Tools of evaluation in education and teaching

Educational evaluation can be considered as the process of determining the following aspects of the teaching and learning process. A teacher can employ any one of the available tools of education at his/her disposal to know about,

1. the extent to which educational objectives are being achieved.
2. the effectiveness of the teaching-learning experiences provided in the classroom situation.

Various evaluation techniques in Education

Different evaluation techniques are used by teachers to know all the changes that take place in the child as a result of teaching.
There are various tools and techniques of evaluation. Generally, they are classified into two categories

1. Quantitative technique
2. Qualitative technique

Oral Tests

• The oral exam (also oral test or viva voce) is a practice in many schools and disciplines, where an examiner poses questions to the student in spoken form. The student has to answer the question in such a way as to demonstrate sufficient knowledge of the subject in order to pass the exam.
• Many programs require students to finish the program by taking an oral exam or a combination of oral and exams in order to show how well a student has comprehended the material studied in the program.
• Schools use oral exams just to test knowledge, but the ability to respond on the spot. Sometimes the oral exam is offered in schools as an alternative to a written exam for students with a learning disability, like dysgraphia, developmental coordination disorder, or non-verbal learning disorder. Often the parents of the students have to request that the oral exam be given to their child in lieu of the written exam.

Written evaluation techniques/devices

• Most commonly used tool of evaluation.
• Various types of written tests are conducted throughout the academic session.
• Written tests are tests administered on paper or on a computer.
• Here student appearing for the written test have to provide answers by writing or typing in the space given or on a separate sheet.

So, written tests are tests that are administered on paper or on a computer. A test taker who takes a written test could respond to specific items by writing or typing within a given sp[ace of the test or on a separate form or document.
In some test; where knowledge of many constants or technical terms is required to effectively answer questions, like Chemistry or Biology – the test developer may allow every test taker to bring with them a cheat sheet.
A test developer’s choice of which style or format to use when developing for testing. Be that as it may, certain test styles and format have become more widely used than others. Below is a list of those formats of test items that are widely used by educators and test developers to construct paper. As a result, these tests may consist of only one type of test item format (e.g., multiple choice test, essay test) or may have a combination of different test item formats (e.g., a test that has multiple choice and essay items).

Written examination include the following type of tests.

1. Essay type tests
2. Objective type tests
3. Short answer type tests.

Content of Written Test

This includes the following types of test items :

• Short-answer
• Long-answer
• Multiple-choice and matching
• True/false (alternative choice)

This is followed by a brief discussion on the use of graphics in test questions. It is important to use the appropriate types of tests in your evaluations.

(1) Essay type tests:-

In essay type test students give responses to many questions of the curriculum in some fixed devotion in the form of essay.
This type of tests is commonly employed to check the power of memorization, expression, recognition, etc.
So these tests are used to measure the levels of interpretation and evaluation of the student.
Merits of essay type tests:-

1. Essay type tests are easy to construct. Here question papers are short, can be prepared in a small time frame and at a low cost.
2. These tests are suitable for all subjects.
3. Through essay type tests students can express their original ideas.
4. Essay types tests are very simple information, conduct and operation.
5. The mental abilities like thinking, reasoning, expression, and criticism, etc. can only be measured by essay type questions.
6. Through essay type tests, the writing style of the students can be developed.
7. Here students are free to express their ideas in a logical way.
8. Essay type tests inspire students for extensive study.

Demerits of essay type tests:-

1. The essay type tests look at clearly defined objectives.
2. It promotes cramming and rote memorization.
3. The scores of there tests show variations and the results are also not consistent.
4. The personal views, opinions, ideas, etc. of examiner and examinee affect the response of a particular answer as well as evaluation.
5. Sometimes these tests become time-consuming.
6. Proper evaluation is not possible by these tests.
7. Candidate with good handwriting sometimes gets more marks than the one who gives an exact and accurate answer in bad handwriting.
8. Evaluation of these tests is a hard, lengthy and difficult task in which let of time is wasted.

(2) Objective type tests:-

• Objective type questions are answered by just writing one or two words, or numerals, fill in the blanks, choosing one cut of multiple responses given, etc.
• In objective tests, the achievement of subjective knowledge of pupils, their aptitude, attitudes, interests, inelegance, etc are measured.
• These tests consist of about 150 to 200 short and pointed questions based on the entire curriculum in a very short duration.
• These tests have objectivity and their measurements will not effect scorability of the pupils.
• Since the answers to these types of questions even one and the same, therefore it is quite reliable, objective, valid and can not vary.

Type of Objective tests:-

(1) True/False (alternative choice) questions

The choices offered in these types of questions may be True/False, Yes/no, Fact/Opinion, High/Low, Agree/Disagree, and so on. There must be only one correct response to the question.

Use True/False questions to test a student’s ability to :

• Recognize a correct statement of fact or opinion
• Identify relationships (including cause)
• Identify attitudes, values, and beliefs
• Identify a new situation where known principles apply.

These type of tests are presented in the form of a simple declarative statement, to which the pupil responds indicating whether the statement is true or false.
Example:-
Direction – write ‘T’ if the statement is true and ‘P’ if the statement is false.
(a) (a+b)^2 = a2+b2 +2ab._____________
(b) (a-b)^2 = a2-b2._____________
(c) The sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles._____________

(2) Completion test:-

A fill-in-the-blank item provides a test taker with identifying characteristics and requires the test taker to recall the correct term. There are two types of fill-in-the-blank test. The easier version provides a word bank of possible words that will fill in the blanks. For some exams, all words in the word bank are used exactly once. If a teacher wanted to create a test of medium difficulty, they would provide a test with a word bank, but some words may be used more than once and others not at all. The hardest variety of such a test is a fill-in-the-blank test in which no word bank is provided at all. This generally requires a higher level of understanding and memory than a multiple choice test. Because of this, fill-in-the-blank tests are often feared by students. In these tests, the pupils are required to complete the given incomplete statement.
Direction: Fill in the blanks in the following sentences.
Examples :
(i) 4 : 5 : : 8 : ___________
(ii) (a+b)2 +a2+________+ 2ab
(iii) sum of the exterior angles of a polygon is__________.

(3) Multiple choice tests:-

A multiple choice is a form of assessment in which respondents are asked to select the best possible answer (or answers) out of the choices from a list. If guessing an answer, there’s usually a 25 percent chance of getting it correct on a 4 answer choice question. Finding the right answer from multiple choices can be automated using multiple choice question answering systems. The multiple choice format is most frequently used in educational testing, in market research, and in elections, when a person chooses between multiple candidates, parties, or policies.

Although E.L. Thorndike developed an early multiple choice test, Fredrick J. Kelly was the first to use such items as part of a large scale assessment. While Director of the Training School at Kansas State Normal School (now Emporia State University) in 1915, he developed and administered the Kansas Silent Reading Test. Soon after, Kelly became the third Dean of the College of Education at the University of Kansas. These tests contain a number of items, each of which has three or four responses. One of the responses in each term is correct. The students are required to tick the correct suspense.
Example :
Direction: Choose the correct answer from four given responses.
The length of the hall is 16m, breadth is 12m and height is 10m. The area of one of its long wall (m m2) is
(a) 16×12
(b) 16×10
(c) 12×10
(d) 16x12x10
(4) Matching tests:-
In these tests, the pupils match test items of one side to the test items of the other side.
On the other side, answers are not written exacted in front of the questions but they are written un-sequentially.
Students have to make a pair by mentioning the right sequence of answers in front of the questions.

PORTFOLIOS

A portfolio is a collection of a learner’s work that demonstrates progress in the development of knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes in a given area. Portfolios provide useful information and evidence for teachers to keep track of what learners know and can do in the area being assessed in order to carry out the assessment for learning. Samples of the learner’s oral or written work such as recordings of oral presentations and writing tasks can be included in a portfolio. A good portfolio is characterized by clear learning intentions, learner’s involvement in choosing what goes into the portfolio and the use of success criteria to define quality performance. It provides a basis for communication between learners, teachers and parents, and self-reflection through which learners share what they think and feel about themselves and their work.

OPEN-ENDED QUESTION

Open-ended question, which cannot be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”, on with a specific piece of information, and which gives the person answering the question scope to give the information, and which gives the person answering the question scope to give the information that seems to them to be appropriate Open-ended questions are sometimes phrased as a statement which requires a response.

Examples of open-ended questions :

1. Tell me about your relationship with your supervisor.
2. Do you see your future?
3. Tell me about the children in this photograph.
4. What is the purpose of government?
5. Why did you choose that answer?

At the same time, there are closed-ended questions which are sometimes impossible to answer correctly with a yes or no without confusion, for example, “Have you stopped taking heroin?’

Learn more about Evaluation in Education by following links given below

1. Concept and Meaning of Test Evaluation and Measurement
2. Definitions of Evaluation
3. Characteristics of evaluation in education
4. Importance of evaluation in education
5. Principles of Evaluation