rather than the student's
standing in a norm group" (Nitco and Brookhart, 2011, p. 369). Standards-based assessments involve
comparing students' scores to "clearly defined levels of achievement or proficiency" (Nitco and Brookhart,
2011, p. 514), such as state or national standards.
CONTEXT (INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL)
Internal assessment is set and marked by the school (i.e. teachers). Students get the mark and feedback
regarding the assessment.
External assessment is set by the governing body, and is marked by non-biased personnel. Some external
assessments give much more limited feedback in their marking. The student’s performances are measured
periodically in different context during the period of the course. Student‘s performance in slip tests, weekly
tests, monthly tests with behaviour are being taken into account besides assignments and project wok while
calculating the internal mark. At the same time, the performance of the students at the end of the course has
been measured which is called as external. In other way it is called as formative and Summative evaluation.
a) Need for continuous and comprehensive assessment
CONTINUOUS AND COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT
A teacher needs to know where his learners stand in terms of their learning. But he cannot always wait till
a formal examination is conducted. Learning, particularly at the primary stage, has to be evaluated on a
developmental pattern, hence it has to be evaluated in a continuous form. Further, any scheme of evaluation
has to cover all the learning experiences of a child. Hence evaluation has to be comprehensive apart from
being continuous. In short, as the process of learning is continuous and comprehensive, any scheme of
evaluation has to be continuous and comprehensive.
Learning a language basically means acquiring the four major skills: listening, speaking, reading and
writing. Of these four skills, listening and reading are receptive in the sense that the language learner
receives information, knowledge etc., from the spoken or written form of the language. In other words,
he/she understands and comprehends what he/she has heard or read. Speaking and writing are skills that
involve production on the part of the language learner. Here the language user is using these two skills to
communicate. Thus the skills of listening and reading are comprehension skills, and the skills of speaking
and writing are expression skills.
It is apparent that any evaluation in the area of language learning should take into account the evaluation
of the learners’ competencies in all the four skills. Different types of test items are to be developed for
evaluating learners’ comprehension and expression.
In view of the above, an attempt has been made in this unit to explain the concept of continuous and
comprehensive evaluation, as well as the ways and means by which the different language skills can be
evaluated.

Education is a continuous process. Therefore, evaluation and development must go hand in hand.
Evaluation has to be carried out in every possible situation or activity and throughout the period of formal
education of a pupil. Hence, evaluation has to be continuous.
By comprehensive evaluation, we mean that evaluation should not concern itself only with knowledge but
it shall also take into account the factors that are inherent in students’ growth such as skills, understanding,
appreciation, interest, attitude and habits. In other words, evaluation should cover all the learning
experiences of the learner in curricular as well as non-cognitive areas.
Let us now discuss what to evaluate in learners while we talk about continuous and comprehensive
evaluation. Being a teacher, during the course of lesson planning you might have formulated the objectives
in behavioural terms. These objectives are called teaching and learning objectives or instructional
objectives.
These objectives are the criteria against which you as a teacher are making a value judgement (evaluation).
On the basis of the objectives teachers evaluate learners’ progress and performance.
Evaluation should be carried out in relation to learners’ cognitive, affective and psychomotor growth.
Cognitive growth refers to the intellectual development of learners (such as learners’ knowledge,
comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation). Affective growth emphasizes learners’
attitude, interest and personal development. Psychomotor growth deals with learners’ ability to perform
some activity or do some practical work. Therefore, if you want the teaching-learning process to be really
effective, you should evaluate the learners continuously and comprehensively.

Unit 2: Assessment for Learning

2(a) Use of Projects, Assignments, Work sheets, Practical work, Performance based activities, Seminars and Reports
as assessment devices
PROJECT
Project is the modern method in which the students creativity in designing the content of studies. According
to W.H. Kilpatrick, ―A project is a wholehearted purposeful activity proceeding in a social environment.
Types of Project
Individual and Social Projects: In individual project every students problem is solved in their own
according to interest, capacity and attitude.
Group Projects: The problem is solved by the group of pupil in the class. Here the social, citizenship
qualities developed.
Simple and Complex Projects: In the simple projects the students are completing only one work at a time.
It gives the deep information of the project, thus the students get deeper and broader knowledge about the
problem. In the complex project the students are carried out more than one work at a time. They are focuses
on the work in various activities and dimensions.
According to Kilpatrick there are four types of projects. They are
 Constructive Project: Practical or physical tasks such as construction of articles, making the
models and playing the drama all done in this.
 Aesthetic Project: Appreciation powers of the students are developed in this type of project
through the musical programmes of beautician and appreciation of poems.
 Problematic Project: In this type of project develops the problem solving capacity of the students
through their experiences. It is based on cognitive domain.
 Drill Project: It is for mastery of skill and knowledge of the students, also increases the capacity
and efficacy of the students.
Steps of a Project Method
Creating Situation
In the first step teacher creates the proper situation to the students in the class. He puts the knowledge of
project it should not force but arise of need with them.
Selection of the problem
The teacher helps the students to select the problem and guide them. Students are having freedom to select
the problem.
Planning
The teacher discuss with the students about the problem in various angles and points. After the free express
of student‘s opinion about the problem, the teacher writes stepwise in the board.
Execution
The students are stating their work in this step. They are collecting the relevant information and materials
at first. The teachers give time and right to the students according to their speed to complete the work with
their ability and interest.
Evaluation
Evaluation of the project should be done both by the pupils and the teachers. Here the students evaluating
their task. Has done in light of plans and achieved results.
Reporting and Recording
It is the last step of the project method in which each and every step of the work is reported. The reported
forms are recorded in book.
Role of the Teacher
 In project method of teaching the role of a teacher is that of a guide, friend and philosopher not a
dictator or commander.  He encourages the students to work cooperatively and alert to avoid the
mistakes.
 If the students face failure during execution of some steps of the project, the teacher should not
execute any portion of the project instead he encourages better methods or approaches to get
success.
 He should have a thorough knowledge of individual children so as to allot them work accordingly.
He should have initiative, tact and zest for learning.
 Teacher should active and alert then he also maintain the democratic atmosphere.
Merits of Project Method

 Students get proper freedom to execute the project in accordance with their interest and abilities because
they satisfied the needs.

 Habit of critical thinking gets developed among the students through this method.

 With this method, students get ample chances which they can develop coordination among their body
and mind.

 This method helps in promoting social interaction and co-operation among the students, as they have to
work in group and interact with experts.

 Mostly the projects are undertaken in classroom as classroom assignments, because of which load of
homework from the students for reduced to considerable extent.
Demerits of Project Method
 This method takes a lot of time to plan and execute a single project.
 It is not possible to design different projects for different topics and also not able to cover all topics
in the content.
 Such method can only be proving successful if the teacher is highly knowledgeable, alert and
exceptionally gifted.
 Teachers do not possess lot of information regarding the manner in which this method should be
used as result and hesitate to use.
Project learning, is a dynamic approach to teaching in which students explore real world problems and
challenges, simultaneously developing cross curriculum skills while working in small collaborative groups.
Because students are evaluated on the basis of their projects, rather than on the comparatively narrow
rubrics defined by exams, essays, and written reports, assessment of project work is often more meaningful
to them. They quickly see how academic work can connect to real-life issues and may even be inspired to
pursue a career or engage in activism that relates to the project they developed.
ASSIGNMENTS
Assignments are used as learning device and tool for evaluation. There is no doubt that assignment is
carefully planned and regularly valued by the teachers to improve the student‘s attainment. The assignment
is one of the most important phases of teaching.
Purpose of Assignments
 To provide opportunities to students to work and practice independently.
 To develop self-reliance and initiative.
  To develop habits of reading regularly among the students.
 To provide opportunities to students to utilize the leisure time profitably.
 To provide remedial measures for backward students.
Kinds of Assignment

 Page-by-Page Assignment
This type is sometimes called the textbook assignment. It designates the number of pages to be covered.
Page-by-page assignment is unsatisfactory, but recent studies have revealed that this type is still widely
used in the elementary grades.

 Chapter Assignment
This is another form of traditional or textbook assignment. Like the first type, it is still extensively used in
secondary schools and in colleges. Preparation for this type of assignment is left entirely to the pupils.

 Problem Assignment
This type of assignment gets away from the basic textbook idea. It encourages the use of references and
stimulates reflective thinking. In this type the problem to be solved is the prime consideration. Special
directions and suggestions are important in this type of assignment.

 Topical Assignment
In this kind of assignment the topic to be developed is the prime consideration. This is also a form of
textbook assignment which is often given in social and natural science subjects.

 Project Assignment
This is a special type of assignment which is best adapted to vocational courses, to natural science subjects,
and in some measure to social science subjects and others content subjects. In this type of assignment a
project is considered a unit.

 Contract Assignment
This form of assignment is extensively used in individualized types of instruction with the main purpose of
adjusting the task to the ability and interest of the individual.

 Unit Assignment
This type is associated with the Mastery Plan and the Cycle Plan of instruction. It is best adapted to the
subjects which are divided into units. The so called flexible assignment is used with the unit assignment
plan.

 Cooperative or Group Assignment

Cooperative assignment is most frequently utilized in a socialized type of recitation, or in a project method
of instruction. Assignment of this type stimulates pupils to do their own thinking and to organize their
materials. Here pupils also participate in determining desirable objectives and in deciding what should be
done to attain them. Cooperative assignment can be utilized to advantage in many high school classes.

 Syllabus Assignment
Syllabus assignment is often utilized in the college or university. In this type of assignment, questions and
references are given to guide the students. Here again guide questions and other suggestions are given to
insure attention to the important points of the lesson.
 Drill Assignment
It is the purpose of this assignment to strengthen the connections formed in the process of growth in mental
motor skills. Memorizing a poem or mastery of facts or simple combination facts in Arithmetic are good
examples of this type of assignment. Drill assignment, like other type of assignment, should be motivated.
Writing Assignments, particularly for portfolio units, often reflect the length and depth of the units
themselves. The assignments may last between six and eight weeks and the initial briefing seems a long
time ago.
Teachers need to o compile assignments that are broken down into a series of tasks, building in reviews
and feedback opportunities.
 Prescribe a completion date for each task and provide support to ensure that learners set individual
targets to meet the required outcomes of the task.
 Provide informal oral feedback when required as part of classroom monitoring activities.
 Review the progress against targets and provide feedback.
 Provide opportunities for learners to reflect on feedback provided and act on advice given.
 Provide opportunity for consolidation work to be undertaken by less able learners. make sure that
any remedial work is again reviewed and feedback provided before learners progress to the
subsequent task.
 Create opportunities for learners to participate in peer assessment and selfassessment activities on
completion of the overall assignment.
 Undertake formal assessment of learners work and return assessed work with written feedback
within the agreed period.
PRACTICAL WORK
Practical work is considered an integral part of students experience in the discipline. Practical work is a
necessary part of the learning experience of most students and especially those of science, engineering and
health related disciplines. It serves many purposes it can develop essential transferable skills, perhaps
associated with information technology, it can develop subject specific skills and it can serve to demonstrate
and reinforce material of lecture courses.
Practical work helps them to learn team-working skills, safe working practices and self-dependence.
Practical work refers to those activities in which students manipulate and observe real objects and materials
in the laboratory and the field.
Practical work in the subjects sits within thinking and working scientifically and is intrinsic to a full learning
experience for students; it is not an additional component of teaching and learning.
There should be an expectation that on completing the course students are able to perform a range of
procedures with due regard for accuracy and risk management. They should have hands on experience of
conducting specific technical and manipulative tasks. Students should be given the opportunity to undertake
work in which they make their own decisions, for example through an investigation of their choosing over
an extended period of time.
They should be assessed on their ability to plan, observe, record, analyze, communicate and evaluate
through this activity. A range of practical activities should be incorporated into the teaching of ideas to
enable students to develop their understanding through interacting with objects and observations. It is
widely recognized that practical work is a vital element of school and there are a number of high quality
resources to support it.
However, practical work always impact sufficiently on pupil‘s engagement and learning.
Practical work aims to improve

 Clarity of learning outcomes associated with practical work

 Effectiveness and impact of practical work on learning

 Quality rather than quantity of practical work and

 To ensure that these developments are sustainable

WORKSHEET
Worksheet commonly refers to a sheet of paper with questions for students and places to record answers.
The term may also refer to a single array of data in spreadsheet software or an informal piece of paper that
an accountant uses to record information.
In the classroom setting worksheets usually refer to a loose sheet of paper with questions or exercises for
students to complete and record answers. They are used, to some degree, in most subjects, and have
widespread use in the curriculum. These are intended to help a student become proficient in a particular
skill that was taught to them in class. They are commonly given to students as homework. They made up
of a progressive set of questions that leads to an understanding of the topic to be learned.
PERFORMANCE-BASED LEARNING
In the act of learning, people obtain content knowledge, acquire skills and develop work habits and practice
the application of all three to real world situations. Performance-based learning and assessment represent a
set of strategies for the acquisition and application of knowledge, skills and work habits through the
performance of tasks that are meaningful and engaging to students. Performance-based learning and
assessment achieve a balanced approach by extending traditional fact-and-skill instruction. Performance-
based learning and assessment are not a curriculum design. Whereas we decide what to teach, performance-
based learning and assessment constitute a better way to deliver the curriculum. Teachers do not have to
give up units of study or favorite activities in a performance-based classroom. Because authentic tasks are
rooted in curriculum, teachers can develop tasks based on what already works for them. Through this
process, assignments become more authentic and more meaningful to students.
Performance Tasks
Performance tasks build on earlier content knowledge, process skills and work habits and are strategically
placed in the lesson or unit to enhance learning as the student pulls it all together. They are both an integral
part of the learning and an opportunity to assess the quality of student performance. When the goal of
teaching and learning is knowing and using, the performance-based classroom emerges. Performance tasks
range from short activities taking only a few minutes to projects culminating in polished products for
audiences in and outside of the classroom. In the beginning, most performance tasks should fall on the short
end of the continuum
Performance Task Assessment
Performance task assessment lists are assessment tools that provide the structure students need to work
more independently and to encourage them to pay attention to the quality of their work. Assessment also
enables the teacher to efficiently provide students with information on the strengths and weaknesses of their
work. In creating performance task teachers focus on what students need to know and be able to do. One
result is that teachers can more consistently and fairly evaluate and grade students work. Information from
performance task assessment also helps students set learning goals and thus helps teachers focus subsequent
instruction. Before they submit their work, students do a final inspection of their own graphs and complete
the self-assessment column. During this self-assessment step, students often find ways to improve their
work. Peer assessment can also take place at this time. Experiences with peer assessment often improve
students' self-assessing skills. The final step is for the teacher to assess the work and at the same time,
evaluate the student's self-assessment. When discrepancies are found between the student's self-assessment
and the teacher's assessment of the student's work, the teacher may decide to hold conferences with the
students who need work on improving the accuracy of their self-assessment.
Strategy for Assessment for Learning

 Video clips of good practice provided in the file were used in the first training session
 The school believes that Hind sight it would have been better to use examples of good achievability
at their also its suitability for their learners.
 All staff is undertaking all units of the training pack.
 At the end of the training for a unit, staff audit where they are up to, undertake individual target-
setting and then they are required to plan how they are going to meet these targets.
Self and peer assessment helps to create a learning community within a classroom. Students who can
reflect while engaged in metacognitive thinking are involved in their learning. When students have
been involved in criteria and goal setting, self-evaluation is a logical step in the learning process. With
peer evaluation, students see each other as resources for understanding and checking for quality work
against previously established criteria
Collaborative learning
Student’s progress personally, while collectively working towards a common goal. Students are
accountable to one another and, with appropriate direction, will self-manage this. Pupils learn to better
understand and anticipate difference, recognize it in themselves and others, and use it to their advantage.
A typical collaborative learning process:

 Students organize their efforts between themselves (group-structured)

 Students source material to help them complete the activity
 The activity is not monitored by the teacher (although they can help when assistance is requested by
the group)
 Students assess their own individual and group performance
 Success depends on individual strengths

Cooperative learning
Like the cast and crew of a theatre production, co-operation involves interdependence. Roles and
responsibilities are clearly defined but are open for negotiation. This method of collaboration brings with it
a strong sense of accountability.
In contrast to collaborative learning, a cooperative learning structure takes the following form:

 Activities are structured with each student assigned a specific role (teacher-structured)
 Teachers supply information for students to read and analyse (or let pupils know where this info can
be found)
 Teachers observe, listen and intervene where necessary
 Students submit work at the end of lesson for evaluation/assessment
 The success of the group depends upon the efforts of everyone involved

The benefits of cooperative and collaborative learning

The majority of students learn best when they are immersed in learning, through interaction and application.
A student is more likely to remember something discovered through active participation and peer work than
through the passive acceptance of information presented by the teacher.
As well as making learning more memorable, with collaborative and cooperative learning:
 By working with their classmates, students come to recognise, understand and respect cultural
differences and different perspectives
 Performance is improved. With collaborative/cooperative methods much more valuable than
individualistic ways of building student performance and progression
 Group work helps students who have difficulty with social skills. Providing a safe and structured space
to interact with others
 Confidence is emboldened, with students able to recognise and value the importance of their
contributions
 Inclusivity is encouraged. There is no such thing as an average child, and collaborative/cooperative
methods allow each child to work to their strengths. To help with this, tools such as Class Flow let
teachers create study groups (and assignments for cooperative learning) based on each pupil’s ability,
level, and learning style. With this approach, children are more likely to play an active role and are less
liable to become disengaged and frustrated
Social Skills
 For cooperative learning to be effective, students must learn Social Skills for successful cooperation.

 Social Skills to develop include:

a. Trust Building
1.) Get to Know Each Other Activities
2.) Problem Solving
3.) Adventure Based Learning
b. Communication
1.) Active Listening
2.) Encouraging Others
c. Decision Making Strategies
1.) Break A Tie: Rock-Paper-Scissors, One-Potato-Two-Potato, Flip a Coin
2.) Consensus Building Vs. Voting
d. Conflict Resolution
1.) Disagreeing in an Agreeable Way
2.) Seeking Assistance When Needed
e. Leadership Skills
1.) Share leadership - Allowing each member to lead on their task.
2.) Self-assessing social skills and leadership

To Teach Social Skills Means to Help Students Understand:

1. Why they are learning the skill
2. What the skill is
3. Ways the skill will be practiced
4. How well they used the skill and how they can improve their use of the skill

c) Portfolio Assessment – its meaning, scope and uses; Planning, development and assessment

PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT METHODS

PORTFOLIO
A Portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits that exhibits the student’s efforts,
progress and achievement in one or more areas. The collection must include student participation in
selecting contents the criteria for selection the Criteria for judging merit and evidence of student Self-
reflection.
The greatest value of portfolios is that in building them, students become actives participants in the
learning process and its assessment.  Portfolio Assessment is one of a several authentic and non-
traditional assessment techniques in Education.

Portfolio Assessment Possess Several Features And Essential Characteristics Which Are:
A portfolio is a form of assessment that students do together with their teachers. The teacher’s guide
the students in the planning, execution and evaluation of contents of the portfolio .Together, they
formulate the overall objectives for constructing the portfolio. As such students and teachers in interact
in every step of the process in developing a Portfolio.

A portfolio represent a selection of what the students believe are best included from among the possible
collection of things related to the concept being studied. It is the teacher’s responsibility to assist the
students in actually choosing from among a possible set of choices. To be included in the portfolio.
However the final selection should be done by the students themselves since the portfolio represents
what the students believe are important considerations.

A portfolio provides samples of the students work which show growth over time. By reflecting on their
own learning (self-assessment) students begin to identify the strengths and weakness in their work.
These weakness then become improvement goals.

The criteria for selecting and assessing the portfolio contents must be clear to the teacher and the
students. At the outset of the process. If the criteria are not clear at the beginning then there is tendency
to include Among Unessential components in the portfolio and to include those which happen to be
available at the time. The portfolio is prepared at each step of the process, the students need to refer to
the agreed set of criteria for the construction and development of the portfolio.

Purposes of portfolio Assessment

Why should we resort to portfolio assessment methods?
Portfolio assessment has several purposes and rationale for its use.
First portfolio assessment matches assessment of teaching.
The final outputs to be assessed are products of classroom discussions and classroom work and are not
simple diversions from the tedium of classroom activities.
Second portfolio assessment has a clear goals. In fact, they are decided on the beginning of
instruction and are clear to teacher and student alike.
In cognitive testing the objectives are set at the beginning but the actual items may or may not reflect
achievement of such objectives. In portfolio assessment however the students control the items to be
included and therefore are assured that the goals are achieved.
Third, portfolio assessment gives a profile of a learner abilities in term of depth, breadth, and
growth.
Portfolio assessment enable the students to demonstrate quality work done without pressure and
constraints of time presents in traditional testing through the help of resource.
Fourth, portfolio assessment is a tool for assessing a variety of skills not normally testable in a
single setting for traditional testing.
The portfolio can show written, oral and graphics output of students in a variety of way which
demonstrate skills developed by students.
Fifth portfolio assessment develops awareness of own learning students. Students have to reflect
on their own progress and the quality of their work in relation to known goals.
This is achieved at each stage of the progress since the students continually refer to the set of goals and
objectives set at the beginning.

Every portfolio must obtain the following essential elements:

 1. Cover Letter “About the author” and “What my portfolio shows about my progress as a learner”
(written at the end, but put at the beginning). The cover letter summarizes the evidence of a student’s
learning and progress.
2. Table of Contents with numbered pages.
3. Entries – both core (items students have to include) and optional (items of student’s choice). The
core elements will be required for each student and will provide a common base from which to make
decisions on assessment. The optional items will allow the folder to represent the uniqueness of each
student. Students can choose to include “best” pieces of work, but also a piece of work which gave
trouble or one that was less successful, and give reasons why.
4. Dates on all entries, to facilitate proof of growth over time.
5. Drafts of oral and written products and revised versions; i.e., first drafts and corrected/revised
versions.
6. Reflections can appear at different stages in the learning process (for formative and/or summative
purposes.) and at the lower levels can be written in the mother tongue or by students who find it difficult
to express themselves in English.

Assessing and Evaluating the Portfolio

According to Paulson, Paulson and Meyer Portfolios offer a way of assessing student learning that is
different from the traditional methods. Portfolio assessment provides the teacher and students an
opportunity to observe students in a broader context taking risk developing creative solution and
learning to make judgments about their own performances.

PORTFOLIO INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

Thoughtfulness (including evidence of students monitoring of their own comprehension metacognitive
reflection and productive habits of mind).
Growth and development in relationship to key curriculum expectancies and indicators.
Understanding and application of key processes.
Completeness correctness and appropriateness of products and processes presented in the portfolio
Diversity of entries (e.g use of multiple formats to demonstrate achievement of designated performance
standards).
SAMPLE OF RATING SCALE FOR COVER LETTER

ASSESSMENT TOOLS:
 Self/peer assessment with rating scales
 Checklist with criteria (such as: clear presentation, relevant vocabulary, correct
spelling/pronunciation), depending on the task
 Teacher/peer observation
 Learning log
 Answer key
  Guided reflection on the task
One of the more significant aspects of Portfolio assessment is its “Collaborative Approach” in which
students and teachers work together to identify especially to significant or important artifacts and
processes to be capture in the portfolio.

Student-Teacher Conferences
The main philosophy embedded in portfolio assessment is “Shared and active assessment”. The teacher
should have short individual meetings with each students, in which progress is discuss and goals are
set for a future meeting.
The teacher and the student keep careful documentation of the meeting noting significant agreements
and finding each individual session. The formative evaluation process of the portfolio assessment is
facilitated. Indeed the use of portfolio assessment takes time but in the end it gains.fteacher
Finally, student-teacher conference can also be used for summative evaluation purposes when the
students present his final portfolio product and where final grades are determined together with the
teacher. This conference can be prepared in pairs, where students practice presenting their portfolio.
d) Self, Peer and Teacher Assessments

Peer Assessment
It is widely recognized that when learners are fully engaged in the learning process, learning increases. A
fundamental requirement of Assessment for Learning is for learners to know what they have to learn, why
it is required and how it is to be assessed. When learners are able to understand the assessment criteria,
progress is often maximized, especially when individuals have opportunities to apply the assessment criteria
to work produced by their peers as part of planned classroom activities. Peer assessment using the
predefined assessment criteria is the next stage to evaluate learner understanding and consolidating
learning.
Benefits of organizing peer assessment activities

 learners clarifying their own ideas and understanding of the learning intention
 Checking individual’s understanding of the assessment criteria and how it is to be applied to
learner’s work.
Self-Assessment
Once learners are able to use the assessment criteria appropriately and can actively contribute to peer-
assessment activities, the next step is to engage them in self-assessment tasks. Self-assessment is a very
powerful teaching tool and crucial to the Assessment for Learning process. Once learners can engage in
peer-assessment activities, they will be more able to apply these new skills to undertaking objective
‘assessment of their own work. We all know it is easy to find fault in other people‘s work, but it is a far
more challenging process to judge one‘s own work.
Once learners can assess their own work and their current knowledge base, they will be able to identify the
gap in their own learning; this will aid learning and promote progress and contribute to the self-management
of learning. Teachers need

 Provide opportunities for learners to reflect on their own work

 Ensure they provide individuals with the necessary support so that they are able to acknowledge
shortcomings in their own work
 Support learners through the self-assessment process so that strengths in their work are fully
recognized and weaknesses are not exaggerated to the point that they damage learner’s self-esteem.

Unit 3: Assessment of Learning

 a) Dimensions of learning: cognitive, affective and performance
Cognitive learning
Cognitive learning is the mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through
thought, experience and the senses. It has so many thinking skills such as Convergent, Divergent,
Critical, Problem Solving and Decision Making. Convergent thinking is characterized by rigidity,
conformity and unquestioning acceptance of authority whereas divergent thinking stimulates a
questioning frame of mind and discourages blind acceptance. Critical thinking is a general term
that covers all thinking processes that strive to get below the surface of something: questioning,
probing, analyzing, testing and exploring. At the same time, Problem-solving is a mental process
that involves discovering, analyzing and solving problems.
Affective learning
Affective domain describes the way people react emotionally and their ability to feel other living
things' pain or joy. Affective objectives typically target the awareness and growth in attitudes,
emotion and feelings.
Performance based assessment
Direct, systematic observation and rating of student’s performance of an educational objective,
often an ongoing observation over a period of time and typically involving the creation of products.
The assessment may be a continuing interaction between teacher and student and should ideally
be part of the learning process. The assessment should be a real-world performance with relevance
to the students and learning Community.

b) Assessment of cognitive learning:

• types and levels of cognitive learning: understanding and application;
• thinking skills –convergent, divergent, critical, problem solving, and decision making;
• items and procedures for their assessment
Cognitive assessment and student learning
Cognitive learning is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding
through thought, experience and the senses. It encompasses processes such as knowledge,
attention, memory and working memory, judgment and evaluation, reasoning and computation,
problem solving and decision making, comprehension and production of language, etc. Human
cognition is conscious and unconscious, concrete or abstract, as well as intuitive (like knowledge
of a language) and conceptual (like a model of a language). Cognitive processes use existing
knowledge and generate new knowledge.
It is important to understand the relationship between cognitive assessment and student learning,
particularly in the context of determining a student‘s need for special education services. Defining
intelligence can be rather complicated. Some define intelligence as it relates to the general
interpretation of the global IQ as derived from intelligence tests, or achievement tests. Others claim
that intelligence should be analyzed at a more specific level by examining each of the cognitive
functions which make up the global IQ
Convergent and Divergent Thinking
Convergent thinking
To converge means to tend towards or meet in one point or value‘. To diverge means to tend from
a common point in different direction‘. Convergent thinking is characterized by rigidity,
conformity and unquestioning acceptance of authority. It is a stereotyped behavior.
Divergent Thinking
Divergent thinking is a kind of healthy departure from the beaten track. It stimulates a questioning
frame of mind and discourages blind acceptance. It is a goal-directed activity aimed at a destination
one is only dimly aware of. One becomes venturesome and exploratory rather than being a slave
to conventional mode of thinking.
Why do majority of teachers encourage convergent thinking mostly in class?
Perhaps, it safeguards their ego and status. They find it easier to practice. This kind of teaching
contributes to success in the present mode of examination where in pure recall-type questions
predominate. Since very little time and opportunity would be provided for discussion or debate,
the syllabus could be covered within the stipulated time. Such teachers are unimaginative and
unproductive.
How does a teacher who promotes divergent thinking conduct his/her class?
He tends to encourage independent thinking, suspend judgment and be tolerant toward those who
differ from 82 him. He has an open mind and whenever he gives a definition he would also
encourage students to redefine in a simpler language than what is presented in the text book.
Students feel free to suggest ideas for discussion and not remain tongue-tied or insecure.
Critical Thinking
Training children in the art of critical thinking or reasoning will be effective, limited of course by
the natural intellectual endowments of children. Critical thinking is a general term that covers all
thinking processes that strive to get below the surface of something: questioning, probing,
analyzing, testing and exploring. It is not a negative term as such, although it can sound it. Critical
thinking requires detective-like skills of persistence to examine and re-examine an argument, in
order to take in all the angles and weigh up evidence on every side. To think critically is never to
take something on face value but to question and think independently about an issue, however
authoritative a writer or thinker may be.
There are several stages involved in critical reading:
 Identifying the author‘s line of reasoning
 Critically evaluating the line of reasoning
 Identifying evidence in the text
 Evaluating the evidence
 Questioning surface appearances and assumptions
 Identifying the writer‘s conclusions
 Deciding whether the evidence supports the conclusions
Problem Solving
An individual faces a problem when he finds obstacles in his attempt to reach a desired goal. If the
goal could be reached easily then there is no need for any reasoning. Problem-solving is a mental
process that involves discovering, analyzing and solving problems.
The ultimate goal of problem-solving is to overcome obstacles and find a solution that best resolves
the issue. The best strategy for solving a problem depends largely on the unique situation. In some
cases, people are better off learning everything they can about the issue and then using factual
knowledge to come up with a solution.
In other instances, creativity and insight are the best options.
Nature of Problem-Solving
• Goal specific
• Deliberate and purposeful
• Attempts at the removal of interference
• Results in novel procedures or novel products
Decision Making
Decision making is the process of making choices by setting goals, gathering information and
assessing alternative occupations.
Selected-response assessment (Items and procedure for assessment)
Objective Type
To mitigate some of the evils of the essay type examinations, objective tests seem to be very useful.
Modern educationists lay much stress on this type of tests to supplement the traditional type of
tests. Objective tests are of a large variety.
An objective type of test item is one which the response will be objective. Objective type test item
broadly classified into two:
Supply type (Recall Type - The respondent has to supply the responses) and
Selection type (Recognition Type - The respondent has to select the responses from among the
given responses).
Objective Type – 4 Types
 True – False Items (Alternate Response Type)

 Multiple Choice Items

 Matching Type Items and

 Completion Type Test

Advantages of Objective Type Items

 A large amount of study material can be tested in a very short period time
 Economy of time.
 Objectivity of scoring.
 No bluffing
 It reduces the subjective element of the examiner to the minimum and
 If carefully planned, it can measure the higher mental process of understanding, application,
analysis, prediction and interpretation.
Limitations of Objective type items
o Difficulty in preparing good items.
o Problem of guessing.
o Problem of cheating.
o Inefficiency in testing complicated skills
o High printing cost and
o Emphasis on testing superficial knowledge.
Matching Items
A matching item consists of two columns: one column of stems or problems to be answered, and
another column of responses from which the answers are to be chosen. Traditionally, the column
of stems is placed on the left and the column of responses is placed on the right.
Short Answer Type
 A question requiring three value points at most may be defined as a short answer question.
 Value points diminish the subjectivity.
 Help in ensuring wide coverage of content.
Advantages of Short answer Type Items
 Large portion of the content can be covered in a test.
 No opportunity for guessing.
 Easy to construct, because it measures a relatively simple outcomes.
 It can be made quit objective by carefully fixing the value points.
 Useful in evaluating the ability to interpret diagrams, charts, graphs, etc.
 If carefully prepared, deep level objectives understanding, application and problem solving skill
can be evaluated.
Limitations of Short answer Type Items
 It is more subjective than the objective type of items.
 It may encourage student to memories fact and develop poor study habits.
 Mechanical scoring is not possible
Essay Type
 It is free response test item.
 Help in ensuring a wide coverage of content and variety of objectives.
 Help in evaluating complex skills.
Advantages Essay Type Items
 Easy to prepare.
 Useful in measuring certain abilities and skills.
 Permit the examinee to write down comprehensively what he knows about something.
 Promote originality and creative thinking.
 Possibility of guess work can be eliminated.
 Reduce chance on the spot copying.
 Low printing cost.
Limitations of Essay Type Items
 Minimum validity.
 Lack of reliability.
 No objectivity.
 Rote memory is encouraged.
 It is a time consuming test item.
b) Assessment of affective learning: attitude and values, interest, self-concept; items and procedures for their
assessment
AFFECTIVE LEARNING
Affective domain describes the way people react emotionally and their ability to feel other living
things' pain or joy. Affective objectives typically target the awareness and growth in attitudes,
emotion and feelings.
Attitude
Meaning and Definition of Attitude
An attitude is a variable which directly observed, but it is inferred from overt behaviour both verbal
and non-verbal responses. In more objective term the concept of attitude may be said to connote
response tendency with regard to certain categories of stimuli. In actual practice the term attitude
has been most frequently associated with emotionally toned responses. The deep rooted feelings
are the attitudes which cannot be changed easily.
An attitude is defined as a tendency to react in certain way toward a designated class of stimuli or
an object.
Values
Meaning and Definition of Values
The term value is more sociological concept. The values fall in the realm of ethics, economics,
aesthetics and religion. They exist as they are experienced in human minds and translated into
human actions. The value determines the direction of human actions. Thus values are the
significant determinant for individual differences. The values are related to feelings and beliefs of
an individual which are deep rooted. The value is defined in terms of sentiments and emotions
likes and dislikes etc.
Characteristics of values
The following are the characteristics of value
 It is the satisfaction of human wants.
 It is the psychological needs of a person.
 It is a generalized and that guides individual behavior and it is an organized ends.
 It is an outcome of human choices among the competitive human interest.
 It is the psychic-energy invested in the personality of an individual.
 It is the real determinant of human behavior and relationship between subject and object.
 It is socially approved desires and goals, and experiences of life which guides the actions and
behavior are known as values.
Interest
Interest is the integral part of one‘s personality. It is an acquired trait from the environment.
Personality is a wider term including all the psycho-physical dispositions, behaviors, views,
Interests and attitudes of an individual. Adjustment has some relevance with interests.
According to Kelly, interests of an individual really important information about the make-up of
his personality. Interests are one of the determinants of the individual differences.
Definition of Interest
The following are some important definitions of the term interest.
“An interest is a tendency to become absorbed in an experience and to continue it” - Bingham,
W.V.
The following are the main characteristics of Interest
1. Interests are not necessarily related to ability or aptitude.
2. Interest can be hereditary as well as acquired from environment, through the interests are mainly
acquired.
3. Interests are fairly stable, cannot be changed easily.
4. Interests of an individual resemble with his parents or family interests.
5. Interests are the aspects of personality of an individual.
6. Interests are related to aptitudes and achievements.
Self-concept
One's self-concept (also called self-construction, self-identity, and self-perspective or self-
structure) is a collection of beliefs about oneself that includes elements such as academic
performance, gender roles, sexuality and racial identity. Generally, self-concept embodies the
answer to "Who am I?".
Self-concept is a cognitive or descriptive component of one's self (e.g. "I am a fast runner"), Self-
concept is made up of one's self-schemas, and interacts with self-esteem, self-knowledge and the
social self to form the self as whole. It includes the past, present, and future selves, where future
selves (or possible selves) represent individuals' ideas of what they might become, what they would
like to become, or what they are afraid of becoming. Possible selves may function as incentives
for certain behavior.
c) Assessment of Performance: tools and techniques for assessment of skills

Performance based assessment

Direct, systematic observation and rating of student’s performance of an educational objective,
often an ongoing observation over a period of time and typically involving the creation of products.
The assessment may be a continuing interaction between teacher and student and should ideally
be part of the learning process. The assessment should be a real-world performance with relevance
to the students and learning Community.
Assessment of the Performance is done using a rubric or analytic scoring guide to aid in objectivity.
Performance based assessment is a test of the ability to apply knowledge in a real life setting.
Evaluation of the product of learning experiences can also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of
teaching methods.

Stiggins:
Defines this Assessment as used of performance criteria to determine the degree to which a student
has met an achievement target. Important elements of performance based assessment include clear
goals or performance criteria clearly articulated and communicated to the Learner; the
establishment of a sound sampling that clearly envisions the scope of an achievement target and
the type of learning that is involved. Attention to extraneous interference and establishment of a
clear purpose for the data collected during the assessment before the assessment is undertaken,
keeping in mind the needs of the groups involved (teachers, Students, Parents, etc.).

Unit 4: Preparing a Report on Assessment

a)Guidelines for construction and administration of Achievement Test(Test design, items and question paper , marking
scheme)
ACHIEVEMENT TEST
Any test designed to assess the achievement in any subject with regard to a set of predetermined
objectives.
Major steps involved in the construction of achievement test
 Planning of test
 Preparation of a design for the test
 Preparation of the blue print
 Writing of items
 Preparation of the scoring key and marking scheme
 Preparation of question-wise analysis
a) Planning of test
 Objective of the Test
 Determine the maximum time and maximum marks
b) Preparation of a design for the test
 Important factors to be considered in design for the test are:
 Weightage to objectives
 Weightage to content
 Weightage to form of questions
 Weightage to difficulty level.
c) Weightage to objectives
This indicates what objectives are to be tested and what weightage has to be given to each
objective.

d) Weightage to content
This indicates the various aspects of the content to be tested and the weightage to be given to these
different aspects.

e)Weightage to form of questions

This indicates the form of the questions to be included in the test and the weightage to be given
for each form of questions.
f)Weightage to difficulty level
This indicates the total mark and weightage to be given to different level of questions.

g)Preparation of the blue print

Blue print is a three-dimensional chart giving the placement of the objectives, content and form of
questions.

h)Writing of items
 The paper setter writes items according to the blue print.
 The difficulty level has to be considered while writing the items.
 It should also check whether all the questions included can be answered within the time allotted.
 It is advisable to arrange the questions in the order of their difficulty level.
 In the case of short answer and essay type questions, the marking scheme is prepared.
 In preparing marking scheme the examiner has to list out the value points to be credited and fix
up the mark to be given to each value point.
i)Preparation of Question-wise Analysis

TYPE OF TEST ITEMS

 Objective type (Already discussed)
 Short answer type (Already discussed)
 Essay Type (Already discussed)
MEANING OF MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY
You have an idea generally that an average which is very often used in daily practice. What is that
average? You say an average mark of the pupil, an average height or weight of the pupils, an average
income of the family and etc. The above concepts average indicates a single value which is the outcome
of the total measure. The above typical measures indicate that the values in the data concentrate at the
centre or somewhere in the middle of the distribution. Such measures are called measures of central
tendency. Tendency of occurrence somewhere in the middle. Here, you are representing the
performance of the group as a whole by the single measure and enable you to compare two or more
groups in terms of their performance. It describes the characteristics of the given data. Of the many
averages, three have been selected as the most useful methods in educational research. They are the
mean, median and mode.
GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF DATA
 Any data presented in the form of numbers and tables are not effective and do not create much interest
in the reader. If the same data presented in graphs or charts will definitely attracts the attention of the
reader and makes the process more effective and very easy to follow, to understand and to remember.
Apart from this the devise attracts the attention of the reader.
Visual presentations impress more on the mind of a person and translate numerical values how they
have been distributed in the data given.
Drawings are often called graphs. Graphs may be used effectively in understanding a group of test
scores other measures in the research process. Thus graphs are more effective, appealing than numerical
than numerical data and tables.
Bar- Diagram
A bar diagram is a chart that uses bars to show comparisons between categories of data. The bars can
be either horizontal or vertical. Bar graphs with vertical bars are sometimes called vertical bar diagrams.
A bar diagram will have two axes. One axis will describe the types of categories being compared, and
the other will have numerical values that represent the values of the data. It does not matter which axis
is which, but it will determine what bar diagram is shown. If the descriptions are on the horizontal axis,
the bars will be oriented vertically, and if the values are along the horizontal axis, the bars will be
oriented horizontally.
Types of Bar- Diagram
There are many different types of bar diagrams. They are not always interchangeable. Each type will
work best with a different type of comparison. The comparison you want to make will help determine
which type of bar diagram to use.
A simple vertical bar diagram is best when you have to compare between two or more independent
variables. Each variable will relate to a fixed value. The values are positive and therefore can be fixed
to the horizontal value.
Pie- Diagram
Pie- Diagram is otherwise called as sector graph or angular graph. It is called Pie- diagram because it
resembles pie and with the help of a circle the data will be presented hence, also referred as circle graph
or sector graph.
Histogram
Another way of presenting the data by means of a graph is Histogram. Histogram presents an
accurate picture of the relative positions of the total frequency from one interval to the other interval.
The frequencies within each interval of Histogram are presented by a rectangle, the base of which
equals the length of the interval and height of which equals the numbers of the scores within a given
interval are presented by the midpoint of the class interval.
FREQUENCY POLYGON
Polygon means many angled figure. In this graph various frequencies are being plotted with the
corresponding class intervals. Thus the polygon is plotted from the scores by of a straight line. The
procedure for plotting a frequency is as follows.
ITEM RESPONSE ANALYSIS
Item response analysis (IRA) is a psychometric paradigm used to design, develop, assemble, deliver,
score and analyze assessments. It offers many advantages over its predecessor, classical test theory, by
implementing more sophisticated mathematical modeling. Most large scale assessments that you can
think of, from professional certifications up to worldwide assessments like PISA, utilize IRT. The basic
building block of IRA is the item response function, which describes the probability of a given response
as a function of a person‘s true standing on a latent trait or ability.
Advantages of item response analysis

 Better description of item performance (difficulty, discrimination, and guessing) and model fit
 More precise scoring
 Examinees and items are placed on the same scale
 Greatly improves linking an equating of scores across forms or years
 Classical test theory tries to force a linear model on something that is known to be nonlinear
 Examinee scores are independent of test difficulty and the set of items used
 Item parameters are independent of examinee sample
 Enables computerized adaptive testing (CAT) to dramatically reduce test length and improve score
precision
 Provides an estimate of each examinee‘s score precision, based on their responses
REPORTING STUDENT PERFORMANCE
Requirements for formal and informal reporting are based on ministerial orders and regulations
authorized under the School Act. Schools must follow the specific requirements for reporting student
progress as outlined in the policy. 5.14.1 Formal Reports Formal reports communicate to parents and
students’ significant aspects of the student’s progress in the areas of intellectual, social, human and
career development.
Performance Scale
The performance scale for Primary students indicates, in words or as a graph, the student‘s level of
performance in relation to the expected learning outcomes set out in the provincial curriculum for each
subject and grade.
For Kindergarten, performance is described as one of the following:
Approaching Expectations • Meeting Expectations • Exceeding Expectations
• For Grades 1 to 3, performance is described as one of the following: Not Yet Meeting
Expectations Use of the performance scale to show progress in language arts (including reading,
writing, and speaking/listening), mathematics, social studies and science is mandatory. The
performance scale may also be used to report progress in other areas, such as fine arts, personal
planning, physical education, social responsibility and work habits.
Progress Report
A critical element of any student's learning experience is the need for informed and meaningful
feedback to those invested in the student's progress. Reporting on student progress must have a well-
defined purpose for it to be meaningful. It must clearly identify the information needing to be
communicated, the audience it is intended for and how that information will be used to improve future
or related learning.
Three primary purposes for reporting student progress:
1. To communicate student growth to parents and the broader community.
2. To provide feedback to students for self-evaluation.
3. To document student progress and the effectiveness of instructional programs.
Because reporting student progress serves a variety of purposes, we believe no one method of reporting
is capable of serving all purposes well. A multi-faceted comprehensive reporting system is essential.
Multiple means of reporting progress is divided into two subsets, individual and whole school reports.
Individual Subset - report cards, progress reports, standardized testing, evaluated projects and
assignments, portfolios and exhibitions of student work, homework, individual web pages, parent-
teacher conferences, student-teacher conferences and student led conferences.
Whole School Subset- Standardized testing, open houses, classroom and school-wide newsletters, each
means of reporting on student progress will include a statement of purpose. The statement of purpose
may vary according to the specific type of reporting taking place and the audience it is directed toward.
Cumulative Record
This is longitudinal record of pupils’ educational history. The progress of the development pattern of
each student is recorded cumulatively from period to period in a comprehensive record designed for
the purpose. Such a record is known as a cumulative record.
Elements of a Cumulative Record
Data on achievement in various subjects of study
Physical development
Health matters
Participation in co-curricular activities
Special achievements
Personal details
Profile
An outline of something, especially a person's face, as seen from one side. A short article giving a
description of a person or organization. Describe (a person or organization) in a short article. Represent
in outline from one side.
Open House
An open house (also known as open day and at-home day) is an event held at an institution where its
doors are open to the general public to allow people to have a look around it in order to gain information
on it. These are often held at schools and universities in most areas to attract prospective students,
familiarize them (and their parents) with facilities, and allow new students to become familiar with
facilities and meet others, or to open informal communication channels between school staff and
students and parents.
a) Using feedback for reporting to different stakeholders – students, parents, and administrators
( for Learners’ Development and teachers’ self-improvement )
A stakeholder is anyone who is involved in the welfare and success of a school and its students,
including administrators, teachers, staff, students, parents, community members, school board
members, city councilors and state representatives. Stakeholders may also be collective entities, such
as organizations, initiatives, committees, media outlets and cultural institutions.
Students
Feedback is any response made in relation to students' work or performance. It can be given by a
teacher, an external assessor or a student peer. It is usually spoken or written. Feedback is ... most
effective when it is timely, perceived as relevant, meaningful and encouraging, and offers suggestions
for improvement that are within a student's grasp (Brown, Bull, & Pendlebury, 1997). It is intended to
acknowledge the progress students have made towards achieving the learning outcomes of a unit. Good
feedback is also constructive, and identifies ways in which students can improve their learning and
achievement. Providing a mark or a grade only, even with a brief comment like "good work" or "you
need to improve" is rarely helpful.
Students may complain that feedback on assessment is unhelpful or unclear, and sometimes even
demoralizing. Additionally, students sometimes report that they are not given guidance as to how to
use feedback to improve subsequent performance. Even worse, students sometimes note that the
feedback is provided too late to be of any use or relevance at all. For their part, lecturers frequently
comment that students are not interested in feedback comments and are only concerned with the mark.
Furthermore, lecturers express frustration that students do not incorporate feedback advice into
subsequent tasks.
Parents
A review process of the new reporting resources was carried out with a number of schools. Schools that
reviewed the materials found them useful and easy to follow. They believed that the materials signaled
a desirable paradigm shift in reporting to parents. In particular, the following aspects of the materials
were highly valued by schools:
The principles were seen as clear and appropriate.
Examples illustrating what parents can do at home were seen as useful for either school reports or
school newsletters.
National standards clarifications were welcomed, considered overdue ‘and seen as clear and useful
for both teachers and parents.
The information sharing process diagram was seen as helpful ‘and well-constructed.
The example of key competencies reporting was seen as useful.
Administrator
To assess student progress toward the established district standards and to facilitate the planning of
various types of instruction, administration should ensure that teachers are utilizing information from
a variety of valid and appropriate sources before they begin planning lessons or teaching. This could
include data regarding students' backgrounds, academic levels, and interests, as well as other data from
student records to ascertain academic needs and to facilitate planning appropriate initial learning. It is
important for the administration to note that information regarding students and their families is used
by the staff for professional purposes only and is kept confidential as a matter of professional ethics.
Administrators should determine if teachers are using the numerous formative and summative
diagnostic processes available to assist in planning meaningful instruction. Formative measures include
ongoing teacher monitoring of student progress during the lessons, practice sessions, and on daily
assignments. Measures administered periodically like criterion-referenced tests, grade level
examinations or placement tests that are teacher-made or part of districtadopted material, also provide
helpful information on the status of student learning as instruction progresses. Summative measures
like minimum competency examinations, district mastery tests and standardized tests provide a
different perspective from the ongoing formative measures.
USE OF FEEDBACK FOR TEACHERS' SELF IMPROVEMENT
Receiving student feedback in the middle of the semester can help you to know what you are doing that
facilitates the learning of the students and it will help make you aware of any difficulties they may be
having with your instruction. It allows you to make adjustments needed by students in your class before
the end of the semester and will foster a feeling among your students that you care about your teaching.
Often minor adjustments on your part can make a tremendous difference in the classroom.
Unit 5: Issues, Concerns and Trends in Assessment and Evaluation
EXISTING PRACTICES
Class /Unit Tests
A class test is an assessment intended to measure a test takers knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical
fitness or classification in many other topics in a class. A test may be administered verbally, on paper,
on a computer, or in a confined area that requires a test taker to physically perform a set of skills. Tests
vary in style, rigor and requirements. A test may be administered formally or informally. Formal testing
often results in a grade or a test score. A test score may be interpreted with regards to a norm or criterion,
or occasionally both. The norm may be established independently or by statistical analysis of a large
number of participants.
In a syllabus of any standard or subject, there will be six to ten units. The teachers supposed to teach a
unit in a month. Besides the weekly tests in a class, they will be conducting a test as soon as the whole
unit is covered at the end of a month. This may be called as a unit test. The date and the nature of the
question pattern may be at the wish of the teacher. This may help the teacher to know the level; of
understanding of the learner.
Half- Yearly and Annual Examinations
After the quarterly exams two more will be taught and exam will be conducted for the whole portion.
This will be called half-yearly exam. When all the units are covered probably in the in the month of
March or April, the terminal examination or annual examination will be conducted. This is the regular
pattern of conducting examination. Now, the tri-semester has been introduced in schools where one
semester consists of three months. The specialty of the system is, once the semester is over, the learner
will not be tested again on the previous portion.
Board Examination
In India, board examinations refer to the public examinations that occur at the end of the 9th to 10th
grade education (SSC) or at the end of the 11th to 12th grade education (HSC). The scores achieved
in these exams are considered very important for getting into university, getting into professional
courses or training programmes, and even possibly in finding employment.
a. State Board Examinations
State board examinations are variously referred to as Madhayamik, Secondary State Certificate and
Higher Secondary Certificate examinations. They are conducted and managed by each education board
of the different states in the country. They do not take place simultaneously due to the differences
between syllabi and the examination itself. The examinations are generally held in the months of
February and March, and the results are out in May and June.
Students have to apply for the examinations in November stating their personal details, subjects and
current educational status. Admit cards for the prescribed examination hall are received at the notified
cell or their respective schools about 20–25 days prior to the commencement of the exam.
Examinations are offered for various fields which include Science, Maths, Social Studies, regional and
foreign languages for SSC; Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Social Studies, basic Computer Science and
basic Electronic, IT, Western Classical Music and Indian Classical Music, Economics for HSC.
Students follow a fixed pattern in choosing the subjects.
b. Central Board for Secondary Education
Each of the examinations takes place simultaneously across the country, to ensure that questions are
not leaked in advance across time zone. Security is usually high for these board examinations. The
question papers are distributed by the overseeing board of education, and their contents are guarded
closely until the exam begins. The examinations may include multiple sets of question papers as well.
The candidates are issued identification passes in advance, which are presented to the staff at the
examination site. The site itself must not be the same school where a candidate is from; to ensure
impartiality, the candidate must travel to a different school to take the examination. For the same reason,
the candidate may not identify himself/herself on the answer sheet except with an identity-masking
number. Use of calculation aids other than logarithm tables, which are provided by the examination
center, is prohibited. The examinations last about 3 hours per course.
Entrance Test
An entrance examination is an examination that many educational institutions use to select students for
admission. These exams may be administered at any level of education, from primary to higher
education, although they are more common at higher levels.
In India, entrance examinations are chiefly confined to Medicine, Engineering and Management. These
range from the BITS Pilani admission test and IIT- JEE, where only one in a hundreds can hope to get
admission to state level entrances which are many and varied. The stiff competition has led to a situation
where many students neglect their school studies and focus solely on entrance coaching which is time-
consuming and expensive. This has led many states to scrap the entrances and base admissions on the
school leaving marks which unfortunately are none too reliable. Experts point out that in a country
where many different boards are present common entrances are essential, but application skills rather
than cramming should be stressed on. Frequent changes in the pattern of examination are essential since
sticking to a 'standard text' or 'standard pattern' alone will favour the coaching industry and the role-
learners.
QUESTION BANK
Question Bank is a collection or reservoir of questions for timely use. But haphazard collection of
question will not make a Question Bank. The questions in a Question Bank must be reliable and valid
and should be suitable for testing different traits and the candidates. Therefore, each question in a
Question Bank is scrutinized on the basis of its quality and relevance and is included in the bank only
after assigning technical values to enable the users to use them according to their requirements. The
technical specifications help the user of the bank to understand the type of question, what it test, to
which level it is applicable etc. These statistical specifications further help in standardizing the
questions are processed through field trial to derive certain statistical specifications such as difficulty
level, discriminative index etc., these statistical specifications further help in standardizing the question
banks and increasing their utility.
MARKING VS GRADING
Realizing the bottlenecks in our examinations, a lot of thinking along with deliberate efforts to bring
about examination reforms has been the feature of post-independence Indian education. During this
period many thoughtful endeavors were initiated in the areas of paper setting, making system more
systematic and objective and for transforming making system into grading system. Many education
commissions and committee emphasized the need for a systemic change in examination system in our
country. Council of Boards of Secondary Education (COBSE) constituted a committee on scaling and
grading in 1981. This committee recommended five-point grading system. National Policy of Education
(1986) and Programme of Action (1992) also recommended the use of grades in place of marks while
declaring the results. National Curriculum Framework for School Education published by NCERT
(2005) also reiterated the need for declaring results in terms of grades in place of marks.
Limitations of the present system of numerical marking

 Placing students on this scale by assigning a number in terms of interval of one unit it‘s unjustified
because of imperfection of the tools/test.
 The marking scheme creates a cutthroat competition among the students due to highly sensitive
interval scale. This may lead to the use of unfair means / practices in securing marks.
 There is lot of scope for inter intra-examiner variation in assessing student’s performance. Different
examiners evaluate the same students differently in same subject leading to inter-examiner
 variability. Sometimes the same examiner assess the performance of the student on the same test
differently at different times leading to intra-examiner variability.
 Inter and intra-examiner variability in marking of scripts is so high that it decreases reliability of
the scores.
 Marks awarded for the performance of a student do not represent the trued mark because of inherent
errors in measurement.
 The negative effect of pass/ fail system takes a heavy toll. For example, a child who fails once in
an examination is labeled as failed throughout life.
 The system of pass / fail encourages commercialization of education.
 In the pass/fail system there is colossal wastage of human resource at national level.
 Over-emphasis on marks has made the present evaluation system insensitive to humans beings; and
 in the marking scheme there is no provision for improving performance by the students if they are
satisfied.
Concept of Grading System
Grading is a process of classifying students based on their performance into groups with the help of
predetermined standards, expressed in a symbolic form i.e., letters of English alphabet. As these grade
and corresponding symbols are pre-determined and well defined, all the stakeholder would understand
them uniformly and consistently. While developing the grading system, it is of utmost significance that
the meaning of each grading symbol be clearly spelt out. Inspire of strict of strict adherence to the pre
– determined stipulations, there may be inter examiner and intra – examiner variations. Pre
determination is only in terms of standards of categorization and to give a common meaning to the
letter symbols that signify grades. Hence strict adherence of examiners to the pre-defined meaning of
the grade system would not curtail their freedom in expressing the student’s performance.
Types of Grading System
On the basis of the reference point of awarding grades, grades are classified as Direct and Indirect, it
is also divided into two as Absolute and Relative. The reference point in former classification is an
approach and in the latter, a standard of judgment. Absolute and relative grading come under indirect
grading.
Direct Grading
The process of assessing student’s performance qualitatively and expressing it in terms of letter grades
directly is called direct grading. This type of grading can be used for assessment of student’s
performance in both scholastic and co- scholastic areas. However, direct grading is mostly preferred in
the assessment of co-scholastic learning outcomes. While evaluation co-scholastic learning outcomes,
the important factors are listed first and then a student‘s performance is expressed in a letter grade.
This type of grading minimizes inter- examiner variability and is easy to use when compared to indirect
grading. Direct grading has a limitation that it does not have transparency and diagnostic value and
does not encourage competition to the extent required.
Indirect Grading
In indirect grading, student performance is first assessed in terms of marks and then they are
transformed into letter grades. Different modes may be followed while transforming the marks into
grades. On the basis of the mode of transformation of marks into grades, there are two types of grading,
viz. absolute grading and relative grading. The meaning and relevance of these two types of indirect
grading are explained below.
Absolute Grading
 Let us now examine the methodology of awarding grades in terms of absolute standards. As has been
pointed out earlier, absolute grading is based on a pre- determined standard that becomes the reference
point for student’s performance. In absolute grading, the marks are directly converted into grade on the
grades on the basis of a pre-determined standard. Absolute grading can be on a three- point, five- point
or nine point scale for primary, upper primary and secondary stages respectively.
Three-Point Scale
Students are classified into three groups as above average, average and below average on the basis of
pre-determined range of score as shown in below table.

Five- Point Scale

Students are classified into five groups, distinction, first division, second division, third division and
unsatisfactory on the basis of pre-determined range of score as shown in below table

Nine- Point Scale

In absolute grading the range of absolute marks or percentage of marks need not necessarily be of equal
size. The range of marks as a pre-determined standard for classifying students into different groups may be
taken as arbitrary. In a nine- point grading scale, the students may be classified into nine groups, namely,
outstanding, excellent, very good, good, above average, below average, marginal and unsatisfactory. An
example of nine-point absolute grading is provided in below table.

Merits of Absolute Grading

Negative effects of pass/ fail eliminated.
No grade signifies failure of students.
Simple and straight forward.
Meaning of each grade is distinctively understandable.
Students have the freedom to strive for highest possible grade.
 No complications.
Easy for teachers to award grades as per pre-determined range of marks.
Demerits of Absolute Grading
Grade may not be comparable.
Distribution of marks varies from one subject to another and from one year to another.
Number of students placed in different categories will differ from subject to subject and year to year.
Distribution of marks is taken on its face value.
Errors in measurement due to subjectivity are ignored.
Different categories are arbitrarily decided
Limitation of Grading System
Grading system is considered as the most viable and systematic to assess the outcomes of teaching- learning
process, it is not free from criticism due to several reasons which are listed below;
There is a possibility of different examiners interpreting the standard differently resulting in inter-
examiner variability.
Grading stipulates strict adherence to pre-defined criteria.
In absolute grading, the students are put into different categories on the basis of pre- determined range of
scores.
Relative grading, though scientific is considered somewhat complicated for teachers, especially when they
are not equipped to implement it in their classes.
Grades are often awarded without employing both multiple criteria and multiple sources of information.
The percentage of students belonging to different grades is pre-determined and the grades are not awarded
on the basis of individual student‘s performance but are decided on the basis of performance of students in
a larger group.
Lack of uniform policy on grading across different State Boards of Education creates a problem of
compatibility of grade awarded on different criteria in different board examination.
Non-Detention Policy
Section 16 of the RTE mandates that no child can be detained or held back in a class until the completion
of his/her elementary education. The corollary of this is continuous and comprehensive evaluation
prescribed in Section 29 (h), more commonly known as CCE. These provisions have given a legal status to
the principle of no detention and the development of a progressive and holistic evaluation framework,
enunciated in the National Policy on Education, 1986 and also the National Curriculum Framework, 2005.
In 2012, the Ministry for Human Resource Development (MHRD) crystallized its position on the NDP as
follows “the no detention provision is made because examinations are often used for eliminating children
who obtain poor marks. Once declared fail‘, children either repeat grade or leave the school altogether.
Compelling a child to repeat a class is demotivating and discouraging”. It was also clarified that the CCE
is ―a procedure that will be non-threatening, releases the child from fear and trauma of failure and enables
the teacher to pay individual attention to the child‘s learning and performance‖. As asserted by several
educationists and academics, the no-detention policy (NDP) and CCE are based on sound principles of
pedagogy and assessment, recognized world-wide. They are thus a welcome change to the exam-centric
culture prevalent in Indian schools.
Objectivity Vs Subjectivity
Objective is a statement that is completely unbiased. It is not touched by the speaker‘s previous experiences
or tastes. It is verifiable by looking up facts or performing mathematical calculations. It is important to be
objective when you are making any kind of a rational decision. It might involve purchasing something or
deciding which job offer to take. You should also be objective when you are reading, especially news
sources. Being objective when you are meeting and having discussions with new people helps you to keep
your concentration focused on your goal, rather than on any emotions your meeting might trigger. It is
sounds like the word object. You should be objective whenever you are discussing an object, something
concrete that you can hold or touch. The facts that make up your objective statement should also be concrete
solid objects.
Subjective is a statement that has been colored by the character of the speaker or writer. It often has a basis
in reality, but reflects the perspective through with the speaker views reality. It cannot be verified using
concrete facts and figures. It can be used when nothing tangible is at stake. When you are watching a movie
or reading a book for pleasure, being subjective and getting caught up in the world of the characters makes
your experience more enjoyable. If you are discussing any type of art, you have to keep in mind that
everyone‘s opinions on a particular piece are subjective. It is just the opposite. You can‘t point to subjective
subjects. They are all in your head and your past experiences. Subjective opinions are ephemeral and subject
to any number of factors that can range from facts to emotions.
Objective performance measures
Objective performance measures are those that involve an impartial measurement, that is, without bias
or prejudice.
Objective performance measures include timing measures such as stopwatches or electronic timing
devices or distance measures such as measuring tapes to determine the winner of an event.
In these situations the performance appraisal is not subject to personal opinion or interpretation of results
and it is a clear objective measure.
Subjective performance measures
Subjective performance measures are influenced by the observer's personal judgment of how the skill
was performed.
These measures are often criticised and scrutinized as they are open to interpretation and opinion.
Subjective measures often refer to the quality and style of performance such as scoring of dance and
gymnastics.
While a numerical score may be used it is open to interpretation of the judge not a clear cut measure
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION/Entrance Test
A competitive examination is an examination where candidates are ranked according to their grades. If the
examination is open for n positions, then the first n candidates in ranks pass, the others are rejected. They
are used as entrance examinations for university and college admissions or to secondary schools. Another
types are civil service examinations, required for positions in the public sector; the U.S. Foreign Service
Exam and the United Nations Competitive Examination. Competitive examinations are considered an
egalitarian way of choosing worthy applicants without risking influence peddling, favoritism or other
concerns.
It is surprising that during 14 years of school studies, we are never taught how to study effectively. Every
day, new research is being conducted on education, teaching skills and learning methods which we can use
to learn scientific ways for note taking, textbook reading, memorizing and effective reviewing. We offer
you 12 scientific study skills that can help you get sure-shot success in any competitive entrance exam.
MENACE OF COACHING CENTRES
There was a time when only those children needed tuition who were not good at studies. But nowadays a
number of tuition and coaching centers have cropped up all over the city where crowds of thousands of
students can be seen. Because of this system of education, colleges have very low attendance. Instead of
going to their colleges in the morning, students prefer to go to these coaching centers’ in the evening. It
also deprives them of physical activity which is necessary for growing teenagers.
In most of the coaching centers, tutors are government college teachers. They teach well at coaching centers
but do not teach in colleges though they draw a huge amount from the government. The coaching center
teacher does not cover the whole book. These teachers are playing with the careers of students as this
teaching methodology deprives them of gaining extra knowledge.
When these students from coaching centers get admission in universities, they face many problems because
of being addicted to ready-made notes provided by the teachers. The authorities concerned should seriously
ponder over this issue and ban all these tuition and coaching centers in order to promote academic activities
at our colleges and for the better future of our new generation.
TRENDS IN ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION
We want to talk about trends that, over the next decade are likely to turn assessment in teaching upside
down and we will make the statement outrageous render obsolete almost everything that‘s currently going
on in testing, both in student testing and teacher testing. A whole series of forces and trends is bearing down
on education that portends a sea change. The ground underneath us is changing dramatically and rapidly.
Online Examination
Online examination is also called online assessment. Online assessment is the process used to measure
certain aspects of information for a set purpose where the assessment is delivered via a computer connected
to a network. Most often the assessment is some type of educational test. Different types of online
assessments contain elements of one or more of the following components, depending on the assessment's
purpose: formative, diagnostic, or summative. Instant and detailed feedback, as well as flexibility of
location and time, is just two of the many benefits associated with online assessments. There are many
resources available that provide online assessments, some free of charge and others that charge fees or
require a membership.
Types of Online Examination
Online examination is used primarily to measure cognitive abilities, demonstrating what has been learned
after a particular educational event has occurred, such as the end of an instructional unit or chapter. When
exam practical abilities or to demonstrate learning that has occurred over a longer period of time an online
portfolio is often used. The first element that must be prepared when teaching an online course is
examination. Examination is used to determine if learning is happening, to what extent and if changes need
to be made.
Independent Work
Independent work is work that a student prepares to assist the instructor in determining their learning
progress. Some examples are: exercises, papers, portfolios, and exams (multiple choice, true false, short
answer, fill in the blank, open ended/essay or matching). To truly evaluate, an instructor must use multiple
methods.
Group Work
Students are often asked to work in groups. With this brings on new examination strategies. Students can
be evaluated using a collaborative learning model in which the learning is driven by the students and/or a
cooperative learning model where tasks are assigned and the instructor is involved in decisions.
Computer - Based Examination
Computer-based testing (CBT) has become widespread in recent years. Some states now use an online
platform as the primary delivery mode for one or more computer-based tests used for accountability
purposes. Since the early 2000s, much has occurred in CBT. CBT seems to have advantages over paper and
pencil testing, both for states that run the assessment programs and for the students who participate in them.
CBT also allows new ways of assessing students that move beyond the traditional multiple choice and
constructed response items. For example, innovative assessments are now being developed that enable
students to manipulate data and role play. Yet, as states move forward with CBT they are discovering that
it is important to consider not only the positive benefits, but also potential negative unintended
consequences. These include, for example, the possibility that additional training will be needed for students
with disabilities to interact successfully with computers and the challenges of determining the best way to
present some accommodations such as screen readers.