topic 1.why assess

7/25/2019 Topic 1.Why Assess

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WHY ASSESS

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BOOK NAME

Topic 1

WHY ASSESS


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WHY ASSESS

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STRUCTURE

WHY ASSESS

Introduction

1.1 History of Educational Assessment

1.1.1 Other Milestones in educational assessment

1.1.2 The Imperial examination in China

1.1.3 Development of Modern Educational

Assessment Movement1.2 National Assessment in Malaysia

1.3 Tests, Measurements , Evaluation And Assessment

1.4 The Why , What and How of Educational

Assessment

1.5 Why do we Assess?

1.5.1 To improve the teaching 1.5.2 To improve the learning

1.6 Types of Assessment

1.7 Summary

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TOPIC1Why Assess?

WHY ASSESS

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Upon completion of this topic, you shoul !e "!leto#

1.Describe the history of educationa

Assess!ent

".E#$ain the i!$act of I!$eriaE#a!ination in China

%.Iustrate the &arious theories behind

intei'ence by researchers.(.Anayse )hy educationa assess!ent is

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I*TRODUCTIO*

Assessment is a focus on what we do with learners before, during and after

learning!!!!

The word Assessment is confused with test, measurement and evaluation by

many.

We are being continuously assessed right from the time we are born. We are

assessed not only for our physical but mental, psychological and emotional

capabilities.

The aim of educational assessment is to provide information about ability of

students to perform at various platforms like tests, experiments, exercises and

determine the course of action required to make them successful.

We provide you the comprehensive outlook of why assessment is important and

what are the types of assessment with a glimpse of history of educational

assessment as a preface to the topic.

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1.1 HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT

Historians date back the assessment culture to some 4000 years ago. Let us find out the

Whys &Hows? The following figure gives the illustration of steps towards evolution of

educational assessment.

The history of assessment began in 2200 BC with the Mandarins setting up an oral civil-servi

testing program. Until 1800, oral examinations were a part of assessment of education.

Competency assessments were undertaken by the craftsman to showcase his master piece, t

best of his work, so as to be declared as a master of the craft.

In the year 1860, formal written testing came into vogue. The college entrance examination in

1904 is the best example of the written test where pupils were asked to pen down their two

page descriptive essays on one of the four given statements.

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+i'ure 1.1, Chronoo'icae&ents in the -istoryof E&oution


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With the digital era the assessment also got transformed into its computer form.

The ease and the economy computerisation brought in made computer mode of examination

provide realistic ways to evaluate a person.

Gradually the computer adaptive tests came into the picture, the tests were adaptive enough

adjust to the level of difficulty and content of the exams according to the needs of thepersonality taking the test.

1.1.1 OTHER MILESTONES IN EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT

Educational assessment, therefore, is a continuous process. Traditional assessment was

practical and much informal. For the large scale education system the formal education

with standardised procedures has become an imperative. The form of assessment

has changed for good for its purpose of educating mass population from oral to

written and the latest into printed and online type of evaluation.

Various events significant to the evolution of the educational assessment

o Establishment of Australian Council for educational Research-1930

o In the same year, one of the major educational testing services was founded in

US

o In the year 1952, Rasch psychometric model of measurement came into existence

o After two decades in 1971, US Supreme Court ruled that a selection process

should be mandated for assessing a candidate for a job

o 1980s showed the world the advent of Item Response Theory (IRT)

o This was followed by standardising the educational and psychological testing

and publications of the same in 1985

o Portland witnessed the computerised adaptive tests in the next year 1986

o The code for fair testing practices was introduced in education in the year 1988

o Major review on all the tests was released by fourteenth edition of the book

The mental measurements Yearbook by Oscar Buros ,in 2001

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1.1.2 THE IMPERIAL EXAMINATION IN CHINA

As illustrated in the figure 1.2, the earliest of the assessments started with the Chinese

examination.

Let us take a peep into history, as it had a significant effect on many of the western and south

eastern countries as well.

It was China, who had ideated and implemented the concept of educational testing for

appointing of personnel for appropriate bureaucratic services.

Imperial Examination System as it was called tested people for their proficiency in six subjects.

They are, Arithmetic, Writing, Archery, Music, Horsemanship and Knowledge of performing

rituals and conducting a ceremony in both private and public life. Later on the subjects were

changed to Civil law, Agriculture, Revenue and Taxation, Military strategy and Confucian

literature.

The diagram shows how this oral examination for bureaucracy found its roots in the world and

grew its branches through 1300 years.

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Idea ori'inatedin -A*

Dynasty.11/AD/

Introduced InSUI Dynasty

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Continued ti6I*3 78I*3

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Aboished in8I*3 dynasties9

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Table 1.1: Assessment of the Imperial Examination of China

Advantages of Oral Examination Disadvantages of Oral Examination

a)Recommendation from senior

bureaucrats was bid a farewell

and so the selection process for

the imperial bureaucracy was

standardised and transparent.

a)The approach of people changed

from knowledge oriented studies

to exam oriented studies, to get

selected through the exam.

1.1.3DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN EDUCATINAL

ASSSSMENT MOVEMENT

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+i'ure 1.", I!$eriaE#a!ination of China


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In a quest to find a newer, time tested method to test human abilities several

theories and different methods were formulated and conceived by various

researchers and scholars.

We will find out how the modern educational assessment developed over theyears.

Francis Galton (1822-1911)was the first one to introduce and apply statistics for

measuring the differences in human capabilities. Questionnaire and Surveys were

used extensively by him for collection of data on human competencies.

He was of the view that human abilities and personality are inherited from ones

ancestors. He advocated selective breeding to produce gifted people, with

selective parenthood. He was the father of the term Eugenics and also was

instrumental in finding Differential psychology and psychometrics, which

meant the study of differences in human abilities and science of measuring those

respectively.

Alfred Binet, father of IQ testing and Theodore Simon in 1905produced a

Simon scale. The test involved pupils to perform 30 reasoning based tasks to put

them into two buckets, one who were intellectually strong and another who were

not. Each stage of the test signified a developmental level for students of the same

group and aimed at evaluating them within that particular group at that specificstage.

Lewis Terman(1877-1956)revised the Benits test to enable it to be applied to

Californian school children. He introduced the term IQ i.e. Intelligence Quotient

first time to the world and arrived at a score to measure the intellectual ability of

each individual and hence comparable to others. Psychological tests got immense

value post World War I.

As the Lewis Terman tests were not fit for large scale use and were time

consuming, during the World War I, in 1917, American Psychological Association

appointed a committee for the United States. It was headed by Robert Yerkes and

aimed at ranking the recruits to classify them according to their capabilities and to

assign them tasks.

Two types of tests were developed by them:

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Alpha tests and Beta Tests (Same version of alpha for non-English and illiterate

people).

In 1926, The Alpha test came to be known as Scholastic Aptitude Test and was

applied at Universities and Colleges at large.

ACTIVITY

Recognise the methods of evaluation you feel

are most suited to the Malaysian pupils?

Give your opinion about the Galtons theory

of inherited abilities? Do you agree or

disagree with him? Substantiate.

Charles Spearman in 1927analysed the correlation between performances

on varied intellectual tasks and then came up with a proposition of 2

factors. The illustration below sheds light on it.

Analysis of Intelligence.

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$o !actor t"eor

g !actor-mental ailit

re*+ired toper!orm all

mental tests

s !actorailit to

per!orm onsome o! t"emental tests


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He laid emphasis on general intellectual capacity of human beings.

David Weschler (1896-1981)observed that the test questions included in

Stanford- Benit test for the army was not sufficient enough to assess the

abilities of the recruits.

He led to the formation of Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale which consisted

of 11 subtests, leading to a score. 6 of the subjects were for testing the verbalabilities and 5 tests were based on performance material. He also formed

Weschler Intelligence for Children in 1949. He negated the equation of general

intelligence with intellectual ability. He advocated that factors such as

perseverance and drive also lead to success.

Leon Thurstone (1887-1955)came up with seven different mental abilities

which lead to human competency.

Verbal Comprehension, Word fluency, Ability to calculate the numbers, Space

visualisation, Associative memory, Perpetual speed to perceive and Reasoning

were the seven abilities. His theory gave a multi dimension to evaluation of

mental ability.

Raymond Cattell (1905-1998)suggested that there are 2 components of the g

factor mentioned earlier.

A)Fluid Intelligence e.g Ability to find Analogies in letter series, number

series and reasoning.

B)Crystallised Intelligence e.g Knowledge acquired from various sources

and skill set.

He also deduced that fluid intelligence is found in the age of 20-30s, whereas

the latter comes with growing age.

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+i'ure 1.%: T)o factor Theory


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Guilford (1967-1988)refused to accept and acknowledge the existence of any

factor.

He laid emphasis on the 180 abilities of intelligence.

He grouped these under 3 categories:A)Operations which meant the doing capacity of an individual which he

proposed to be of 6 types.

B)Content was the product or the material under the operation which he

divided under 5 types.

C)The Information storage form which is again of 6 types.

The combination of each of these produced a unique type of intelligence. Thus

it led to (6*6*5) combinations.

1.2 NATIONAL ASSESSMENT IN MALAYSIA

The British started the trend of exams and tests as a means to select people to

recruit as clerks, low level officers etc. in the civil services and the evaluation of

a candidate was soon inculcated in the Malaysian schools.

Razak report, 1956, introduced the common examination system for all

schools.

Following which, in the year 1961, the examination Syndicate was established

for management and co- ordination of national examination for schools in

Malaysia.

Here we take a close look into the chronology of events for nationalexaminations in Malaysian schools.

Table 1.2: Events in the history of national examination in Malaysian Schools

Primary Schools Secondary Schools

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a)In 1964, the examination for

entrance into secondary school for

standard Six was abolished.

a) The lower certificate examination

(SRP) got introduced at the end of

year 3 in a secondary school. It was

later on changed to Lower Secondary

Assessment.b)In 1967, the assessment test for

standard Five was introduced and

it got abolished later.

The Malaysian Certificate of

education (SPM) is undertaken by

secondary schools at the end of the

last year.

c)In 1973 , the diagnostic test for

standard III was introduced and

got abolished later.

Students who aspire to enter the

University have to complete 2 years

of post-secondary school and appear

for The Malaysian certificate ofEducation mentioned earlier.

d)In 1980, the primary school

assessment examination was

introduced which is undertaken

by all the students to proceed to

secondary schools. The students

age group being 6 at this stage.5) In 1980, The first level assessment

was conducted to assess the students

with superior academic records to

proceed from Year 3 to Year 5, which

got abolished later.

1.3TESTS ,MEASURMENTS, EVALUATION &

ASSESSMENT

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Though many of us think all the 4 mentioned above are the same, we present you

with subtle differences which make them unique.

Definition of test:The joint committee of the American Psychological Association

(APA), National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), and the American

Educational Research Association (AERA) defines the test as a set of tasks

presented to a person under standard conditions intended to bring out specific

types of behaviours and yields a score that have psychometric properties (1974).

Measurement on the other hand assigns number to the particular phenomenon.

Human Attributes are measured such as academic achievements etc. but use of

instruments to measure these makes it limited to the accuracy of the instrument

used. Here we just collect information but not evaluate it.

E.g. In Mathematics test we present students with a number of questions. The right

responses are the persons score or measurement of the test. It is not an evaluation.

So what it means to evaluate and assess?

To assess means to collect data through various tests, interviews and observation of

students, in order to make decisions about the ability of the students. Whereas,

evaluation involves decision making about the ability after collection of data.

So evaluation means finding the position of measured data in comparison

with a yardstick and to find the result of it.

1.4THE WHY,WHAT AND HOW OF EDUCATIONAL

ASSESSMENT

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Assessment is the most important aspect of education.

1) Why Assess it?

It gives you analysis of the particular element of mental ability being measured

with the help of a test and compared against a yardstick. It enables to analyse the

strengths and weaknesses of the test takers, so as to take appropriate decisions.

2) What to Assess?

In Schools, colleges and universities, the learner is assessed for how much he/ she

has gained through the teaching. It can be lessons and their application taught by

the teacher or learnt via self-study as well.

3) How to Assess?

There are various methods to assess a person but the most commonly used one is

tests on different subjects conducted in various ways.

Let us first understand why Assessment is important in the following topic.

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1.5 WHY DO WE ASSESS?

The following are the two reasons for assessment by Harlen 1978 and Deale 1975

A)To aid learning

B)To help improve the teaching methodologies, the material and the teacher.

1.5.1 TO IMPROVE THE TEACHING

essment helps learners with information to decide on the course of action which would

pin remedial action, enrichment, exceptionality, selection and eventually progress with

ification.

m the point of view of a teacher, assessment provides information which answers questions

a)Whether the objectives of teaching were met?

b)Whether the teaching method and material was effective?

1.5.2 TO IMPROVE THE LEARNING

Assessment indicates which of the learning outcomes are achieved and which are

to be given more emphasis.

Thus, it provides:

a) Information on whether the students were equipped with necessary knowledge to

grasp the principles and contents discussed by the teacher.

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b) Whether the method of teaching, teaching material and teacher was effective?

c) It also aims at providing a clue to why some teachers are more effective than

others.

Diagnosis, Remedial Action, Excpetional Attention, Certification, Placement and

Progress are the five main steps to learning.

1)Diagnosisis also called as Pre- Instructional Assessment

o Performed at the early stages of learning

o Helps to understand students knowledge about a particular lesson or topic

before beginning teaching

o Depending on the existing level of understanding teacher can make his teaching

effective

o By assigning the stronger students to the enrichment program which does not

lay emphasis on the basics

o By providing some extra attention and remedial action to the weaker students

2) Exceptionality

o Not all students/ pupils are alike.

o By assessing the students one gathers information about the exceptional cases of

students who need more attention, as they have different mental, physical,

emotional abilities.

3) Certification

o The certification plays an important role in selection of students while

recruiting.

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o By assessing the students by test and providing them with scores which

indicates performance in the subject area which can be used as a comparison.

DID YOU KNOW

"e (enilaian Menenga" enda" and t"e Si.il (ela.aranMalasiaare t"e e#aminations $"ic" provide certicates to t"ep+pils !or t"eir per!ormances

4)Placement

o Depending on the assessment students with identical aptitude, abilities and

academic performance can be placed into the different buckets

o This practice has been debated over for its obvious merits and demerits

The other two reasons why assessment is important are:

A)To communicate the progress of the student to his/her parents.

B)To determine the effectiveness of a school to bring out the best in the students.

1.6 Types of Assessment

There are 2 branches of assessment let us take a look at them one by one.

1)Formative and Summative Assessment

2)Criterion Referenced and Norm Referenced Assessment

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Tabe 1.%:

Comparison of Formative and Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment Summative AssessmentIt is conducted as pre-instruction

assessment and also throughout the

process of learning.

As the name suggests, it is conducted

post learning generally at the end of

an academic year.

To evaluate the progress in

learning and to direct students to

the programs like enrichment or

remedial action to make them

successful

This helps in certifying the students,

ranking and grading them and the

teacher, teaching material and the

school as well. This eases out to help

improve the curriculum.

Though the methods adopted by both the assessments are same like written tests, oral

tests, exercises, practical exams, the results are different and the purposes also vary. Let

us tabulateithe differences between the Norm Referenced and the criterion referenced

assessment.

Norm Referenced test Criterion Referenced test

It is conducted to assess a pupils

performance with other pupils.

This evaluates the pupils

performance in comparison to a

criterion

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ale 14 Comparison o! 6orme!erenced and Criterione!erenced est


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To assign a grade, and is for

testing a student over a wider

content.

It does not help in grading but helps

in gauging whether the specific skills

and the knowledge is well

assimilated.

E.g. are UPSR , PMR,SPM, end of

the year examinations

Class tests, exercises.

SUMMARY

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Educational Assessment has a history.

From the times of Chinese introducing the oral examination for recruiting in

imperial bureaucracy to the latest modern computerised adaptive tests, the

phenomenon of assessment has evolved gradually.

Francis Galton, Alfred Binet, father of IQ testing and Theodore Simon, Lewis

Terman, Charles Spearman in 1927, David Weschler, Leon Thurstone,

Raymond Cattell, Guilford have put forth various theories to contribute to the

educational assessment.

In this chapter we also had a thorough understanding of the development of

national education of Malaysia.

We came to know the subtle differences between the tests, the measurements

and evaluation/ assessment.

Through the chapter we now know the reason behind educational assessment

and the various methods employed for it.


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KEY TERMS

EXERCISES

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

1.State the various types of Assessment.

2.Write about Alpha Beta Tests.

3.Describe what is Scholastic aptitude test.

LONG ANSWER QUESTIONS

1. Differentiate between the types of assessment.

2. Explain the differences between testing, measurement and evaluation.

3. Explain the concept of intelligence as put forth by Cattell,Gulford.

4.Describe the g Factor proposed by Spearman.

5. Discuss Galtons view of intelligence

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The Norm Referenced Assessment

The criterion referenced assessment

Formative & summative Assessment

Item response theory

Eugenics

Intelligence QuotientAlpha tests and Beta Tests

Scholastic Aptitude Test

Fluid Intelligence

Crystallised Intelligence

The Malaysian certificate of Education

Evaluation

Certification


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NOTES

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