CHAPTER TWENTY
CLASSROOM TEST
20.1 Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
i. define classroom test
ii. list the different types of tests
iii. state the purpose of classroom test
iv. list some pitfalls in classroom test
v. list some pitfalls in teachers – made test
vi. Enumerate the characteristic of good test
20.2 Introduction
The term "classroom test" also refers to tests created by teachers. A test is crucial to classroom teaching and learning because it indicates how well pupils have learned. The exam in the classroom might be a performance or accomplishment test, as well as any other kind of test, such a practical examination, created by the subject teacher for particular purposes depending on what was taught over the course of a certain amount of time.
This chapter will discuss the sorts of tests, the characteristics of good tests, their aims, and other facets of classroom assessments.
20.3 Classroom Test
The term "teacher-made exam" is commonly used to describe the exam given in class. It's a device or instrument for measuring and assessing. It is a key educational tool used to assess students' learning outcomes. In this view, a test is just a set of questions that students are required to respond to, and their answers serve as a measure of their performance. It is not a certainty that exams given in class would include well-written questions. For an unskilled educator, coming up with good questions or materials is not always simple. There are a few guidelines that must be followed while creating successful questions or items in order to guarantee that the results provided for the tests will be consistent and useful. Examining the function of classroom examinations.
20.4 Objective of Classroom Examination
Testing in the classroom serves the apparent purpose of assessing what pupils have learnt following the conclusion of a course or unit. Some of the justifications for testing are as follows:
i. Tests are undertaken to find out if the objectives given for a particular course, lesson or subject is reached or not.
ii. Students are assessed in the classroom to gauge their individual development over a given time period. This allowed the instructor to determine whether or not the pupils were advancing in the course, topic, or lesson. If progress is not achieved or is sluggish, the instructor intensifies instruction to accomplish it.
iii. Tests are used to assess whether or not pupils have learned in class. Exams indicate whether or not students have mastered a certain course or topic. Thus, the instructor can re-teach for enhanced learning.
iv. Students are placed into a certain class, school, level, or work position depending on the results of a placement exam.
Tests highlight the difficulties or areas of difficulty for students. Thus, the instructor employed exams to diagnose or identify the pupils' difficulties or areas of difficulty.
The purpose of tests is to anticipate results. The instructor uses tests to forecast whether a student will be able to complete a specific activity or perform well in a specific school, college, or university.
20.5 Examination Pitfalls in the Classroom
The following are observations made concerning classroom tests (tests created by teachers) that you should avoid while creating test questions for your class:
i. Exams, in the opinion of the majority of educators, do not align with the different levels of learning outcomes. The teachers describe their learning goals, which span from simple memory through evaluation. The teachers' materials, however, are limited to one level.
ii. Many of the examination exercises do not measure what they are intended to assess. In other words, the majority of classroom assessments are invalid.
iii. Some teacher-made exams do not thoroughly cover the material given. A quality of a good exam is that it should cover all of the material presented.
Most lecturers lack clarifications in the phrasing of their prepared examinations. Occasionally, the exam items are vague, imprecise, unclear, and poorly phrased.
The majority of classroom assessments fail the analytical exam. They lack sufficient discrimination and are not constructed according to difficulty levels.
20.6 Types of Classroom Examination
There are several sorts of examination forms used in classrooms. This can be a discrete, integrative, norm-referenced, criterion-referenced, essay, or objective examination. All of these are tested often in class. Discrete point exams are supposed to evaluate a single item or ability at a time, whereas integrative tests incorporate several things, structures, and skills.
A norm-referenced exam is a standardized test meant to rate pupils from high to poor on the basis of test performance. Such tests include JAMB, GCE, SSCE, and teacher-made exams, among others. In contrast, a criterion-reference exam is a test that measures student success in relation to defined objectives.
However, this course will focus on the essay and objectives tests. These are the typical tests that you may simply create for your own purposes in class.
20.6.1 Essay Test
The colonial education system brought this form of examination, which is a free-response exam, to this country. In this circumstance, the Testee or the pupils are responsible for formulating answers to questions posed. In addition, they are permitted to express or articulate the responses in their own words. There are two types of essay tests: extended response and restricted response (short – essay)
Extended response or Free responses
20.6.2 Extended Responses or Free Response Essay Test
In this essay examination, the information required from Testees or students is not constrained in any manner. Students are granted total autonomy in planning and organizing their responses. A student communicates their thoughts by freely, accurately, and clearly expressing themselves in their own words. Now let us offer some instances.
i. Provide an explanation of measuring in mathematics education
ii. Describe mathematics education evaluation
20.6.3 Response Type Restricted
In this sort of question, the Test-Taker or student's answer options are restricted to those presented. The supplied responses are quite limited. Sometimes referred to as the short essay test.
Example 1: Provide two benefits of essay testing.
Example 2: List four level of measuring scales
20.6.4 Advantages of the Essay Test
The essay test is a time-honored, traditional kind of written examination that provides a number of advantages in mathematics measurement and assessment education. Some of these benefits include:
i. It is simpler to create than an objective exam.
ii. It offers pupils the chance to practice and improve their writing abilities expressiveness.
iii. It decreases the likelihood of copying or other forms of examination fraud.
iv. It permits the examiner to seek the student's viewpoint without prejudging it, as is the case with the selected-response item.
It is a potent tool of self-expression and thought organizing.
20.6.5 Disadvantage of the Essay Test
1. Essay test grading requires more time than objective test grading.
2. Scoring is subjective since it is not dependable, as different examiners might assign different scores to the same response.
3. Because teachers often provide a restricted number of questions for essay tests, course material is typically not addressed in full.
4. It is often difficult and time-consuming to grade essay questions, particularly in big class situations.
5. Individual pupils with a strong command of language had an advantage over those with a weak command of language, who were at a disadvantage.
20.7 Test of Objectives
The objective test is also a teacher-created test in which the items and questions are carefully crafted to restrict the types of responses students can submit in order to pass the examination. For a student to receive the proper response, he or she must exhibit the appropriate knowledge, comprehension, and abilities.
There are two types of objective test items: those that ask the test taker or student to offer the response, often known as supply test items, and those that are either short answer or full type tests. The terms arrangement, true/false, matching, and multiple-choice refer to those that ask the Testee or student to choose from a list of possibilities. The specifics of the categories for objective tests were shown in the image below.
20.7.1 Supply Test Items
This kind of test item requires the test taker to provide very succinct responses to the questions. These solutions might consist of a word, phrase, number, symbol, etc. This test's creator must be very careful with language and ensure that each question has just one possible response. Provide test items in the form of.
a. Test questions with a brief answer (A): These questions requested the test taker to give a succinct response. It is a straightforward inquiry that may be used to assess elementary school students' simple learning outcomes in lower and upper basic classes.
Examples of short answer items are:
1. What is the formula for area of a square
2. The sum of angles of a parallelogram is
b. The testee is required to furnish or fill one or more missing words in a phrase. The completion questions can need a single response for a blank or a sequence of replies for many blanks. It may be used to assess factual information, particularly in elementary schools where students are only learning how to communicate with others.
1. The line drawn from centre of a circle to the circumference is called
2. Square has ……..side and ……………angles
3. …………………is a special chord passing through the of circle
20.7.2 Selection Test Items
This is the type where possible options are provided for the Testee to choose the correct option. Let us discuss sub-division of selection test items one after the other.
a. The Testee is asked to indicate whether a statement is true or false, yes or no, agree or disagree, etc. in this form of true-false question. examples: Choose true or false for the following statement.
i. A square has four sides equal
ii. 450 is not half of right angle
iii. A right-angled triangle is one with equal sides and angles.
b. Multiple – choice: in this type, the item consists of a problem and suggested solutions from which the Testee selects a response. The problem may be direct question or incomplete statement called stem, while the listed responses are known as alternatives. The correct alternative is called answer. While the other alternative are referred to as distracters because they are deliberately constructed wrong answers.
Example of multiple choice items are:
1. The following is not a graphical method of representing data
a. Pictorial b. Bar chart c. Mean d. Histogram
2. A type of average that shows the most popular items is
a. Mean b. Bar chart c. Variance d. Mode
3. Ability to communicate data concisely and intelligently depends on the knowledge of:
a. Measurement b. Formular c. Rules d. Statistics
20.7.3 Matching Items
During the matching test, there are two concurrent columns of questions. Words, numbers, symbols, and phrases are shown in one column, and they must be matched with a word, phrase, or other potential response from the list in the other column. Premises refers to the items in the column that look for a match, whereas answers refer to the things in the column that are used to make the decision.
Matching items are useful in measuring the testee’s ability to associate, relate or interpret elements or events learnt in the classroom. And it is good for all classes in the primary schools
Example: in each blank space in column A write the correct option in column B
Column A column B
1. The child is sleeping at morning
2. The cock is crowing early in the evening
3. The two men are playing AYO” game in the N16:25K
4. N5 + N5 + N6 + N25k N37:25K
5. 25K + N25 + N5 + 7 night
20.7.4 Advantages of Objective test
The common usefulness of objective test items is as follows:
1. The test components are scored objectively in comparison to the essay test that is being taken.
2. It is effective for gauging factual knowledge.
3. It demonstrated that there was opportunity for pre-test through item analysis that was standardized and reused several times if handled appropriately.
4. Objective exam scoring is simple and takes minimal time.
5. Compared to an essay test, the objective test gives the teacher the chance to cover more material.
6. The test items are a more accurate and dependable indicator of the performance of the test taker.
7. The objective-type exam questions discourage memorization and promote critical thinking.
20.7.5 Disadvantages of Objective test
The weakness of the objective test items results largely from the fact that the responses are provided for the Testee. Specifically, the disadvantages associated with objective test items are discussed below.
1. In the objective type, the test items don’t put stress on the ability of organization of subject matter learnt by Testee
2. The construction of a good objective test is time consuming and difficult
3. Objective tests fail to check cramming
4. This type of test the items are not used for the purpose of diagnosing the learning difficulties of the students
5. In objective test, students don’t get scope for making comparisons
6. The objective test type doesn’t give Testee opportunity to express opinion, neither given the chance for creative thinking.
20.7.6 Characteristics of Good Test
For a mathematics teacher to have good test, it must not be done careless or haphazard. A qualities mathematics teacher must observe some qualities, whether the test is diagnostics or achievement test. A good test has the following characteristics features:
1. Practicality: A successful exam should be simple, engaging, and convenient for both the teacher and the student. Therefore, there is no trouble.
2. Objectivity: A good exam must accurately reflect the goals of teaching and learning. The exam should be aware of the learning and testing objectives. For instance, testing should focus on that if the learning purpose is to master a skill and apply it.
3. Comprehensiveness: A good test should be thorough, covering all of the subjects that are being examined.
4. Validity: A reliable test must be reliable. If the measurements made are those that should be made.
5. Reliability: A trustworthy test must be one. This entails regularly measuring what it claims to measure. On a dependable test, the tester is sure that a subject will receive roughly the same result whether taking it on several times or by a different examiner.
6. Carefully and methodically chosen: For a decent exam, the materials must be carefully and methodically chosen so that they are of varying degrees of difficulty (not too easy or too difficult)
7. Discrete point and integrative: For a more thorough depiction of teaching-learning points, a good test should integrate discrete and integrative test processes. Both the discrete and integrative components of the topic matter should be included in the exam. A good test should incorporate all different learner’s needs, range of teaching-learning situations, objective and subjective items.
20.8 Summary
In this chapter, you have studied
§ The teacher made tests and its types, used in the classroom.
§ The purpose of test, the advantage and disadvantage of essay and objectives test
§ Also, the characteristics of good test
Student Activity
1. State three advantage of objective test
2. State three advantage of essay test in school
3. Differentials between norm referenced and criterion reference test
4. State the two basic essay types of tests
5. Explain restricted and non-restricted essay types of tests
6. Explain the following word
a. Premises in matching words
b. Discrete point test
c. Integrative test
d. Testee
e. Responses in matching items.
Reference
Marfa O.I & Aliyu, 2, (2013) Measurement and evaluation in education Printed by Stevano and Printing press.
National Teachers’ Institute Kaduna PGDE by DLS. Measurement and Education in
National Teachers’ Institute Kaduna and National Open University of Nigeria Bachelor’s Degree Programmer Manual Measurement and Education.