Module 5: Assessment and

Testing in Physics Education

Dr Venance Timothy

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Educational assessment

 Assessment in educational refers to a

systematic process of collecting information for
making decisions.
 Decisions about:
 students’ learning progress,
 learning needs, motivation, feedback,
resources, etc.

 It focuses on “how much” …

 can focus on the individual learner, a course, an
academic program, the institution, or the
educational system.
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Assessing students learning
outcomes

 Why?
 Need to measure specific elements of learning
(learning outcomes).
 Often we use standardized test to measure
students’ learning outcomes.
 Assessment can be done before, during or
after learning experience
 Before (pre/diagnostic) during (formative) and
after (summative) learning experience

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Pre-assessment or diagnostic
assessment

 Its goal is to know student’s strengths

 or their weaknesses,
 their knowledge and skills before
teaching/giving instruction
 Diagnostic assessment can be used to find out
learning difficulties during
 or even after learning experiences, course or
program.

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Formative assessment

 the goal is to monitor student learning

process, provide feedback.
 information obtained can be used to adjust
instruction.
 based on the feedback, teacher can plan what
to focus on
or what methods can best fit students’
learning styles, needs, etc.
 Sometimes referred as assessment for
learning.

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Summative assessment

 is aims at assessing students’ learning

outcomes at the end of the instruction
 the effectiveness of learning, course learning
objectives.
 it measures more:
• the effectiveness of learning;
• Effectiveness of instructional methods;
• Determining whether students are able to
use the learned knowledge, skills and
attitudes.

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Common terms used in assessment:

 Measurement, Testing, Evaluation.

 Measuring – a process of assigning scores basing
on some criteria.
 Testing - a process of collecting information
through a standardized tool e.g. test

 Evaluation – judgment about ‘how well’ (a

learning outcome, program, etc.)
Note:
 You cannot evaluate before you assess.
 Assessment data are very important in making
evaluation.
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Norm-referenced vs. criterion-
referenced assessment

 Norm-referenced assessment:

• compares a student’s performance against an

average norm.
• e.g. another student, or national average, or
subject .
• Also, when compares the average grade of one
school and another.

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Criterion-referenced assessment

 measures student’s performances against a

fixed set of predetermined criteria,
or learning standards.
 what students are able to do at a specific
stage of learning process.
 Criterion-referenced tests are used to
evaluate a specific body of knowledge or skill.

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Planning a Test/Examination

 Activity:
 As educational experts constantly involved in assessing
learners, what key issues would you consider before
developing a test/examination.

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Tests & Exams …

Rules for constructing a quality test/exam:

i) Goal of a test/exam
 purpose of the test can be to: diagnose a
student’s strengths, weaknesses and
difficulties, to measure achievement, and to
identify readiness for a program.

ii) Blooms’ Taxonomy

 influences examiners 'decision on what to
assess.
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Bloom’s taxonomy …

 Cognitive domain:
- students intellectual knowledge (knowing).
 Affective domain:
- students’ attitudes and values ( attitudes and
feelings).
( e.g. Raedness to do tasks, value ideas, etc.)
 Psychomotor domain:
- student’s muscle skills (doing/actions)
(e.g. student performing an experiment in
laboratory, setting up the apparati, taking
readings, drawing graphs, etc.
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iii) Test blue print / Table of Specification
 ensures that objectives are fairly addressed in
test.

 It is a matrix frame that indicates the content

areas, the coverage of course objectives and the
relative weighting of the items in the test.
 It helps to ensure that the test assesses various
levels of Blooms’ taxonomy.

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 TEST BLUE PRINT
Content Relative weight on various levels of Booms’
area Taxonomy

Synthe.sis
Applicatio
Compreh

Analysis
Knowl.

Evalu.

%
e.

Objv.1 3 2 1 n 5 3 1 15

Objv.2 4 0 0 4 3 2 13
Objv.3 8 4 4 0 0 - 17
Objv ‘n’ x x x x x x 55
Rules in test construction

iv) Content of the test

 Ability of each item to enable students to
demonstrate performance of the learning
objectives.
 clarity of the task for each objective.
 consider independence of each test item,
Rules in Test construction

 cultural fairness, free from biases;

 adequacy coverage of each learning
objective by items of the test; and
 straightforwardness of the task.
Rules test constr…

v)Time (duration) for a test

 Indicate time allowance for the overall test.

 With respect to examination; time should
be not too much and not too little.
 It is helpful to indicate/advise time
allowances for different sections of the
test.
Rules test constr…

vi)Layout of the test (face validity)

 Examinations should look like examinations

Test layout constitute the following.

1. The nature, length and clarity of the instructions
such as how many items to attempt, what kind of
response are required.
2. Avoid overloading students with too much
instruction at the first page.
3. Provide instructions for each section.
Rules test constr…

4. Indicate marks to be awarded for each

each question.
5. Minimizes ambiguity of the test items.
6. Coherent - keeping together items with
the same contents on the same format
(e,g. Matching items).
Rules test constr…

vii)Scoring plan

 Indicate the relative weight/significance of

each item in a test.
 Ensure that easier parts of the test attracts
fewer marks than more difficult parts.

Reliability

- consistency of measurement, i.e.

how repeatable test scores are from one
measurement to another.

 Test should give similar results even though:

different testers administer it,
different people score it,
 FEATURES OF A QUALITY TEST

Higher order thinking skills

 Examinations should consist of items that
require students to read and interpret new
knowledge.
 Apply knowledge to new situations, analyse
information, and evaluate data.
 Avoid questions that require students only
to recall concepts.
TYPES OF TEST ITEMS
 Activity:

How many kinds of test items (major

groups) do you know? Discuss in pairs/small
groups.

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TEST ITEMS …

 Test items are categorized into objective and

subjective test items.

 Objective items: True/False items,

matching and multiple choice and some
completion items.

 Subjective format:
- all subjectively scored tests such as
interpretive exercises and essay tests.
 Class activity

 How do we construct each type of test item

(structures)? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each? Discuss in pairs/small
groups

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TEST ITEMS …

Matching Items
 Consists of two parallel columns with each item in
one column being matched with items in the other
column.

 The item match for which a match is sought is called

premises, and items containing selection is called
responses.

Guidelines for constructing effective matching items

1. Use only homogeneous material in a single matching
exercise.
Matching items

2. Include an unequal number of responses and

premises.
3. Instruct if responses may be used once,
more than once or not all.
4. Keep the list of items to be matched brief,
and construct shorter responses.
5. Arrange the list of responses in logical order
such as alphabetical/ ascending order.
6. Place all items for one matching exercise on
the same page.
 Matching Items…

Advantages of Matching Items

 Maximum coverage at knowledge level in a
minimum amount of space

 Valuable in content areas that have a lot of

facts


Disadvantages of Matching items

 Time consuming for students
 Not good for higher levels of learning
 TRUE-FALSE

True-False items:
 Have two possible responses for each item.
They are well suited for testing student
recall or comprehension.

Guidelines for writing true-false items

1. Statements should be relatively short and
simple.
2. Statements should be entirely true, or
entirely false.
3. Maintain equal length for true and false
TRUE-FALSE …
4. Avoid definitive words such as “never”, “none”,
“always”, “only”, and “all” that lead examinee to
choose false or uncertain words such as “might,”
“can,” or “may” that lead people to choose true.

4. Avoid using two ideas in one statement unless

you are evaluating student’s understanding of
cause and effect relationships.

5. Do not write negatively stated items; they are

confusing to interpret.
TRUE-FALSE

Advantages of true-false items:

 Many items can be answered relative in short
time hence a lot of content can be covered.
 Writing and scoring is quick and simple.
 Used to assess popular misconceptions or
cause-effect relationships.

Disadvantages of true-false items

 It is sometimes difficult to write an item which is
purely true or false.
 Ambiguous terms can confuse learners.
TRUE-FALSE ITEMS…….

 Students have a 50-50 chance of guessing

the answer (probability of guessing is ½)

 It is difficult to discriminate students who

know the material and students who guess
(don't know).

 How can we reduce the chance of guessing

in True/False test items?
 Completion/Short answer…….

c) Completion and short answer items

 They are suitable for testing knowledge of
facts (such as dates, vocabulary, definitions,
terms). They are good for applying,
analysing, and evaluating levels.

Guidelines in writing completion/short...

1. Don't leave too many blanks in a statement.
2. Put blanks at the end rather than at the
beginning of an item.
Short answer/completion…

3. Beware of indefinite items (many answers could be

correct).

4. Omit only key words for completion. Don't test for

common words.

5. In numerical problems indicate the type of units in

which the answer is to be expressed if it doesn't give
clues to the answer.

Advantages of short answers

1. Good for "who," “what," where," "when" content
 SHORT ANSWERS…….

2. Easy to construct
3. Minimizes guessing
4. Encourages more intensive study-student
must know the answer instead of
recognizing the answer.

Disadvantages of short answers.

 May overemphasize memorization of facts
 Needs carefulness-questions may have
more than one correct answer
 Multiple Choice…

d) Multiple Choice Items:

 Consists of a problem and a list of suggested
solutions.

 The problem may be stated as direct question or

incomplete statement and is called the stem.

 The list of suggested solutions is called the

alternatives (choices or options).

 The correct alternative is called the answer and

the remaining alternatives are called distracters.
 Multiple Choice…

Guidelines for constructing Multiple Choice

Items.
1. Each item should measure important leaning
outcome.
2. The stem should be meaningful by itself and
should present a definite problem
3. Avoid the use of internal or beginning blanks
in completion.
4. Avoid use of negatively stated stem unless
when significant learning outcomes require it.
 Multiple Choice…

5. Irrelevant difficulty should be avoided.

6. All distracters should be plausible/
homogenous.
7.Maintain relative length of the
options/alternatives
8. Avoid using “All of the above, none of the
above, both a. and c, neither b nor d” as
an option.
9. Randomize the occurrence of correct
responses .
 Multiple Choice…

10.Make sure that each test item is

independent.

11.Make sure there is only one correct

answer (unless instructed to students to
select more than one answer).
 SUBJECTIVE QUESTIONS ….

 An essay question is a test item which

requires a response composed by the
examinee.

Advantages of Essay Questions

 Provide an effective way of assessing complex
learning outcomes.
 Provide authentic experience. Constructed
responses are closer to real life than selected
responses.
 Allows students to demonstrate their
reasoning, ability to organize knowledge,
 SUBJECTIVE QUESTIONS ….

Limitations of essay questions

 Necessitate testing a limited sample of the
subject matter, thereby reducing content
validity.
 Have limitations in reliability.
 Require more time for scoring student
responses.
 Subjective, potentially unreliable scoring.
End of Module 5
 Module Objectives

1. Designing tools and standards for evaluation

of Teacher Trainees, Teaching and Learning.

2. Using feedback from evaluation process for

self improvement and improvement of
learners’ achievement

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  Good night!

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  Thank you and best wishes
>>EU

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