PROF ED 17 (ASSESSMENT IN LEARNING)

MIDTERM

LESSON II: LEARNING TARGET AND ASSESSMENT METHOD MATCH

TABLE OF SPECIFICATIONS

A table of specifications is a written plan needed for the construction of an achievement test. It
presents the learning outcomes to be tested, the number of recitation days, the number of items for each
learning outcome to be tested, the percentage of items, and item placement. Other authors call this table test
blueprint.

The learning outcomes to be tested are expressed as specific instructional objectives. The
instructional objectives are written in behavioral terms. They contain both behavior and content (topic/subject
matter).

The number of recitation days specifies the number of days a teacher developed a particular skill or
objective. It can be determined by looking at the lesson plan of the teacher in a particular grading period or
academic year. The teacher merely counts the number of days a particular objective is covered.

The number of items for each objective is determined by using the formula given below:

Number of items for each = Number of recitation days for each objective x Total number of items
objective Total number of recitation days in a quarter

The percentage of items tells what proportion of the entire test is given to each type of
competency/learning outcome/objective. It is determined by using the formula shown below.

Percentage of items = Number of items for each objective x 100

Total number of items

The item placement component specifies the location of a particular number of items in the entire
test. It is used for easy reference if the teacher wants to determine which of the skills/competency is mastered
or not mastered by the students.

Table of Specifications in a Reading Comprehension Test for Grade 6

Objective Number of Number Percentage Item

Recitation of Items of Items Placement
Days
1. Identify the topic sentence in a paragraph 5 4 10 1-4
2. Restate main idea of paragraph 5 4 10 5-8
3. Identify supporting details in a paragraph 3 2 5 9-10
4. Classify ideas under proper headings 5 4 10 11-14
5. Give a title to a paragraph 5 4 10 15-18
6. Give a title to a poem 4 3 8 19-21
7. Sequence events as they happen in a story 5 4 10 22-25
8. Make a 3-point sentence outline 8 7 18 26-32
9. Make a 3-point topic outline 10 8 20 33-40
TOTAL 50 40 100

Steps in Planning a Test

1) Identifying test objectives/lesson outcomes

2) Deciding on the type of objective test to be prepared
3) Preparing a TOS
4) Constructing the draft test items
5) Try-out validation

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Identifying Test Objectives

An objective test, if it is to be comprehensive, must cover the various levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Each
objective is composed of a statement of what is to be achieved preferably by the students.

Example:

We want to construct a test on the topic, Subject-verb Agreement, in English for the Grade V class. The
following are typical objectives:

Knowledge/ remembering. The student must be able to identify the subject and the verb in a given
sentence.
Comprehension/ understanding. The student must be able to determine the appropriate form of a
verb to be used given the subject of a sentence.
Application/applying. The student must be able to write sentences observing rules on subject-verb
agreement.
Analysis/analyzing. The students must be able to break down a given sentence into its subject and
predicate.
Evaluation/evaluating. The students must be able to evaluate whether or not a sentence observes
rules on subject-verb agreement.
Synthesis/creating. The student must be able to formulate rules to be followed regarding the
subject-verb agreement.

Deciding on the Type of Objective Test

The test objectives guide the kind of objective tests that will be designed and constructed by the
teacher. This means aligning the test with the lesson objectives/outcome. For instance, for the first four (4)
levels, we may want to construct a multiple-choice type of test while for application and judgment, we may
opt to give an essay test or modified essay test. At all times, the test to be formulated must be aligned with
the learning outcome. This is the principle of constructive alignment.

LESSON III: TYPES OF PAPER- AND -PENCIL TEST

The development of paper and pencil tests requires careful planning expertise in terms of actual test
construction. The more seasoned teachers can produce true-false items that can even test higher-order
thinking skills and not just rote memory learning. Essays are easier to construct than the other types of tests
but difficult to score.

CONSTRUCTING SELECTED-RESPONSE TYPE

A. Alternate Response/True - False Test – Binomial - choice or alternate response tests are tests that
have only two (2) options such as true or false, right or wrong, yes or no, good or better, check, or cross
out, and so on. A student who knows nothing of the content of the examination would have a 50% chance
of getting the correct answer by sheer guesswork. Although the correction-for-guessing formula exists, the
teacher should ensure that a true-false item can discriminate properly between those who know and those
who are just guessing.

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.

Guideline for Constructing Alternate - Response Test

Rule 1: Do not give a hint (inadvertently) in the body of the question.

Example: The Philippines gained its independence in 1898 and therefore celebrated its centennial year in
2000.
 The answer is FALSE because 100 years from 1898 is not 2000 but 1998.

Rule 2: Avoid using the words “always”, “never”, “often” and other words that tend to be either always true
or always false.

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

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  Statements that use the word “always” are most likely 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.

Rule 3: Avoid long sentences as these tend to be “true”. Keep sentences short.

Example: Tests 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. The following example illustrates what can go wrong in
long sentences:

Example: Tests need to be valid, reliable, and useful since it takes a very little amount of time, money, and
effort to construct tests with these characteristics.

 The first part of the sentence is true but the second part is debatable and may be false. Thus, a
“true” response is correct and, a “false” response is correct.

Rule 4: Avoid trick statements with some minor misleading word or spelling anomaly, misplaced phrases, etc.
A wise student who does not know the subject matter may detect this strategy and thus get the answer
correctly.

Example: The Raven was written by Edgar Allen Poe. Allan is misspelled and the answer would be false.

Rule 5: Avoid quoting verbatim from reference materials or textbooks. This practice sends the 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.

Rule 6: 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”, or “always”.
Moderately worded statements are more likely to be true than false. A statement that is moderately worded
using “many”, “often”, “sometimes”, “generally”, “frequently”, “some” or “usually” should be avoided.

Example: Executives usually suffer from hyperacidity.

 The statement tends to be correct due to the word “usually”.

Rule 7: Avoid a grossly disproportionate number of either true or false statements.

Example:
1. T 6. F or 1. T 6. F
2. F 7. F 2. F 7. T
3. F 8. F 3. T 8. F
4. F 9. F 4. F 9. T
5. F 10. F 5.T 10 F

For ease of correction, teachers sometimes create a pattern of true or false answers. Students will
sense it and may arrive at a correct answer not because he/she knows the answer but because he/she senses
the pattern.

Rule 8: Avoid double negatives. This makes test item unclear and definitely will confuse the student.

Example: The changes that take place in early childhood are NOT Unchangeable.
 The test item simply means “The changes in early childhood are changeable”.

B. Multiple Choice Tests - This is the type identified as the most versatile test type because it can measure
a variety of learning outcomes. It offers the student more than two (2) options per item to choose from. It
consists of a problem and a list of suggested solutions. Each item in a multiple choice test consists of two
(2) parts: (a) the stem and (b) the options.

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 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 who are guessing, but at the same time, have no appeal to those who know the answer. It is this
feature of multiple choice type test that allows the teacher to test higher-order thinking skills even if the
options are clearly stated. As in true-false items, there are certain rules of thumb to be followed in
constructing multiple choice tests.

Guidelines for Constructing Multiple Choice Items

Rule 1. Do not use unfamiliar words, terms, and phrases. The ability of the item to discriminate or its level of
difficulty should stem from the subject matter rather than from the wording of the question.

Example: What would be the system reliability of a computer system whose slaves and peripherals are
connected in parallel circuits and each one has a known time to failure probability of 0.05?
 A student completely unfamiliar with the terms “slave” and “peripherals” may not be able to
answer correctly even if he knew the subject matter of reliability.

Rule 2. Do not use modifiers that are vague and whose meanings can differ from one person to the next such
as much, often, usually, etc.

Example: Much of the process of photosynthesis takes place in the _____.

a. bark
b. leaf
c. stem
 The qualifier “much” is vague and could have been replaced by more specific qualifiers like: “90%
of the photosynthetic process” or some similar phrase that would be more precise. Be
quantitative.

Rule 3. Avoid complex or awkward word arrangements. Also, avoid the use of negatives in the stem as this
may add unnecessary comprehension difficulties.

Example: (Poor) As President of the Republic of the Philippines, Corazon Cojuangco Aquino would stand next
to which President of the Philippine Republic subsequent to the 1986 EDSA revolution?

(Better) Who was the President of the Philippines after Corazon C. Aquino?

Rule 4. Avoid the use of negatives or double negatives as such statements tend to be confusing. It is best to
use simpler sentences rather than sentences that would require expertise in grammatical construction.
However, when a single negative is used, emphasize the negative word.

Example: (Poor) Which of the following will not cause inflation in the Philippine economy?
(Better) Which of the following will cause inflation in the Philippine economy?
(Better) Which of the following will NOT cause inflation in the Philippine economy?

Rule 5. Each item stem should be as short as possible; otherwise, you risk testing more for reading and
comprehension skills.

Rule 6. Distracters should be equally plausible and attractive.

Example: The short story: May Day’s Eve, was written by which Filipino author?
a. Jose Garcia Villa
b. Nick Juaquin
c. Genoveva Edrosa Matute
d. Robert Frost
e. Edgar Allan Poe

 If distracters had all been Filipino authors, the value of the item would be greatly increased. In
this particular instance, only the first three carry the burden of the entire item since the last two
can be essentially disregarded by the students.

Rule 7. All multiple choice options should be grammatically consistent with the item.

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Example: As compared to the autos of the 1960s, autos in the 1980s _______.

a. traveling slower c. to use less fuel

b. bigger interiors d. contains more safety measures

 Options A, B and C are obviously wrong for the language smart because when added to the stem
the sentence is grammatically wrong. D is the only option that when connected to the stem
retains the grammatical accuracy of the sentence, thus obviously is the correct answer.

Rule 8. The length, explicitness, or degree of technicality of alternatives should not be the determinants of
the correctness of the answer.

Example: If the three angles of two triangles are congruent, then the triangles are _____.
a. congruent whenever one of the sides of the triangles is congruent
b. similar
c. equiangular and therefore, must also be congruent
d. equilateral if they are equiangular

 The correct choice, “b” may be obvious from its length and explicitness alone. The other choices
are long and tend to explain why they must be the correct choices forcing the students to think
that they are, in fact, not the correct answers.

Rule 9. Avoid stems that reveal the answer to another item.

Example:

a) Who will most strongly disagree with the progressivist who claims that the child should be taught
only that which interests him and if he is not interested, wait till the child gets interested?
a. essentialist c. progressivist
b. empiricist d. rationalist

b) Which group will most strongly focus its teaching on the interest of the child?
a. progressivist c. perrennialist
b. essentialist d. reconstructionist

 One may arrive at a correct answer by looking at item “a” that answers “b”.

Rule 10. Avoid alternatives that are synonymous with others or those that include or overlap others.

Example: What causes ice to transform from a solid state to a liquid state?
a. change in temperature c. change in the chemical composition
b. change in pressure d. change in heat levels

 The options “a” and “d” are essentially the same. Thus, a student who spots these identical choices
would right away narrow down the field of choices to a, b and c. The last distracter would play no
significant role in increasing the value of the item. If this happens then the item has two answers,
which is not acceptable.

Rule 11. Avoid presenting sequenced items in the same order as in the text.

Rule 12. Avoid the use of assumed qualifiers that many examinees may not be aware of.

Rule 13. Avoid the use of unnecessary words or phrases which are not relevant to the problem at hand unless
such discriminating ability is the primary intent of the evaluation. The item’s value is particularly damaged if
the unnecessary material is designed to distract or mislead. Such items test the student’s reading
comprehension rather than the knowledge of the subject matter.

Example: The side opposite the thirty-degree angle in a right triangle is equal to half the length of the
hypotenuse. If the sine of a 30-degree is 0.5 and its hypotenuse is 5, what is the length of the side
opposite the 30-degree angle?

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 a. 2.5 c. 5.5
b. 3.5 d. 1.5

 The sine of a 30-degree angle is really quite unnecessary since the first sentence already gives
the method for finding the length of the side opposite the thirty-degree angle.

Rule 14. Avoid the use of non-relevant sources of difficulty such as requiring a complex circulation when only
knowledge of a principle is being tested.

Note in the previous example, knowledge of the sine of the 30-degree angle would have led some
students to use the sine formula for calculation even if a simpler approach would have sufficed.

Rule 15. Pack the question in the item. Here is an example of a question that has no question. Avoid it by all
means.

Example: The Roman Empire _________

a. had no central government b. had no definite territory
c. had no heroes d. had no common religion

Rule 16. Use of “None of the above” option only when the keyed answer is totally correct. When the choice of
the “best response is intended, “none of the above” is not appropriate, since the implication has already been
made that the correct response may be partially inaccurate.

Rule 17. Note that the use of “all of the above” may allow credit for partial knowledge. If a student only knew
that two (2) options were correct, he could then deduce the correctness of “all of the above”. This assumes
you are allowed only one correct choice.

Rule 18. Better still use “none of the above” and “all of the above” sparingly but best not to use them at all.

Rule 19. Having compound response choices may purposely increase the difficulty of an item.

The difficulty in a multiple choice item may be controlled by varying the homogeneity or degree of
similarity of responses. The more homogeneous, the more difficult the item is because they all look the correct
answer.

Example: Less Homogeneous: Thailand is located in _____.

a. Southeast Asia b. Eastern Europe c. South America
d. East Africa e. Central America

More Homogeneous: Thailand is located next to _____.

a. Laos and Kampuchea b. India and China c. China and Malaya
d. Laos and China e. India and Malaya

C. Matching Type - A matching type test is useful in measuring factual

information as well as relationships between two things, ideas, or concepts. It
reduces guessing to the minimum as compared to the alternative response test.
The matching type items may be considered modified multiple choice items
where the choices progressively reduce as one successfully matches the items
on the left with the items on the right.

Guidelines for Constructing Matching Type of Test

Rule 1. Match homogeneous not heterogeneous items. The items to match must be homogeneous. If you
want your students to match authors with their literary works, in one column will be authors and in the second
column must be literary works. Do not insert nationality for instance with names of authors. That will not be a
good item since it is obviously wrong.

Example of homogeneous items. The items are all about Filipino heroes, nothing more.

Instruction: Match the items in Column A with the items in Column B.

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Perfect Matching Type - The number of premises in Column A is less than the number of responses in
Column B. The response can only be used once.

Example:

Column A Column B

___1. First President of the Republic a. Magellan

___2. National Hero b. Mabini
___3. Discovered the Philippines c. Rizal
___4. Brain of Katipunan d. Lapu- Lapu
___5. The Great Painter e. Aguinaldo
___6. Defended Limasawa Island f. Antonio Luna
g. Juan Luna

Rule 2. The stem (longer in construction than the options) must be in the first column while the options
(usually shorter) must be in the second column.

Rule 3. The options must be more in number than the stems to prevent the student from arriving at the
answer by mere process of elimination.

Rule 4. To help the examinees find the answer easier, arrange the options alphabetically or chronologically,
whichever is applicable.

Rule 5. Like any other test, the direction of the test must be given. The examinees must know exactly what to
do.

Matching type items, unfortunately, often test lower order thinking skills (knowledge level) and are
unable to test higher order thinking skills such as application and judgement skills

Imperfect Matching Type - The number of premises in Column A are not equal to the number of the
responses in Column B, or the other way around. The response or the premise can be used more than
once.

Example: In column 1 are works and writings in American Literature and in Column 2 are their authors. Write
the letter of the author which corresponds to his work on the blank provided before each author. In some
cases, an answer may be repeated.

Column A Column B
1. The Alhambra A. Cooper
2. The Pioneers B. Dana
3. The Guardian Angel C. Emerson
4. Two Years Before the Mast D. Holmes
5. Moby Dick E. Irving
6. The world in a Man of War F. James
7. The Last of the Mohicans G. Merville
8. The American Scholar H. Mark Twains (Clemens)
9. The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table I. Wharton
10. Tom Sawyer

D. Supply Type or Constructed - Response Type of Test

Another useful device for testing lower order thinking skills is the supply type of tests. Like the multiple
choice test, the items in this kind of test consist of a stem and a blank where the students would write the
correct answer.

Example: The study of life and living organisms is called __________.

The supply type of tests depends heavily on the way the stems are constructed. These tests allow only
one answer and, hence, often test only the students’ recall of knowledge.

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Guidelines for the Formulation of a Completion Type of Test

The following guidelines can help you formulate a completion type of test, the fill-in-the blank type.

Rule 1. Avoid over-mutilated sentences like this test item. Give enough clues to the student.

Example: The ____ produced by the ____ is used by the green ____ to change the ____ and ____ into
____. This process is called ____.

Rule 2. Avoid open-ended item with numerous possible answers. There should be only one acceptable
answer.

Example: Ernest Hemingway wrote ____.

Rule 3. The blank should be at the end or near the end of the sentence. The question must first be asked
before an answer is expected. Like matching type of test, the stem (where the question is packed) must be in
the first column.

Rule 4. Ask a question on a more significant item, not a trivial matter.

Example: Jose Rizal was born on June ____, 1861.

 There are other more significant items to ask for other than a specific birthdate.

Rule 5. The length of the blanks must not suggest the answer. So better make the blanks in uniform size.

Example: A part of speech that names persons, places, or things is _____.

A word used to connect clauses or sentences or to coordinate words in the same clause is
________________.

E. Essays - It is classified as non-objective tests, allows for the

assessment of higher order thinking skills. Essay tests require
students to organize their thoughts on a subject matter in coherent
sentences to inform an audience. In essay tests, students are
required to write one or more paragraphs on a specific topic.

Types of Essay

1) Restricted essay / restricted response item - It is referred to as short focused response. This is
like an extended form of short answer type objective test. There is a limit on both the content, scope,
and the form of student response. It is most useful in measuring learning outcomes that require the
interpretation and application of data in a specific area.

Examples: How are the scrub jay and the mockingbird different? Support your answers with details and
information from the article.

What are the main parts of a plant? Describe each part.

2) Non-restricted / extended response item - Extended responses can be much longer and more
complex than short responses, but the students are encouraged to remain focused and organized. The
student is generally free to select any factual information that can help in organizing the response. The
content of an essay will depend on the analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and other higher-order thinking
skills of the test takers.

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 Example 1:

Robert is designing a demonstration to display at his school’s science fair. He will show how
changing the position of a fulcrum on a lever changes the amount of force needed to lift an
object. To do this, Robert will use a piece of wood for a lever and a block of wood to act as a
fulcrum. He plans to move the fulcrum to different places on the lever to see how its placement
affects the force needed to lift an object.

Part A. Identify at least two other actions that would make Robert’s demonstration better.
Part B. Explain why each action would improve the demonstration.

Example 2: Comment on the term “new normal” that refers to the environmental condition and climate
change.

Note that all these involve the higher-level skills mentioned in Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Guidelines for the Formulation and Scoring of Essay Tests

Rule 1: Phrase the direction in such a way that students are guided on the key concepts to be included.
Specify how the students should respond.

Example: Use the information from the article, “Hundred Islands”. For a complete and correct
response, consider these points:
 Its history (10 pts)
 Its interesting features (10 pts)
 Why it is considered a landmark (5 pts)

Rule 2: Inform the students of the criteria to be used for grading their scores. This rule allows the students to
focus on relevant and substantive materials than on peripheral and unnecessary facts and bits of information.

Example: Write an essay about the topic: “Plant Photosynthesis” using the keywords indicated. You will
be graded according to the following criteria:
o Coherence
o Accuracy of statements
o Use of keywords
o Clarity
o Extra points for innovative presentation of ideas

Rule 3: Put a time limit on the essay test.

Rule 4: Decide on your essay grading system prior to getting the essays of your students.

Rule 5: Evaluate all of the students’ answers to one question before proceeding to the next question.

Scoring or grading essay tests question by question, rather than student by student, makes it possible
to maintain a more uniform standard for judging the answers to each question. This procedure also helps
offset the halo effect in grading. When all the answers on one paper are read together, the grader’s
impression of the paper as a whole is apt to influence the grades he assigns to the individual answers. Grading
question by question prevents the formation of this overall impression of a students’ paper. Each answer is
more apt to be judged on its own merits when it is read and compared with other answers to the question,
than when it is read and compared with other answers by the same student.

Rule 6: Evaluate answers to essay questions without knowing the identity of the writer.

This is another attempt to control personal bias during scoring. Answers to essay questions should be
evaluated in terms of what is written, not in terms of what is known about the writers from other contacts with
them. The best way to prevent our prior knowledge from influencing our judgment is to evaluate each answer
without knowing the identity of the writer. This can be done by having the students write their names on the
back of the paper or by using code numbers in place of names.

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Rule 7. Whenever possible, have two or more persons grade each answer.

The best way to check on the reliability of the scoring of essay answers is to obtain two or more
independent judgments.

Rule 8. Do not provide optional questions.

It is difficult to construct questions of equal difficulty and so the teacher cannot have a valid
comparison of students’ achievement.

Rule 9. Provide information about the value/weight of the question and how it will be scored.

Rule 10. Emphasize higher-level thinking skills.

Example: Scientists have found that oceans can influence the temperature of nearby landmasses.
Coastal landmasses tend to have more moderate temperatures in summer and winter than inland
landmasses of the same latitude. Why is this so?

References:

Buendicho, F. (2010). Assessment of Student Learning 1. Rex Book Store. Sampaloc, Manila.

Gutierrez, D. (2007). Assessment of Learning Outcomes (Cognitive Domain) Book 1. Kerusso Publishing House.
Malabon, Metro Manila.

Navarro, R & Rosita G. (2012). Assessment of Learning Outcomes. 2nd edition. Lorimar Publishing Inc. Quezon
City, Metro Manila.

Navarro R. L et. al (2019). Assessment in Learning. 4th edition. Cubao, Quezon City, Metro Manila. Lorimar
Publishing Inc.

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