Student’s assessment and curriculum evaluation

 
Measurement–
refers to any quantative description of performance expressed as a numerical
value or categorical scale. Eg. G.P.A =3.5, 75% etc. it does not include any
quantative description of a behaviuor. In education, measurement can be done
through tests, examinations, observations, etc

Assessment–
process of collecting data or information on students’ achievement and performance.
Tools used to collect data/information are such as tests, examinations,
questions. Usually assessment comes after measurement. Assessment includes all
activities in the course that enable students to demonstrate their
understanding ability.
Classroom assessment
refers to all activities in classroom that enable students to demonstrate what
they understand, know and what they can do.
Types
of assessment:

        i.          
Norm-referenced:
uses the results of all students to determine the standard

      ii.          
Criterion–referenced: standard is determined by
administering the examination
Evaluation–
is the judgment regarding to quality, value and worth of response, product, and
performance based on the established criteria and curriculum standards.
In
all human activities, we like to know how well we are doing and constantly seek
feedback to help us.
Normally
we evaluate the results.
Evaluation
does not end with the summarization of results. Its main purpose is to help an
organization reflecting what is trying to achieve, assessing how far it is
succeeding and identify.
Classroom evaluation–
is the feedback from the instructor to students’ learning. Also, it helps
teachers adjust his/her teaching in accordance to judgments.
Why evaluate our teaching?

        i.          
Evaluation provides feedback to learners
to know their own strengths and weaknesses

      ii.          
It encourages students in building good
study habits

    iii.          
It encourage students review and
organize course materials for fear of failure and desire to meet the demand of
the school

    iv.          
It helps in locating the areas which
require remedial measures

      v.          
It helps teachers on planning,
organizing and implementing learning activities so as to improve teaching

    vi.          
It shows where instruction has succeeded
and where it has not

  vii.          
It provides basis for revision of
curriculum as it provides feedback to other stakeholder on curriculum

viii.          
Planners require evaluation data about
T/L to inform future curriculum developing.

    ix.          
It helps in inter-institutional
comparisons

      x.          
Helps the administrator in educational
decision making related to selection, classification, placement, promotion,
certification, etc

    xi.          
It helps in reporting learners progress
to their parents
Types of
evaluation
Tests
and other forms of evaluation are classified according to their role and
function

        i.          
Placement
evaluation– evaluation which determine the students’
performance at the beginning of instruction. They include tests and questions
administered at the beginning of instruction.

·       
They check if students possess knowledge
and skills necessary for him/her to begin program or planned instruction.
·       
They also help the teacher to skip
    
ii.          
Formative
assessment
Assessment
corresponds to ongoing learning process
Gathering
evidence is a continuous process throughout the teaching period and is
concerned with identifying strengths and weaknesses.
Purpose:
 helps team members to improve the structure
and delivery of their unit in ways that improve the students’ learning
experiences.
Helps
to monitor teaching and learning progress during instruction.
 It provides feedback to students with regard
to their success and it helps to reveal learning errors or weaknesses that need
correction
  
iii.          
Diagnostic
evaluation
This
is the first step towards determining the nature and significance of the
problems and getting the right care. E g. Remedial class.
It
is concerned with persistent learning difficulties that are left unsolved by
formative evaluation
It
is done when need arise
  
iv.          
Summative
evaluation
Is
judgmental and generally corresponds to the product outcomes of unit or
program.
Purpose,
is to determine whether a standard based on established criteria has been
reached.
It
usually involves long and structured examinations. It is used to determine the
extent to which the instructional objectives have been achieved.
Also
it is used on assigning Course grade certification at the end of the program
Generally,
the three terms measurement, assessment and evaluation are certainly connected
but it is useful to think of them as separate but connected ideas and processes
Validity
This
is the degree to which the tests and/or examinations accomplish the purpose for
which they are being used for.
It
refers to the appropriateness, meaningfulness and usefulness of measurement in
relation to scores or grades gained by a learner.
Approaches used to test the
validity of the measurement (test or examination)
There
are three types of validity:

        i.          
Content-related
validity: refers to the extent to which the content of the
test’s items represent the entire body of the content to be measured.

The basic issue is content representativeness. How
adequate does the content of the test represent the entire body of contents
which the users intends to generations
Content validity refers
to adequacy of sampling.
Two things must be
done:
a.       Specify
content areas to be measured (table specifications)
b.      The
solution of the representative sample of a test

      ii.          
Criterion-related
validity: refers to the extent to which one can infer from
an individual score on a test, how well perform some other external task or
activity that is supposedly measured by the test in question

    iii.          
Construct-related
validity: measure specific characteristics of learner.
Testing and use
of data in curriculum
Teacher’s
task in evaluation is to take reliable/useful data from students
How to assess students
Formal:
tests, exams, quizzes, assignments
Informal:
taken into action during interaction, example; answering oral questions,
discussion, etc
Purpose
of evaluation:
·       
Provide information on students’
learning (feedback)
Eg.    
Students themselves can know where they are weak and improve
Useful
to the teacher to improve teaching
Data
can be provided to parents for guidance
Government
for improvement of education
·       
Certification and promotion
·       
Selection eg combinations or higher
learning
·       
Measuring school curriculum, its
effectiveness and weaknesses
Construction of
a test
For
results to be meaningful, appropriate and useful, the test has to be valid and reliable
What makes validity to be low?
·       
If level is not considered
·       
If vocabulary and structure of sentences
are difficult to the level of students
·       
Unclear directions or instructions
·       
If you provide easy/complicated test
·       
Poorly constructed test items
·       
Ambiguous statements (having more than
one meaning)
·       
Tests without bloom’s taxonomy
·       
If a test is too short, it will not be
good representative sample