BASIC CONCEPTS

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Teaching and assessment are two complicated activities which could enhance
confusion. Such confusion makes some teachers not so concerned with the characteristics of
similar things involved in teaching and assessment. Take for example, two English language
teachers possibly express that no different characteristics between assessment and test. They
are frequently used interchangeably. A language teacher should have comprehensive
understanding about basic concepts commonly used in teaching and assessment. Such an
understanding is obviously useful in, for instance, determining the types of test instruments
appropriate to teaching and assessment purposes. The use of test instruments suitable with
target competencies will contribute beneficial backwash of evaluation (or in competency-
based curriculum “assessment”) to teaching. Therefore, it is necessary that the students have
a wide-range understanding about basic concepts technically used in assessment, the
relationship between assessment and teaching, backwash effects of assessment on language
teaching, the purpose of assessment, and the significance of an assessment.
To avoid confusion dealing with the use of technical terms, detail explanation is
presented in Section 1.2 below.

1.2 BASIC CONCEPTS

Gronlund (1985) defines that evaluation, in the context of educational measurement,
consists of placing a value on something on the basis of standards that have been set up.
Evaluation is the systematic process of collecting, analyzing and interpreting information to
determine the extent to which pupils are achieving instructional objectives. Print (1991) states
that evaluation is the highest level in the hierarchy and is based on assessment interpretations.
According to Linn and Gronlund (1995), assessment is a general term involving a set of
procedures used to get information dealing with students achievement and progress, like
observations, scales, or written tests. Assessment emphasizes on the performance of the
actual and complex tasks. Abbot, et al. (1989) clarify that assessment includes any means of
checking what students can do with the language. It also includes checking what they cannot
do, but proper assessment gives due weight to the positive side of their achievement.
Assessment may be carried out before, during or after a course, or it may not even be
connected with a course. Assessment may be of individual students, or it may be to check the
capabilities of a whole class. This means that assessment is concerned with the quality of
teaching as well as the quality of learning. Assessment includes a whole range of activities
from the informal short test on last night’s homework to the formal external examination
which crowns several years of study.
Measurement is the activity of giving mark or score to a test result. Tinambunan
(1988) defines that measurement is a process of assigning numbers to the individual members
of a set of objects or persons for the purpose indicating differences among them in the degree
to which they possess the characteristic being measured. It indicates that measurement is an
operation performed on the physical world by an observer. It is also the assignment of
numerals to objects or events according to rules. Measurement applies to the properties of
objects rather than to the objects themselves. Measurement of the psychological attribute
occurs when a quantitative value is assigned to the behavioral sample collected by using a
test. In other words, a measurement has been taken when the psychologist tallies the number
of “socially dominating” acts on the checklist that a child displayed during a five-minute
observation period, or when the chemistry instructor counts the number of items a student
answered correctly and records the total score. From such measurements of observable
behavior, the test developer draws an inference about the amount of the theoretical construct
that characterizes an individual. Gronlund (1985) defines that measurement is the process of
assigning numbers to individuals or their characteristics according to specific rules.
Measurement requires the use of numbers but does not require that value judgment be made
about the numbers obtained from the process. Measurement is useful for describing the
amount of certain abilities that individuals have.
Test is a type of assessment which specifically consists of several questions applied
during a period of time, that is, from the beginning to the end of learning activities which
primarily focuses on the comparison of learning achievement among the learners.
Djiwandono (1996) states that a test is an instrument (tool), procedure or a set of activities
employed to obtain the sample one’s behavior describing his or her capability in a certain
instructional activity. By conducting a test, it is expected that a teacher get representative
information dealing with the learner’s behavioral change or learning output.
Tests represent one particular measurement technique. It is an instrument or
systematic procedure for measuring a sample of behavior. A test is a set of questions, each of
which has a correct answer. All tests are a subset of the quantitative tools or techniques that
are classified as measurements. And all measurement techniques are a subset of the
quantitative and qualitative techniques used in evaluation.
Language testing involves the assessment of some or all aspects of the language
ability of individuals in some context (not necessarily that of a language class) and for some
sets of purposes (not necessarily common to all parties). Testing is sometimes used almost
interchangeably with assessment and in this spirit is taken here as a broad cover term for both
formal and informal assessment procedures. For some people, testing is used more narrowly
to denote only those formal modes of assessment that are officially scheduled, with clearly
delimited time on task and strict limitations on available guidance (Allison, 1999).
Above all, the hierarchy is as follows:

Evaluation

Assessment

Measurement

Test

After understanding some basic concepts in evaluation and assessment, you are to
know the interdependency between assessment and teaching. It is clearly described in Section
1.3.