1. Table of Specifications
Module 6
Activity 3

2. Overview
In this presentation, you will learn about a Table of Specifications. You will learn the answers to the following two questions:
What is a Table of Specifications?
How do I make a Table of Specifications?

3. Reflect
Think about the tests that you have made. How have you done the following: Ensured that you tested important material Ensured that you did not test relatively important material Ensured that you had a representative sample of tasks

4. Reflect
Perhaps you have not thought of these concern before, or perhaps you have never had a principled approach to addressing these concerns. Ensured that you tested important material Ensured that you did not test relatively important material Ensured that you had a representative sample of tasks A Table of Specifications will help you address these three concerns in a principled, consistent manner.

5. What is a Table of Specifications?

6. Table of Specifications
A Table of Specifications is a method of ensuring that you: Do not omit or leave out important material from a test Do not overemphasize relatively unimportant material Include a representative sample of tasks

7. Table of Specifications
Let’s look at this a little more closely. Imagine that you want to make a reading and writing test for a class you have been teaching. You include three reading passages with five questions each and one writing task. Have you included all of the important material? Are you measuring all of the learning outcomes that you need to measure?

8. Table of Specifications
A Table of Specifications is a matrix that you can create to guide your test development. It will show you which learning outcomes you want to measure, how many items measure each learning outcome, and what percentage of the test is measuring each outcomes.

9. How do I make a Table of Specifications?

10. Table of Specifications
Making a ToS (Table of Specifications) is very easy. There are five steps you should follow:
List the learning outcomes and content that needs to be tested.
Determine what percentage (out of 100%) should be devoted to each learning outcome.
Estimate the number of items.
Distribute the number of items per learning outcome and content.
Compute the number of items per cell.

11. Table of Specifications
We will make a ToS together so you can see how it is done. Imagine that you are teaching a reading class. You want to test three learning outcomes: Recognize the main idea of a passage. Distinguish between the main idea and details. Develop vocabulary related to entertainment and food.

12. Step 1
We have just done step 1 together. We listed the learning outcomes and content we want to test. Learning outcomes: Recognize the main idea of a passage. Distinguish between the main idea and details. Develop vocabulary related to entertainment and food. Content: Entertainment Food

13. Table of Specifications
Lets put the learning outcomes across the top and the content along the side.
Recognize main idea
Distinguish between main idea & details
Develop vocabulary
Total
Percentage
Food
Entertainment

14. Table of Specifications
List the learning outcomes and content that needs to be tested.
Determine what percentage (out of 100%) that should be devoted to each learning outcome.
Estimate the number of items.
Distribute the number of items per learning outcome and content.
Compute the number of items per cell.

15. Step 2: Determine percentage
Let’s keep it simple… Learning outcomes: 33.33% Recognize the main idea of a passage % Distinguish between the main idea and details % Develop vocabulary related to entertainment and food. Content: 50% Entertainment 50% Food

16. Table of Specifications
Let’s put our percentages into our table.
Recognize main idea
Distinguish between main idea & details
Develop vocabulary
Total
Percentage
Food
50%
Entertainment
33.33%
100%

17. Table of Specifications
List the learning outcomes and content that needs to be tested.
Determine what percentage (out of 100%) that should be devoted to each learning outcome.
Estimate the number of items.
Distribute the number of items per learning outcome and content.
Compute the number of items per cell.

18. Step 3: Estimate number of items
Let’s imagine that our final test will have 30 items…

19. Table of Specifications
List the learning outcomes and content that needs to be tested.
Determine what percentage (out of 100%) that should be devoted to each learning outcome.
Estimate the number of items.
Distribute the number of items per learning outcome and content.
Compute the number of items per cell.

20. Step 4: Distribute items among outcomes and content
Learning outcomes: 10 items, 33.33% Recognize the main idea of a passage. 10 items, 33.33% Distinguish between the main idea and details. 10 items, 33.33% Develop vocabulary related to entertainment and food. Content: 15 items, 50% Entertainment 15 items, 50% Food

21. Table of Specifications
Now, let’s add out distribution of items.
Recognize main idea
Distinguish between main idea & details
Develop vocabulary
Total
Percentage
Food 15
50%
Entertainment 10 30
33.33%
100%

22. Table of Specifications
List the learning outcomes and content that needs to be tested.
Determine what percentage (out of 100%) that should be devoted to each learning outcome.
Estimate the number of items.
Distribute the number of items per learning outcome and content.
Compute the number of items per cell.

23. Table of Specifications
Here is where everything comes together.
Recognize main idea
Distinguish between main idea & details
Develop vocabulary
Total
Percentage
Food 5 15
50%
Entertainment 10 30
33.33%
100%

24. Table of Specifications
This table tells us that we need to write 5 items that test the ability to recognize the main idea using the topic of food, and 5 items using the topic of entertainment.
Recognize main idea
Distinguish between main idea & details
Develop vocabulary
Total
Percentage
Food 5 15
50%
Entertainment 10 30
33.33%
100%

25. Table of Specifications
This table also tells us that we need to write 5 items testing the ability to distinguish between main idea and details using the topic food, and 5 using the topic entertainment.
Recognize main idea
Distinguish between main idea & details
Develop vocabulary
Total
Percentage
Food 5 15
50%
Entertainment 10 30
33.33%
100%

26. Table of Specifications
We also need to write 5 items that test vocabulary related to food, and 5 items that test vocabulary related to entertainment.
Recognize main idea
Distinguish between main idea & details
Develop vocabulary
Total
Percentage
Food 5 15
50%
Entertainment 10 30
33.33%
100%

27. Reflect
Think about the following questions: What are the advantages to making a table of specifications? Are there disadvantages? If so, what are they? What will be the most challenging part of making a table of specifications?

28. Assignment #3
Now, you will create your own Table of Specifications. We will go through the steps together. First, let’s review the steps:
List the learning outcomes and content that needs to be tested.
Determine what percentage (out of 100%) that should be devoted to each learning outcome.
Estimate the number of items.
Distribute the number of items per learning outcome and content.
Compute the number of items per cell.

29. Assignment: Step 1
Let’s practice with reading and writing. We can use the following learning outcomes:
Can recognize the main idea
Can understand important details
Can write a well-organized paragraph
Can use appropriate grammar and vocabulary
Can recognize and use vocabulary related to travel and countries
How will you put these into a ToS?

30. Table of Specifications
Recognize main idea
Understand important details
Recognize vocabulary
Use vocabulary
Use appropriate grammar and vocabulary
Write a well-organized paragraph
Total
Percentage
Travel
Countries

31. Assignment: Step 2
Do you remember step 2? Right, you need to determine the percentages for each learning outcome. Let’s keep it simple…

32. Table of Specifications
Recognize main idea
Understand important details
Recognize vocabulary
Use vocabulary
Use appropriate grammar and vocabulary
Write a well-organized paragraph
Total
Percentage
Travel
50%
Countries
16.67%
100%

33. Assignment: Steps 3, 4, & 5
What’s step 3? Right, estimate the number of items. Let’s have 24 items total. Now, how will you put that into the Table of Specifications? Remember, you need to decide how many items per learning outcome and how many items in each cell.

34. Table of Specifications
Recognize main idea
Understand important details
Recognize vocabulary
Use vocabulary
Use appropriate grammar and vocabulary
Write a well-organized paragraph
Total
Percentage
Travel 2 12
50%
Countries 4 24
16.67%
100%

35. Table of Specifications
In the ToS that we created, everything was even. Each cell had the same number of items. You do not always need to do this. If there is a learning outcome or topic that is especially important, you can use more items to test it.

36. Table of Specifications
Recognize main idea
Understand important details
Recognize vocabulary
Use vocabulary
Use appropriate grammar and vocabulary
Write a well-organized paragraph
Total
Percentage
Travel 1 2 3 12
50%
Countries 4 6 24
8.33%
16.67%
25%
100%

37. Receptive versus Productive skills
You should also notice that this ToS includes both receptive and productive skills (reading and writing). The productive skills might line up with a writing rubric (or a speaking rubric for a speaking test).

38. Table of Specifications
Recognize main idea
Understand important details
Recognize vocabulary
Use vocabulary
Use appropriate grammar and vocabulary
Write a well-organized paragraph
Total
Percentage
Travel 1 2 3 12
50%
Countries 4 6 24
8.33%
16.67%
25%
100%

39. Productive skills
The learning outcomes are: use vocabulary, use appropriate grammar and vocabulary, and write a well-organized paragraph. The associated items might include fill-in-the-blank sentences to test the first outcome, and a paragraph-writing task to test the second and third outcomes.

40. Writing Rubric Use appropriate grammar and vocabulary
Write a well-organized paragraph 3
Few errors in grammar and vocabulary. Errors do not interfere with meaning.
Paragraph is clearly structured with a beginning, middle, and end. 2
Some errors in grammar and vocabulary. Errors may cause slight problems with meaning.
Paragraph is missing one essential element (beginning, middle, or end). 1
Several errors in grammar and vocabulary that interefere with meaning.
Paragraph is missing two essential elements (beginning, middle, and/or end).

41. Table of Specifications
Now you see how it all fits together. The learning outcomes guide test development and rubric development. The learning outcomes are used to create a Table of Specifications, which includes the criteria from the rubric. The ToS helps you determine how many items you need and what they should be used to test.

42. Review: Table of Specifications
Key Terms & Concepts
Review: Table of Specifications

43. Next Steps
Now you should read the Basic Statistics PowerPoint presentation. This is activity 4.

44. Sources
Jamieson, J. (2011). Language assessment about learning. In E. Hinkel (Ed.) Handbook of second language teaching and research. New York: Routledge.