Page 99 - DEDU504_EDUCATIONAL_MEASUREMENT_AND_EVALUATION_ENGLISH

Unit 8 : Test Construction

8.1.4 Coverage of Assessment Objectives Notes

In a written test there are three major objectives that are usually tested, viz. knowledge,
understanding and application objectives, besides of course the psychomotor objective, e.g. the
drawing skill in various content subjects like sciences, social sciences and mathematics. For
languages it is the knowledge, comprehension and written expression that are tested in a question
paper. These objectives are also tested in terms of proportionate weightage given for the purpose
of paper setting. These weightages vary or may vary from one examining board to another,
depending upon the background of examinees, curriculum prescriptions, instructional strategies
in vogue and the performance standard of students over the years. When applied to unit-level
testing for various topics, the weightages to various assessment objectives would differ from unit
to unit, depending upon the nature and scope of content elements in each unit. A table (Table 1)
indicating the weightages given to various objectives was prepared in one of the school boards at
one time.

Table 2 : Weightage to assessment objectives in content subjects

Assessment objectives
Objectives Knowledge Understanding Application Skill (Drawing) Total
objective objective objective objective

Marks allotted 40 30 20 10 100
Table 3 : Weightage to assessment objectives in language subjects

Assessment objectives
Objectives Knowledge of Reading Written Total
functional comprehension expression
grammar
Marks allotted 24 36 40 100

These weightages can vary after a few years, especially when new curricula are prescribed and
emphasis on various assessment objectives is changed. This table indicates that :
(i) all assessment objectives are being included in test papers;
(ii) proportionate weightage is given to the three assessment objectives; and
(iii) questions are to be set on all assessment objectives in accordance with the weightages
indicated in the table.
Thus we find that necessary step is taken to ensure the needed curricular validity by covering the
assessment objectives proportionately while developing the question papers.

8.1.5 Use of Different Forms of Questions
A comprehensive test like the boards’ external examination or an annual examination of the
school must utilise all forms of questions, viz. essay type, short answer and objective type, to
ensure wider coverage of skills, abilities and content elements. Background of students, needed
objectivity, extent of acceptability, reliability, nature of subject and the total time and marks
stipulated do limit the scope of various types of questions for inclusion in a question paper.
There is now a clear shift towards inclusion of more and more short-answer and objective-type
questions. Depending upon the state of art in different boards, weightages to different forms of
questions can be given to ensure proper coverage of the assessment objectives and also wider
coverage of syllabus.

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