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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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