Task 2a
Choose an assessment tool used to assess language skill / content in schools. Take note of the test employed and evaluate it with regards to the four basic principles of language assessment.
Assessment and examinations are viewed as highly important in most Asian countries such as Malaysia. Language tests and assessment have also become a prevalent part of our education system. Often, public examination results are taken as an important national measures of school accountability. While schools are ranked and classified according to their students’ performance in major public examinations, scores from language tests are used to infer individuals’ language ability.
Assessment is every so often a misunderstood term. Assessment is a
…show more content…
It is an on going process in educational practice, which involves a multitude of methodological techniques. A test may be assessed formally or informally, subconsciously or consciously, as well as incidental or intended by an appraiser.
Assessment tools, whether formal tests or informal assessments, serve multiple purposes. Commercially designed and administered tests may be used for measuring proficiency, placing students into one of several levels of course, or diagnosing students’ strengths and weaknesses according to specific linguistic categories, among other purposes.
Classroom-based teacher-made tests might be used to diagnose difficulty or measure achievement in a given unit of a course. Specifying the purpose of and stating its objectives are an essential first step in choosing, designing, revising, or adapting an assessment tool.
For this task, I have obtained sample of exam papers for Year 4 from my previous practicum school, SK Cheting, Kuala Berang. The exam papers are divided into 2, Paper 1 and Paper 2. The Paper 1 consists of 40 multiple choice questions whereas Paper 2 consists of 3 sections; Section A, Section B and Section C. I will be evaluating this assessment tool that I have chosen based on four basic principles of language assessment; Reliability, Validity, Washback effects and
…show more content…
In most tests, it is normally teachers who construct and administer the test for students. Thus, any good teacher-student relationship would help increase the consistency of the results. Other factors that contribute to positive effects to the reliability of a test include teacher’s encouragement, positive mental and physical condition, familiarity to the test formats, and perseverance (determination) and motivation.
The third factors that affect the reliability of a test are the environment factors. An examination environment certainly influences test-takers and their scores. Any favourable environment with comfortable chairs and desks, good ventilation, sufficient light and space will improve the reliability of the test. On the contrary, a non-conducive environment will affect test-takers’ performance and test reliability.
The fourth factors that affect the reliability of a test are the administration factors. Because students' grades are dependent on the way the test are being administered, test administrators should strive to provide clear and accurate instructions, sufficient time and careful monitoring of tests to improve the reliability of their tests. A test-re-test technique can be used to determine test
This is a key part in schools today because it’s enforcing a higher bar of achievement for teachers and students (Catapano, 2018). Implementing standards into a school system that are internationally benchmarked means all states and countries have a way of measuring their academic performance. They can use this also as a tool to compile scores and understand the weaknesses to improve students’ knowledge. This provides teachers with various ways to assess their students more frequently through observations and informal assessments to understand the student’s comprehension level of the lesson material. It will help the teachers to strive to improve her test scores by adapting lesson materials to the needs of each
In order to develop a standardized test that is valid and reliable, the
He reports that during testing pressure to perform well acts as a motivator, however, fear of testing anxiety and failure become devastating to him because his self-worth is connected to the outcome of the test. He reports that bad experiences ( not passing his tests ) with test-taking has lead him to have a negative mindset and influences his expectations for his performance on future tests. He reports that during test he experiences the following
Reliability is important because assessments need to be reliable. Doesn’t matter what the students is going through, students should keep up their typical scores. Validity is also important because assessments should actually measure what they are intended to measure (Frey, 2014). 2. Which type of test, norm-referenced or criterion-referenced, do you think is “best”?
A test was design for each required lab and it was repeated until students achieved mastery as students were tested on these four labs in the exam. This was done as the item analysis revealed that the students were weak in these
ANALYSE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ASSESSMENT METHODS IN RELATION TO MEETING THE INDIVIDUAL NEEDS OF LEARNERS. UNIT 2, 6.2 Race, P. (2009) says “we need a richer mix of high-quality assessment formats, and we also need to decrease the overall burden of assessment for ourselves and for our students. We need to measure less, but measure it better.' Using a variety of assessment methods gives students more scope to demonstrate their knowledge and skills across a range of contexts. By adopting a wider catalogue of assessments I can also help support students who may for one reason or another be underprivileged by the extensive use of particular assessment formats.
Even though many students absolutely hate them, state assessments are a big part of the American education system. Everyone has taken a standardized test at some point in their life, and almost everyone has done poorly on one. They are primarily used as a measurement of how well students learn, but are they truly accurate? There are strong arguments on both sides, which has started a heated conflict about the productiveness of these tests. Standardized testing has been around for many years, starting in Imperial China where it was intended to determine a person’s aptitude for a government position (“Do Standardized Tests Show an Accurate View of Students’ Abilities?”).
In identifying why these standardized tests exist, the hope is to generate a metric which will be used to analyze whether the current standardized testing system is sufficient and identify both areas of strength and weakness. The ultimate hope is to answer the question, “What is the purpose of state-mandated standardized tests for public elementary and middle schools, and how well to they fulfill this purpose,” and by doing so, improve standardized
The test should be on level how you gone know if a student learning if the test below
Figure 1 is a summary of the students’ learning throughout the learning segment. I administrated this test as a pre-assessment prior to the lesson one and administered it again after the completion of lesson 3. This test is a compilation of students’ learning and it demonstration how they met the standards and objectives that were set out for them to achieve. The evaluation criteria in which this assessment and all other assessment in the individual lessons did was not altered. Even though the students have different learning needs, the assessment met all of the needs for all learners.
Assessments are a teacher’s tool that builds a profile on student’s growth and are the “tell-tell” detectors that provide the with teacher information on a student who may need additional services in and beyond the
Standardized Testing “Sometimes, the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.” That is a quote by Diane Ravitch. Some of the most brilliant and inspiring people such as Bill Gates the founder of apple, and Walt Disney, were not the best in school, and failed the first time. Failing teaches us a lesson. The real world isn’t about grades, it’s about experience and drive.
Increasingly today in America’s school system, there is a recognition of tension between individuality and conformity. The struggle between students’ personal needs and the needs of the whole continues to grow. This can be seen though the controversial issue of standardized testing. These are tests that are designed in a way, which are administered and recorded in a consistent method. In standardized testing, all test takers are required to answer the same set of multiple-choice, true or false questions, short answer, and essay questions.
What other kinds of assessment measures will yield valuable information about his students? (This will depend on the “grade” you choose for Adrian.) a. If Adrian is teaching second grade, he could examine the students AR test scores, and then he will be able to look at how the students score on their AR tests. This will lead to him testing his student’s fluency.
Norm-referenced tests have been researched for many years prior to publishing and actually using them for diagnosing. They provide a norm group which is used for comparison to determine the level of the student. Furthermore, their best use is determining strengths and weaknesses of a student to use when making placement decisions.