PVB2004: Testing and Evaluation in Education

Topic 1 Educational Testing and Assessment

Introduction
• Assessment is an important component of any education endeavor. It is part of the ‘curriculum-
teaching-assessment’ pillars of education.
• Teachers will constantly be making decisions on assessment before, during and after any teaching
sessions.(Refer to Nitko; pages 3-4)
• Teaching and learning require the continuous gathering of information for making decisions. Sound
assessments are perquisite to sound educational decisions.

Definitions
• Assessment – a process for obtaining information that is used to make decisions about students,
curricula and programs, and educational policy.
• Test – an instrument of systematic procedure for obtaining and describing one or more
characteristics of a student, using either a numerical scale or a classification scheme.
• Measurement – a procedure for assigning numbers (scores) to a specified attribute or characteristic
to describe the degree to which a person possesses the attribute.
• Evaluation – a process of making a value judgment of someone or something. Evaluations may or
may not be based on information obtained from tests and other assessments.

Types of assessments/ Assessments Techniques

• Assessment techniques include paper-and-pencil tests, formal and informal observation;
homework, exercises; projects; performance; portfolios; oral questioning; analyses of students
records.
• Other types of assessments (Refer to handout)

Assessment and Educational Decisions About Students

Instructional Management Decisions

• Managing instructions: planning instructional activities, placing students into learning sequences,
monitoring students progress, diagnosing students’ learning difficulties, setting learning targets,
giving feedback to students and parents, deciding one one’s own teaching effectiveness, and
assigning grades to students

Selection decisions:
• Selecting students; accepting some students and rejecting others for a job, program , or higher
level of education

Placement decision;
• placing students into programs, streams

Classification decisions;
• classifying students eg. by types of disability

Counseling and guidance decisions;

• Counseling and guidance; assisting students in exploring, choosing, and preparing for different
careers; helping them adjust to home, school, and peer stress, which is part of normal growth and
development

Credentialing and certification decision;

• Deciding whether students meet standards of competence for certificates/diploma

Teacher’s roles and responsibilities in Assessment

• (Refer to Nitko’s Chapter 5)