FACTORS IN CONSTRUCTING EVALUATIVE INSTRUMENTS

WHAT ARE ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTS?

When educators want to know a student's current level of understanding in some
domain of knowledge, they typically administer some kind of achievement test.
Similarly, when educators want to understand a student's current level on some
developmental continuum, they administer a psychological test. Both these types of tests will
be referred to as assessment tools or instruments. They are used to quantify a student's level of
knowledge or development.
• Quality of education has become very important in today’s competitive environment.
There is definitely a need to adapt to change in the educational process in order to improve.
Educational measurement requires the establishment of a strong feedback loop with evaluation
being a continuous process and not just left until the program of study.
MEASUREMENT
The process of measurement is an essential part of the learning system. Measurement is always
done of a quality, attribute or variable of a thing or a person. Psychologists and educationists
are mainly concerned with variables and attributes. (IQ, EQ)
• Thorndike stated that ‘anything that exists at all, exists in some quantity; and anything
that exists in some quantity is capable of being measured’. Measurement of any kind is a
matter of determining how much or how little, how great or how small, how much more done
or how much less than.
• The encyclopedia of educational research explains measurement in more refined terms;
to measure means ‘ to observe or to determine
TYPES OF MEASUREMENT
MEASUREMENT HAS TWO TYPES:
• PHYSICAL MEASUREMENT
• MENTAL MEASUREMENT
1. Physical measurement is the measurement of the object which has absolute existence.
For example, we measure the height of individuals, the weight of rice etc. Hence, we directly
measure the height or weight of an individual and all the measuring tools of physical
measurement start from zero. Physical measurement is always accurate and quantitative, and
there are some set of tools for physical measurement all over the world.
2. Mental measurement is also known as ‘educational measurement or psychological
measurement’. It is always relative and there is no absolute zero in case of mental
measurement. For example, for measuring the intelligence of a person we have to take the help
of intelligence tests which are subjective in nature. Through his response, we can know the
level of intelligence of the person concerned. Mental measurement is both qualitative and
quantitative in nature, the same set of tools may not be applied to different types of persons.
In the teaching-learning situation, teachers should be competent enough to measure the
students’ achievement, intelligence, attitude, aptitude etc. To develop competency among
teachers in educational measurement, Ebel suggested the following measures:
Ebel suggested the following measures:
1. Know how to administer a test properly, efficiently and fairly.
2. Know how to interpret test scores correctly and fully
3. Know how to select standardized test that will be effective in a particular situation
4. Know how to plan a test and write test questions, to be included in it.
5. Know the educational uses as well as the limitations of educational tests.
6. Know the criteria by which the quality of a test should be judged and how to secure
evidence relating to these criteria
CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD MEASUREMENT TOOLS
To ensure the psychological traits with validity and reliability, the measuring
instruments or test should be far away the aspects like personal errors, variables errors,
constant errors, and interpretative errors. The important characteristics of a good measuring
tool are as follows:
1. SHOULD BE VALID: Validity of a test refer to its truthfulness. It refers to extent to which
a test measures what it actually wishes to measure.
2. SHOULD BE RELIABLE: Reliability means the consistency of a measuring instruments
(how accurately it measures). It refers to faithfulness of the test. For example, a test is
administered on Social Studies to the students of grade 8 in the test Ram scores 50. After a few
days, the same test is administered and Ram scores 50. Here, the test is reliable because there
is consistency in the results.
3. SHOULD BE OBJECTIVE: Objectivity of the test refers to “Item objectivity” aspects.
By “item objectivity” we mean that the items of the test must need a definite single answer.
Ambiguous questions, lack of proper direction, questions with double negative, essay type
questions must be avoided because they lack objectivity. When we say “item objectivity, we
mean that whomsoever scored, the test would fetch the same score. (SCORING A TEST BY
MEANS OF A KEY OR FORMULA, SO THAT DIFFERENT SCORERS WILL ARRIVE AT THE SAME
SCORE FOR THE SAME SET OF RESPONSES.)
4. SHOULD BE COMPREHENSIVE AND PRECISE: The test must be comprehensive and
precise. It means that the items must be free from ambiguity. The directions of the test must be
clear and understandable.
5. SHOULD BE EASY IN ADMINISTERING: If the directions for administration are
complicated, or if they involve more time and labor, the takers may be lag behind.
6. SHOULD BE EASY IN SCORING: The scoring procedure of the test should be clear and
simple. The scoring directions and adequate scoring key should be provided to the scorer so
that the test is easily scored.
7. SHOULD HAVE GOOD AND ATTRACTIVE GET UP/APPEARANCE: The quality of papers
used, typography and printing, letter size, spacing, pictures and diagrams presented, its binding,
space for students’ response etc., need to be of very good quality and attractive.
(Sa multiple choice.. Pag nasa 1st page yung tanong, make it sure na andun parin yung choices,
wag natin ilalagay sa 2nd page yung choices. O kaya, pag nasa 1st page yung questions together
with the option A and option B, tapos nasa 2nd page and option C at option D. (wrong ito). So
ang gagawin sa questions and options ay ilagay na natin sa 2nd page para hindi putol. Ganun
din sa matching type, pag hindi kasya ay imove na sa second page, kase magiging time
consuming ito sa bata at the same time ay mawawala sila sa momentum ng pagsasagot kase
buklat sila nang buklat.