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Educational Measurement and Evaluation

Notes 1.1 Concept of Educational Testing
Testing is neither assessment nor appraisal, but at the same time it may become a means to getting
information, data or evidences needed for assessment and appraisal. Testing is one of the significant
and most usable technique in any system of examination or evaluation. It envisages the use of
instruments or tools for gathering information or data. In written examinations, question paper is
one of the most potent tools employed for collecting and obtaining information about pupils’
achievement.

1.2 Context of Educational Testing

A test of educational achievement is one designed to measure knowledge, understanding, or skills
in a specified subject or group of subjects. The test might be restricted to a single subject, such as
arithmetic, yielding a separate score for each subject and a total score for the several subjects combined.
Tests of educational achievement differ from those of intelligence in that the former are concerned
with the quantity and quality of learning attained in a subject of study, or group to subjects, after a
period of instruction and the latter are general in scope and are intended tor the measurement and
analysis of psychological processes, although they must of necessity employ some acquired content
that resembles the content found in achievement tests.
1.2.1 Nature and Scope

Most educational achievement tests are devoted largely to the measurement of the amount of
information acquired or the skills and techniques developed. In recent years, however, an increasing
number have been devised to measure such educational results as attitudes and appreciations,
ability to solve problems, to draw inferences from subject matter, to apply generalizations to specific
situations and problems.
Emphasis upon these more recent types of test materials is clearly illustrated in a publication in
which educational objectives are analyzed in detail. There are six major classes of objectives. These
are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Each of these is
analyzed into several aspects. For example, knowledge is divided into knowledge of specifics, ways
and means of dealing with specifics, universals and abstractions in a field. These, in turn, are broken
down further into knowledge of :
specific information
terminology
ways and means of presenting ideas and phenomena
trends and sequences
classification and categories
criteria
methodology
major ideas
principles and generalizations
theories and structures

1.2.2 Testing Techniques
Written Examinations
In the process of evaluation of cognitive outcomes of learning, the most common and reliable
technique is that of testing. For collection of data both testing and non-testing techniques (observation,
inquiry, analysis) are usable. With each technique a number or tools are associated, which help

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