TSL3112- SAMPLE QUESTIONS

SECTION A (60 marks) Answer all questions.

1. Country X has issues with the obsession of test scores among parents and
students. Studies have shown that test scores severely hamper students
development as a whole person. Students are not able to be creative, lack social
responsibilities and practical abilities.

Based on the stimulus above answer the following questions.

i. Provide two reasons for the importance of test scores in the students
development. (5 marks)
* As a vehicle to empower students to be self-reflective learners who monitor and
evaluate their own progress as they develop the capacity to be self-directed
learners.
* Developing learners with the ability to guide their own instruction, assessment data
can be used by a school district to measure students achievement, examine the
opportunity for children to learn, and provide the basic for the evaluation of the
districts language programs

ii. Based on the stimulus above, identify and discuss two washback effect on
students development. (5 marks)
* A test can positively influence what and how teachers teach, student learn, offer
learners a chance to adequately prepare, give learners feedback that enhance their
language development is more formative than summative.

* Washback enhances a number of basic principle language acquisition namely
intrinsic motivation, autonomy, self-confidence, language ego, inter-language and
strategic investment.

iii. How can authentic assessment help to solve the problems mentioned in the
stimulus above?
* Citing Bachman and Palmer (1996) in Brown (2010) authenticity is the degree of
correspondence of the characteristics of a given language test task to the features
of a target language task.
* Language learners are motivated to perform when they are faced with tasks that
reflect real world situations and contexts.
* Good testing or assessment strives to use formats and tasks that reflect the types
of situation in which students would authentically use the target language.

2. Commenting on student writing can really frustrating and time
consuming. I have to spend a lot of time reading each line of students
answers. I also have to make comments on their writing and on the
errors performed by the students.

a. i. Based on the above comments, identify the type of scoring method
used by the teacher. (1 mark)
* Holistic approach
* Normally this score is on a scale of 1-4, 1 -6 or even 1-10 ( Bailey, 1998 )
* Each score will be accompanied with the general descriptors of ability
* Each scales are expected to pay attention to vocabulary, mechanics etc.
* Mechanics such as punctuation or secondary to communication.

ii. Explain two characteristics of the scoring method mentioned above.
(4 marks)


b. In your opinion, what are the weaknesses of the scoring method
mentioned above? (5 marks)
* The single score may actually mask differences across individual
compositions.
* Does not provide a lot of diagnostic feedback.

c. If you are the teacher, what would you do to maximize the effectiveness
of the scoring method for the students? (5 marks)






3. Read the stimulus below and answer the questions 3a and 3b.

After teachers have assessed and evaluate a students performance, they are faced
with the questions of how this information can best be summarized and presented to
students, parents and administrators.
Source:MOE 2009
a. Discuss three purposes of reporting assessment data. (5 marks)
* The main purpose of test is to obtain information concerning a particular
behaviour or characteristics.
* Instructional decisions are made based on test results when e.g. teachers
decide to change or maintain their instructional approach.
* This information helps identify students for targeted intervention and can
inform school improvement programs.
* They can discuss how to overcome their problems in learning process in
order to master certain topic.

b. A teacher decides to share assessment results with her students
Describe two benefits of her decision. (5 marks)
* Buku Brown : offer the student only a modest sense of where that student
stands and a vague idea of overall performance.
* Identify their areas of success and challenge.- when a test become a
learning experience, it achieves washback.
c. Discuss the advantages of two methods in reporting assessment data to
parents. (6 marks)
* Actively involves parents schools & communities are responsible for
jointly developing assessment and reporting practices and policies.
* Helps identify students for targeted intervention.
* Can inform school improvement programs.
* Will enable parents to know how their children are progressing.
* Can be reported by comparing parents work against a standards
framework of syllabus outcomes, comparing their prior and current
learning achievements or comparing their achievements to those of other
students.
4. a. Define School Based Assessment (SBA) and identify its four main
components.
Definition of School Based Assessment (SBA): ________________________
(2 marks)
* it is holistic and assesses the cognitive, affective and psychomotor
domains, encompassing the intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical
aspects. It is also embraces both academic and non academic fields.
* Teacher are given due recognition and have the autonomy to conduct
formative assessment during the learning process and also summative
assessment at the conclusion of a learning unit or any other suitable time
during the school year at their own, discretion, taking into account their
pupils readiness.

Components:
i. School assessment ( using Performance Standards )
ii. Centrelized assessment
iii. Physical activities, sports and co-curricular assessment ( Pentaksiran
Aktiviti Jasmani, Sukan dan Ko-kurikulum PAJSK )
iv. Psychometric / psychology tests.
(4 marks)

b. Provide and explain three reasons why School Based Assessment results
conducted by teachers are reliable. (6 marks)

c. Explain why School Based Assessment is introduced in the Malaysian
schools. (3 marks)


SECTION B (40 MARKS) Answer only two questions
1. Reliability and validity A are generally important for a ll types of
evaluation. However, some may argue that for formative
evaluation, more emphasis could be given for validity than reliability
Discuss the arguments that can be used to justify this position. To what
extent do you agree with the above statement? (20 marks)

2. Read the scenario below and answer the question that follows:
Scenario: reading quiz
The context is a mixed ability class for year 5 primary school pupils in an
English class in Malaysia. The teacher has decided to begin her class with a
brief 30 minutes pop quiz consisting of 5 comprehension questions that
require short written answers. The quiz will:
a) Give pupils a sense of how well they understood the story and
b) Act as a starting point for a teacher-led discussion on each of the items.
Results of the quiz will not be recorded in the teachers record book.
Below is the text.
3.
Study the scenario above and analyse the suitability and difficulty level of
questions 1-5 with regards to Blooms Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives. (20 marks)


3. The KSSR learning standards for reading addresses basic literacy using
the strategies of phonics and moves on to enable pupils to become
independent readers.
(Source: Curriculum Specifications for Year 2 SK)
Elaborate on the statement above and design at least three techniques that
you would apply in assessing word attack skills and sentence
comprehension for beginners in a Year 2 class of a rural primary school.
(20 marks)

4. Item Analysis (IA) can further enhanced the design and preparation of
multiple-choice questions.
(Brown, 2010)
Analyse and explain how Item Analysis (IA) can be used in the appropriate
selection and arrangement of multiple-choice questions. Based your
discussion on the three main indices of Item Analysis (IA).
Ms Rhombus entered the class for her mathematics lesson. She began teaching but
the pupils did not pay attention to her. While some of the pupils were quiet, the
other pupils were making a lot of noise. Ms Rhombus tried to get the pupils
attention but none of them listened to her. Then, Ms Rhombus gave the pupils a
warning and left the classroom. The pupils waited for a while. When Ms Rhombus
did not return to the classroom, a few pupils decided to look for her. Ms Rhombus
left a trail for them. The pupils followed the clues and solved some mathematical
problems. Finally, they found her in the gymnasium. Ms Rhombus rewarded the
pupils who found her.
Answer the questions below.
1. What subject did Ms Rhombus teach?
2. The synonym of the word, quiet n line 3 , is ________________________
3. Make a list of the main events of the story.
4. In your opinion, what was the reward Ms Rhombus gave to the pupils who found
her?
5. Do you think Ms Rhombus made the right decision? If you were one of the what
pupils, what would you do?
Adapted from: The case of the Missing Maths Teacher written by Suzanne Weyn
(20 marks)
* The appropriate selection and arrangement of suitable multiple choice
items on a test can be best accomplished by measuring items using the 3
indices: item Difficulty, Item Discrimination, Distractors Analysis.
* Measuring these factors on classroom test would be useful.
* Are a must for standardized norm-referenced tests that are designed to
be administered a number of times and / or administered in multiple
forms.
* Item Difficulty is the extent to which an item is easy or difficult for the
purposed group of test-takers.
* It is important if in your estimation the item achieves validity. The answer
is that an item that is too easy or too difficult really does nothing to
separate high-ability and low-ability takers.
* Two good reasons for accosionally including a very easy item are to build
in some effective feelings of success among lower-ability students and to
serve as warm up items.
* Very difficult items can provide a challenge to the highest-ability
students.
* Item discrimination is extent to which an item differentiates between high
and low ability test-takers.
* An item on which high ability students and low-ability students score
equally well would have poor Item Discrimination because it did not
discriminate between the two groups.
* Distractor Analysis is to measure of a multiple-choice items value in a test,
and one that is related to Item Discrimination.
* The efficiency of distracters is the extent to which the distracters lure a
sufficient numbers of test-takers especially lower-ability one and those
responses are somewhat evenly distributed across all distractors.