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Module 2 – Principles of High Quality Assessment

This module presents an outcome-based education model of assessment that should
conform to certain principles to keep the quality and credibility of high quality assessment.

At the end of this module, the students can:

1. Distinguish Taxonomy of Educational Objectives by Bloom and by Lorin Anderson;

2. Develop learning outcomes statement and match learning outcomes with appropriate
assessment method;
3. Describe how testing can be made more practical and efficient.

2.1 Clarity of Learning Targets

Assessment can be made precise, accurate and dependable only if what are to be
achieved are clearly stated and feasible. To this end, we consider learning targets involving
knowledge, reasoning, skills, products and effects. Learning targets need to be stated in
behavioral terms which denote something which can be observed through the behavior of
the students. Thus, the objective “to understand the concept of buoyancy” is not stated in
behavioral terms. It is not clear how one measures “understanding”. On the other hand, if we
restate the target as “to determine the volume of water displaced by a given object
submerged”, then we can easily measure the extent to which a student understands
“buoyancy”.

2.1.1 Cognitive Targets

As early as the 1950’s Bloom (1954), proposed a hierarchy of educational objectives at

the cognitive level. Bloom identified six levels within the cognitive domain, from the
simple recall or recognition of facts, as the lowest level, through increasingly more
complex and abstract mental levels, to the highest order which is classified as
evaluation. Verb examples that represent intellectual activity on each level are listed
and each level is linked to questions appropriate to the level.

Level 1. KNOWLEDGE which refers to the acquisition of facts, concepts and theories.

Knowledge forms the foundation of all other cognitive objectives for without
knowledge; it is not possible to move up to the next higher level of thinking skills in
the hierarchy of educational objectives.

1. Knowledge: arrange, define, duplicate, label, list, memorize, name, order, recognize,
relate, recall, repeat, reproduce state.
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Level 2. COMPREHENSION refers to the same concept as “understanding”. It is a step

higher than mere acquisition of facts and involves a cognition or awareness of the
interrelationships of facts and concepts.

2. Comprehension: classify, describe, discuss, explain, express, identify, indicate, locate,

recognize, report, restate, review, select, translate,

Level 3. APPLICATION refers to the transfer of knowledge from one field of study to
another or from one concept to another concept in the same discipline.

3. Application: apply, choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret,

operate, practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write.

Level 4. ANALYSIS refers to the breaking down of a concept or idea into its components
and explaining the concept as a composition of these concepts.

4. Analysis: analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast, criticize,

differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test.

Level 5. SYNTHESIS refers to the opposite of analysis and entails putting together the
components in order to summarize the concept.

5. Synthesis: arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, create, design, develop,

formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up, write.

Level 6. EVALUATION AND REASONING refers to valuing and judgment or putting the
“worth” of a concept or principle.

6. Evaluation: appraise, argue, assess, attach, choose compare, defend estimate, judge,
predict, rate, core, select, support, value, evaluate.

 KNOWLEDGE
o remembering;
o memorizing;
o recognizing;
o identification and
o recall of information
 Who, what, when, where, how ...?
 Describe

 COMPREHENSION
o interpreting;
o translating from one medium to another;
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o describing in one's own words;

o organization and selection of facts and ideas
 Retell...

 APPLICATION
o problem solving;
o applying information to produce some result;
o use of facts, rules and principles
 How is...an example of...?
 How is...related to...?
 Why is...significant?

 ANALYSIS
o subdividing something to show how it is put together;
o finding the underlying structure of a communication;
o identifying motives;
o separation of a whole into component parts
 What are the parts or features of...?
 Classify...according to...
 Outline/diagram...
 How does...compare/contrast with...?
 What evidence can you list for...?

 SYNTHESIS
o creating a unique, original product that may be in verbal form or may be a
physical object;
o combination of ideas to form a new whole
 What would you predict/infer from...?
 What ideas can you add to...?
 How would you create/design a new...?
 What might happen if you combined...?
 What solutions would you suggest for...?

 EVALUATION
o making value decisions about issues;
o resolving controversies or differences of opinion;
o development of opinions, judgements or decisions
 Do you agree...?
 What do you think about...?
 What is the most important...?
 Place the following in order of priority...
 How would you decide about...?
 What criteria would you use to assess...?

The table below shows the revision of Anderson, Krathwohl et al. in 2001.
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2.1.2. Skills, Competencies and Abilities Targets

Skills refer to specific activities or tasks that a student can proficiently do e.g. skills in
coloring, language skills. Skills can be clustered together to form specific competencies
characterize a student’s ability in order that he program of study can be designed as to
optimized his/her innate abilities.

Abilities can be roughly categorized into: cognitive, psychomotor and affective abilities.
For instance, the ability to work well with others and to be trusted by every classmate (affective
ability) is an indication that the student can most likely succeed in work that requires leadership
abilities. On the other hand, other student are better at doing things alone like programming and
web designing (cognitive ability) and, therefore, they would be good at highly technical
individualized work.

2.1.3. Product, Outputs and Projects Targets

Products, outputs and projects are tangible and concrete evidence of as student’s
ability. A clear target for products and projects need to clearly specify the level of workmanship
of such projects e.g. expert level, skilled level of workmanship of such projects e.g. expert level,
skilled level or novice level output can be characterized by the indicator “at most four (4)
imperfections noted” etc.

2.2. Appropriateness of Assessment Methods

Once the learning targets are clearly set, it is now necessary to determine and
appropriate assessment procedure or method. We discuss the general categories of
assessment methods or instruments below.

2.2.1 Written-Response Instruments

Written – response instruments include objective (multiple choices, true false,

matching or short answer) tests, essays, examinations and checklists. Objectives tests are
appropriate for assessing the various levels of hierarchy of educational objectives. Multiple
choice tests in particular can be constructed in such a way to test higher thinking skills. Essays,
when properly planned, can test the student’s grasp of the higher level cognitive skills
particularly in the areas of application analysis, synthesis and judgment. However, when the
essay question is not sufficiently precise and when the parameters are not properly defined,
there is a tendency for the students to write irrelevant and unnecessary things just to fill in blank
spaces. When this happens, both the teacher and the students will experience difficulty and
frustration.
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2.2.2 Product Rating Scales

A teacher is often tasked to rate products. Examples of products that are frequently rated
in education are book reports, maps, charts, diagrams, notebooks, essays and creative
endeavors of all sorts. An example of a product rating scale is the classic “handwriting” scale.
There are prototype handwriting specimens of pupils and students (of various grades and ages).
The sample handwriting of a student is then moved along the scale until the quality of the
handwriting sample is most similar to the prototype handwriting. To develop a product rating
scale for the various products in education, the teacher must possess prototype products over
his/her years of experience.

2.2.3 Performance Tests

One of the most frequently used measurement instruments is the checklist. A

performance checklist consists of a list of behaviors that make up a certain type of
performance (e.g. using a microscope, typing a letter, solving a mathematics performance and
so on.). It is used to determine whether or not an individual behaves in a certain (usually
desired) way when asked to complete a particular task. If a particular behavior is present when
an individual is observed, the teacher places a check opposite it on the list.

Example: (Performance Checklist in solving a Mathematics problem)

Behavior:

1. Identifies the given information____

2. Identifies what is being asked____
3. Uses variables to replace the unknown____
4. Formulates the equation____
5. Performs algebraic operations____
6. Obtains an answer____
7. Checks if the answer makes sense____

2.2.4 Oral Questioning

Oral questioning is an appropriate assessment method when the objectives are: (a) to
assess the student’s stock knowledge and/or (b) to determine the student’s ability to
communicate ideas in coherent verbal sentences. While oral questioning is indeed an
option for assessment, several factors need to be considered when using this option. Of
particular significance are the student’s state of mind and feelings, anxiety and nervousness in
making oral presentations which could mask the student’s true ability.

2.2.5 Observation and Self Reports

A tally sheet is a device often used by teachers to record the frequency of student
behaviors, activities or remarks. How many high school students follow instructions during fire
drill, for example? How many instances of aggression or helpfulness are observed when
elementary students are observed in the playground? In the class of Mr. Sual in elementary
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statistics, how often do they ask questions about inference? Observational tally sheets are most
useful in answering these kinds of questions.

A self-checklist is a list of several characteristics or activities presented to the subjects of

a study. The individuals are asked to study the list and then to place a mark opposite the
characteristics which they possess or the activities which they have engaged in fir a particular
length of time. Self-checklists are often employed by teachers when they want to diagnose or to
appraise the performance of students from the point of view of the students themselves.

Observation and self-reports are useful supplementary assessment methods when used
in conjunction with oral questioning and performance tests. Such methods can offset the
negative impact on the students brought about by their fears and anxieties during oral
questioning or when performing actual task under observation. However, since there is a
tendency to overestimate one’s capability, it may be useful to consider weighing self-
assessment and observational reports against the results of oral questioning and performance
tests.

2.3 Properties of Assessment Methods

The quality of the assessment instrument and method used in education is very
important since the evaluation and judgments that the teacher gives on a student are based on
the information he obtains using these instruments. Accordingly, teachers follow a number of
procedures to ensure that the assessment process is valid and reliable.

Validity had traditionally been defined as the instrument’s ability to measure what it
purports to measure. We shall learn in this section that the concept has, of recent, been
modified to accommodate a number of concerns regarding the scope of this traditional
definition. Reliability, on the other hand, is defined as the instrument’s consistency.

2.3.1Validity

Validity, in recent years, has been defined as referring to the appropriateness,

correctness, meaningfulness and usefulness of the specific conclusions that a teacher
reaches regarding the teaching-learning situation. Content-validity refers to the content and
format of the instrument. How appropriate is the content? How comprehensive? Does the
instrument logically get the intended variable or factor? How adequately does the sample of
items or questions represent the content to be assessed? Is the format appropriate?

The content and format must be consistent with the definition of the variable or factor to be
measured. Some criteria for judging content validity are given as follows:

1. Do students have adequate experience with the type of task posed by the item?
2. Did the teachers cover sufficient material for most students to be able to answer the
item correctly?
3. Does the item reflect the degree of emphasis received during instruction?
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With these as guide, a content validity table may be constructed in two (2) forms as
provided below:

FORM A: ITEM VALIDITY

Criteria I T E M N O.

1 2 3 4 5 6

1. Material covered sufficiently

2. Most students are able to

answer item correctly

3. Students have prior

experience with the type pf
task.

4. Decision: Accept or reject

FORM B: ENTIRE TEST

Knowledge/Skills Area Estimated Percent of Percentage of

Instruction Items Covered in
Test

1. Knowledge

2. Comprehension

3. Application

4. Analysis

5. Synthesis

6. Evaluation

Based on Form B, adjustments in the number of items that relate to a topic can be made
accordingly. While content validity is important, there are other types of validity that one needs
to verify. Face validity refers to the outward appearance of the test. It is the lowest form of the
test validity. A more important type of validity is called criterion-related validity. In criterion
related validity, the test item is judged against a specific criterion e.g. relevance to a topic like
the topic on conservation, for example. The degree to which the item measures the criterion is
said to constitute its criterion validity. Criterion validity can also be measured by correlating the
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test with a known valid test (as a criterion). Finally, a test needs to possess construct validity. A
“construct” is another term for a factor, and we already know that a group of variables that
correlate highly with each other form a factor. It follows that an item possesses construct validity
if it loads highly on a given construct or factor.

3.2 Reliability

The reliability of an assessment method refers to its consistency. It is also a term that is
synonymous with dependability or stability.

Reliability of a test may also mean the consistency of test results when the same test is
administered at two different time periods. This is the test-retest method of estimating reliability.
The estimate of test reliability is then given by the correlation of the two test results.

2.3.3 Fairness

An assessment procedure needs to be fair. This means many things. First, students need
to know exactly what the learning targets are and what method of assessment will be used. If
students do not know what they are supposed to be achieving then they could lost in the maze
of concepts being discussed in class. Likewise, students have to be informed how their progress
will be assessed in order to allow them to strategize and optimize their performance.

Second, assessment has to be viewed as an opportunity to learn rather than an

opportunity to weed out poor and slow learners. The goal should be that of diagnosing the
learning process rather than the learning object.

Third, fairness also implies freedom from teacher-stereotyping. Some examples of

stereotyping include: boys are better than girls in Mathematics or girls are better than boys in
language. Such stereotyped images and thinking could lead to unnecessary and unwanted
biases in the way that teachers assess their students.

2.3.4 Practicality and Efficiency

Another quality of a good assessment procedure is practicality and efficiency. An

assessment procedure should be practical in the sense that the teacher should be familiar with
it, does not require too much time and is in fact, implementable. A complex assessment
procedure tends to be difficult to score and interpret resulting in a lot of misdiagnosis or too long
a feedback period which may render the test inefficient.

2.3.5 Ethics in Assessment

The term “ethics” refers to questions of right and wrong. When teachers think about
ethics, they need to ask themselves if it is right to assess a specific knowledge or investigate a
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certain question. Are there some aspects of the teaching-learning situation that should not be
assessed? Here are some situations in which assessments may not be called for:

 Requiring students to answer checklists of their sexual fantasies;

 Asking elementary pupils to answer sensitive questions without consent of their
parents;
 Testing the mental abilities of pupils using an instrument whose validity and reliability
are unknown;

When a teacher thinks about ethics, the basic question to ask in this regard is: “Will any
physical or psychological harm come to any one as a result of the assessment or testing?”
Naturally, no teacher would want this to happen to any of his/her student.

Test results and assessment results are confidential results. Such should be known only
by the student concerned and the teacher. Results should be communicated to the students in
such a way that other students would not be in possession of information pertaining to any
specific member of the class.

The third ethical issue in assessment is deception. Should students be deceived? There
are instances in which it is necessary to conceal the objective of the assessment from the
students in order to ensure fair and impartial results. When this is the case, the teacher has a
special responsibility to (a) determine whether the use of such techniques is justified by
the educational value of the assessment, (b) determine whether alternative procedures
are available that does not make use of concealment and (c) ensure that students are
provided with sufficient explanation as soon as possible.

Finally, the temptation to assist certain individuals in class during assessment or testing is
ever present. In this case, it is best if the teacher does not administer the test himself if he
believes that such a concern may, at a later time, be considered unethical.