By: Nurhayati M.Pd. Indraprasta University Jakarta Testing, Assessing, and Teaching

Tests, Assessment, and Teaching TEACHING ASSESSMENT TESTS

Types of Testing There are different ways of categorizing test namely: ease of quantification in response. mode of preparation. mode of administration, test constructor. mode of interpreting results and nature of response.

Ease of Quantification of Response, test can either be objective or subjective. Objective test- it is a test paper and pencil test where in students’ answers can be compared and quantified to yield a numerical score. This is because it requires convergent and specific response. Subjective test- It is a paper-and-pencil test which is not easily quantified as students are given the freedom to write their answer to a question, such as an essay test. Thus, the answer to this type of test is divergent.

Mode of Administration, tests can either be individual or group Individual test- It is a test administered to one student at a time. Group test- It is one administered to a group of students.

Test Constructor, tests ca be classified into standardized and unstandardized Standardized Test- It is a test prepared by an expert or specialist. This type of test samples behavior under uniform procedures. Questions are administered to students with the same directions and time limits. Results in this kind of test are scored following a detailed procedure based on its manual and interpreted specified norms and standards.

Unstandardized test- it is one prepared by teachers for use in the classroom, with no established norms for scoring and interpretation of results. It is constructed by a classroom teacher to meet a particular need.

Mode of interpreting results, tests can either be norm-referenced or criterion-referenced Norm-referenced test- it is a test that evaluates a student’s performance by comparing it to performance of a group of students on tha same test. Criterion-referenced test- it is test that measures a student’s performance against an agreed upon or pre- established level of performance.

Definitions of Assessment The process of gathering information to monitor progress and make educational decisions if necessary. As noted in my definition of test, an assessment may include a test, but also includes methods such as observations, interviews, behavior monitoring, etc.

Assessment Types of Assessment Informal and Formal Assessment Formative and Summative Assessment Norm- Referenced and Criterion- Referenced Tests

Informal and Formal Assessment Informal Assessment starts with incidental, unplanned comments and responses, along with coaching and other impromptu feedback to the students. E.g. Nice job!, Good work!, etc. Formal assessment are exercises or procedures specifically designed to tap a storehouse of skills or knowledge.

Formative and Summative Assessment Formative: Evaluating students in the process of “forming” their competencies and skills with the goal of helping them to continue that growth process. Summative: Aims to measure, or summarize, what a student has grasped, and typically occurs at the end of a course or unit instruction.

Norm-Referenced and Criterion- Referenced Tests Norm-referenced tests: each test-taker’s score is interpreted in relation to a mean (average score), median (middle score), standard deviation (extent of variance in scores), and/or percentile rank (Brown, 2004). Criterion referenced tests are designed to give test-takers feedback, usually in the form of grades, on specific course or lesson objectives (Brown, 2004)

Definition of Measurement Measurement is the assignment of a number to a characteristic of an object or event, which can be compared with other objects or events

Types of Measurement The first level of measurement is nominal measurement. In this level of measurement, the numbers are used to classify the data. Also, in this level of measurement, words and letters can be used. Suppose there are data about people belonging to two different genders. In this case, the person belonging to the female gender could be classified as F, and the person belonging to the male gender could be classified as M. This type of assigning classification is nothing but the nominal level of measurement. The second level of measurement is the ordinal level of measurement. This level of measurement depicts some ordered relationship between the number of items. Suppose a student scores the maximum marks in the class. In this case, he would be assigned the first rank. Then, the person scoring the second highest marks would be assigned the second rank, and so on. This level of measurement signifies some specific reason behind the assignment. The ordinal level of measurement indicates an approximate ordering of the measurements.

The third level of measurement is the interval level of measurement. The interval level of measurement not only classifies and orders the measurements, but it also specifies that the distances between each interval on the scale are equivalent along the scale from low interval to high interval. For example, an interval level of measurement could be the measurement of anxiety in a student between the score of 10 and 11, if this interval is the same as that of a student who is in between the score of 40 and 41. A popular example of this level of measurement is temperature in centigrade, where, for example, the distance between 94 0 C and 96 0 C is the same as the distance between C and C. The fourth level of measurement is the ratio level of measurement. In this level of measurement, the measurements can have a value of zero as well, which makes this type of measurement unlike the other types of measurement, although the properties are similar to that of the interval level of measurement. In the ratio level of measurement, the divisions between the points on the scale have an equivalent distance between them, and the rankings assigned to the items are according to their size.

Approaches of Language Testing

Essay-Translation Approach Structuralist ApproachIntegrative Approach Communicative Approach

Characteristics and Types of Tests in Essay-Translation Approach This is commonly referred to as the pre-scientific stage of language testing. No special skill or expertise in testing is required. Tests usually consist of essay writing, translation and grammatical analysis.

Strenghts and weaknesses of Translation Approach Strenghts This approach is easy to follow because teachers will simply use their subjective judgement. The essay-translation approach may be used for testing any level of examinees. The model of tester can easily be modified based on the essentials of the tests. Weaknesses Subjective judgement of teachers tends to be biased. As mentioned, the tests have a heavy literary and cultural bias.

Characteristics and Types of Tests in Structuralist Approach This approach views that language learning is chiefly concerned with systematic acquisition of a set of habits. The structuralist approach involves structural linguistics which stresses the importance of constructive analysis and the need to identify and measure the learners’ mastery of the separate elements of the target language such as phonology, vocabulary and grammar.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Structuralist Approach Strenghts In testing students’ capability, this approach may objectively and surely be used by testers. Many forms of tests can be covered in the test in a short time. Using this approach in testing will help students find their strengths and weaknesses in every skill they study Weaknesses It tends to be a complicated job for teachers to prepare questionnaires using this approach. This approach considers measuring non-integrated skills more than integrated skills.

Characteristics and Types of Tests in Integrative Approach This approach involves the testing of language in context and is thus concerned primarily with meaning and the total communicative effect of discourse. Integrative tests are concerned with a global view of proficiency.

The Strengths and Weaknesses of Integrative Approach The Strength: A model cloze test used in this approach measures the reader’s ability to decode ‘interrupted’ and ‘mutilated’ messages by making the most acceptable substitutions from all the contextual clues available. Dictation, another type using this approach, was regarded solely as a means of measuring students’ skills of listening comprehension. The Weaknesses: Even if many think that measuring integrated skills is better, sometimes there is a need to consider the importance of measuring skills based on students’ need, such as writing only, speaking only, etc.

Characteristics and Types of Tests in Communicative Approach Communicative tests are concerned primarily with how language is used in communication. Language use is often emphasized to the exclusion of language usage. The attempt to measure different language skills in communicative tests is based on a view of language referred to as divisibility hypothesis.

The Strenghts and Weaknesses of Communicative approach The Strenghts: Communicative tests are able to measure all integrated skills of students. The tests using this approach face students in real life so it will be very useful for them. Because a communicative test can measure all language skills, it can help students in getting the score. Consider students who have a poor ability in using spoken language but may score quite highly on tests of reading. Detailed statements of each performance level serve to increase the reliability of the scoring by enabling the examiner to make decisions according to carefully drawn-up and well-established criteria.

The Weaknesses: Unlike the structuralist approach, this approach does not emphasize learning structural grammar, yet it may be difficult to achieve communicative competence without a considerable mastery of the grammar of a language. It is possible for cultural bias to affect the reliability of the tests being administered.