Chapter 5Development of Varied

Assessment Tools: Knowledge and

Reasoning

Presented by: Angelica Grace Galwardo& Christian Espelimbergo

Constructing a True-False Test

• Binomial-choice tests are tests that have only two options such as true or false, right or wrong, good or better as son on.

• A student who knows nothing of the content of the examination would have 50% chance of getting the correct answer by sheer guess work.

• A modified true-false test can offset the effect of guessing by requiring students to explain their answer and to disregard a correct answer if the explanation is incorrect.

Rules in constructing True-

false items

Example. The Philippines gained it’s independence in 1898 and therefore celebrated it’s centennial year in 2000._____

Do not give a hint in the body of the question.

Obviously, the anwers is FALSE because 100 years from 1898 is not 2000 but 1998.

Avoid using the words “always”, “never”, “often” and other adverbs

that tend to be either always true or always false.

Christmas always falls on a Sunday because it is Sabbath day._____

Statements that use the word “always” are almost always false. A test-wise student can easily guess his way through a test like these and get high scores even if he does not know anything about the test.

Avoid long sentences as these tend to be “true”. Keep sentences short.

Test need to be valid, reliable and useful, although, it would require a great amount of time and effort to ensure that tests possess these test characteristics.________

Notice that the statement is true. However, we are also not sure which part of the sentence is deemed true by the student. It is just fortunate that in this case, all parts of the sentence are true and hence, the entire sentence is true .

Avoid trick statements with some minor misleading word or

spelling anomaly, misplaced phrases, etc.

True or False. The Principle of our school is Mr. Albert P. Fortalejo.

The Principal’s name may

actually correct but since the

word is misspelled and the

entire sentence takes a

different meaning, the answer

would be false! This is an

example of a tricky but utterly

useless item.

Avoid quoting verbatim from

reference materials or textbooks.

This practice sends wrong signal to

the students that it is necessary to

memorize the textbook word for

word and thus, acquisition of

higher level thinking skills is not

given due importance.

Avoid specific determiners or give-away

qualifiers. Students quickly learn that strongly

worded statements are more likely to be false

than true, for example, statements with

“never” “no” “all” “or” “always”. Moderately

worded statements are more likely to be true

than false. Statements with “many” “often”

“sometimes” “generally” “frequently” or

“some” should be avoided.

With true or false

questions, avoids a grossly

disproportionate number of

either true or false

statements or even

patterns in the occurrence

of true and false

statements.

Multiple Choice Tests• Each item in a multiple choice test

consists of two parts:• Stem and options• In the set of options, there is a “correct” or

“best” option while all the others are considered “distracters”.

• The distracters are chosen in such a way that they are attractive to those who do not know the answer or are guessing but at the same time, have no appeal to those who actually know the answer.

• This feature allows the teacher to test higher order thinking skills even if the options are clearly stated.

Guidelines in Constructing Multiple Choice Items

• Do not use unfamiliar words, terms, and phrases.

• Do not use modifiers that are vague and whose meanings can differ from one person to the next such as: much, often, usually, etc.

• Avoid complex word or awkward word arrangements.

• Do not use negatives or double negatives as such statements tend to be confusing.

Cntd.

• Each item stem should be as short as possible

• Distracters should be equally plausible and attractive.

• All multiple choice options should be grammatically consistent with the stem.

• The length, explicitness, or degree of technicality of alternatives should not be the determinants of the correctness of the answer.

Cntd.

• Avoid stems that reveal the answer to another item

• Avoid alternatives that are synonymous with others or those that, include or overlap others.

• Avoid presenting sequenced items in the same order as in the text.

• Avoid use of assumed qualifiers that many examinees may not be aware of.

Cntd.

• Avoid necessary words or phrases that are irrelevant.

• Avoid use of non relevant sources of difficulty.

• Avoid extreme specificity requirements in responses.

• Include as much of the item as possible in the stem.

Cntd.• Use the “none of the above” option

only when the keyed answer is totally correct.

• Note that use of “all of the above” may allow credit for partial knowledge.

• Having compound responses choices may purposefully increase difficulty of an item.

• The difficulty of a multiple choice item may be controlled by varying the homogeneity or degree of similarity of responses.

Matching Type and Supply Type Items

• The matching type items may be considered as modified multiple choice type items where the choices progressively reduce as one successfully matches the items on the left with items on the right.

Cntd.

This implies some type of selection question in which

the answers are provided, and the task of the student

is recognition. Matching items are generally easy to

write and score when the test content and objectives

are suitable for matching questions. Possible

difficulties in using matching items may arise due to

poor student handwriting or printing, or students'

being able to guess correct answers through the

process of elimination.

In developing matching items, there are two columns of

material (Example 1). Not a link: Current module is Matching

Questions The items in the column on the left (Column A) are

usually called premises and assigned numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.).

Those in the column on the right (Column B) are called

responses and designated by capital letters. Remember short

items go column B due to the standard that is given. In

Example 1. Capital letters are used rather than lower case

letters in case some students have reading problems. Also

there are apt to be fewer problems in scoring the student's

handwritten responses if capital letters are used.

The student reads a premise (Column A)

and finds the correct response from

among those in Column B. The student

then prints the letter of the correct

response in the blank beside the premise

in Column A. An alternative is to have the

student draw a line from the correct

response to the premise, but this is more

time consuming to score.

In Example 1, the student only has to know

five of the six answers to get them all

correct. Since each animal in Column B can

be used only once, the one remaining after

the five known answers have been recorded

is the answer for the sixth premise. One way

to reduce the possibility of guessing correct

answers is to list a larger number of

responses (Column B) than premises (Column

A), as is done in Example 2.

Some writers suggest there be no more than five to

eight premises (Column A) in one set. For each

premise, the student has to read through the entire

list of responses (or those still unused) to find the

matching response. For this reason, the shorter

elements should be in Column B, rather than

Column A to minimize the amount of reading needed

for each item. Although there is little difference in

the length of items in the two columns in Examples

1 and 2, note the improvement in Example 3b when

the items in the two columns in Example 3a are

reversed.

Essays• Phrase the direction in such a way that

students are guided on the key concepts to be included.

• Inform the students on the criteria to be used for grading their essays.

• Put a time limit on the essay test.• Decide on your essay grading system prior

to getting the essays of your students.• Evaluate all of the students’ answer to one

question before proceeding to the next question.

• Evaluate answers to essay questions without knowing the identity of the writer

• Whenever possible have two or more persons guide each answer

End of Presentation

On your 1 whole yellow piece of paper construct the different types of varied assessment tools.

Put instructions before you construct your questions.o True or False at least 6 questionso Multiple Choice 6 questionso Matching type 6 questionso Construct an essay questions

- Also add the correct or answer key to your work