During our last lesson, we tried to get ourselves accustomed to the concepts of test, testing,

assessment, measurement and evaluation. We also considered the types of evaluation and purposes of
evaluation. Now, let us get ourselves familiar to some key concepts you are likely to be confronted with
on daily basis as you engage in the discipline before going to our lesson proper.

Variability: This is referred to as a measure of spread, scatter or dispersion. They are indices expressing
quantitatively the extent to which a given distribution cluster together or scatter apart. This is what
distinguishes the scores of Funmi from that of Tade in a given test.

Pearson’s product- moment correlation: This is a measure of the strength and direction of a linear
relationship between two variables at intervals or ratio level. (Remember we keep talking about
variables in my research methods class, you will understand it better now).

Intelligence test: Scholars have defined this differently based on their professional’s preferences.
Educator Wechsler cited by Ukwuije (1993) defined it as the ability to learn. Biologists perceive it as the
ability to adapt to the environment and the computer experts view it as ability to process information in
a jiffy or very quickly. Generally, however, intelligence is one’s ability to excel in any task one takes part
in.

These terms are very important in teaching learning situations, particularly dealing with this course.

Having exposed you to this, let us deal with the historical anecdote of measurement of individual
differences.

The desire to measure individual differences in skills brings about the concepts of measurement. In
fact, Astronomer Maskelyne of England was reported to have relieved his assistant, Kinnebrook for
recording the movement of stars across the telescope with eight-tenths second (8/10) later than his.
Based on Tuckman (1975) evidence, from 1820 to 1823, Bessel a German astronomer improved on the
work of Maskelyne by showing that there is variability in personal equations and observations. He
postulated that variations occur from time to time and from individual to individual. This simply put
connotes that, there is variation in simple reaction to time or a measure of time required to react to a
simple stimulus.

In 1863, Sir Francis Galton also worked on individual differences and thereafter came up with a
publication titled: Inquires into the Human Faculty and Development. This work paves the way for
mental tests (find out what this test is all about). In 1884, Galton opened up a laboratory referred to as,
anthropometric to investigate the characteristics measurements of people of similar period. Mckeen
Cathel, a psychologist from the US, also engaged in studying individual differences in primary physical
terms. These were earliest recorded history of testing. But it is of interest to note that all of these early
recorded measurements approaches both written and oral, were informal. The reason being that they
were not formal written test. The first formal written test was examinations used by the Chinese
to recruit people into civil service.

In addition to note earlier sent to you let us now consider another important topic titled: Classroom
Test.
Another name for classroom test is teacher- made test. This test can be achievement test/ performance
or practical test prepared by the teacher for specific class and for a purpose to investigate the success or
otherwise of what he has taught.

It is one of the major instruments of evaluation and a major technique for assessing learning outcome.
The major purpose of teaching and learning is to effect a change in learner’s behaviour. To know if there
is therefore that behaviour modification, the instrument needed to gauge this is test.

One major thing to watch out for is how to construct a good question or good test items. Sometimes, an
inexperienced teacher may by chance, set good questions but this is not always the case.

Teachers are often faced with varying challenges in the discharge of their most important functions:
evaluating of learning outcome. Part of this could be the observation you are to make while discharging
your duty, which could be done in form of various deliveries. For example, your teaching can be in
classroom, workshop, language laboratory, field of play, to mention just a few.

Students are expected to be rated under these varying learning activities and teachers are expected to
correct, grade assignments and homework. Weekly and end of term test examination are part of these
learning activities. Decisions on those to be promoted, using all these cumulative activities at the end of
the school year are all based on your judgement of these activities. All these make the construction and
administration of test very demanding. This accounts for why you have to be familiar with both the
planning and administration of good quality tests. As you progress in life in teaching profession, the
quality of the test given to your students and its administration will become very crucial for the growth
and development of Nigerian youths.

Types of Test forms in Classroom

There are different types, namely; essay test, norm referenced test or criterion referenced test but let us
devote our attention to essay and objective tests.

Essay Test: this type was introduced by the colonial education. This type of test requires the tested or
the student to think out the answer to the question asked. They are at liberty to express or state
answers in their own words. A sort of free- answer type of test.

This test is used by teacher to measure achievement or performance of classroom instruction. In this
type of test, you have the privilege to express yourself the way you like.

Advantages of this type of test

Questions are not many because of the time limit usually imposed on it. At most, may be, 3- 5
questions are okay for this type of test.

The scripts are written in the student’s own style or handwriting. You don’t need to go and start looking
for a computer or printing gadgets.

It encourages creativity because students are at liberty to express them the way they like. They are not
restricted.

I think we should refer to these as features of essay type of test rather than advantages. Take note of
this class. Is that okay?
Now, let us look at the types of essay tests.

Extended or free-response type of essay test: In this type of essay test, questions are asked without
students being restricted or limited to the extent of how they are to discuss or respond to their answers.
Are you still there?

In other words, the students are to plan and organize their thoughts, put the ideas across by expressing
themselves freely, precisely and clearly in their own words. They are to also discuss the question at
length, citing various examples based on their knowledge of the questions asked.

The other type of essay test is the Restricted-Response Type.

As the name suggests, the questions are so structured that the students are limited because the scope
of the questions are clearly defined. The answers to be provided by students are controlled.

For examples: give 3 advantages and 2 disadvantages of essay tests. Or, state four uses of tests in
education. Can you also suggest some following these 2 examples?

Uses of essay Tests

It permits a freedom of response.

Allow for student’s response in his words.

Suggest more.

Essay test promote the development of problem- solving skill. Why? The students must think out the
answer.

It helps students to develop their writing skills.

It is also easy to construct.

Limitations of essay test.

Subjectivity in scoring

The scoring is not reliable because different examiners may judge student’s response differently. This
may affect any of the students positively or negatively.

The grading is as well time- consuming. It may not also cover the test contents taught in the class
adequately and comprehensively. Students are either at disadvantage or at advantage based on their
level of the mastery of the language.

These limitations can be reduced thus:

1. Avoid open- ended question

2. Allow the students to answer the same question.

3. Avoid option and choices.

4. Use student’s number instead of their names to conceal their identity.

5. Score all the answers to each student at the same time.

6. Don’t allow the way you feel to influence your decision while grading.

7. Avoid distraction while marking.

OBJECTIVE TEST

This derives its name, that is, objective because the marking or grading is done with a standard key.

This key concept means that the students are provided with a problem to which a limited number of
choices are provided to select the wanted answer.

The questions are usually constructed and structured in such a way that when students are to give or
provide answers, they are strictly limited to specific and short answers. Students are, however, given the
opportunity to respond to large answers which most of the time, will cover the course contents.

Objective test items are two types:

1. Supply test items

2. Selection test items.

Let us look at them.

These two items are sub- divided into:

 Short answer
 Completion
 Arrangements
 True-false
 Matching
 Multiple choice items.

Let us consider them briefly:

Supply Test Items.

This type of test items requires testers to give very brief answers to the questions. The answer can be in
form of a word, a phrase, a number, a symbol or symbols. To arrive at very good construction of this
item, the question should be as briefed as possible, carefully worded in order for it to require an exact
answer.

Supply test items could be in form of:

1. Short- answers test items. As the name implies, the testers are to give short answers. For
instance. Who is the president of Nigeria? What is the technical drawing instrument used for
measuring angles? The two instruments used for cutting screw thread are tap and….? Which of
the energies are used for motion?
2. Completion Test Item.

This is the other test item under supply test item. Is that cleared? Don’t be confused, please.

This requires testers to provide or complete one or more missing words in a sentence. For examples:

1. A triangle with all sides and angle equal is called…………….

2. The process of splitting a leg of wood into planks is called……………

3………………… is a special chord passing through the center of circle.

The other type earlier stated was selection test items. We shall deal with this in short a while but let me
charge my battery.

Selection Test Items

Remember, I earlier stated this as the second test dealing with objectives test items.

This is the type in which possible alternatives are provided for the testers and they can choose the most
appropriate. Is that understood?

Let us take them one after the other.

True or false: In this type, a statement is provided to the testers and they are expected to say either
true or false, yes or no, agree or disagree etc.

The statements below show example:

1. The tee square is used for drawing horizontal lines.

2. Wood can be hardened to improve its qualities.

3. Any material which obstructs the flow of magnetic flux is called resistor.

Multiple Choices

This is another type of objective question still looking at the sub- category of selection test item.

It is useful in measuring students’ achievement in schools, popular and widely used and accepted. It is
made up of two parts known as the stem or premise which is the question. The other is the suggested
answers called the alternatives, options or choices.

The correct option is key, which is, the answers while the other options are called distractions or
distracted.

Tips to make good multiple choices

1. Simple and clear stems

2. All alternatives should be possible answers related to the answers but only one most correct or
appropriate.

3. The distractions should be as attractive as the key. It must distract the testers very well.

4. The correct answer should be strategically position to avoid guessing.

5. There should be a minimum of 4 options for each item. Sometimes could be 5.

6. Avoid the option ‘none of the above’. Let us now deal with a few multiple choice questions.

The two forms of oblique projections are…

A. axonometric and plan metric.

b. Cavalier and plan metric.

Cavaliers and cabinet.

D. cabinet and axonometric

Pictorial and perspective.

Another one:

Which tribe in Nigeria is associated with future and afam soup?

a. Ibira b. Urobo c. Efic d. Igbo e.Yoruba.

Efik*

Let us draw the class to a close now. Good morning.

Assignments for the remaining group

State three limitations to objective test

Differentiate between teacher made test and standardized test.

These two questions are for one of the group.

Good morning class. In the lesson just concluded, we tried to look at the different types of classroom
test. Our major preoccupation then revolved around two. The essay and the objective classroom tests.
We studied their features, differences, method of constructing them as well as their types. Now let us
look at the concept of test in general. We shall be considering the different types of tests classify and
explain types of achievement test.

As earlier established in the lesson earlier sent through your class governor, Susan and what you were
taught in education last, a test is an instrument or devised used for finding out the presence or absence
of a particular phenomenon or trait possessed in an individual or group of individuals. For example, an
achievement test in any aspect of your course-related areas- phonetic and phonology, morphology and
syntax, semantic, stylistic, discourse analysis- all within the scope of pure and applied linguistic, can be
used to investigate and determine how well the tester learned what was earlier exposed to.
CONCEPT OF TEST AS MEASURING INSTRUMENT

A test is the major instrument and the most often used for assessment of cognitive behaviour. I hope
you still remember our lesson on Bloom’s Taxonomy of education objective. Bringing it clearer, a test is
just a set of questions that students are expected to answer. The responses provided or given by the
students give a measure of their level of performance or achievement. The test is usually based on
content areas of the subject studied during the class. It is directed to measure learners’ level of
attainment of the pre- specified objectives. To measure an attribute, a standard instrument is needed.
Thus, unlike the physical attributes, measurements are done to by giving a description of the
characteristics associated with such constructs in behavioral terms.

The expected behaviour (aptitude) like ability to state, defines, manipulate or perform experiment, say,
in language laboratory or science lab and similar activities are put down in form of a test. The test gives
quantitative information about the existence of the construct (attributes) possessed by the tester. As a
result of this, the test items as the measuring instrument must be valid, reliable and usable so as to give
dependable results.

LIMITATION OF TEST AS MEASURING INSTRUMENT

The limitation arises because a test measures attributes indirectly. For this reason, accuracy of
information obtained from test results depends on the representativeness and adequacy of the sample
of the test items with respect to the behaviors associated with the attributes. A test as a measuring
instrument is thus required to have a representative sample of items which measure all and what it
purports to measure. However, unlike the physical measuring instruments, test scores are not absolute.
Thus, the real value of score of say, 0 does not mean that the learner has zero aptitude, meaning that
the child has learnt nothing.

Similarly, we know that a child that scores 60 percent in a test possesses more aptitude than the one
that scores 30 percent but no one can say how much. As a result, the test scores are interpreted with
caution.

No test is universally accepted as standard measure of/ for a measure of specific attributes on its own.
This is because a perceived representative samples developed based on some common objective and
content areas of a given locality cannot represent all versions of likely attributes of interest to all
students outside that given locality. As a result, the use of a given test is often localized to specific class,
school or area.

TYPES OF TEST

1. Tests are classified into two broad categories on the basis of the nature of measurement. These
are:
2. Measure of maximum performance.
3. Measure of typical performance.
In 1, we have those procedures used to determine a person’s ability. They deal with how a person
performs when motivated to obtain a high score as much as possible. The result is a reflection of what a
person can to at his or her best possible efforts. For examples, the aptitude test, achievement test and
intelligence test.

In 2, that is, measure of physical performance. This is the type designed to reflect a person’s physical
behaviour. It falls into general area of personality appraisal such as interests, attitudes, and other
aspects of personal social adjustments. Testing instrument cannot be used adequately to measure these
attributes. As a result, self-report and observational techniques, like interview, questionnaires,
anecdotal records and rating are used. These techniques are used in relevant combinations to provide
the desired results on which accurate judgment concerning learners’ progress and change can be made.

Let us look at each of these tests.

1. Intelligence Test or general mental ability test. Intelligence is the ability to reason and learn
from experience. It is inherited (nature) based on surroundings in which a person is brought up
(nurture). The first IT was developed by Alfred Binet in1905 to give an intelligent Quotient (IQ).
IT provides an indication of an individual general mental capacity. An intelligent test usually
includes a wide variety of tests used to sample several aspects of cognitive function.

Aptitude Tests (Separate Ability)

This is the type referring to natural ability especially, specified. Thus, it measures specialized abilities
and potential to learn or perform new task that may be relevant to later learning or performance in a
specific area. They are future- oriented. For example, entrance examination into secondary school or
vocational school.

Achievement Test

It is designed to measure the effect of specific programme of instruction or training, which the learner
attained usually by their efforts. In general, it represents terminal evaluation of the learner’s status on
the completion of course or training. That is, it is used to determine how much the learner has learned
from specified content through systemic and controlled instructions. For example, end of term
examination and classroom tests.

Classification of Achievement Test. Achievement test can be classified into the following ways:

By mode of response: This includes the: 1 oral test 2. Written test 3. Practical test.

By purpose of testing: Classified as 1. Placement test, 2. Formative test 3. Diagnostic test and 4,
summative test.

Desired Speed of Response: Classified into 1. Power test and 2, speed test.

By degree of rigor employed in preparation and scope of applicability they are: 1. Teacher- made test. 2.
Standardized test.

Mode of interpreting results. Under this, we have 1. Non- referenced testing. 2 Criterion- referenced
testing and 3. Self- referenced testing.

Lastly, by format of Test items: This includes the popular objective test items and essay test items.
If you read the previous lessons before these ones, I tried to explain them. Check again for clarity.

During the last class, we tried to study different types of test. There you leaned that achievement Test
can be classified into essay and objective test items, today we want to continue to learn more about
essay test classification, types of essay test, advantages and disadvantages. In other words, since the
course itself is all about assessments, test, measurement and evaluation, our focus on the core aspects
of this course is inexhaustible at least for now. I therefore urge you all not to mix things up so that you
can get a clearer picture of the course contents. Welcome to the class once again.

Before going into the nitty-gritty of today’s study. Let us learn some concepts that will assist us to
understand this topic. Let us study some words.

1. Degree of correctness: it means the condition of being true, correct or exact.

2. Deficient in skill; not having enough of a specified quality, traits or attributes required for doing
something.
3. Measurement quality; a planned and systematic means for assuring management that the
defined standards, practices, procedures, and methods of a process are applied.
4. Organizational or divergent thinking: this deals with thought process or method used to
generate creative ideas.
5. Synthesize and organize ideas together; to make something by combining different things
together.
6. In- depth knowledge; this deals with depth of understanding.
7. Variation; a change or difference in condition.
8. Invalidity: The conditions of not being legally or officially acceptable.

Essay Test

We just need further brief explanation having looked at this not in detail. You may want to go back to
that introduction on essay test again.

Bet that as it may however, for the purpose of emphasis, essay tests consist of question items designed
to elicit response from the learners through freedom of response. This is to have a clear picture of the
extent to which they have acquired the behaviour needed in the course objective.

Oftentimes, answers provided by students are usually varied both in quality and degree of correctness.
This accounts for why different grading is often arrived at after scoring the student’s scripts. The
awareness of the students’ interpretation of the question also differed. This will also affect the scoring.
At times, teacher’s setting of the question may also affect the grading, particularly, when the teacher
has poor psychometric quality or measurement of the question items, especially teachers that are
deficient in the skill required for item construction.

Due to this reason, it is very crucial to study how to construct essay item questions and how to
administer them.

Construction of Essay Questions

Constructing essay question should follow these principles.

 1. Restrict essay question to only learning outcomes that cannot be adequately measured by
objective items. This means that they are only used when comes learning outcome is to be
measured.
2. Design it for only the skill the items are to be measured. This can be achieved by expressing
clearly and precisely the question in clearly- defined instructional objectives. Action verbs such
as, compare, illustrate, differentiate, criticized and so on, can be used to construct the
questions.

Phrase each question to clearly examine the task. An essay question has to specify precisely what is
required for the examinee. Be sure that the task of the students being tested is clearly shown by
delimiting only the area covered by the item using descriptive words to give specific direction towards
the desired response.

Indicate the score allotted

To the test; this is important particularly when dealing with restricted response type of questions. This
will assist you not to reduce its effectiveness as a measure of ability to select, organize and integrate
ideas.

Indicate appropriate time limit for each question. It is crucial to indicate time allotted to each question.
The timing should take care of slower testers’ writing speed so as not to put them at disadvantage for a
satisfactory response.

Advantages and disadvantages of essay questions

1. It measures complex learning outcome that cannot be measured by other means. For example,
communication skills which deal with the learner’s ability to produce an answer synthesize and
organize ideas and present them readable in coherent and logical forms.
2. It allows the measurement of organizational and divergent thinking skills by laying emphasis on the
integration and application of thinking and problem solving skills, creativity and originality.
3. It is very applicable for measuring learning outcomes at the higher levels of educational objectives
such as application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation levels of cognitive domain.
4. It is easy and economical to administer. It can be easily and conveniently written on the chalkboards
because only few items are involved.
5. It does not encourage guessing and cheating during testing.

Disadvantages of Essay Testing

1. It is inadequate in sampling subject matter content and course objectives. The provisions of few
questions result in the invalid and narrow coverage of subject matter and instructional
objectives.

As Nenty (1985) stated, fewness of the number of questions asked often encourages permutation of
some content areas and cramming of ideal responses to suspected questions.

2. Evaluating, that is, arriving at suitable grading pattern to carelessly developed questions tends
to be confusing and time wasting. This often leads to poor reliability in scoring. Based on
studies, answers to easy questions are scored differently by different teachers and even same
teacher can still score them differently at different times.
 3. Sometimes an easy question implies many skills other than that which the item intended to
measure. The testers then react to the same questions differently. The differences in the
perception of questions encourage bluffing, which often leads to lack of differentiation of the
basic factual material and the learner’s ability to use and organize such facts.
4. The essay test item does not readily lend itself to empirical study of item qualities like difficulty
and discrimination in which improvements on the questions could be made.

Question for Group Yet to Have.

1. State three advantages and disadvantages of Essay Test.

2. Stay two basic essay types of testing.

Highlight the process of measuring maximum performance and that of typical performance.

We now have three questions for the remaining 5 groups.

Hello Class. In our last lesson, we learned about essay test items. Tonight, we shall study more about
objective test that I introduced to you briefly before.

You will learn when to use objective test and the types of objective test as well as learning how to
construct objective test.

Before then however, let me introduce you to some key concept like I did the last time. They will guide
you as we progress in the discussions.

Personal opinion: a personal view, attitude, or appraisal.

Bias: prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person or group compared with another, usually in a way
considered to be unfair.

Mood: a temporary state of mind or feeling.

Subjectivity: how someone’s judgments is shaped by personal opinions and feelings instead of outside
influence.

Pre-test: test administered to determine a student’s baseline knowledge or preparedness for course of
study.

Valid ability: how well a test measures what it is intended to measure.

Synthesize ideas: combining a number of different parts or ideas to come up with a new idea or theory.

Now shall we look at objective test in detail?

Objective Test

Objective tests are test items set in such a way that one and only one answer is available to a given
item. As a result, all the testers are expected to arrive at the same answer, meaning also that, every
scorer will arrive at the same score for each item of the examination. This type of items often require
the examinees to recall and write down or supply a word or phrase as an answer. This type is called free
response type. It could also require the examinees to recognize and select from a given set of possible
answers or options, the one that is correct or most correct (fixed response type). This means that the
objective test consists of items measuring specific skills with specific correct response to each of the
items, irrespective of the scorers’ personal opinion, bias, mood or health condition during scoring.

Advantages of Objective Test

1. It enhances the assessment of the learners’ response to test items because the scoring is not
influenced by the scorer’s bias or disposition at the time of scoring but by correctness of the
answer. Overcoming this subjectivity of the essay test will enhance the reliability of the test as
measuring instrument.
2. Scoring of objective test is easy and takes little time. Nowadays, unlike before, it is scored by
machine and high efficiency facilities suitable for very large number of students.
3. The results can be used for diagnostic purposes because they provide clues for factual errors
and misunderstanding that need remediation.
4. The relatively large number of items often used will facilitate covering a large number of the
subject matter of the course contents.
5. It is efficient for measuring knowledge of facts. It can also be designed to measure
understanding, thinking and other complex skills

Disadvantages of Objective Test.

1. It does not encourage development of examinees originality in desirable skills such as the
ability to select, organize, or synthesize ideas and to present them logically and in coherent
forms.
2. It measures only factual knowledge. This can however be overcome by developing objective
items vigorously following the steps involved in item development.
3. Development of objective questions require rigorous training of the test developer in the
skills essential for developing effective, valid and reliable items
4. It can lead to guessing especially when the test items are not developed skillfully Examinees
can guess correct responses, thus scoring undeserved marks.
5. It needs time, commitment and adequate planning.

When to use OBJ?

1. When highly structured tasks are needed to limit the type of responses the examinees can make
and to obtain correct answers from learners so as to demonstrate the specific knowledge or skill
called for in the items.
2. For proper appraisal of any of the area of educational objectives such as those of knowledge,
understanding, application and even the higher level covering large content areas if skillfully
constructed. It is possible to set as many as 120 objective questions spread over lesson units and
several cognitive levels of educational objectives for one or two hours.
3. It is used when objective, quick easy and accurate scoring is desired.
4. It can also be used for diagnosis of learning deficiency and results used for remediation process.
Group Assignment for the remaining Group

Discuss fully types of objective test items.

Good morning to you all. I feel that I should add some important concepts again. Although we earlier
dealt with them but not detailed sufficiently

Try as much as possible to study types of objective test items so that you can connect with the
discussion. We have thoroughly investigated them.

But I shall give you more examples of the following:

1. Free- response test items: 2 types of short answers and completions.

Short answer example: who was the first female Vice- Chancellor in Nigeria? Or who is the current
Director of Broadcasting Corporation of Nigeria?

Here, you need to give just short answers. We have considered this before. Think about more on your
own.

Completion: In this type, the question item can be modified. Instead of the Interrogative sentences
used, we now have declarative like:

1. The first female Vice Chancellor in Nigeria is….. Or the current Director General of BCON is ……

Testers are to supply the missing information. Do you notice the difference? The difference is in the way
the question items are structured. You have come across all these types in your CBT examination in
TASUED. Watch out for more and connect yourself practically with them to have a good understanding
of this course.

The free- response in which we have the short answer and completion whose examples I just gave is
adaptable for item construction in areas where answers are computational problems requiring the
examinees to supply the solutions.

Uses: suitable to measure a wide variety of relatively simple learning outcomes like recall of memorized
information and problem- solving outcomes measured in mathematics and sciences.

It can be used to measure the ability to interpreted diagrams, charts, graphs, and pictorial data.

It is used when it is the most effective for measuring a specific learning outcome. For example, in
English language department, free- response question items can be used in any aspect of spoken English
such as phonetics and phonology to test student’s understanding of sound discrimination, identifying
the place and manner of articulation.

For example, question such as ‘phonetic deals with the study of ……’ using the completion format of
free response. Or the short- response such as, ‘what is the study of sound segments in English language
called?’ Here, the testers are expected to give short response. I hope this is understood?
Do these assignments

State the advantages and disadvantages of free- response question items. This is for all the class. I will
grade your responses using your name and matric number. It is part of your continuous assessment.
Provide the answer here.

The Alternative Response Test Items

This test item is commonly referred to as true- false. This is because examinees are asked to give either
of two options concerning the item. The two options could be true or false, right or wrong, correct or
incorrect, yes or know, fact or opinions agree or disagree and so on.

Oftentimes, the alternative response item includes opinion statement and the examinees are required
to respond to them as merely true or false. From the standpoint of testing, teaching and learning,
opinion questions are not usually encouraged and if opinion statement is to be used, it must be
attributed to a source making it possible to assign the option of true or false to the statement based on
knowledge concerning the belief held by an individual or the values supported by an organization or
institution.

For example: read the following statement and circle T if the statement is true. Circle F if the statement
is false.

T or F Solar energy is the energy radiated from sun. You will or agree with me that the correct option is
true and is always true. The response is provided based on knowledge of the statement and the belief
held about it.

The Lander’s Brother completed the discovery of River Niger where Mungo Park left it. T or F.

Can you think of one in your field of study and supply them here.

Uses: it is commonly used to measure the ability to identify correctness of statements of fact, definition
of terms, statement of principles and other relatively simple learning outcomes to which a declarative
statement might be used with any of several methods of responding.

Used to measure examinees ability to distinguish facts from opinions, it is used to measure the ability to
recognize cause and affect relationships.

It is best used in situations in which there are only two possible alternatives such as right or wrong,
more or less, etc.

Think about the disadvantages and advantages of true- false objective test items.

The Matching Items

The matching test items usually consist of two parallel columns. One column contains a list of word,
number, symbols or other stimuli (premises) to be matched to a word, sentence, phrase or other
possible answer from the other column (responses). Lists The examinees are directed to match
responses to the appropriate premises.

Most of the time, the two lists must have some relationship. Even when the basis for matching
responses to premises is sometime self- evident, it has to be still explained so as to guide the testers’
direction

The examinees task is to identify the pairs of items that are to be associated on the basis indicated.
Sometimes the premises and responses list could be imperfect match with more lists in either of the two
columns and the direction indicating what to be done. For instance, the examinees may be required to
use an item more than once or not at all, or once. This deliberate procedure is used to prevent
examinees from matching the final pair of items on the basis of elimination.

I will send the example later. Let us look at its uses:

It is used whenever learning outcomes emphasize the ability to identify the relationship between things
and a sufficient number of homogenous premises and responses can be obtained.

Essentially used to relate two things that have some logical basis for association

It is adequate for measuring factual knowledge like testing the knowledge of terms, definitions, dates,
events, references to maps and diagrams.

Matching Question Item Example

A look at the column A and B will show that column A where we have Validity Evidence can be matched
with B option 3 Establish the meaning of the scores on the test and experimentally determining the
factors that influence test performance. Option a criterion – related fittingly goes with B compare test
score with another measure of performance obtained at a later date.

Advantages of Matching Item Question

The major advantage of matching exercise is that one matching item consists of many problems. This
compact form makes it possible to measure a large amount of related factual material in a relatively
short time.

It enables the sampling of larger contents, which results in relatively higher content validity.

The guess factor can be controlled by skillfully constructing the items such that the correct responses
can sufficiently match even for contents that are adaptable for clustering.

The scoring is simple and objective can be arrived at during the scoring.

Disadvantages

It is restricted to the measurement of factual information based on rote learning because the material
tested lend themselves to the listing of a number of important and related content.

Many topics are unique and cannot be conveniently grouped in homogenous matching clusters and it is
sometimes difficult to get homogenous materials clusters of premises and responses that can
sufficiently match even for contents that are adaptable for clustering.
 It requires extreme care during construction in order to avoid encouraging serial memorization rather
than association and to avoid irrelevant clues to the correct answer.

Having dealt with matching question items, let us now consider the most used objective question, the
multiple choice test items.

The multiple choice test items consists of two parts- a problem and a list of suggested solutions. The
problem generally referred to as the stem may be stated as a direct question or an incomplete
statement while the suggested solution generally referred to as the alternatives, choices or options may
include words, numbers, symbols or phrases. In standard form, one of the options of multiple choice
items is the correct or best answer and other are intended to mislead, foil or distract examinees from
the correct option and are therefore called distracted, foils, or decoys. These incorrect alternatives
receive their names from their intended function- to distract the examinees that are in doubt about the
correct answer.

The multiple choice test items consists of two parts- a problem and a list of suggested solutions. The
problem generally referred to as the stem may be stated as a direct question or an incomplete
statement while the suggested solution generally referred to as the alternatives, choices or options may
include words, numbers, symbols or phrases. In standard form, one of the options of multiple choice
items is the correct or best answer and other are intended to mislead, foil or distract examinees from
the correct option and are therefore called distracted, foils, or decoys. These incorrect alternatives
receive their names from their intended functions- to distract the examinees, which are in doubt about

Example:

The correct answer

Which one of the following factors contributed most to the selection of Abuja as the Federal Capital
Territory of Nigeria?

A. Central location

B. Good climate

C. Good highways

D. Low population

E. High population.

The best answer form of Multiple Choice is usually difficult than the correct answer form. This is
because the items are used to measure more complex learning outcome. It is useful for measuring
learning – outcomes that require the understanding, application, or interpretation of factual information
as the examples below shows
Which of these best describes the property of speed?

A). It has magnitude

B) It has direction

C) It is a scalar quantity

D) It is a vector quantity

E) It has magnitude and direction.

From the choices available, the tester is expected to pick one of these multiple choices.

The multiple choices item is the most widely used of the types of test available. It can be used to
measure variety of learning outcomes from simple to complex.

It is adaptable to any subject matter content and educational objective at the knowledge and
educational levels.

It can be used to measure knowledge outcomes concerned with vocabularies, facts, principles, methods
and procedures and aspect of understanding relating to the application and interpretation of facts,
principles and methods.

Most commercially developed and standardized achievement and aptitude tests make use of multiple
choice items.

Advantages:

The main advantage of multiple- choice test is its wide applicability in the measurement of various
phases of achievement.

It is the desirable of all the test formats being free of many of the disadvantages of other forms of
objective items, avoids the need for similar or homogenous material for the matching item, reduces the
clues and susceptibility to guessing characteristics of the true- false item and is relatively free from
response set.

Disadvantages:

It measures problem- solving behaviour at the verbal level only.

It requires more response time than any other type of objective item and may favor the test-wise
examinees if not adequately and skillfully constructed.

CONSTRUCTING THE OBJECTIVE TEST ITEMS

It can be observed that a test item is a statement in question forms that tries to elicit response from
tester’s level of knowledge, ability or understanding of a specific subject matter. Therefore, writing a
good test item is an art that requires some skills, time, perseverance and creativity. Below are some
general guidelines for the construction of any type of objective test item.
 1. The wording of the item should be clear and as explicit as possible.
2. Avoid setting interrelated items
3. Item should be designed to test important and not trivial facts or knowledge.
4. Write an item to elicit discriminately the extent of examinees possession of only the desired
behaviour as stipulated in the course instructional objective answers.
5. Ensure that there is only one correct or best answer to each question.
6. Avoid unintentionally giving away the answer through providing irrelevant clues.
7. Use language appropriate to the level of examinees.
8. Items in an achievement test should be constructed to elicit specific course content and not
measure general intelligence.
9. Have an independent reviewer to vet your test items (Nenty, 1985)

Assignment to be presented after this exam by all the groups already given their questions

These presentations should be taken seriously as it will be the major determining factor for your 30
marks CA. There must be at least, three presenters and each and any member of the group, can be
asked question(s). Responses to these questions will form part of the grading and your score depend on
your performance. It is during this time we normally have the opportunities to express yourself and have
full awareness of the course contents as well. Therefore, every aspect of it will not be taking with levity.
All the members of the groups are to be around before, during and after the presentations and
attendance shall be taken regularly. For this reason, every group should have a portfolio. To do this, look
for a cardboard in which the names and the matric numbers of the members of the groups shall be
conspicuously displayed on the table. Your sitting arrangement should be based on your group. That is,
no member of group 1 or 2, A or B, as the case may be, should be allowed to sit where they don’t
belong. This will give us the opportunity to monitor and grade your availability as well. Attendance from
the beginning to the end shall attract a total of 10 marks while your performance during presentation
can earn you a total of 20 marks, judging the general performances of all the members of your group.

Questions for the last group that will present:

1. What is objective test?

2. Differentiate between objective and subjective tests.

3. State any six general suggestions in constructing objective test.

Addendum: A total of 15 minutes shall be given for presentations. 1o minutes for presentation and 5
minutes for questions. Members of other groups are expected to ask questions as well. The course
lecturers can ask any members of the class, not even group members presenting questions, your
response to those questions shall be graded in the portfolio already created for you and it will add to the
marks you are likely to obtain in the final results.

So far so good, it’s been nice having this class with you. Thank you for your rapt attention. I shall react to
the quiz given you during this class soonest. I wish you the best of luck in your examination. Good
morning.

Good morning class.

During our last lesson, we tried to get ourselves accustomed to the concepts of test, testing,
assessment, measurement and evaluation. We also considered the types of evaluation and purposes of
evaluation. Now, let us get ourselves familiar to some key concepts you are likely to be confronted with
on daily basis as you engage in the discipline before going to our lesson proper.

o Variability: This is referred to as a measure of spread, scatter or dispersion. They are indices
expressing quantitatively the extent to which a given distribution cluster together or scatter
apart. This is what distinguishes the scores of Funmi from that of Tade in a given test.
o Pearson’s product- moment correlation: This is a measure of the strength and direction of a
linear relationship between two variables at intervals or ratio level. (Remember we keep talking
about variables in my research methods class, you will understand it better now).
o Intelligence test: Scholars have defined this differently based on their professional’s
preferences. Educator Wechsler cited by Ukwuije (1993) defined it as the ability to learn.
Biologists perceive it as the ability to adapt to the environment and the computer experts view
it as ability to process information in a jiffy or very quickly. Generally, however, intelligence is
one’s ability to excel in any task one takes part in.

These terms are very important in teaching learning situations, particularly dealing with this course.

Having exposed you to this, let us deal with the historical anecdote of measurement of individual
differences.

The desire to measure individual differences in skills brings about the concepts of measurement. In
fact, Astronomer Maskelyne of England was reported to have relieved his assistant, Kinnebrook for
recording the movement of stars across the telescope with eight-tenths second (8/10) later than his.
Based on Tuckman (1975) evidence, from 1820 to 1823, Bessel a German astronomer improved on the
work of Maskelyne by showing that there is variability in personal equations and observations. He
postulated that variations occur from time to time and from individual to individual. This simply put
connotes that, there is variation in simple reaction to time or a measure of time required to react to a
simple stimulus.

In 1863, Sir Francis Galton also worked on individual differences and thereafter came up with a
publication titled: Inquires into the Human Faculty and Development. This work paves the way for
mental tests (find out what this test is all about). In 1884, Galton opened up a laboratory referred to as,
anthropometric to investigate the characteristics measurements of people of similar period. Mckeen
Cathel, a psychologist from the US, also engaged in studying individual differences in primary physical
terms. These were earliest recorded history of testing. But it is of interest to note that all of these early
recorded measurements approaches both written and oral, were informal. The reason being that they
were not formal written test. The first formal written test was examinations used by the Chinese to
recruit people into civil service.

Other examples of earlier recorded history of testing includes; Socrates oral examination of the 5th
century BC. It was informal in nature.

In the US before 1815, educational achievement tests were used for assessment by oral examinations.

Galton, James and Cattel did quite tremendously well in the history of test development.
Karl Pearson developed the Pearson correlation product moment coefficient (earlier stated). It is useful
in checking reliability and validity (you must have heard about this)

What about the role of Edward Thundike, a former student of Cattels. He was also a major figure in
achievement test.

Alfred Binet, a France’s foremost psychologist, was an expert in individual differences. His major
preoccupation was to investigate the differences between bright and dull students.

With the help of his assistant, Theidore Simon, he developed a test, called, Binet -Simon intelligence
test, for measuring the intelligence of children.

Group-tests development however, started during the World War 1 to measure the intelligence of
soldiers so as to assign them to tasks. This led to psychologists developing different intelligent tests.

For example, York and Otis developed Army Alpha test a written group intelligence test and Army Beta,
the individual non- verbal intelligence test.

Others are David Weschler who also developed series of individual intelligence scales from 1939- 1967.
George Fisher, an Englishman developed the first standardized objective test of achievement in 1864
while J.M Rice an American developed the standard spelling objective scale in 1897. We can go on and
on.

Having looked at this, let us consider briefly test organizations in Nigeria.

So many organizations are saddled with the responsibilities of conducting examinations in Nigeria. Can
you mention a few of them while I pause for a while?

For example, the West African Examination Council (WAEC), you mentioned was established in
1951first, in Gambia, later, 1952 in Nigeria. It takes care of School certificate examinations (GCE /SSCE),
Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and City and Guilds Examinations

It is to cater for the examination needs of the Anglophone West African countries.

Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) you also stated was established in 1976. Charged with the
duty of conducting examinations for students seeking admission to University, colleges of education and
polytechnic.

The National Business and Technical Education Board (NABTEB) are saddled with the duty of organizing
examinations and certification of business or vocational examinations.

The National Examination Council (NECO) organizes examination for junior and senior school certificate.
It’s headquarter is located in Minna, Niger state.

The International Center for Educational Evaluation (ICEE) is concerned with educational evaluation in
Nigeria. The Institute of Education, University of Ibadan hosts it. It offers degree programmes in:

o Evaluation of educational achievement.

o Evaluation of innovative educational programmes.
o Evaluation of public examinations.
o Evaluation of curriculum materials.
 o Evaluation of teaching and learning strategies.

Aside from these, some state boards and local education boards also have their assessment units. They
can develop joint examinations for both secondary and primary schools’ students and pupils. For
example, some states have organized their own junior school certificate examinations. Companies these
days have organized some aptitude test (remember I told you that there are different types of test for
evaluation purposes) for recruitment, promotion or employment purposes.

Class Activity: Highlight the importance and functions of tests in education.

Last week, we looked at the historical antecedents of measurement and evaluation. Our class was
brought to a close after some assignments in which you all performed excellently well. Today, let us
start this class by introducing the concepts of measuring scales.

Sometimes in life, we were exposed into measuring activities of one form or the other. It may be to
avoid being cheated, or, to just no the exact measure of a thing. For instance, a landed property just
procured will undergo measurement so that the buyer can know the length and breadth of their
hectare/ acre. When one goes to a local market to buy rice yam or cassava flour, as the case may be, a
module will be needed to know the quantity. Put simply, we engage in measurement for varying
purposes based on what is to be measured. The instrument to be applied in measuring however differs,
depending on what to be measured, degree of accuracy, precision of measurement expected and how
the measurement is to be carried out. Put succinctly, there are four levels of measurement scales,
namely; nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio scale. Let us attempt them briefly.

Nominal: Human being can be classified as Male or female

Nominal scale is used when we want to assign things into groups or classes. Just as teachers in particular
schools can be grouped into graduate or non-graduate teachers, nominal scale can be used to do this
grouping. It is the simplest of all the scales. The reason is that it does not involve magnitude. Students
can be grouped into ABDC without any form of magnitude such as, 123 and 4. Nominal group does not
involve any order such as greater or less than. Thus, letter number or numeral used in nominal scale
does not have any quantitative relevance or significance. They are used for the purposes of
convenience.

Ordinal Scale is the opposite of nominal scale, here, there is order. This is because one real number can
be equal, greater or less than the other hence, the name, and ordinal. For instance, the number 10 is
greater than number 4 but less than the number 15.

In ordinal scale, there is classification, as well as indication of size a

In ordinal scale, there is classification, as well as indication of size and rank.

As teacher to be, you can rank your students, using the score they obtain from their tests to either 1st
2nd or 3rd as the case may be.

The next scale after nominal scale is the interval scale. Remember we said that in ordinal scale equal
interval do not represent equal quantities. The reverse is the case in interval scale. In other words, in
interval scale, equal intervals
Represent equal quantities. The amount of difference between adjacent intervals on the scale is equal.

For example, the days on a calendar represent equal amounts of time.

Also a student that scores 70% in an exam is 10% higher than the one that scores 70% and 10% lower
than the one that scores 80%. Because of the fact that the data involved here are continuous, some
arithmetical operation such as subtraction, addition can take place here.

Okay that 70% should be 60%

Ratio scale is the highest level of scale measurement. It contains all the characteristics of the others.
Most of the arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction multiplication and division are involved in
this scale.

For clarification, you can look at the tabular illustrations sent to you.

We are considering Bloom’s Taxony of Educational Objectives. Before doing that, let us look at the
general term objective. Everyone has motive for embarking on a specific thing. We can also state that a
goal must be in place to actualize something. Put differently, there must be something in concrete term
you hope to achieve for doing a thing. This is what is referred to as objective. It is the point of a journey,
which specifies where you want to be or what you want to achieve at the end of a process. Bringing this
to education parlance, it is the achievement which a specific educational instruction is expected to
accomplish. The following terms are sine-qua – non for this important concept, let us briefly study them:

Values: Important and lasting beliefs or ideals shared by members of a culture about what is good or
bad, desirable and undesirable.

Aspiration: A hope or ambition of achieving something.

Goals: An observable and measurable end result having one or more objectives to be achieved within a
more or less fixed time frame.

The word objective itself, It is technically defined as the foundation upon which you want to your
lessons and assessment that can meet your overall course or lesson goals.

Levels of Educational Objectives

Educational objectives can be specified at various levels. The following three are very curia; namely,
national, institutional and instructional levels. Let us consider them briefly.

National: The level merely deals with the policy statements of what education should achieve or
accomplish for a nation. In broad outlines, they reflect national interests, values, aspirations and goals.
The objectives are general and somewhat vague. For example, the National Policy on Education (2004)
although there is the New Education Policy (NEP, 2020) which advocated for universalization of
education of education from pre-school to secondary school level (investigate it). The (2004) National
Policy on Education advocated for 6-3-3- 4 education system for Nigerians’ children. The national aims
and objectives are stated there. Get a copy of this for perusal. The national goals conclude:

1) To motivate national consciousness and national unity.

2) To inculcate the right type of values and attitudes for the survival of the individual and the Nigerians’
society.

3) To train the mind in understanding of the world around.

4) To acquire the appropriate skills, abilities and competencies both mental and physical as equipment
for the individual to live and contribute to the development of the society.

Aside from these, the National Policy on Education also states the objectives for early childhood
education, primary education, secondary education, adult, technical, teacher, special education,
university and other forms of education. The goals of education can also be specified in the nation’s
development goals. For example, the goals in Nigeria include:

1) A strong and self- reliant nation

2) A great and dynamic economy.

3) A just and egalitarian society.

4) A land of bright and full opportunity for all citizens.

5) A free and democratic society.

You can refer to the following as either goals or aims.

Institutional level

This can be referred as intermediate objectives level. The aims are logically derived and related to those
at the national levels. The institution of learning is expected to link its objectives to the national goals or
aims of the national. Can you recall the objectives of Tai Solarin University of Education? Study them.
(Assignment).Look for educational objectives of University of Ibadan and Obafemi Awolowo University,
Ile Ife. They are narrowed to achieve local needs like the type of certificate to be awarded by the
institution. The institutional objectives are usually specified by an act or edict of the house of assembly.

Instructional level

Now that you know that objectives specified at both the national and institutional levels are all broad
goals and aims. All these can be realized in bit and pieces at the instructional level. Educational
objectives are stated in form they are to operate in the classroom. This accounts for why they are
referred to as instructional objectives. They state what teaching is expected to achieve, what the
learners are expected to learn from the instruction, how the learner is expected to behave after being
exposed to the instruction and what he has to do in order to demonstrate that he has learnt what is
expected from the instruction.

For these reasons, the instructional objectives are stated in behavioral terms with the use of action
verbs to specify the behaviour expected of the learner at the end of the instruction.

Let us now deal with Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Benjamin Bloom, a psychologist per
excellence provided a practical framework within which educational objectives could be organized and
measured. In this taxonomy, Bloom and others psychologists divided educational objectives into three
main domains- cognitive, effective and psychomotor domain. Let us look at them.
Cognitive Domain: The objectives that deal with intellectual abilities and skills are referred to as
cognitive domain. This deals with the mental ability of the brains. This domain is categorized into six
hierarchical levels of operation based on the degree of complexity. They include knowledge,
comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

Knowledge: Knowledge or memory is the lowest and the foundation for the development of higher
order skills. It involves recognition or recall of previous learned information. There is no demand for
understanding or internalization of information. For the purpose of measurement, knowledge or
memory involves bringing to mind the appropriate materials. It deals with the psychological process of
remembering. Action verbs which can be appropriate for cue or clues include the following: define,
name, list, tell, recall, identity, remember, who, which, where, when, what, recognize, how much, how
many etc.

The next is comprehension level: You remember that we established that memory, that is, knowledge
deals with accumulation of a repertoire of facts, specifics, ways and manners of dealing with specifics,
abstraction and universal etc. We can summaries or conclude that memory involves verbalization or role
learning. Comprehension however deals with internalization of knowledge. It means making memory
out of what is stored out of brain’s file. On this basis, what is stored in the brain can be understood,
translated, interpreted or extrapolated. It is only when you know something that you can understand it.
You can re- order or re-arrange what you know.

Three level of comprehension include the following:

Translation: This is the ability to understand literal messages across communication forms, changing
what is known from one form of communication to another. Say from words to numbers, graphs, maps,
charts, cartoons, pictures, formulas, symbols, models, equations etc.

Interpretation: This goes beyond literal translation to identification of inter- relationships among parts
and components of communication and interpreting and relating it to the main components.

Extrapolation: This involves the ability to draw implications and ability to identify and continue a trend,
isolate or detect consequences, suggest possible meaning and estimate possible effect.

Application level: In our last discussion, we discovered that it is practically impossible to understand
what one does not know. Similarly, you cannot apply what you do not understand. Using abstractions in
a concrete situation is known as application. The abstractions could be in form of general ideas, rules,
procedures or generalized methods, technical terms, principles, ideas or theories which must be
remembered, understood and applied. A practical example is in the social and applied sciences where
different types of theories are applied to solve problems. We need to understand what is meant before
correct application. Application skill is developed when the learner uses what he knows to solve a new
problem in a new situation. Application involves the ability of the learner to grasp exactly what the
problem is all about and the understanding of the general principles that are relevant, useful or
pertinent to its solution. Action verbs useful for question setting at application level include: apply,
build, explain, calculate, classify, solve, state, specify, transfer, demonstrate, determine, design, employ,
predict, present, restructure, relate, employ, organize etc. You will notice that these action verbs are
related to questions in science – related disciplines where students are expected to use the principles
they learned in class to solve abstract problems.
Analysis level: This deals with the breaking down of communication into its constituent elements so as
to establish the relationship or make relations between ideas so as to make it more explicit or clear. It
means breaking material learnt into parts, ideas and devices for easy understanding and assimilation. It
goes beyond application and involves the use of action verbs such as analyses, detect, determine,
establish, compare, why, discriminate, distinguish, check consistency, categories, establish etc. The
component parts of analysis are three, namely:

Analysis of element which is the ability to identify the underlying elements such as assumptions,
hypothesis, conclusions, views, arguments and statements etc. and to determine the nature and
functions of such elements.

Analysis of relationships: This involves trying to determine how the elements identified are related to
each other; it involves knowing how evidence relates to the conclusions.

Synthesis Level

In our last discussion, we established that analysis deals with breakdown of elements, synthesis on the
other hand involves building up or putting together elements, parts, pieces and components in order to
form a unique whole or to constitute a new firm, plan, pattern or structure.

Synthesis is concerned with putting parts of knowledge together to form a new knowledge. It involves
categorizing of items, composing of poem and songs, writing etc. It calls for divergent thinking and as
such, requires imaginative original and creative thinking. It requires fluency of novel ideas and flexible
mind. It gives students great liberty to look for solutions via varying approaches to problem solving.

Suitable and relevant action verbs include plan, develop, devise, write, tell make, assemble, classify,
express illustrate, produce, propose, specify suggest, document, format, derive, design, create, combine,
construct etc.

Synthesis can be sub- divided into:

Production of unique communication, which is concerned with the ability to put together in a unique
organizational form a piece of written or oral communication to convey a novel idea, feeling or
experience to other.

Production of a plan or proposed set of operations: This is concerned with the ability to develop a plan
or to propose procedures for solving problems or dealing with others.

Derivation of a set of abstract relations: This is based on the result of the analysis of experimental data,
observation or other specific. It is the ability to form concept generalizations, deduce propositions,
predictions or relationships based on classification of experiences or observations.

Evaluation Level: This is the highest in the hierarchy of cognitive domain. It involves making a
quantitative or qualitative judgment about a piece of communication, a procedure a method, a
proposal, a plan etc. Due to a number of alternatives within us, the choices from these alternatives
depend on the judgment such as good or bad that we make. They may or may not base on rational
judgment. In education, evaluation as a cognitive objective involves learner’s ability to organize his
thoughts and knowledge to reach a rational or logical decision which is defendable. It is the most
complex of human cognitive behaviour. It involves elements of other five categories- knowledge,
comprehension, application, analysis and synthesis.

Affective Domain

The other aspect of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objective after the cognitive domain is the
Affective domain. This focuses on aspect of the learner’s feelings and emotions. It stresses the fact that
learner’s emotion and feelings have a lot doing in the process of learning. Unlike the era when the
curriculums only emphasize the cognitive domain level of learning, today’s curriculum emphasizes the
role of learner’s emotion and the way she feels in the process of learning. Tanner and Tanner (1975)
stressed that the primary goals of learning are affective and that learning should not be imposed on
learner. The scholars are of the view that learner should not learn what is selected for them by others.
First, let us deal with the characteristic features of affective domain. It is concerned with interest,
attitude, appreciation, emotional biases and values. The function of the of the affective domain in the
instructional situations has to do with the passions, the disposition, the moral as well aesthetic
sensibilities, the capacity for feeling, concern, attachment or detachment, sympathy, empathy and
appreciation. The feeling and the passion you place on a particular course will determine the success
attained. A learner will either like or dislike what he has learnt. This is often demonstrated in attitudes
such as like or dislike the educational objectives here vary from simple attention to complex and
internally consistent qualities of character and conscience.

Learning outcomes in the affective domain include:

o The learner will be able to appreciate the use of drawing instruments in the construction of
objects in technical drawing.
o The learner will be able to show awareness of the rules and regulations in a technical workshop
to prevent accidents.
o The learner should be able to show his likeness for neatness and accuracy in the use of
measurement instruments.

Affective domain has five hierarchical levels. They are:

Receiving: This is the lowest learning outcomes in the affective domain. It simply means attending. This
is the learner’s willingness to attend to particular stimulus or his being sensitive to the existence of a
given problem, event, condition or situation. It has three sub- levels known as:

 Awareness which is the conscious recognition of the existence of problems, conditions,

situations, events, phenomena etc.
 Willingness: This is the next stage which is the ability to acknowledge the object, event,
problem instead of ignoring or avoiding it.
 Controlled or selected attention
This involves the learner’s ability to select or pay attention to situation, problem, event or phenomena.
For example, when you teach in classes the learner is aware of your teaching and he will purposely shut
of messages or speeches capable of preventing listening and understanding.

Responding: This is another level of affective domain. In this case, the learner responds to event by
participating. He does not only attend, he also reacts. If for instance you inform your students about an
impending test, first, they will be aware of the test and be willing to write the test, they will now select
to do it and react by doing it. Responding also has three levels:

 Acquiescence in responding: This involves simple obedience or compliance.

 Willingness to respond; voluntary responses to a given situation.
 Satisfaction in response

If the child is satisfied with the response he enjoys, he will react to the situation positively. If in school
situation you give an assignment to your students, they comply by doing the assignments. They will be
satisfied with what they have been able to do.

They are satisfied with what they are able to produce.

 Valuing: This has to do with the worth a learner attaches to particular object, behaviour or
situation. There are three sub-levels here as well:
 Acceptance of a value: This is a situation where the learner believes tentatively in a proportion,
doctrine, condition or situation.
 Preference for a value:

In this case, the learner believes in the desirability or necessity of the condition, doctrine, proposition
etc. and ignores or rejects other alternatives and deliberately looks for other people’s views where the
issues are controversial so as to form his own opinion.

Commitments to a value: This is a stage where the learner is convinced and fully committed to the
doctrine, principles or cause. In consequence, the learner internalised a set of specific values, which
consistently manifest themselves in his eventual behaviour, attitudes or values.

Organization: This is the level where the learner brings together different values as an organized system.
He determines the interrelationships and establishes the order if priorities by comparing, relating and
synthesizing the values. He then builds a consistent values system by resolving any possible conflicts
between them.

There are two sub- levels of Organization:

 Conceptualization of values: This involves the understanding of the relationship of abstract

elements of a value to those already held or to new ones which are gaining acceptance. For
example, you may want to evaluate the works of arts which you appreciate to find out the basic
assumptions about codes or ethics.
  Organization of value system: This involves the development of a complex value system which
includes those values that cannot be compared for the purpose of making choices in order to
promote public welfare, instead of sheer aggrandizement of special personal interest. For
example, you may be in a situation where you compare alternative social polices and practices
against the standard of public welfare. It is this level that leads individuals to develop vocational
plan which can satisfy their needs for economic security and social welfare. It leads the
individual to develop philosophy of life, which helps him to avoid dependence on others so that
one does not become a public nuisance. It is a very important level.
 Characterization by a Value or a Value Complex: At this stage the value system is so internalized
by the people or the individual that they act consistently in accordance with that values, beliefs
or ideals which then become the way they view the world around them. Thus a life- style which
reflects this beliefs and philosophy are developed. The behaviour of such individuals are said to
be controlled by the value system. There are two levels here:
 Generalized Set: This is a situation whereby the orientation of the individual enables him to
revise his judgement and change his behaviour as a result of available new and valid evidence.
 Characterization: In this case, the internalization of a value system is such that the individual is
consistently acting in harmony with it...The value system regulates individual personal and civil
life according to a code of behaviour based on ethical principles. The instructional objective here
should be concerned with the learner’s general pattern of personal, social or emotional
judgment.
 Psychomotor Domain: The last domain in Bloom Taxonomy of Educational Objective is the
psychomotor domain. Before an independent study of this domain, let us learn some
operational terms associated with this domain.
 Interdependence: the quality of being mutually reliant on each other.
 Psychomotor; this is a test that assesses the subject’s ability to perceive instructions and
perform motor.
 Variety of Test: This is an ability that needs to be completed within a defined period of time or
by a deadline to work towards work- related goals.
 Educators: This is a person or thing that educates, especially a teacher, principal or other person
involved in planning or directing education.
 Complex nature: something that is so difficult to understand or deal with.
 Psychomotor Behaviors: These are performed actions that are neuromuscular in nature and
demand certain level of physical dexterity.

Now let us go to the main content of our study.

In our last discussion we established that the cognitive domain deals with mental ability while the
affective domain deals with feelings, emotions, values etc. The psychomotor domain however deals with
motor skills or abilities. The simple interpretation here is that the instructional objective here should be
focused on performance skills. This is because the psychomotor domain more or less deals with
muscular activities, hence, performance skills should be made more prominent during the classroom
interaction. It deals with activities emphasizing the use of the whole body. For example, running,
dancing, performing, swimming, eating, playing, etc. One can then conclude that this level deals with
material skills.
 It is good for educators to engage the learners in various skills 9f more complex nature in addition to
the inherent ones. For instance, more complex skills can be developed through learning in such areas as
driving, drawing, sports etc. Just like the cognitive and affective?, psychomotor domain has sub- levels
such as, reflex movements, basic fundamental movement, perceptual abilities, physical abilities, skilled
movements and non- discursive communication. Let us discuss them briefly.

Reflex Movements: This has to do with

Reflex movements: At the lowest level of psychomotor domain is the reflex movement which a normal
human being should be able to make. The movements are natural unless there is a problem. Unless in
an abnormal situation, educators are not concerned with them, For example, battling one’s eye lids,
trying to dodge a blow or something thrown at you.

Basic Fundamental Movements: Like the reflex movements, these are basic natural movements. It has
three sublayers:

Locomotors Movements which involve movement of the body from one place to the other. For example,
crawling, walking, leaping, jumping etc.

Non-locomotors movements: Body movement that does not involve moving from one place to the
other.

For example, wriggling of the trunk, head and any other part of the body,

Turning and twisting of the body etc.

Manipulative movements: This is the use of hands or limbs to do something, or to control things.

Perceptual Abilities: This has to do with the senses and their developments. An educator has nothing to
do here except to direct the use of this sense in association with certain conditions. It deals with the
ability of the individual to perceive and distinguish things using senses. At this level, the individual
recognizes and compares things by physically tasting, smelling, seeing, hearing and touching. With the
use of taste, smell, sound, appearance and feeling you can associate and understand certain objects and
situations, which will help you to determine condition and the course of action.

Physical Abilities: This ability falls in the area of health and physical education. This is understood better
in the areas of sporting activities. You need physical abilities and the abilities can be developed to
varying degrees of perfection through training.

Skilled Movements: This is a higher ability than the physical abilities. Once you have acquired physical
abilities, now you need to apply them in making or creating things. You can combine skill in
manipulative, endurance and flexibility in writing and drawing. You can combine the neuromuscular
movements together to help you in drawing. An individual can combine skills in strength endurance,
flexibility and manipulative movements in activities like combat sports like boxing, wrestling, karate,
taekwondo, judoka and weightlifting etc.

There are three levels of skilled movements. These are simple adaptive skills, compound adaptive skills
and complex adaptive skills (study them).
Non – Discursive Communication: This is the highest level which requires a combination of all the lower
level to reach a high degree of expertise. For instance, one can use the keyboard to play different kinds
of lyrics but it also requires a great deal of training to combine certain movement of fingers to bring out
the vibe. Similarly, it will also require a certain level of perceptive abilities to interpreted or decode the
messages inherent in the music. Every normal being can move any part of his body but some levels of
trainings are required to combine varieties of movements like swimming, cycling, typing etc.

Summary:

We have dealt with the Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objective looking at the cognitive that deals
with the mental ability. We stressed six important levels of cognitive domain starting from knowledge,
comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. We also studied the sub- levels of each
of the layer considered. Thereafter, we dealt with the affective domain dealing with emotion, feelings
attitude etc. Specifically, we look at the levels of affective domain dealing with receiving responding
valuing organization and characterization. We also look at the sub- levels of each of the layers just
highlighted. Lastly, we looked at the psychomotor domain dealing with the ability to exercise motor or
movement skills of any kinds.