UNIT I : Perspectives on Assessment and Evaluation

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Assessment and Evaluation in Education -Purposes of Factors to be considered for successful

Evaluation
Types of evaluation-Formative and
Summative, Outcome Evaluation, Process
Evaluation, Self Evaluation, Peer Evaluation,
Product Evaluation, External Evaluation,
Internal Evaluation and Objective based
Evaluation.
Brief introduction to Instructional objectives
as the basis of scientific evaluation-Bloom’s
taxonomy of educational objectives;
Domains of learning – cognitive, affective
and Psycho motor.(Learn optional Notes)
assessment
Current practices in assessment and
evaluation –CCE- concept, need and
relevance, Grading system- concept, types -absolute
grading, direct grading and relative
grading, merits and demerits. Grade Point
Average, Cumulative Grade Point Average,
Weighted average and weighted score/point.
Classification of learners according to their
level of performance in Grading system (By
giving letter grades such as: A+, A, B+,B
etc.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Measurement is the process of assigning numbers to a set of persons or objects according to certain
established rules. Measurement is the process of determining the quantity of something. In education it
is expressing in quantitative terms the degree to which a pupil possesses a given characteristic.
Measurement in education is a much complex process than in physical sciences.
Testing is a procedure in which a sample of an individual’s behavior is obtained, evaluated and scored
using standardized procedures and tests are device used for this. Tests are tools that can contribute
importantly to the process of evaluating students, curriculum and teaching methods. Testing is often
considered synonymous to assessment, which is not true. There is difference between testing and
assessment. Often test results are considered as the only criterion for evaluation and other educational
decisions. Mostly performance on tests can be generalized to non-test behaviours also. Testing is the
not the end point of assessment but rather a part of the broad assessment process.

Educational assessment is the process of documenting, usually in measurable terms, knowledge,

skills, attitudes, and beliefs. Assessment is any systematic procedure for collecting information that
can be used to make inferences about the characteristics of people or objects. It should lead to increased
understanding of these characteristics. Testing uses only one systematic method of collecting
information and are therefore is one tool for assessment. So assessment is a broader, comprehensive
process than testing. It can focus on the individual learner, the learning community (class, other
organized group of learners), the institution, or the educational system as a whole. The term assessment
is generally used to refer to all activities teachers use to help students learn and to gauge student
progress.

Assessment: Assessment is the change or development in the behavior of the student as a result of instruction.
This change can be physical, psychological, social, attitudinal, personality, changes in interest etc. Since
education aims at the all round development of the child, evaluation is used for assessing the all round changes in
the children. For this assessment of change the teacher has to conduct pre-test before instruction to find the
pupil’s entry behavior. Instruction brings about changes in the behaviour of the child. Then the child is exposed
to post-testing to find the terminal behavior of the child. The difference between the post-test score and the pre-
test score gives an assessment of the students’ growth or progress as a result of instruction.
Assessment is an integral component of the teaching process. It has been estimated that teachers
devote one third of their professional time in assessment related activities. Assessment provides
relevant information that both enhances instruction and promotes learning. In other words there is a
close reciprocal relationship between instruction learning and assessment. With this expanded
conceptualization of teaching, instruction and assessment are integrally related, with assessment
providing objective feedback about what the students have learned, how well they have learned it, how
effective the instruction has been, and what information concepts and objectives require more attention.
Instead of teaching being limited to an instruction-learning process, it is conceptualized more
accurately as an instruction-learning-assessment process. In this the goal of assessment like that of
instruction, is to facilitate student achievement.
Characteristics of Assessment
• Assessment assesses the student progression and guides us in decision making.
• Assessment focuses on learning and teaching outcomes.
• It is used to drive instruction. It is the basis for improvement.
• Assessment is done at multiple levels - classroom, institution, programmes, and courses.
• Assessment helps in bringing about changes in the learning environment.
• Assessment uses internally defined criteria and brings changes according to the circumstances.
• Assessment is flexible. It is formative, internal, process oriented and diagnostic in nature.
Basic assumptions in educational assessment:
1. Educational constructs exist and can be measured. The measurement need not be perfect.
2. There are different ways to measure any given educational construct.
3. All assessment procedures have strength and limitations.
4. Multiple sources of information should be part of the assessment process.
5. Assessments can be conducted in a fair manner.

Three Levels of Assessment

➢ Assessment as learning - Assessment as learning occurs when students reflect on and monitor
their progress to inform their future learning goals. ‘Assessment as learning’ is perhaps more
connected with diagnostic assessment and can be constructed with more of an emphasis on
informing learning. Assessment as learning generates opportunities for self assessment and for
peer assessment. Students take on increased responsibility to generate quality information about
their learning and that ofothers– • Teacher and student co-construct learning • Teacher and
student co-construct assessment • Teacher and student co-construct learning progress map
Assessment for learning and assessment as learning activities should be deeply embedded in
teaching and learning and be the source of iterative feedback, allowing students to adjust,
rethink and re-learn.
➢ Assessment for learning- Assessment for learning occurs when teachers use inferences about
student progress to inform their teaching. The assessment for learning involves increased levels
of student autonomy, but not without teacher guidance and collaboration. The assessment for
 learning is sometimes seen as being akin to ‘formative assessment’ and can be seen as
informing teaching. There is more emphasis towards giving of useful advice to the student and
less emphasis on the giving of marks and the grading function– • Teacher designs learning •
Teacher designs assessment with feedback to student • Teacher assesses what has been learnt
(student develops insight into what has not)

➢ Assessment of learning - Assessment of learning occurs when teachers use evidence of student
learning to make judgements on student achievement against goals and standards. Most
commonly, assessment is defined as a process whereby someone attempts to describe and
quantify the knowledge, attitudes or skills possessed by another. Teacher directedness is
paramount and the student has little involvement in the design or implement of the assessment
process in these circumstances– • Summative • Teacher designs learning • Teacher collects
evidence • Teacher judges what has been learnt (and what has not)

➢ Assessment in Learning - The assessment in learning places the question at the centre of
teaching and learning. It deflects the teaching from its focus on a ‘correct answer’ to focus on
‘what is the way to obtain the correct answer’. Through the inquiry, students engage in
processes that generate feedback about their learning, which come from multiple sources, and
activities. It contributes to the construction of other learning activities, lines of enquiry and the
generation of other questions– • Student at the centre of learning • Student monitors, assesses
and reflects on learning • Student initiates demonstration of learning (to self and others) •
Teacher as coach and mentor Teachers and students need to understand the purpose of each
assessment strategy so that the overall assessment ‘package’ being used by learners and teachers
accurately captures, generates and uses meaningful learning information to generate deep
learning and understanding.

Purpose of Assessment

• To ascertain what learning, change and progress takes place in the child over a period of time in
different subjects of study and other aspects of the child’s personality.

• To find out the needs and learning style of every learner.

• To devise a teaching-learning plan that is responsive to the individual needs and learning styles.

• To improve the teaching-learning materials by adding value.

• To help every learner find out their interests, aptitudes, strengths and weaknesses so that the learner
can evolve effective learning strategies.

• To measure the extent to which curricular objectives have been realized.

• To enhance the effectiveness of the teaching-learning process.

• To record the progress of every learner and communicate it to parents and other stakeholders.

• To maintain a dialogue between the teacher and the student and also the parents as a collaborative
endeavor for overall improvement of the system.
• To involve the learners in the process through peer and self assessment.

Different stages in Assessment

Stage-1: Gathering information about and evidence of the extent of effectiveness of teaching and
learning We gather information in a variety of ways, using a number of tools. Observation,
conversation and discussion, assignments, projects, different types of tests etc are some of the methods
and tools we use for collecting information.

Stage-2: Recording of Information The information gathered has to be systematically recorded

because it constitutes not only rich inputs that have to be used for improving teaching and learning but
also evidence to support the conclusion we come to about the progress made by the students. In order to
make the recording effective, we must use different recording devices such as learner profile,
ancecdotal records, case studies, report books and both quantitative and qualitative data should be
collected.

Stage-3: Analysing and Reporting the Information Collected The recorded information constitutes
valuable feedback that the teacher, the student and the parents should use to enhance the learning
process. To do this, the gathered information has to be analysed periodically so that the teacher can
draw conclusions about how a child is learning and progressing.

Stage-4: Using the Information for Improvement Assessment should result in improvement.
Though the student, the teacher and the parents are all stakeholders in this paradigm, it is the teacher
who has to take the initiative to use the analysis of information on each learner to enhance learning.
This calls for reflective practices.

Evaluation is value judgment on an observation, performance test or indeed any data + evaluated by
placing a meaning in it relative to a standard norm or some other situation.

NCERT considers Educational Evaluation as the process of determining

1. The extent to which an objective is being attained.
2. The effectiveness of the learning experiences provided in the classroom.
Characteristics of Evaluation:
• Evaluation is a continuous, comprehensive process and forms an integral part of the total system of
education.
• Evaluation is a broader concept that involves academic and non academic aspects of education.
• Evaluation involves all means of collecting evidences on student behavior. It utilizes all tools and
techniques of evaluation.
• Evaluation includes both qualitative and quantitative observations.
• Evaluation is concerned with the total personality of the child and gives evidences for the child’s
personality development.
• Evaluation is based on accurate assessment and value judgments.
• Evaluation is based on pre-determined objectives and goals of education.
• Evaluation is subjective and personal.
• Evaluation is a co-operative process involving the pupils, teachers, parents and others.
• The scope of Evaluation is broad.
 Principles of Evaluation:
• Evaluation should be based on objectives and the evaluator should have knowledge about the
relationship between objectives, instruction and evaluation.
• Evaluation should not be confined to the tests results only. It should be based on data collected by
different assessment procedures.
• While evaluating the evaluator should always keep in mind the moral aspects of evaluation.
• Evaluation should be impartial and personal bias should not affect evaluation.
• The evaluator should consider the utility and limitations of a tool while selecting an evaluation
tool. The tools selected for evaluation should fulfill the aim of evaluation.
• Evaluation is not an end in itself; it is only a means to attain higher goals.

Uses of Assessment and Evaluation: Assessment and Evaluation provides information that help
educators make better educational decisions, it can benefit our educational institutions and society as
whole. Both are useful to the different persons involved in evaluation process - the teacher, student,
parents, administrator, planner, manager, supervisors etc.
• Appropriate assessment and evaluation procedures allow teachers to monitor student progress and
provide feedback.
• Assessment and Evaluation can provide information that allows teachers to modify and improve
their instructional practices. It provides feedback for the teacher regarding his teaching and the
learning experiences he provided for the students. Thus he can bring about the necessary changes
required.
• Educational assessments and Evaluations provide useful information to help educators select, place
and classify, compare and group students.
• In an era of increased accountability, policy makers and educational administrators are relying
more on information from educational assessments and evaluation to guide policy decisions.
• It also provides information that promotes self-understanding and helps students plan for the
future. It helps to diagnose the weakness and strength of pupils, for prediction and make provision
for giving guidance for the growth of students.
• It helps a teacher to find out the extent to which the objectives of education are attained.
• Students get to know about their strength and weakness and thus improve their performance.
Knowledge about their performance acts as a motivating factor for the students.
• It keeps the parents well-versed with the performance of their children which helps them to take
appropriate action for their improvement.
• It also helps the administrators, planners and supervisors to take appropriate decisions regarding
various aspects of education. E.g. curriculum development.
• It is used for research purposes.
Diagnostic and Prognostic use of Assessment: Assessment the process of collecting various data
about students can serve various purposes. The main purpose of assessment in education is that it forms
the basis of identifying the strength and weakness of students. Assessment can be either diagnostic or
prognostic based on whether it is used to identify the student's strength or weakness.
Diagnostic assessment: Assessment carried out to find the weakness of students i.e. learning
difficulties is known as diagnostic assessment. It mainly aims at finding the cause of learning
difficulties and providing remedial instruction. Diagnostic assessments can be done before and after
the instruction. Diagnostic assessment done before instruction (also known as pre-assessments)
provides instructors with information about student's prior knowledge and misconceptions before
beginning a learning activity. Diagnostic assessment done after instruction helps in understanding
how much learning has taken place after the learning activity is completed. Instructors usually build
concepts sequentially throughout a course. So if the students fail to grasp the concepts in a particular
area it may create learning gaps. This will make a student lag in his learning and decrease his
achievement. So it becomes very important for a teacher to conduct diagnostic assessment.
Diagnostic assessment is always followed by remedial assessment. It can be cyclic process of
diagnostic assessment remedial teaching diagnostic assessment remedial
teaching. Diagnostic assessment data may be done from:
• Summative assessments of the previous learning activity.
• Short assessments that focus on key knowledge and concepts like instant tests.
• Using an achievement test, intelligence test or a diagnostic test.
• Oral questioning and observation of the teacher.
• Cumulative record
Prognostic assessment: Prediction means telling something about future on the basis of present. A
prognosis is a prediction that is based on the information gathered now. Prognosis is a term denoting
the prediction of how a learner will progress in future. Education is the process of developing the innate
abilities of the students. So assessment also should fulfill this function of finding the innate abilities of
the students. It should identify the strength, capacities and potentialities of the students. The
identification of these innate abilities can help a student in perusing further studies or choosing a job.
This will help in predicting success in a career or course of study. Prognostic assessment can be used to
select students for a particular course or job. Prognostic assessment can be used in providing
educational and vocational guidance to students. It can be the basis for predicting how an individual
would behave in certain situations. Based on prognostic assessment one can provide enrichment
programmes and special training for students. Prognostic assessment can be done from:
• Intelligence tests can be used to predetermine one's success in academic achievement and various
professions.
• Aptitude test can be used to predict capacity and potential success in particular fields. E.g. teaching
aptitude test, differential aptitude test
• Vocational interest inventories
• Selection interviews.
• Entrance examinations.
• Achievement test can also be used for prognosis to a certain extent.
• Teachers observation or interview can also form a basis for finding the abilities of the students which can
be used for prediction
Evaluation of prognostic test
• Standardized prognostic tests have declined in use.
• Validity of most of the available prognostic test is low.
• Prognostic tests for general purpose are not really general.
• Prognostic tests for national use have limitations as they do not consider regional variations.

Placement: Evaluation is used for grading, promotion and placement in the same school and in other
institutions. When a school is large enough to have several groups at the same grade or level, a decision
must be reached on some grounds as to who goes into which group. This is based on the evaluation of
the students. Also evaluation helps in the grouping of students into different groups in homogeneous
grouping, when they are transferred from one school to another, etc. placement is done on the basis of
the present educational status of the student.

Difference between assessment and evaluation

Assessment Evaluation
Formative: ongoing to improve learning Summative: final to gauge quality
Process oriented: how learning is going on Product oriented: what has been learned
 Diagnostic: identify areas for improvement
Focuses on immediate teaching learning
outcomes
To drive instruction
Internally defined criteria and goals
Flexible: adjust as problems arise
Main goal is improvement
Strive for ideal outcomes
Focus on goals of student learning
Judgmental: judge the overall performance
Focuses on grades or marks
To rate a student
Externally imposed standards
Fixed: changes are not made usually
Goal is reward, success, failure, punish, pass etc.
Divide better from the worse
Focus on all major goals of a programme or course

TYPES OF ASSESSMENT: There are different types of assessment on the basis of various aspects of
assessment. The different types of assessment are described below.
A.) Based on the Time of Assessment - Formative and Summative Assessment - Horner Michael
Scriven in 1967 coined the terms Formative and Summative Evaluation. He used the terms in his essay
Methodology of Education to refer to the assessment of an instructional programme that have been
completed as Summative and that which is going on and can be modified as Formative.
Formative Assessment - Formative assessment is the assessment of the students at every stage of the
instructional process. It goes on along with the instructional process at very short intervals. The tests
used are called formative tests. It can be used to monitor learning progress during instruction and
provide feedback to the student and teacher. It is helpful to the teacher to make adjustments and adapt
to the learning process. It provides immediate feedback. Feedback to the student gives reinforcement
of successful learning. Feedback to the teacher makes modify instruction. Teacher can arrange remedial
programme on the basis of feedback.
❖ Formative Evaluation is concerned with judgements made during the design and or
development of a programme which are directed towards modifying, forming or
otherwise improving the programme before its completed.”
❖ “Formative evaluation occurs over a period of time and monitors student progress’’
W. Wiersma and S.G Jurs Write
Characteristics of Formative Evaluation

1. Formative evaluation is a done during an instructional programme

2. The instructional programme should aim at the attainment of certain objectives during the
implementations of the programme also.
3. Formative Evaluation is done to monitor learning and modifying the programme if needed before
its completion.
4. Formative Evaluation is for current students.
5. It relatively focuses on molecular analysis.
6. It is cause seeking
7. It is interested in the broader experiences of the programme uses.
8. Its design is exploratory and flexible.
9. It tends to ignore the local effects of the particular programme.
10. It seeks to identify influential variable.
11. It requires analysis of instructional material for mapping the hierarchical structure of the learning
tasks and actual teaching of the course for a certain period.

Summative Evaluation - Summative evaluation describes judgments about the merit of an already
conducted instructional programme i.e. at the end of a unit, month, term, semester or course. It is done
mainly to find whether the final product is upto the expected standards, had the process gone according
to the plan, what has been achieved at the end. The tests used for summative evaluation is called
summative tests. Summative evaluation results can be used to assign grades, marks, certify pupils
achievement etc.
1. “Summative Evaluation describes judgements about the merits of an already
completed programme, procedure or product.’’
According to A.J. Nikto (1983)
1. “Summative evaluation is done at the conclusion of instruction of measures the
extent to which students have attained the desired outcomes.’’
W. Wiersma and S.G. Gurs (1990)
Characteristics of Summative Evaluation
1. It tends to the use of Well-defined evaluation designs
2. It focuses on analysis
3. It provides descriptive analysis
4. It tends of stress local effects.
5. It is unobtrusive and non reactive as far as possible.
6. It is concerned with broad range of issues.
7. Its instruments are reliable and valid.

Formative evaluation Summative evaluation

Conducted when teaching learning process goes Conducted at the end of the process, course,
on year, unit, and semester.
Conducted daily Conducted weekly, monthly or yearly
Design is exploratory and flexible Well defined instructional designs
Is internal assessment Can be internal or external assessment
Data gathered by observation, oral questioning, Data gathered by unit test, achievement test,
discussions, quizzes, assignments etc. examinations etc.
Usually adopts criterion referenced approach Usually adopts norm referenced approach but
can be criterion referenced also.
Provides immediate feedback for teacher and No immediate feedback
students
Developmental in nature, caters to day to day Mainly judgmental in nature, to judge the
improvement merit of overall instruction
Detailed information is required Less detailed information gathered
Provide a feedback to the teacher and student Provide a feedback to the teacher and student
about how things is going on about how things went
It has limited scope It has wide scope
B.) CONTEXT: INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT - External assessment fails to
assess the all round development of the students i.e. their knowledge, attitude, skills, values etc. Even in
area of assessment of the knowledge of the students, it has come under heavy criticism. Here lies the
importance of internal assessment.
External assessment - External assessment is that which is carried out by an external agency usually at
the end of a course or year or semester. It is mainly the system of examinations conducted by a board of
examinations who are not directly involved in the teaching learning process. E.g. Entrance
 examinations, CBSE board examinations. It is mainly used to assess the scholastic achievement of the
students and certify their level of achievement. It provides an independent assessment of the students.
Internal assessment - Internal assessment is done internally by the teacher of the same institution who
is directly involved in the teaching learning process. In this form of assessment the teacher will be the
person who conduct the whole process of assessment - setting question paper, collecting data, scoring
and analyzing data, providing grades or marks. It is a Continuous process which is formative in nature -
that which is done throughout the instructional process. It helps in providing immediate feedback for
the students and develops proper study habits in students. It also motivates them. It is diagnostic in
purpose and helps in improving the instructional process.
Limitations of internal assessment -
 Can be misused by the teachers
 Requires experienced ,honest and sincere teachers
 Cannot replace external exam
 Requires a lot of time to undertake several activities

Blue-print of internal exam

▪ Scholastic aspects - Curricular area& intelligence.
▪ Non-scholastic aspects - Personal and social habits, Interests, Attitudes, Physical health.
▪ Co-curricular activities - Literary and scientific activities, Cultural activities, Outdoor
activities and other productive activities.
In-spite of the theoretical superiority of continuous internal assessment cannot replace external assessment. Both
internal and external assessment is equally important as the same sides of the same coin. But both have a part to
play in a good assessment system and should be used together.

Comparison of Internal and External assessment

Aspects External Assessment Internal Assessment

Objective Assess level of achievement Improve level of achievement

Coverage Only scholastic aspects Both scholastic and non scholastic

aspects

Nature Summative and rigid Formative and flexible

Evaluation techniques Written and practical exams Psychological tests, interviews,

observation

Evaluation tools Question papers Rating scales and schedules also

Periodicity After the end of a stage of Continuous process

education

Quality of Assessment Uniformity of practice and Standard of assessment depends on

standards maintained in all the teacher
schools
Organizational structure Top-heavy administrative Teacher operated and informal
structure

Examinee status Merely a roll number Human being with distinct

personality

Teacher status Insignificant and usually a Trusted and active individual

mistrusted tool
Teacher student Does not affect and not Affects and is affected by teacher
relationship affected by teacher student student relationship
relationship
Use of the result The result can be used for The result used to improve the
promotion, selection, teaching learning process,
comparison of schools, diagnostic purpose and as a part of
students, certification etc providing marks or grades

C.)PROCESS AND PRODUCT EVALUATION

The first distinction to make is in what is to measure: product or process or some combination of both.
Product refers to most of the cases some tangible object resulting from a persons performance.it can be
evaluated on the basis of its quality, appearance and conformance to pre-determined specifications or
some other criteria. Process refers to the procedures, methods used to arrive at that particular point,
which may or may not result at a final product. Process are more often more difficult to assess as it is
more subjective and complex in nature. They are usually evaluated on the basis of quality and
efficiency through observational techniques.
In assessment of a skill the important aspect of the skill is the process so we assess the process as a
measure of the process would give a more realistic and direct measure of the skill. Similarly if a
product is more important than the process then product evaluation is used. In certain situations the
process or how you do the job is not important the final product is more significant. In some other
situations it becomes very difficult to evaluate or assess the process, it becomes practically impossible
to measure them e.g. in most creative and artistic endeavours the final product can be easily judged but
the creative process involved usually defies exact definition and inspection. While in some cases the
process is more important e.g. while assessing a sales executive trainee his approach and attitude to
customers is more important in the initial stage than his final product of how many items he sold. In
some cases both product and the process is important e.g. painting a house. In some situations the
process has to be assessed at different stages and how it is carried out in each stage and also the final
product.
Process Evaluation A process evaluation looks of the actual development and implementation of a
particular program its establishes whether you’ve hit quantifiable Targets and implemented strategies as
planned. This types of evaluation can be very useful in determining whether a program should be
continued, expanded upon, refined or eliminated. A process evaluation looks at the actual development
and implementation of a particular program. It establishes whether you have hit quantifiable targets and
implemented strategies as planned. It is typically done at the end of the project and it looks at the
program from start to finish, assessing cause and effect relationships between the program components
and outcome. This type of evaluation can be very useful in determining whether a program should be
continued, expanded upon, refined or eliminated.
Process evaluation captures the HOW of a program. Process evaluation has been defined as the
evaluation that assesses the delivery of the program(Scheirer, 1994). Process evaluation identifies what
the program is and if it is delivered as intended both to the “right audience” and in the “right amount”.
The following questions (according to Scheirer) can guide a process evaluation:
Why is the program expected to produce its results?
For what types of people may it be effective?
In what circumstances may it be effective?
What are the day-to-ay aspects of program delivery?
Why Process Evaluation Is Important
Information from process evaluations is useful for understanding how program impact and outcome
were achieved and for program replication. Looking at outcomes – without analyzing how they were
achieved – fails to account for the human capital (over-worked staff) involved in getting to good
outcomes and the true costs of the program.
Evaluating the “input” (the very first column in a logic model) is just as valid as evaluating the last
columns about outcomes. It is called a “logic” model after all – and logically there is a chain of cause
and effect which means, if we have the right resources at the very beginning of the chain (inputs) than
we assume we will be able to get to the outcomes to which we aspire.
1. Process Evaluation (P): develop ongoing evaluation of the implementation of major strategies
through various tactical programs to accept, refine, or correct the program design (i.e. evaluation of
recruitment, orientation, transition, and retention of first year students).
a. purpose (1) provide decision makers with information necessary to determine if the program
needs to be accepted, amended, or terminated.
b. tasks (1) identify discrepancies between actual implementation and intended design
(2) identify defects in the design or implementation plan
c. methods (1) a staff member serves as the evaluator
(2) this person monitors and keeps data on setting conditions, program elements as they actually
occurred
(3) this person gives feedback on discrepancies and defects to the decision makers
i) To increase understanding of the details of exactly what to happening within a program.
ii) To help interpret impact/outcome evaluation findings for instance, if a program did not achieve
its outcomes, process Evaluation can help explain why.
iii) To identify best practice for sharing with other programs.
Benefits of Process Evaluation
• To increase understanding of the details of exactly what is happening within a program.
• To identify best practice for sharing with other program.
• To help interpret impact/outcome evaluation findings.
• For instance, if a program did not achieve its outcomes, process evaluation can explain why.
Product evaluation It is typically done at the end of the project and its looks at the program from start
to finish. Assessing cause and effect relationships between the programme components and outcomes.
Product evaluation is a kind of evaluation where the evaluator views and scores the final product made
and not on the actual performance of making that product. It is concerned on the product alone and not
on the process. It also focuses on achievement of the learner.
Product Evaluation (P): evaluation of the outcome of the program to decide to accept, amend, or
terminate the program, using criteria directly related to the goals and objectives (i.e. put desired student
outcomes into question form and survey pre- and post-). Loop back to the original objectives in the
Evaluation to see if and how these would be changed or modified based on the data.
a. purpose (1) decide to accept, amend, or terminate the program
b. task (1) develop the assessment of the program
c. methods (1) traditional research methods, multiple measures of objectives, and other methods
The learning competencies associated with products or outputs are linked with an evaluation with three
levels of performance. They are
 1.Beginner's level
2.Skilled level
3.Expected level
There are other ways to state learning competencies for product or outputs in the following
ways:
Level 1: Does the finished product or project illustrate the minimum expected parts or
functions? (beginner)
Level 2: Does the finished product or project contain additional parts and functions on top of
the minimum requirements which tend to enhance the find product? (skilled level)
Level 3: Does the finished product contain the basic minimum parts and functions, have the
additional features on top of the minimum and is aesthetically pleasing? (expert level)
Process vs. Product Assessment

Product evaluation is an evaluation student performance in a specific learning context. Example: -

School report card Process evaluation examines the experiences and activities involved in the learning
situation. Example: -Student- teacher interaction -Instructional methods -Teacher actions and so forth.

Process assessment focuses on the steps or procedures underlying a particular ability or task, i.e., the
cognitive steps in performing a mathematical operation or the procedure involved in analyzing a blood
sample. Because it provides more detailed information, process assessment is most useful when a
student is learning a new skill and for providing formative feedback to assist in improving performance.

Product assessment focuses on evaluating the result or outcome of a process. Using the above
examples, we would focus on the answer to the math computation or the accuracy of the blood test
results. Product assessment is most appropriate for documenting proficiency or competency in a given
skill, i.e., for summative purposes. In general, product assessments are easier to create than product
assessments, requiring only a specification of the attributes of the final product.

D.) SELF EVALUATION & PEER EVALUATION

Self Evaluation
Student Self-assessment is the process by which students must analyze their learning, provide feedback
to themselves and determine the ways to enhance their performance. Self-assessment is more accurately
defined as a process by which students
1) monitor and evaluate the quality of their thinking and behavior when learning and
2) identify strategies that improve their understanding and skills.
Student self-assessment is “the process by which the student gathers information about
and reflects on his or her own learning … [it] is the student’s own assessment of personal progress in
knowledge, skills, processes, or attitudes. Self-assessment leads a student to a greater awareness and
understanding of himself or herself as a learner”
“A self evaluation is our thoughtful and considered written review of our performance during the
evaluation cycle.”

 It is the looking at your progress, development and learning to determine what has improved
and what areas still need improvement.
 It involves rating established goals, competencies and overall performance.
Important aspects of self assessment
1. Goal-setting is a key component of both self-assessment and learning. The students should set their
own goals. Teachers commonly use the SMART acronym as a way of guiding students in the design of
a learning target. In this acronym: S-Specific, M-Measurable, A-Achievable or Attainable, R-Relevant
and T-Time-bound.
2. Self-monitoring involves focused attention to what they are doing, often in relation to external
standards.
3. Reflection occurs “when students think about how their work meets established criteria; they
analyze the effectiveness of their efforts, and plan for improvement”
4. Metacognition - Reflection can lead to “thinking about thinking” makes them better equipped to
employ the necessary cognitive skills to complete a task or achieve a goal.
5. Self-judgment judgments give students a meaningful idea of what they know and what they still
need to learn.
6. Feedback is information about ones' performance which forms the basis understanding of oneself,
what they know, what is achieved, what is to be achieved etc.
7. Instructional Correctives are strategies or ways to improve performance based on their self
evaluation and feedback.
Advantages of Self Evaluation
 Self-assessment, allows us to tap into student differences in order to see how our teaching can
respond to students needs.
 Self assessment is possible and helps to become an active participant in one's own evaluation.
 It helps to assess one's strength and weakness one need to improve or modify.
 Constructive participation is possible.
 It helps to increase the commitment of an individual in his/her goal , settings/achievement,
competency development and future career.
 Self-assessment by pupils, is becoming an essential component of formative assessment.
 Self-assessment promotes meta cognitive skills, increases student responsibility for learning and
reduces disruptive classroom behaviour.
 It helps students to assess their work realistically and accurately, teachers can help to promote
learning and self-confidence
 Student self assessment empowers students and incorporate increased dialogue between
students and teachers which enables students to critically analyze their own learning, the
product and process of learning, their performances.
 It provides information useful for the planning and student improvement.
 It indicates the strength and weaknesses of the teacher.
 It helps the teacher to think, reflect and write down the lack points.
 It helps the student better idea of the goals that they are trying to reach.
 Student can take responsibility of their own learning
 Students get a chance to predict their main targets for the coming year and think about their
career advancements.
Things needed to complete Self Evaluation
 Time
 Quiet
 Relax
 Highlight the highlights
 Don’t forget about achievements made early on the evaluation period.
 Don’t be stuffy
 Solicit feedback from co-workers
 Be objective
 Use appropriate language
 Suggest specific improvements
Role of Teacher
 The teacher should not target too many issues at a time for appraisal and action.
 By asking questions about students learning the teacher will gain information about how
students are understanding.
 Such an information will help the teacher to adjust his teaching students learn what he wants
them to.
 It helps the students to evaluate their own learning.
Teacher should keep in mind
 Clarity of the stated educational aims and learning outcomes.
 Realism of the stated prior knowledge.
 Curriculum and content perceptions of usefulness/relevance.
 Way in which the curriculum was presented.
 Development of subject specific skills.
 Appropriateness of method of assessment
 Appropriateness of the style of teaching and the performance of the teacher.
 Motivation/attitudes of the students.
 Support available to the students/coursebooks/resources for independent learning.
 Overall experience of the student of the teaching and support for learning.
Disadvantages
 Teacher feedback.
 Conciousness
 Format based plan
 Lack of maturity
 It works only is students have been trained to self asses themselves.
 Grading is a predetermined process but it is an average of the marks awarded by the members of
the group.
PEER EVALUATION Peer assessment or peer evaluation can mean many things a means of raising
the bar by exposing students to exceptionally good or bad solutions. Peer grading of home work,
quizzes, etc and an aid to improving team performance or determining individual effort and individual
grades. Process of collegial feedback on quality of learning. It is a process of gathering information and
evidence about the effectiveness of the peers learning and works with a view of constructive critical
scrutiny.
Process for Peer Evaluation of Teaching
 It should be based on the clear understanding of the particular context of learning or teaching.
 Dialogue between the reviewer and the person/persons whose work being reviewed provides
mechanism to improve.
 Reports based on review process provide contribution to purposes than an account of the single
events.
 It helps instructors to improve the quality of learning or teaching in their classroom and
department.
Application of Peer Review
 General teaching improvement of current instructors.
 Hiring
 Mentoring of junior instructors.
 Promotion or advancement decisions.
 Merit awards.
Components of Peer Evaluation
 In- class observation – in classroom students can be asked to observe their peer/teachers or
student teachers can observe their colleagues classes and provide feedback.
 Course material review- students feed-back on the curriculum
  Student evaluation- useful for information of how students respond to their instruction but they
are not qualified to assess content knowledge or modality of instruction.
 Ongoing evaluation- there is a repeated conversation and reflection by the instructor with
inputs from peers and students.
Advantages of Peer Evaluation
 peer assessment encourages deep learning.
 Peer assessment can help to develop clearer assessment criteria.
 Peer assessment is good way to generate timely feedback.
 It may lead to improvement in your other assessment practice.
 Peer assessment may reduce workload of teachers.
 Students become familiar with the school goals, values and problems.
 Students begin to deeply know the subject matter, curriculum, instructional material.
 Teachers are aware of the actual demand, limitations and opportunities. Teacher get proper
feedback.
 Involves the students into the teaching learning process
 Students would be more willing to accept the comments of their peers and thus lead to
improvement
 Indirectly it promotes the learning of students.
Disadvantages
 It is not easy. It is not realized properly if it is not done properly.
 It can create doubts about students evaluation abilities.
 It is not helpful for individuals who lack proper knowledge about the objectives and goals of the
task.
 It has not a proper trust as students may provide more grades for their friends and less for those
whom they dislike.
 Teachers work load can increase as the teacher has to re-check whether the students have done
peer evaluation correctly.
Criteria for Good Peer Evaluation
 Voluntary participation
 In-depth study
 Co-operation
 Respect.

Outcome Evaluation
Outcome based evaluation is a systematic way to assess the extent to which a program has achieved its intended
results. It identifies process and outcomes, shows relationship of inputs to expected results or outcomes, helps
identify the major questions the evaluation to answer.
The type of evaluation most commonly requested by foundations is called outcome evaluation. Outcome
evaluations assess the effectiveness of a program in producing change. Outcome evaluations focus on difficult
questions that ask what happened to program participants and how much of a difference the program made for
them. Outcome evaluations assess the effectiveness of a program in producing change. Process evaluations help
stakeholders see how a program outcome or impact was achieved. A process evaluation looks at the actual
development and implementation of a ... whether a program should be continued, expanded upon,
refined or eliminated. Impact or outcome evaluations are undertaken when it is important to know whether and
how well the objectives of a project or program were met. For example, outcome questions for a smoking
cessation program might include:
Did the program succeed in helping people to stop smoking?
Was the program more successful with certain groups of people than with others?
What aspects of the program did participants find gave the greatest benefit?
Outcome and Impact Evaluation Decide what outcomes you'd like to evaluate from your program. Generally,
interventions directed at nutrition and physical activity-related behaviors are not able to track the long-term
health benefits that may occur. You may need to assess proximal outcomes that you can use to make a case for
impacting health, for example, amount of fruits and vegetables eaten or amount of physical activity performed by
the target audience.
Advantages of outcome based evaluation
• Improves programs and services.
• Helps in decision making.
• Public and professional recognition as a quality program.
• Gain support from community.
• Determine cost effectiveness.

Objective Based Evaluation

Dr.Benjamin S. Bloom has explained “One has to know where the students were at the beginning if we were
to determine it and what changes are occurring. One has to obtain a record of the changes in pupils by using
appropriate methods of appraisal. One has to judge how good the changes are in the light of the evidence
obtained.” These words sum up the inter-relationship between objectives, learning experiences and
evaluation. This relationship is revealed by the three steps in the instructional procedures
1. Establishing the objectives to be attained.
2. Providing learning experiences appropriate to the objectives.
3. Evaluating to ensure that the desired objectives are attained.
Thus there is an integral relationship between learning experiences and evaluation in such a way that one
influences and strengthens the other. This is represented by the ‘Triangle of Evaluation’

Triangle of Evaluation

All the three are inter-related. Objectives of teaching constitute the pivot of any teaching procedure. Objectives
tells what the minimum level of the students eventual performance should be. Learning experiences are provided
in an effort to attain the objectives. Thus learning experiences and evaluation tools are choosen and planned
according to the formulated objectives. After providing the learning experiences evaluation is done. The
evaluation helps us in testing the effectiveness of the learning experiences and the attainment of objectives. We
modify the learning experiences if they are ineffective in attaining the objectives. The unattainable and
unrealistic objectives are modified or removed. Thus objectives, learning experiences and evaluation are
interdependent of each other.
Thus assessment conducted by pre-determining the objectives before assessment and determining the extent to
which it is attained is known as objective based assessment. Objective based evaluation is a process of
determining the degree to which educational objectives are being achieved. It follows scientific tradition. It
involves specifying and determining degree of attainment of program implementation, utilization and outcome
objectives. Objective oriented approaches focuses on evaluating to what degree the program, policy or product
met the objectives intended to meet.The evaluator focuses the evaluation plan - assessing the intended outcomes
related to the program objectives compares the results of the evaluation in regard to the objectives and makes a
judgement as to what degree the objectives were met based on the findings.
Many pre-requites are required for the teacher and learner before beginning an instruction. The teacher
must be aware of the goals and aims of education and more specifically about objectives of instruction. So his
first job will be to formulate the instructional objectives and based on that construct effective learning
experiences. At the end of instruction evaluation is done to find the extent to which the objectives are achieved.
Thus evaluation lays emphasis on the specification of instructional objectives and the variety of methods of
evaluating them.
The objectives of a particular teaching learning process i.e., instructional objectives can be classified as
given below.
Instructional Objectives

Cognitive Affective Psychomotor

Diverse methods are used to measure the objectives in each domain i.e., for cognitive domain objectives oral or
paper-pencil tests, intelligence tests, achievement tests, for affective domain objectives observation, checklist,
inventories, attitudinal scales and for psychomotor domain objectives performance tests, situational or field or
on-the-job tests are used. There are no clear cut boundaries between these objectives. So a combination of
methods and techniques are used to measure the outcomes of instruction. New innovative methods of evaluation
is developed to measure complex and comprehensive objectives. But the selection of any tool and technique for
evaluation depends on the objective to be tested. Thus instructional objectives become the basis for scientific
evaluation of pupils performance.
Advantages of objective based evaluation
• Provides for clarification and direction as to what observable outcomes can be used to inform the
judgement of the value and worth of the thing being evaluated.
• Holds the program accountable for the intended outcomes.
• Clarifies to the program developers the objectives of the program.
• Provides objectives which to compare the evaluation results for the purpose of forming a judgement.
• Highlights the most important components of the program in intended outcomes to evaluate.
Disadvantages of objective based evaluation
• It can result in too narrow a focus on the stated objectives.
• It can tend to focus on the outcomes rather than the process at times.
• It could miss unintended outcomes.

Factors to be considered for successful assessment

Assessment is usually described as The ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student
learning. It involves making our expectations explicit and public; setting appropriate criteria and high
standards for learning quality; systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting evidence to
determine how well performance matches those expectations and standards; and using the resulting
information to document, explain, and improve performance. When it is embedded effectively within
our institutional system, assessment can help us focus our collective attention, examine our
assumptions, and create a shared academic culture dedicated to assuring and improving the quality of
education.
Assessment is considered as the systematic collection and analysis of information to improve student
lifelong learning. Assessment is the process of gathering and discussing information from multiple and
diverse sources in order to develop a deep understanding of what students know, understand, and can
do with their knowledge as a result of their educational experiences; the process culminates when
assessment results are used to improve subsequent learning.
1. Developing learning goals and objectives: For any assessment to successful the fore most
important thing is to be clear about the purposes and define the intended outcomes as clearly stated
goals and objectives. The assessment tasks should be such that the students are able to demonstrate
achievement of the outcomes or in other words the assessment should agree to the learning goals
and objectives. For this the goals and objectives should be clearly defined and be measurable and
attainable.
2. Planning for assessment: Before starting assessment the nature and the approach for assessment
should be determined. It should be carefully design and planned how assessment would be carried
out, where and when, by whom and who will be assessed, how the results will be used. It can
involve development of guidelines; organizing for assessment (leadership, committees, assessment
offices); and developing an assessment plan. For assessment to be successsful it should result in
useful, applicable results and the methodology used to collect assessment data should be provide
valid and reliable measures.
3. Involving numerous stakeholders: A good assessment should involve many stakeholers like
faculty, staff, students, parents, alumini, community; involve people widelydiscusses the key issue
of involving faculty members and students in assessment. The authors rightly view involvement as
central to the success of academic assessment. They discuss ways of involving people,
responsibilities and rewards for assessment work, barriers to assessment, and ethical issues when
involving students.
4. Selecting and designing methods: There are two basic ways to collect data. One is a direct
approach which students display their knowl edge through testing or essays, while the other is an
indirect approach. Di rect approaches include such meth ods as student portfolios, capstone
courses, standardized tests, and in- class tests. Indirect measures includesuch items as student
retention rates, alumni satisfaction levels, and gradu ate employment indicators. While selecting
assessment techniques use simple but multiple meausre techniques to assess the complex process
of teaching learning. It should also give short and long term indicators and be qua;litative and
quantitative to include multifaceted levels. When selecting assessment methods:
1. Identify the current sources of data that are available for assessment.
2. Determine whether new instruments need to be developed or whether current instruments meet
assessment needs.
3. Study the assessment plans and methodologies of other universities and colleges.
4. Review handbooks of assessment if new methodologies are necessary.
5. Developing criteria to guide choice of methodology,
6. Ensuring that the technical qualities of reliability and validity are present, evaluating costs,
feasability etc.
5. Reporting and using results; After conducting assessment it is essential to study the results,
disseminate, and act on assessment findings. Once assessment results are available, the measured
outcomes should be compared with the expected outcomes. If they are not aligned, recommendations
from the findings can address specific steps to improve the outcomes. Explores ways of describing and
understanding the results and their implications. For example, results may be used to improve
instruction; to initiate curriculum discussion among faculty; to implement revision as necessary; or to
provide data for reporting to outside accrediting agencies. A systematic approach to assessment helps in
refining assessment measures, results in better measures, and provides comparative data for
improvement purposes. A report that presents the results and a process to share the results are the final
products of this step. this includes:
1. Identify the gaps between the measured outcomes and the expected outcomes. These gaps are
 the areas on which to focus.
2. Present assessment results in a clear, easy to understand manner.
3. Determine the stakeholders who will receive the information.
4. Identify how stakeholder suggestions and recommendations will be collected, considered and
in-corporated into course, program or service improvements.
6.Assessing the assessment program. Re-examine the assessment process on a regular basis to
confirm that the results are valid and reliable, and that they are meeting the needs of the University
community, including stakeholders. If assessment findings are not meeting the needs, the process may
need to be revised. The persons involved are those who has to do the review and recommend changes.
Changes to the process and the reasons for the changes should be documented. A thoughtful review of
the process used for assessment can lead to improvements in efficiency of the process, accuracy of the
findings, and usability of the results .
CURRENT PRACTICES IN ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION
CONTINOUS AND COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION
In the words of Indian Education Commission (1964-1966) :” Evaluation should concern itself with
pupils physical development, personality and character, social achievement, academic achievement and
achievements in various types of skills. ” The National Policy on Education 1986 had also stated that
CCE should incorporate both scholastic and non-scholastic aspects of evaluation spread over the total
span of instructional time.

Six areas with which the teacher requires information for adequate pupil evaluation.

1.scholastic achievement.
2.special abilities
3.Personal interests and plans:
4.Health and physical development.
5.Emotional and social adjustment.
6.Attitudes, character and personality.

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) refers to
a system of school-based evaluation of students that covers all aspects of a students’ development. It is
a developmental process of a child which emphasizes on two fold objectives. These objectives are
continuity in evaluation on one hand and assessment of broad based learning and behaviourial
outcomes on the other. The term ‘continuous’ is meant to emphasise that evaluation of identified
aspects of students ‘growth and development’ is a continuous process rather than an event, built into
the total teaching-learning process and spread over the entire span of academic session.

Comprehensive $ continuous evaluation (CCE) is an educational evaluation style used in India for
evaluating elementary and secondary school students. It refers to a system of school based evaluation of
students that covers all aspects of students development. The assessment system is designed to replaced
standardized board examination testing by evaluating students based on academic and personal
progress from the start of their education to its completion, or kindergarten through high school
graduation. Teachers evaluate scholastic performance, arts and sports involvement and personal and
social development It is a developmental process of assessment which emphasizes on two fold
objectives. These objectives are continuity in evaluation and assessment of broad based learning and
behaviourial outcomes on the other. Continuous and comprehensive evaluation is an approach that
aim at assessing those attributes which cannot be assessed through one attempt written
examinations. Evaluation is the process of finding out the extent to which the desired change have
taken place in the pupil.

Continuous evaluation helps in bringing awareness of the achievement to the child, teachers and
parents from time to time. They can look into the probable cause of the fall in achievement if any, and
may take remedial measures of instruction in which more emphasis is required. Many times, because of
some personal reasons, family problems or adjustment problems, the children start neglecting their
studies, resulting in a sudden drop in their achievement. If the teacher, child and parents do not come to
know about this sudden drop in the achievement and the neglect in studies by the child continues for a
longer period then it will result in poor achievement and a permanent deficiency in learning for the
child. The major emphasis of CCE is on the continuous growth of students ensuring their intellectual,
emotional, physical, cultural and social development and therefore will not viii be merely limited to
assessment of learner’s scholastic attainments. It uses assessment as a means of motivating learners in
further programmes to provide information for arranging feedback and follow up work to improve upon
the learning in the classroom and to present a comprehensive picture of a learner’s profile.

Concept and meaning of CCE

• It means regularity of assessment, frequency of unit testing, diagnosis of learning gaps, use of
corrective measures, retesting and feedback of evidence to teachers and students for their self
evaluation.
• The second term `comprehensive' means that the scheme attempts to cover both the scholastic and
the co-scholastic aspects of students' growth and development.
• Since abilities, attitudes and aptitudes can manifest themselves in forms other then the written word,
the term refers to application of variety of tools and techniques (both testing and non-testing) and
aims at assessing a learner's development in areas of learning like :
1)Knowledge,
(2)Understanding/Comprehension
(3)Applying
(4)Analyzing
(5)Evaluating
(6)Creating
• The scheme is thus a curricular initiative, attempting to shift emphasis from testing to holistic
learning.
• It aims at creating good citizens possessing sound health, appropriate skills and desirable qualities
besides academic excellence.
• It is hoped that this will equip the learners to meet the challenges of life with confidence and
success.
• Improvement in learning and diagnosis of weakness and provide remedial measures.
• Scholastic and non scholastic aspects of pupil growth are evaluated. CCE is formal evaluation in
school carried out by teacher.
• Use multiple techniques of evaluation such as written test oral test, observation techniques,
interviews, practical test etc.
The objectives of CCE are :

• To help develop cognitive, psychomotor and affective skills.

• To lay emphasis on thought process and de-emphasise memorization .
• To make evaluation an integral part of teaching-learning process .
• To use evaluation as a quality control devise to maintain desired standard of performance
• To use evaluation for improvement of students achievement and teaching – learning strategies on
the basis of regular diagnosis followed by remedial instruction
• To determine social utility, desirability or effectiveness of a programme and take appropriate
decisions about the learner, the process of learning and the learning environment
• To make the process of teaching and learning a learner-centered activity.

PRINCIPLE OF CONTINUITY
• The term continuous refers regularity in assessment. Evaluation is a continous process which is an
integral part of teaching.
• Evaluation goes on constantly during the lessons and units and is clearly related to teachers goal
and point of view on his teaching of the subject.
• It makes the student s regular, punctual and work systematically for the whole academic year.
• Both the teaching –learning process and the evaluation procedure go on together. Eg: language
learning
PRINCIPLE OF COMPREHENSIVENESS
• The term comprehensive refers to both scholastic and non-scholastic areas of pupil growth.
Evaluation is based on the principle of comprehensiveness.
• Thorough assessment of the personality of the student.
• It is different from examinations. Examination is only testing knowledge skills and abilities in a
systematic way.
Following are the constituents of evaluation.
1. formulation of aims.
2. changes in the behaviour pattern of the pupils through these aims.
3. To reliable tools to observe the behaviour pattern, knowledge and skill.

Features of CCE are:

• The ‘continuous’ aspect of CCE takes care of ‘continual’ and ‘periodicity’ aspect of evaluation.
• Continual means assessment of students in the beginning of instruction (placement evaluation) and
assessment during the instructional process (formative evaluation) done informally using multiple
techniques of evaluation.
• Periodicity means assessment of performance done frequently at the end of unit/ term (summative)
• The ‘comprehensive’ component of CCE takes care of assessment of all round development of the
child’s personality. It includes assessment in Scholastic as well as Co-Scholastic aspects of the pupil’s
growth.
• Scholastic aspects include curricular areas or subject specific areas, whereas coscholastic aspects
include Life Skills, Co-Curricular Activities, Attitudes, and Values.
• Assessment in scholastic areas is done informally and formally using multiple techniques of
evaluation continually and periodically. The diagnostic evaluation takes place at the end of a unit/term
test. The causes of poor performance in some units are diagnosed using diagnostic tests. These are
followed up with appropriate interventions followed by retesting.
• Assessment in Co-Scholastic areas is done using multiple techniques on the basis of identified criteria,
while assessment in Life Skills is done on the basis of Indicators of Assessment and checklists.

The functions of CCE are:

• It helps the teacher to organize effective teaching strategies.
• Continuous evaluation helps in regular assessment to the extent and degree of learner’s progress
(ability and achievement with reference to specific scholastic and co-scholastic areas).
• Continuous evaluation serves to diagnose weaknesses and permits the teacher to ascertain an
individual learner’s strengths and weaknesses and her needs. It provides immediate feedback to the
teacher, who can then decide whether a particular unit or concept needs re-teaching in the whole class
or whether a few individuals are in need of remedial instruction.
• By continuous evaluation, children can know their strengths and weaknesses. It provides the child a
realistic self assessment of how he/she studies. It can motivate children to develop good study habits, to
correct errors, and to direct their activities towards the achievement of desired goals. It helps a learner
to determine the areas of instruction in which more emphasis is required.
• Continuous and comprehensive evaluation identifies areas of aptitude and interest. It helps in
identifying changes in attitudes, and value systems.
• It helps in making decisions for the future, regarding choice of subjects, courses and careers.
• It provides information/reports on the progress of students in scholastic and co-scholastic areas and
thus helps in predicting the future successes of the learner.

ADVANTAGES OF CONTINOUS AND COMPERHENSIVE EVALUATION

1.Ascertains and progress of the students.

2.Inspires and motivates students.
3.diagnose the weaknesses of the students.
4.Given indication about the interests of the pupils.
5.Gradation of the students.
6.Helps in providing individual attention .
7.Helps in achieving the aims
8.Improves instruction.

DISADVANTAGES

1.Personal prejudices and subjectively are likely to creep in and thin may adversely affect the
quality of assessment.
2.Lack of basic infrastructure facilities of the school may negatively affect the right
assessment .
3.Its reliability and validity are questionable in view of several elements of subjectively.
4.It can’t replace standardised achievement test.
5. It requires lot of time and expenditure.
6. It requires honest and sincere teachers.
7. Lack of enthusiasm and interest of the teachers may adversely effective assessment

GRADING SYSTEM - Grading in education is the process of applying standardized measurement of

varying levels of achievement in a course. Grades can be assigned in letters(eg: A, B, C, D, E)
Grading system calls for providing letters grade to the students for their education achivements instead
of declaring them passed or faild or assigning numerical mark on a scale.
5-point scale categories i.e.
A= excellent;
B= good;
C= average;
D= below average;
E= poor.
 When students levels of performance are thus classified into a few classifactory units using letter
grades, the system of assessment is called grading system. It is simple to assign grading than the exact
numerical marking involving biases and subjectivity. Grading reduces the subjectivity and unreliability
on the part of examiners. Grading system provides sealing of the evaluation on a uniform basis.

Characteristics
➢ Students performance in scholastic areas is categorized into a point grade.
➢ References to pass and fail are not made.
➢ Rank and classes are not included
➢ students are allowed to improve their grades.
➢ Students level of performance are classified into a few classificatory units.
➢ Fundamentally a grade is a score.
➢ grading is considered to be more scientific way of evaluation.
➢ Identifies students performance level with a wide range.
➢ In grading classification is made on 5 point, 9 point scale.

Advantages
➢ In the grade system only 5,9 points scale system are adopted so the system in
comparatively more reliable.
➢ the achievement of different student can be easily compared.
➢ achievement of the student in different subjects can separately can be known.
➢ difference in difficulty level of the subjects is eradicated in this system.
➢ the educational abilities increase systematically with chronological age.

Disadvantages
➢ It lacks clear and generally accepted meaning.
➢ There is no sufficient ,relevant and objective evidence to use it a basis for assigning
grade.
➢ Grading system is difficult to classify students in terms of their performance on tests due
to large number of classificatory units.
➢ The scholars are not of uniform opinion.
➢ difficult to compare the grade awarded on different grade scales.
➢ the system is very sensitive.
➢ it is too subjective like the numeral system.

TYPES OF GRADING
➢ DIRECT GRADING - It is the process by which any given phenomenon with respects to
each individual of the group concerned, is adjudged by the evaluator in terms of the most
appropriate letter grade only without assigning scores. In examination situations, this would
involve awarding of particular grade to the answer for each individual question, on the basis of
its quality as judged by the evaluator.
 Advantages of direct grading
• Simplifies the process of assessment
• Makes a raw assessment on a raw scale
• Uses a uniform scale for the assessment of quality
• Separates assessment of quality and range
Disdvantages of direct grading
From the practical point of view, this process is not feasible for large scale examinations as in
our universities and boards.

➢ INDIRECT GRADING It is the process of awarding grades through marks. In this procedure
marks are first awarded as usual. The marks are awarded to the individual questions on the
basis of the prescribed marking scheme and the total score for the paper arrived at and The
conversion of marks in to grades, which is a technical matter is to be done in two ways,
absolute grading and relative grading
ABSOLUTE GRADING In absolute grading some fixed range of scores is determined in advance for
each grade. On the basis of this, the score obtained by a candidate in a subject is converted to the grade
concerned.
Advantages of absolute grading
• The performance of the students will not be affected by the performance of the whole
class.
• It promotes co-operation among the students
• All students may pass the subject or course when they meet the standard set by the
teacher or institution.
Disdvantages of absolute grading
 It promotes competition among the students rather than cooperation.
 It cannot be used when the class size is smaller than 40.
 Not all the student can pass the given subject or course.
RELATIVE GRADING - In relative grading, the grade range is not fixed. It can vary in tune with
the relative position of the candidates in the group that wrote the examination. Suppose a group is to be
divided in to five grades A,B,C,D,E in the case of a subject concerned, on the basis of the scores
obtained by the examinees in an examination. This system is considered a continuous assessment of
students performance. It builds competitiveness in students to stand out relatively as in absolute
grading system. It considers the dynamics of content quality in various institutions depending upon the
teacher and the resources available. It is a good option for students competing for the same position in
an exam.
GRADE POINT AVERAGE(GPA). All grades from all current classes are arranged to create a
Grade Point Average(GPA). Grade point average (GPA) is a raw score average based on the letter
grades you make each semester. Each letter grade is assigned a numerical value from 0-4 or 5 points,
depending on your institution's scale. To calculate GPA, you'll basically need to find your grading
scale, translate each letter grade to a corresponding numerical value within the scale, then average those
values to find your current GPA. GPA is calculated by taking the numbers of grade points a student
earned in a given period of time divided by the total numbers of grade points taken.
GPA=Total grade points/No. of grades
WEIGHTED GRADE POINT AVERAGE(WGPA). For some schools, especially college courses,
each course has a number of credit hours. Credit hours are units schools use to measure the work load.
Generally, credit hours are based on mode of instruction, number of hours spent inside the classroom,
and number of hours spent studying outside the class. Find out the number of credit hours assigned to
each course you are taking. Multiply each scale value grade by the number of credit hours to get the
weighted grade points. Add the weighted grade points for all of your classes together to calculate your
total grade points. Add together the number of credit hours you have taken in total to get the total
credits. Divide the total weighted grade points total by the credit hours total to get WGPA
WGPA=Total weighted grade points/Total Credits
Cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) refers to the overall GPA, which includes dividing the
number of quality points earned in all courses attempted by the total degree-credit hours in all
attempted courses. Your semester / term GPA is your Grade Point Average for that one term or
semester. Your cumulative GPA is you grade point average for all attempted courses in the program.
 How to calculated Cumulative GPA (CGPA)

Classification of learners according to their level of performance in Grading system (By giving letter grades
such as: A+, A, B+,B etc.
Classification of learners according to their level of performance in Grading system can be done two ways.
Grading on the curve.

The procedure is as follows:

• Rank order students’ overall scores

 • Set the percentages of letter grade As, Bs, Cs and so on that a student can fall into

• Divide the range of a normal curve into intervals

• E.g. top 20% of students get A, next 30% get B, next 30% get C, next 15% get
D, lowest 5% get F

• Record the grade for these set grade boundaries

• This method can be arbitrary, and does not give students or their parents any reference to
the learning targets. However, it can be useful with a sound argument to justify the
particular percentages used

Grading using pre-fixed grading scale: In this method the scale for grading will be pre-fixed. The
scale may be showing the grades corresponding to the different rages of percentage scores, total points
or CGPA. The different types in this method are

The fixed percentage method

The fixed percentage method is probably one of the most common systems used. To do this:

• Give a percentage correct score for each student for each task

• Multiply each task’s percentage by its corresponding weight and add these products
together

• Divide the sum of products by the sum of weights to get a composite percentage score

• Translate this final score to letter grade (a common one is above 95% is A+, 95% to
90% A 90 to 80% is B, etc.) based on the earlier fixed scale.

• Here, the relationship between percent and grade is arbitrary; it is helpful to follow any
existing school policy.

We may also have to adjust for task difficulty; if a particular assignment or assessment is
terribly difficult, all students may receive a low percentage score. This is one reason why it is
often better not to use pretests for grading purposes in such a system.

The total points method

The total points method is quite similar to the fixed percentage method.

• Assign a maximum point value for each task

• Sum these maximum points

• Translate this final score to a letter grade by using the maximum possible total values to
find the letter-grade from the class boundaries given in the grading scale. E.g. 10 to 9
grade A, 9 to 8 grade B, etc. )
 • This system is easy to adjust by having students redo and revise assignments, or by
giving extra credit points to students who wish to improve their final grade

The CGPA method

In this method the CGPA is found out and then it is converted into grades using the scale.

E,g,.

CGPA Overall Performance

Range Letter Grade

3.50 to 4.00 A Excellent

2.50 to 3.49 B Very Good

1.50 to 2.49 C Good

0.50 to 1.49 D Average

0.00 to 0.49 E Unsatisfactory

UNIT II: Tools and Techniques to assess Learner’s Performance
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General Techniques of Assessment- tests.
Observation, projects, assignments, Diagnostic Test and Achievement Test-
worksheets, practical work, seminars and Concept, Purpose and Distinction between
reports, Interview, Self reporting. the two tests, Steps involved in the
Tools of Assessment- tests, checklist, rating construction of an Achievement test and
scale, cumulative record, questionnaire, Diagnostic test, Types of items-Objective
inventory, schedule, anecdotal record concept, type, Short answer type and Essay type, Item
merits, demerits - relevance in the analysis-concept, Teacher made and
field of research Standardized Achievement tests.
Characteristics of a good evaluation tool validity • Online examination/Computer based
reliability, objectivity and practicability Examination, Portfolio assessment and
Norm-referenced tests and Criterion referenced Evaluation based on Rubrics
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General Techniques of Assessment-
Observation Observation means watching things with a purpose. Observation may be defined as a systematic
viewing of a specific phenomenon in the proper setting for the specific purpose of gathering data for a
particular study. Knowledge can be acquired through the use of sense organs. Observation has three
components namely sensation, attention, and perception. The observation method is also called classical
method scientific research.
Observation is a purposeful, systematic and selective way of watching and listening to an interaction or
phenomenon as it takes place. Example : To learn about the interaction in a group and study the behaviour or
personality traits of an individual. Observation is a more natural way of gathering information. Restrictions
imposed in questionnaire or interview are missing in observation. Data collected through observation may be
often more real and true than data collected by any other method.

Features Of Observation
 Direct method
 Primary data
 Deep study
 Relation between researcher and respondent
 Selective and purposeful study
 Use of sense organs
 Observation is carefully planned , systematic and perceptive.
 Observers are aware of the wholeness of what is observed.
 Observers are objective.
 Observations are carefully and expertly recorded.
 Observations are collected in such a way as to make sure that they are valid and reliable.

Process Of Observation
 Preparation and training
 Entry into study environment
 Recording of observation
 Termination of field work
Kinds Of Observation
 Controlled - Introducing a stimulus to the group for it to react to an observing the reaction. and
uncontrolled or natural observations - Observing a group in its natural operation rather than
intervening in its activities.
  Structured - observing in a very systematic way using a schedule, the things to be observed would be
pre-determined and unstructured observations the things to be observed would not be pre-
determined, whatever comes in the way is observed.
 Participant - The researcher participate in the activities of the group being observed in the same
manner as its members. and nonparticipant observations- The researcher do not get involved in
the activities of the group but remains a passive learner.
 Direct using our sense organs and indirect observations using mechanical devices.
Advantages of observation
 Directness is the most important advantage of observation method
 It is one of the cheaper and more effective techniques of data collection
 Subjective bias is eliminated,if the observation is done accurately
 The information obtained under this method relates to what is currently happening
 Data collected is very accurate in nature and also very reliable.
 Problem of depending on respondents is decreased.
 By using good and modern gadgets- observations can be made continuously and also for a larger
duration of time period.
 By obervation, one can identify a problem by making an in depth analysis of the problem.

Disadvantages of observation method

 It is time consuming and expensive method It is a slow and laborious process.
 Unforeseen factors may influence the observation
 It is not used for studying past events
 This method is not suitable for studying opinions and attitudes
 It is can’t be applied in situation where the size of the sample is large
 When individuals or groups become aware that they are being observed, they may change their
behaviour.
 There is always the possibility of observer bias.
 The interpretations drawn from observations may vary from observer to observer.

PROJECTS- The term project is derived from the Latin word ‘projectum’ meaning ‘something prominent’.It
is used for the evaluation of scholastic skills.
DEFINITION 0F PROJECT
 J.A Stevenson – A project is a problematic act carried to completion in its natural setting.
 Snedden – Project is a unit of educative work in which the most prominent feature is some form of
positive and concrete achievement.
 According to W.H. Kilpatrick, A project is a whole hearted purposeful activity proceeding in a social
environment

CHARACTERISTICS OF PROJECT
➢ A project is a :
 Problematic act
 Purposeful activity
 Whole-hearted activity
 An activity in a natural setting
 An activity in social setting
 It is a bit of real life introduced in school.
 Project is a problem solving of practical nature.
 It is a positive and concrete achievement.
 It is an activity through which solutions of various problems are found out.
TYPES OF PROJECT
W.H Kilpatrick mentions four types of projects:
➢ ‘The producer type’
➢ ‘The consumer type’
➢ ‘The problem type’
➢ ‘The drill type’
STEPS IN A PROJECT
 Providing a situation
 Purposing
 Planning
 Executing the plan
 Judging
 Recording
ESSENTIALS OF A GOOD PROJECT
 Timely
 Usefulness
 Interesting
 Challenging
 Economical
 Rich in experience
 Project should be purposeful and complete in itself.
 Project should be aimed at problem solving.
 It should be feasible.
 Undertaking complete itself.
 Learning activity is life-like, purposeful and natural.
 Learners plan and direct their own activity.
 Complexity of project is importance for its success or failure.
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING PROJECT
 Ability to plan appropriately
 Data collection
 Analysis & Interpretation
 Presentation of report
 Timeliness
 Creativity
 Concepts and thoughts
 Understanding about the topic
 Workmanship and display
 Clarity of explanation

ASSIGNMENTS- An assignment is a job, a piece of work, or a task given out by a teacher to an individual
pupil or to the class. Assignment as a teaching device is widely use in modern schools because assignments
helps the students to develop a habit of self learning. The nature and style of assigning assignments to students
by a teacher also helps the student to develop insight in to the possible pros and cons of the problem on a
particular topic in a subject. Can be individual and group assignments. Should be definite, clear, adjusted to
the needs of the pupils, interesting and effective.
A good assignment assigned by a teacher depends on a factors:
▪ Laying out a task to be performed
▪ Fitting to the task a suitable procedure for accomplishing the task
▪ Teacher’s guidance and pupils will to accept the task and do it accordingly
▪ Assumption that the effective learning takes place as a result of pupil activity self imposed
The importance of assignments
❖ Provides for the arousal of interest
❖ Makes success reasonably sure.
❖ Independent study is not possible without good assignments.
❖ Stimulate thinking.
❖ Encourage initiative.
❖ Clear up misunderstanding.
❖ Strengthen morale.
❖ Develop insight.
❖ Motivation for study.

FUNCTIONS OF ASSIGNMENTS
➢ Reinforcement of learning.
➢ Initiate dialogue / pedagogical interactions.
➢ Continuous assessment.
➢ Student learning.

Characteristics of the good Assignment

❖ It is clear and definite.
❖ It should be motivating, simulative and interesting.
❖ It directs the learning activity.
❖ It removes difficulties.
❖ It takes into account previous learning.
❖ It recognizes individual differences.
❖ It is stimulating.
❖ It should be in syllabus
❖ Clear objectives
❖ Brief
❖ Stimulate reflective thinking
❖ It should be suit to the age, ability and interests of students
❖ It emphasizes essentials.
❖ It develops insight and understanding.
❖ It should be Purposeful and Relevant

Types of assignments
1) Tutor – Marked Assignment: Rely on long answer , short answer, essay type and problem solving
questions set by the course team or the course writer of the faculty concerned.
2 ) Computer – Marked Assignments: It consist of objective type questions. It tests the abilities of
students to recognize or recall certain facts, patterns and information or manipulate specific argument in
the course material.
3) Old Type Assignments: It includes page, paragraph, topic , theme, exercise, question and experiment.
They were too brief and too indefinite to stir up with interest and arouse pupils to effort.
4) New Type Assignments: They are inherit in their forms and purpose. They are unified, clear,
stimulating, directive , challenging and require the exercise of much more skill and more definite
preparation.
5) The Home Assignments: The complex assignment that requires great independence and ingenuity in
devising ways and means or a highly developed power in independent thinking which is not done in class.
6.) Class Assignments
7.) Individual Assignments
8.)Group Assignments
Another classification of Assignments are
1. Study type
2. Memorization type
 3. Informative type

STEPS IN ASSIGNMENT MAKING

• Reference to a previous experience.
• Discussion.
• Proposal of a new activity.
• Explanations and clearing up of activity.
• Outlining materials to be used.
• Distributing the tasks to be done
How to evaluate an assignment
A modified version of the schedule suggested by the SCERT for the evaluating of an assignment is
given below:

WORKSHEETS -Worksheet commonly refers to a sheet of paper with questions for students and places to
record answers. A worksheet is an instructional tool that allows a learner to put concepts and ideas into
practice. A worksheet may be used to help a student practice a mathematical process, connect ideas, review
key points from a reading and more. Worksheets are used for a variety of learning needs. In mathematics,
worksheets are commonly used to give students the chance to practice mathematical operations under a variety
of conditions. They may also be used to provide a framework for students to identify key events after reading a
historical text and then to learn how those events led to the eventual outcome. In business, a worksheet can
provide a framework for the learner to pull together key data points to evaluate a situation and guide decision-
making. Worksheets contain the data that you want to analyze, together with a number of Discoverer
components to help you analyze the data. For example, a worksheet can contain parameters, totals,
percentages, exceptions, and calculations. Where a worksheet contains several exercises, all of them should
relate to the same topic – preferably in terms of both topic and content. This ensures that learners will not be
overburdened or distracted. Furthermore, intensive engagement with a single topic anchors the content more
firmly in the memory.

A printed page that a child completes with a writing instrument. No other materials are needed.

• multiple choice questions

• matching exercises
• handwriting practice
• coloring pages
• math problems
• fill-in-the-blank book reports
 • word searches and crossword puzzles
• copywork

Worksheets are not

• A data sheet — for example, when we did our water science experiments and our magnet sensory play,
my kids recorded their findings on paper.
• An activity sheet using stickers or other manipulatives — such as my dot sticker pages
• a printable used for pre-writing or organization of thoughts
• A sheet that provides cutting practice
• A play dough mat

A good worksheet follows a set structure:

• A header containing general information which places the worksheet within the lesson context.
• Clear instructions.
• The exercise itself, including illustrations, highlighted points and sufficient space for answers.
• Possibly additional exercises, each with their own instructions.

Advantages Worksheets that are well prepared will promote students thinking. It will be interesting for the
students. It may serve as a supplement for class and home works. Worksheets help learners to engage more
thoroughly with learning – both in the classroom and at home. The advantage of worksheet software is that
pre-defined structures and functions can help save time. teachers can quickly and effectively design worksheets
which will benefit their students. They can keep most of a class busy with minimal effort by the teacher. They
are easy to grade. It's possible that they are effective if the goal is rote memorization of algorithms
They can be non-threatening and cause less anxiety for struggling students, who can feel successful repeating
one process over and over.

Disadvantages the worksheet is likely asking only questions that the worksheet creator considers important. A
student might have a really creative idea or interpretation for a concept, but the worksheet might not ask about
that part; therefore, the student never gets to voice his or her unique viewpoint. Preparation of worksheet
would be a difficult and time consuming process. An average teacher might find it difficult to develop good
worksheets. Ineffectively prepared worksheets might serve only as a drill practice for students. It will not
promote students thinking

INTERVIEW
Interview is a method of child study in which the teacher has ultimate proximity to the child. Mrs. P
.V. Young defines “the interview may be regarded as a systematic method by which a person enters more or
less imaginatively into the inner life of a comparative stranger” It is a meeting of people face to face,
especially for consultation.
Interview is a face to face conversation. interview is used very extensively in every field of
educational research. In interview , a social scientist or someone authorized by him for them about various
things. An interview is a direct method of inquiry. The purpose of interview, however is not to collect
superficial details about the interviewee , but is rather to probe into the inner life of interviewee . Therefore,
the method of interview is direct as well as depth study. “An interview is a conversation between two or more
people where questions are asked by the interviewer to elicit factors or statement from the interviewee”.
Interviews are useful method to discover how to individuals think and feel about a topic and they
have hold certain opinions . This is very time consuming process. When the interview process is typically
short, the candidate can potentially feel nervous or anxious in their interview leading to them not getting a job.
 In interview all formalities are laid down and the gate is opened for delving into the intellectual, emotional ,
and subconscious stirrings of the interview. The chief characteristics of an interview are:
❖ It is a close contact or interaction including dialogue between two or more persons.
❖ It has a definite object such as knowing the views and ideas of others .interview is an interactional
process.
❖ Interview can be conducted over the telephone also.
❖ Interview method enables to study the social problems.
❖ It is a direct method of collecting data
❖ It is based on interview
❖ It is a verbal method of securing data in the field of survey
❖ It is a method of social interaction
❖ “The interview is a systematic method by which a person enters more or less imaginatively into the life
of a comparatively stranger”
OBJECTIVES OF INTERVIEW
❖ To establish direct contact
❖ Interview are useful to exchange ideas and to elicit intimate facts and information.
❖ Interview method helps collecting information about unknown facts through face to face contact.
❖ To test or develop hypotheses.Through interview we can formulate hypothesis. Hypothesis implies
forming propositions about various facts.
❖ Social facts are qualitative. They are found in the form of ideas, feelings , views , faith, convictions
etc. through interview it is possible to collect information about qualitative facts.
❖ To verify unique ideas
❖ To evaluate or assess a person in some respect.
❖ To select or promote an employee.
❖ To effect therapeutic change, as in the psychiatric interview.
❖ To gather data, as in surveys or experimental situations.
❖ To sample respondents opinions, as in doorstep interviews.

TYPES OF INTERVIEW
Classification according to formalness
➢ Formal Interview- The teacher or the interviewer presents a set of well defined questions.
➢ Informal Interview- The teacher or the interviewer has full freedom to make suitable alterations in the
question to suit a particular situation
Classification based on style of interviewing
➢ Structured Interview- Formal in nature, Results are often used to make generalizations, Prearranged
schedule of questions which are short, direct, and capable of simple answers
➢ Semi-Structured Interview- More flexible version of structured interview, Provides opportunities to
probe and expand the interviewee’s responses, Allows a deviation from prearranged set of questions
➢ Unstructured Interview - Presupposes nothing about the direction of interview, Follow the
interviewee’s flow of ideas, Respondents develop their own ideas, feelings, expectations or attitudes.
May throw up unexpected findings
CLASSIFICATION BASED ON PURPOSE
• Survey interview
• Diagnostic interview
• Therapeutic interview
• Counselling interview
According to the number.
▪ Personal interview.
▪ Group interview .
According to subject matter.
▪ Qualitative interview.
▪ Quantitative interview.
 ▪ Mixed interview.
CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL INTERVIEW
Gardner has pointed out three conditions for successful interviewing
• Accessibility
• Understanding
• Motivation
THE PROCESS OF INTERVIEW
 Preparation of the interview
 Introduction of the interviewer to the respondents
 Developing rapport
 Carrying the interview forward
 Recording the interview
 Closing the interview

ADVANTAGES
• Direct and deep research
• Knowledge of past and future
• Mutual encouragement
• Examination of known data
• They are useful to obtain detailed information about personal feelings, perceptions and opinions.
• They allow more detailed questions to be asked.
• They usually achieve a high response rate.
• Respondents own words recorded.
• Ambiguities can be clarified and incomplete answers followed up.
• Interviews are not influenced by others in the group
• It allows you to gauge the person more so that simply reading a resume.
• The interview is more appropriate for complex situations.
• It is useful for collecting in depth information.
• Information can be supplemented.
• Questions can be explained.
• Interviewing has a wider application.
• Personal information can be obtained
• The interview can be conducted in the language in which respondents can reply
• Interviewer can regulate the interview
DISADVANTAGES
• Defects due to interviewee and Prejudices of interviewer
• Difference in mental outlook of the interviewer and the interviewee
• Art rather than science
• The quality of data depends upon the quality of the interaction and the interviewer.
• Emotionalism
• The quality of data may vary when many interviewer s are used.
• The interviewer may be biased
• Difficulty in persuading the interviewee to give the right answers. The presence of the interviewer
might influence the interviewee in a positive or negative way.
• They can be very time consuming :setting up , interviewing, transcribing, analyzing, feedback,
reporting. They can be costly also.
• Different interviews may understand and transcribe interviews in different ways.
• The interview process typically short, and candidates can potentially feel nervous or anxious in their
interview leading to they not getting a job.
• Expensive and time consuming
• Inadequate response
 • As the information obtained from an interview are on the spot data,some of them may be imaginary

REPORTS
Report is an account or statement describing in detail an event, situation or usually as the result of
observation and enquiry etc. A report is a connected discussion of a topic generally more or less
extended in character. It requires that the pupil effectively read , organize, plan and deliver the
information which he has gained from investigation and study. Report writing is the
presentation of one’s findings in an informative and clear manner
• It is primarily the gathering and imparting of information.
• It is factual.
• It is appropriate when accurate information necessary to the solution of a problem or the better
understanding of a subject is essential.
• It is a form of activity calculated to develop originality, initiate and improved expression among
pupils.
• To train the reporter in the gathering and discrimination of information.
FEATURES OF REPORT
1. Complete and compact document
2. Systematic presentation of facts
3. Prepared in writing
4. Self explanatory document
5. Time consuming and costly activity.

PREPARING A REPORT
a) Have a careful outline.
b) Have a good introduction.
c) Arrangement of points in order of their importance.
d) Have a good conclusion.
e) Read over and fix the main ideas.
STRUCTURE OF A REPORT
◼ Title
◼ Introduction
◼ Results
◼ Conclusion.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
1. Relation with lesson
2. Collection of data
3. Ability to formulate idea
4. Conclusion
5. Completeness of report

PRACTICAL WORK It means tasks in which students observe or manipulate real objects or
materials. Practical works forms the basis of scientific study. To arrive at any conclusion
experiment is needed. By practical work we mean task in which students observe or manipulate
real objects or materials or they witness a teacher demonstration. Teaching of laboratory skills
enhance the learning of scientific knowledge. It is an integral part of Science teaching, work
experience and SUPW. The laboratory is central to science instruction. It is in the laboratory that
the students learn to handle apparatus, think independently, and to draw conclusions on the basis
of experiments and observation. Scientific theories and practical works in science are two sides
of a coin. Without experiments students cannot experience reality.
Practical works can;
 ➢ Motivate pupils by stimulating interest and enjoyment.
➢ Teach laboratory skills.
➢ Enhance the learning of scientific knowledge.
➢ Gave insight into scientific method and develop expertise in using it.
➢ Develop scientific attitude such as open mind ness and objectivity.
➢ It fixes learning to the minds of the pupils as a result everything that the pupil learnt
become permanent.
➢ It satisfies the instincts of curiosity creativeness and self expression.
➢ It provides training in scientific method and inculcates scientific attitude among students.
➢ It develops many socially desirable habits.

Objectives of laboratory works

1. Making abstract scientific understandings concrete.
2. Development of scientific concepts and principles.
3. Development of scientific skills, attitudes, interests and appreciation.
4. Training in scientific method.
5. Awakening the maintenance of curiosity in the environment.
6. Hands-on activities support the development of practical skills and help to understand
scientific concepts and phenomena.
7. Learning by doing is one of the cardinal principles of teaching science. It can be achieved
only by doing experimentation.
8. On every practical students must carry following things to laboratory so that he can
perform various types of experiments. scale , Eraser, A pencil, Auxiliary note book
and Laboratory note books.
Importance
1. Learning by doing
2. Training for adjustment
3. Scientific knowledge and scientific outlook
4. Handing objects
5. Development of good habits
6. Satisfaction of curiosity
7. Development of scientific attitude
8. Motivation
Procedure of laboratory work
✓ The science teacher should check the availability of apparatus required for practical
work.
✓ He should assure that apparatus is ready and working before the students enter the
laboratory.
✓ The broken apparatus is noted down in the breakage register.
✓ In some schools experiments are done by all students at the same time when the number
of students in a class is much more.
• Each group is allotted different experiments. The experiments are cycled in groups. It has
following limitations There is a possibility that weaker students may copy the results of
the brighter students.
• it may become difficult to correlate theory and practical for all students
• Supply different apparatus and chemicals to different groups.
 • Guide line rules In order to make practical work effective the laboratory should be made
a place or learning by doing.Guideline should be given by the teacher about the
laboratory rules such as;
• Work area must be cleared
• Strict attention should be paid on work
• Wastage of gas, electricity, water should be strictly avoided
• Directions should be read and followed very carefully
• Teachers should allow the students entry in lab in his or her presence
• Only those experiments should be done which are recommended by the teacher in charge
• There should be coordination between theoretical and practical works.
• The introduction for practical work should be interesting and enthuse in the students to
work independently and to find out something themselves.
• The purpose of experiment should be made very clear to the students and the pupils
should be asked to keep a truthful record to what they do and observe.
• The experiment should be well graded according to the age and intelligence of the
students.
• If assignment method is being followed then the preparatory work should be checked one
day before the practical work starts.
Advantages
 Practical works allow students to demonstrate and practice their knowledge and skills.
 Powerful tool for teachers to assess the competence of manual skills of students.
 Establish link between theory and practice.
 Practical experiments can be extended to become a hands on experimental skills.
Disadvantages
 It is time consuming.
 Unfair distribution of group work
 It is difficulty to develop uniform fair and reliable assessment rubrics to evaluate students
practical skills.
How to evaluate Practical work
Practical work can be evaluated on the basis of the following criteria
1. Timely completion of work or experiment
2. Accuracy of observations
3. Efficiency in conducting the experiment
4. Objective and accurate recording of data
5. Proper analysis and conclusions
6. Reporting of the experiment.
7. Efficiency in handling and correct usage of the apparatuses for the experiment.

SELF REPORTING A self-report study is a type of survey, questionnaire, or poll in which

respondents read the question and select a response by themselves without researcher
interference. A self-report is any method which involves asking a participant about their
feelings, attitudes, beliefs and so on. The main methods of self-reporting are questionnaires,
inventories, interviews. Types of self-reports are questionnaires and interviews, self-reports are
often used as a way of gaining participants responses in observational studies and experiments.A
self reporting questionnaire can have Open Questions - Open questions are those questions which
invite the respondent to provide answers in their own and Closed Question -Closed Questions
are those questions which provide limited choice.

ADVANTAGES

❖ Provides better understanding on student’s learning, development &adjustment

❖ can be carried out relatively cheaply
❖ Gives the respondent’s own view directly
❖ If we use standardised interviews & questionnaires , it is easier to generalise
❖ To obtain information in situation where observational data are not normally available
❖ A good way to measure a participants perception of the thing you are measuring.
❖ Observational and Objective data are not always possible to obtain-for example, life
history studies
❖ They are simple to administer in many cases(eg:questionnaires), no complicated
technology is required
DISADVANTAGES
➢ Inherently biased by the person's feelings at the time they filled out the questionnaire
➢ People are not always truthful
➢ May bear little relationship to reality
➢ Associated with a number of potential validity problems
➢ Difficult to obtain a random sample of the population
➢ Most tests will contain designer bias
➢ People may lie or skew their answers to make themselves look better.
➢ The person may not be able to give an accurate response due to cognitive biases, poor
memory etc….

SEMINAR Etymologically the word seminar is derived from the word “seminarium” meaning
“seed plot” Seminar is simply a group of people coming together for the discussion and learning
of experience, specific techniques and topics. There are several keynote speaker within each
seminar, these speakers are experts in their fields or topics. Copies of the paper or abstract of the
presented matter are distributed to the audience in advance After the presentation there is a
general discussion in which all participants can participate. In this technique a person presents a
readymade paper or lecture on a specific subject.
OBJECTIVES OF SEMINAR
➢ To help the students to get an in depth understanding of the subject matter.
➢ To develop the habit of tolerance and cooperation among the students.
➢ To help the students to overcome the problem of stage fear.
➢ To help in developing the ability for keen attention and to present ideas effectively.
➢ To help in acquiring good manners of raising and answering and answering questions
SEMINAR REPORT
➢ The seminar report should be no more than 4 or 5 pages in length, double spaced
➢ The seminar report must be prepared in LaTex , a good visual presentation is important.
➢ The emphasis of seminar report should be on the idea presented in the seminar
➢ Gives formulas only as necessary to illustrate specific points
➢ Organize the report in to heading and sub heading.
 ➢ Seminar report should be write concisely.
➢ If you cite any papers , include a list of references at the end of seminar report
ADVANTAGES
➢ Help the learner to develop analytical and critical thinking
➢ Develop the ability to comprehend major ideas by listening
➢ Develop in learners self-reliance and self-confidence
➢ Develop the ability to raise relevant and pin-pointed questions
➢ Wealth of knowledge usually presented by many speakers at one time in one place
➢ A sense of renewed hope and inspiration
DISADVANTAGES
➢ Lack of preparation on the part of the paper presenter may make the seminar a mere
waste
➢ The formal structure of seminar restricts the participants from asking questions as and
when needed
➢ Inability of the presenter will create so many problems
EVALUATION OD SEMINAR
➢ Seminar may be evaluated according to their objectives
➢ In other words according to whether the process in the seminar might be expected to
achieve the objectives
➢ Evaluation may also be conducted by the seminar leader, an academic colleagues, an
external educator or the students
RATING SCALE
1=poor, 2=fair, 3=good, 4=very good, 5=excellent
What is your over all rating of this seminar?
What is your rating of the following aspects of the seminar?
❖ Instructors knowledge of the subjects
❖ Instructors presentation style
❖ Usefulness of print materials
❖ Quality of the audio sound
❖ Effectiveness of web conferencing
❖ Extent the seminar met your expectations
❖ The objectives were achieved
❖ The materials were relevant to the objectives

Tools of Assessment-
Test- A test is a means to elicit and gather responses which would provide legitimate evidence about
the extent of acquisition of a particular attribute such as knowledge, skill, aptitude, intelligence, or the
like, by an individual or a group. Thus a test presents a set of stimuli (a set of questions) elicitng
responses helpful in measuring a particular variable.
There are different type of tests such as Achievements tests, Diagnostic tests, Aptitude test, Intelligence
tests etc, They can also be classified as
1. Individual Vs Group tests
2. Oral Vs Written tests
3. Teacher Made Vs Standardized tests
4. Speed Vs Power tests
5. Verbal (or paper-pencil)Vs Non-Verbal or Performance tests
6. Objective type Vs Essay type tests
 7. Norm Referenced Vs Criterion Referenced tests
Testing is the process of measuring the characteristics of individuals or groups. Testing has two major
integredients, the test that is used for measuring and the situation in which it functions. Testing is a
mechanism to assure quality of a product, system, or capability. used to measure how much of the assigned
materials students are mastering, how well student are learning the materials, and how well student are
meeting the stated goals and objectives.
Functions of a test or of testing
1. Assessment of the present status of an individual on a particular trait or variable.
2. Expressing the probability of future success.
3. Diagnosing the causes of lack of expected performance
4. Providing academic and vocational guidance.
5. Classification of individuals
6. Undertaking research to answer various questions
7. Formulating generalizations and Policy decisions.
8. Promotes learning and guess feedback for students and teachers.
General principles of testing
 Testing Shows the Presence of Defects, Not Their Absence
 Exhaustive Testing Is Not Possible
 Testing Activities Should Start As Early As Possible
 The Pesticide Paradox
 Test Is Context Dependent

CHECK LIST:
A checklist is a predetermined list of criteria against which recorder answer yes or no. Checklists are
highly selective only giving the recorder the opportunity to record a decision concerning the criterion.
There are no details to check the recorders’ decision. A checklist is an effective tool to share with parents.
Checklists show the sequence of developmental progress. Checklist measure progress. Checklist can be
used as a curriculum planning tool for individualizing the curriculum. Can be used as a screening tool for
developmental lags.
This is the method of listing a number of discipline phrases which can be checked to indicate the
phrase which is applicable to the pupil whom we evaluate. Thus it consists of a number of statements on
various traits of personality. The statement which applies to the pupil is checked ie, the teacher has to put
a tick mark in the column meant for a particular student showing a particular trait. While preparing the
check list, the teacher must keep in mind what kind of behaviour are important to record and what all
objectives are to be evaluated.Eg.1.Check List for work habits
Sl.No. Name of pupils Comes to Always ready Follows Does Written
class to work instruction assignments
regulatory
1 David ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
2. Neenu ✓ ✓

2.Check list to evaluate sociability of a student.

Name of the student:
Class :

Sl.No Statements Yes No

1 Co-operates with others, willingly
2 Reluctant to Co-operate, when
asked.
3 Handles others very well
USES OF CHECKLISTS
• Promotion of Good Teaching
• Assistance in Curriculum Planning
• Improvement in Administration
• Maintain discipline in School
• Ensuring good behavior in Schools
ADVANTAGES OF CHECKLIST
• Time and Labor Efficient
• Comprehensive (it may cover many developmental areas)
• A documentation of development
• Individual documentation on each child
• A clear illustration of the developmental continuum
DISADVANTAGES OF CHECKLIST
• Loses details of the event
• Biased by the recorder
• Depends on the criteria to be clearly observable
• Many items to check making it time consuming

RATING SCALE
“Rating is, in essence, directed observation” – Ruth Strand
“Rating is a term applied to expression of opinion or judgment regarding some situation, object or
character; Opinions are usually expressed on a scale or values. Rating techniques are devices by which
such judgments’ may be quantified”.
Ratting is an item applied for an expression of opinion or judgement regarding some situation, object,
character or an attribute. Rating scale is used for assessment of a person by another person. It is a
subjective method. Rating scale are devices by which judgments can be qualified. It is an improvement
over checklist. While checklist, simply records that something happened, a rating scale adds another
dimension, how much or how well it happened. Eg: How good was the performance?
Excellent Very Good Good Average Poor
5 4 3 2 1

There are 3 point, 5 point, 7 point scales.

This method is useful for finding what impression and individual has made on persons with
whom one come into contact with respect to come specifies traits. Teachers can use rating scales
to categorize students on specific traits like honesty, punctuality, emotional stability etc.

CHARACTERISTICS OF RATING SCALE

There are 2 main characteristics;
1. Description of the characteristics to be rated.
2.Some methods by which the quality, frequency or importance of each item to be rated may be given.
PRINCIPLES GOVERNING RATING SCALE
Observable trait
Specific and defined trait
Scale should be clearly defined
Uniform standards of rating scale
The number of characteristics should be limited
The decisions should be clear and comprehensive
Well-informed and experienced persons should be selected for rating
TYPES OF RATING SCALE
 Numerical Scale - In numerical scales the observer or rater is supplied with a sequence of numbers
which is well defined and his task is to rate the objects on the given sequence of numbers on the basis
of his impression. the rater puts a check or circles a number to indicate the degree to which a
characteristic is present.
The Graphic or Descriptive Scale - In this scale, a straight line may be represented by descriptive
phrases at various points.The line is either segmented in units or it is continuous. To rate the subject
for a particular trait a check mark is made at the particular point
 Standard scales - In standard scales a set of standards is presented to the rater with pre-established
scale values.These standards usually consist of objects of same kind. example; Handwriting standards
for judging the quality of handwriting. The scales of handwriting provide specific standard specimens
and with the help of these standard specimens sample of handwriting can be equated to one of the
standards.
 Rating by cumulated points - The rating score for an object or individual is the sum or average of the
weighted or unweighted points. The checklist method and the ‘guess-who-technique’ belong to this
category of rating
 Forced choice ratings- In forced choice rating scale the rater is given a set of attributes in terms of
verbal statements for a single item and he decides which one or ones represents the individual being
rated most appropriately and accurately.The rater is forced to select statements which are readymade.
In this form the rater is asked to indicate which is the most and least descriptive of the persons being
rated.

ADVANTAGES OF RATING SCALE Rating Scale helpful in;

1. Measuring specified outcomes or objectives of education
2. Supplementing other sources of understandings about the child
3. Stimulating effect upon the individual who are rated
4. Writing reports to parents
5. Filling out admission blanks for colleges
6. Finding out students’ needs
7. Making recommendation to the employers
8. To the student to rate himself
DISADVANTAGES OF RATING SCALE
1. More difficult to rate
2. Subjective element is present
3. Lack of opportunities to rate students
4. Rates tend to be generally generous
ERRORS IN RATING SCALES
1. Generosity Error
2. Stringency Error
3. The Halo Error
4. The Error of central tendency
5. The logical Error
Questionnaire
Questionnaire refers to a device for securing answers to questions by using a form which the
respondent fills by himself. A large amount of data on various aspects of the theme can be collected and
the person can be evaluated accordingly. This will help teachers to understand the innate interests and
habits of the pupil. It may contain free-response or fixed response type of questions.
 This is an important method of data collection
 This is adopted by individuals ,organisations and government
 In this method a questionnaire is prepared and sent to respondents by post
 Questionnaire is a printed list of questions
  The questionnaire when sent to the respondents, a request is made that the questions should be
answered and returned
 The success of this method largely depends on the proper drafting of questions
Advantages
 There is low cost even when the field of enquiry is very large
 There is no peronal bias
 Respondents get enough time to furnish thoughout ideas
 Save time
Disadvantages
 The method will be successful only if the respondents are educated and cooperative
 Most of the respondents are lazy and so they do not care to answer and return the questionnaire
 The respondent’s answers may not be adequate
 The respondents may take much time to return the questionnaires

Inventories
An inventory is constructed in the form of a questionnaire. It consist of a series of questions or
statements to which the subjects respond by answering yes or No, agree or disagree or in some similar
way to indicate preferences or to make those items describe his typical behaviour.

In an inventory the statements are put in the first person

Eg:-I think I am more tense than others, In a questionnaire the question is in second person.
Eg:- Do you think you are more tense than the others around you.
Inventories are more exhaustive than questionnaires.
Inventories are mostly used for measuring personality traits, interests, value and adjustment etc ie, for
assessing self-reporting affective behaviour.

Schedule

 A schedule is a device used in collecting field data. It is tool mainly used in direct
interviews and for observation. The different types of schedules - observation schedule
and interview schedule. Rating schedules.Document schedules.
 Institutional survey form or Evaluational schedules.
 The schedules can be structured, unstructured or semi-structured
 A schedule is a proforma containing a set of questions and tables
 This proforma is filled by field staff
G.A. LUNDBERG : “The schedule is a device for isolating one element at a time thus
intensifying ”.
C.A. MOSER : “ A schedule is a fairly formal document in which efficiency of field handling
rather than attractiveness is the operative consideration in design ”.
MERITS
1. The percentage of responses to schedules is much more than those of questionnaires.
2. Since the interviewer is well trained and informed about the interview’s habits, attitudes
etc, he is able to approach them in a way that they are influenced by his personality and
charm.
 3. There is a personal contact between the respondent and the field worker. The behaviour,
character and intelligence of the worker succeed often in winning the confidence of the
respondents.
4. In schedules, in case of doubt, the meaning is made clear by the field worker.
5. The presence of the field worker acts as a deterrent against giving artificial replies
because there is a fear of cross examination and being found out.
6. In schedules, knowledge of defects are easily noticed and rectified.
LIMITATIONS
1. Costly and time consuming method.
2. There is the requirement of a large number of well trained field workers.
3. Sometimes there is adverse effect of personal presence on respondents.
4. If the field of research is sprawling, it becomes difficult to organize research. To gather
workers who are well- acquainted with various types of people is a Herculean task.

Anecdotal record-
It is somewhat an informal device used by the teacher to record behaviour of the students as observed by
him from time to time. Green and others define anecdotal record as a written objective description by the
teacher of a significant occurrence or episode in the life of the pupil which a teacher has observed. It is a
lasting record of the behaviour of a student which may be useful later in contributing to a judgement
about a student.
An anecdotal record is a facutral observational record of a specific incidents in the life of a
student. Each anecdote is a significant aspect of the behavior to be evaluated. Such observation
are often enough to indicate direction of growth.
Examples of anecdotal
 The student strikes other students
 The student destroys his own property
 The student is attacked by peers
Anecdotes should be stated accurately and objectively. It should be written immediately after the incident.
The behaviour should be significant. It should reveal both positive and negative behaviour. No judgement
should be added. For evaluation, interpretation can be given under separate head.
◼ The term “anecdote” means a short narrative or story. It is told or recorded in “past” tense. Form
of recording observations of children. Children engaged in an activity or interaction with others
◼ The observation starts when the child begins to engage in an activity or an interaction and finishes
when the child stops participating
◼ Record your observation as soon as possible after the event to ensure that you remember
significant information eg. Direct quotes, hand preference.
An anecdotal record with consist of the following
a) Identifying data-date, time, place of incident
b) A description of the situation in which the incident occurred
c) A factual description of the incident anecdotes are described in behavioral terms
Types
First type The type of anecdotal record contain objective description of a pupil’s behavior record
from time to time
Second type This type of anecdotal record includes description of behavior with one comment or
interpretation
Third type This type of anecdotal record includes into account the record of pupil’s behavior
comments by the observer and the treatment offered to the pupil
Fourth type This type of anecdotal includes description of a pupil’s behavior along with the
comments as well as suggestions for future treatment of the student
Advantages
 Needs no special training
 Open ended and can catch unexpected events
 Can select behavior or events of interest and ignore others, or can sample a wide range of
behaviors (different times, environmental and people)
 Reasonably easy to do
 Do not stop you from interacting with the child – can be recorded later
 Observer can be either participator or non-participator
 Useful for planning and learning
 You can focus on one area of development or skill at a time
Disadvantages
 Only records events of interest to the person doing the observing
 Quality of the record depends on the memory of the person doing the observing
 Incidents can be taken out of context
 May miss out on recording specific types of behavior
 The observer’s involvement may influence the child’s behaviour
 Relies on the memory of the observer
 Some detail may be forgotten eg. Direct quotes
Uses of anecdotal record
 Record unusual events, such as accidents
 Record children’s behavior, skills and interests for planning purposes
 Record how an individual is progressing in a specific area of development
A cumulative record card is that which contains the results of different assessment and judgement
held from time to time during the course of study of a student or pupil. Generally it covers three
consecutive years It contains information regarding all aspects of life of the child –physical, mental,
social, moral and psychological. The significant information gathered periodically on student through
the use of various techniques tests ,inventories ,questionnaire, observation, interview ,case study etc.
Basically a cumulative record card is a document in which it is recorded cumulative useful and
reliable information about a particular pupil or student at one place. Information about every pupil or
child for the maintenance in the CRC should be collected from the following sources: parents or
guardians, peer, personal data, school records, other sources. In the cumulative record, the marks
assigned to the pupils throughout the school years are recorded. These records will contain
information regarding pupils attendance, record of test results, record of participation in school
activities, information about health, family etc.
Characteristics
• It is a permanent record about the pupil or student
• It is maintained up-to-date.
• It presents a complete picture
• It is comprehensive and continuous
• It contains only those information which are authentic, reliable, pertinent, objective and useful
Types
• Card type
• Booklet type
• Folder type
Data contained in cumulative record card should be
• accurate
• complete
• comprehensive
• objective
• usable
• valid
Types of information maintained in the CR
Identification data
name of the pupil ,sex, father’s name , admission no, date of birth ,class,section
Environmental and background data
home –neighbourhood influences, socio –economic status of the family,cultural status of
the family ,number of brothers and sisters ,their educational background ,occupations of the
members of the family
Physical data
weight ,height ,illness,physical disabilities etc
Psychological data
intelligence ,aptitudes interests,personality qualities,emotional and social adjustment and
attitudes.
Educational data
previous school record,educational attainments,school marks,school attendance
Co –curricular data
notable experiences and accomplishment in various fields –
intellectual,artistic,social,recreational etc
Vocational information
 Vocational ambitions of the students
Principal’s overall remarks

Uses of CR
• The CR is useful for guidance worker and counsellor as it provides a comprehensive,objective
picture about the student including his strength and weakness
• The CR is useful for guidance counsellor to help pupil in educational achievement,vocational
choice and personal progress so far adjustment is concerned
• The CR is useful for headmaster /principal to ascertain the pupil’s performance in different
subjects and his limitations
• The CR is useful for parents to provide special privileges to makeup the deficiencies what lie
in case of his child
• The CR is useful for teachers to know the students and his progress and weaknesses at a
glance
• The CR is useful in making case study about the students

Limitations of CR
• The entire data is of little use if they are not collected properly objectively and accurately
• The purpose of CR is not served if it is not maintained secretly and confidentially
• Sometimes the information’s and its interpretations of CR becomes confusing as the
informations are collected by different teachers
• The CR needs much money to come to light which is not possible in the part of school to
spend on his head
• The maintenance of CR is a hard some job like clerical work in the part of teachers
• It is a lengthy process which needs much time to be worked out

Characteristics of a good evaluation tool

Or
Characteristics of a good Achievement Test
Evaluation depends on the tool we use, so an evaluation tool should be selected with great care.
There are some criteria to determine the quality of a too. They are
1. Validity : A test is said to be valid if it measures what it intends to measure. It refers to the
accuracy, dependability and trustworthiness of a test. Validity relates to the purpose for which it is
used. Validity is the most important characteristics of a good evaluation tool. E.g. An Intelligence
test is said to be valid if it correctly measures the intelligence of individuals. Validity of a test is
relative as it changes from time to time, situation and the group for whom it is administered.
Factors affecting validity of a test
1. Cultural differences: A cultural background of the test taker always influences his general ability
which in turn affect the validity of a test.
2. Response Sets: Response sets are test taking habits of always saying yes, indifferent, uncertain etc
which affects a person’s score.
3. Excessive reliability at the expense of validity: Sometimes reliability of a test is increased by
increasing the length of the test which affects the validity.
4. Lack of clarity in directions: Difficult language, ambiguous words, faulty structure etc cause lack
of clarity in directions which reduces the validity to a large extent.
 Different Types Of Validity
1. Face validity: A test is said to have face validity if it appears or seems to measure what it is to
measure. It does not refer to what the test actually measure. It is not a guarantee as to whether the
test may come out to be valid after its use. Achievement test has the highest face validity.
2. Content validity: Content validity is also known as logical or curricular validity. It is the extent to
which the test adequately covers both the content and objectives of the subject matter. Content
validity is best related to achievement tests. It is ensured by giving proper weightage to the different
content area.
3. Predictive validity: it refers to the extent to which a test can predict the future performance of the
students on the basis of the test scores. Aptitude tests, vocational interest inventories, entrance
examinations, employment tests etc should have high predictive validity.
4. Construct validity: it refers to the extent to which the test scores reflect the underlying construct. It
is found using a statistical technique called factorial analysis. So it is also known as factorial
validity.
5. Concurrent validity: it indicates the extent to which the test scores accurately estimate an
individual’s present position on the relevant criterion. Concurrent validity is measured by
correlating the test scores with a standardized test scores.
Methods of determining the validity of a tool
1. Correlating it with another test.
2. Correlating it with teacher rating.
3. Analyzing the test to ensure that due weightage is given to content and objectives.
4. By item analysis.
How to ensure validity of a tool?
1. By providing weightage to objectives, content, form of questions etc.
2. By preparing the blue print.
4. By including items according to the table of specifications.

2. Reliability: Reliability is the second important characteristics of a tool. It is the consistency of a

test yielding the same results in measuring whatever it does measures. The degree of reliability is
denoted by reliability coefficient.
Factors affecting reliability of a test
1. Length of the test: A longer test is more reliable than a shorter one.
2. The time of administration of the test affects the validity of a test.
3. Consistency and objectivity of the scorer.
4. Lack of clarity in instructions.
5. The state of the pupils: Alertness, mental set, fatigued state etc of the pupils affect the test scores
which affects its reliability.
6. Too easy and too difficult questions are not likely to yield a highly reliable score.
Methods for determining reliability
1. Test-retest method: One test is administered to a group and it is repeated for the same group with a
time interval. The correlation coefficient between the two set of scores gives the reliability
coefficient which is known as the stability coefficient. This method of repetition is the simplest
method of finding the reliability of a test.
2. Alternate or parallel form method: Two parallel test forms (Form A and Form B) are constructed
and given to the same group in close succession. The two forms are identical with regard to content,
difficulty and pattern of questions. The correlation between the set of scores of Form A and Form B
gives the index of equivalence or the coefficient of equivalence.
3. Split-half method: A test is administered to a sample and the set of scores are split into two set of
scores by combining the even numbered and odd numbered items in the test. The correlation
coefficient between these set of scores gives the correlation coefficient for half the test. The
reliability coefficient for the whole test is calculated using Spearman Brown formula
𝑛𝑟
𝑅 = 1+(𝑛−1)𝑟 ;
where r- correlation coefficient for half the test
n- number of parts into which the test is divided.
Here n=2,
2𝑟
𝑅 = 1+𝑟
This reliability coefficient is the coefficient of both stability and equivalence.
4. Method of rational equivalence (Method of internal consistency or Kuder Richardson method): The
test is given to a sample once and the scores are collected and applied in the Kuder Richardson
𝑛 ∑𝑛 qp
formula 𝑟= ⌊1 − 𝑖=1 2 i i ⌋
𝑛−1 𝜎
where n- number of test items
𝜎 - standard deviation of the test scores
p- proportion of correct answers to a particular item
q- proportion of incorrect answers to a particular item and p+q=1
This correlation coefficient is known as the coefficient of internal consistency.

3. Objectivity: An evaluation tool is objective if the scores assigned by equally competent scorers are
not different. The scores should not be affected by judgment, personal bias or opinion of the scorer.
There should be little or no disagreement on what is the correct answer of a test item. Objectivity
coefficient of a test is obtained by finding the correlation between two set of scores assigned by the
same scorer on two different occasions.

4. Practicability: Practicability relates to the practical aspects of the test in respect of administration,
scoring, interpretation and economy. As test is practicable if it can be successfully used without any
unnecessary expenditure of time and energy. A test should be always having a test manual with all
the necessary instructions which increases the practicability of the test.
Practicability of a test depends upon the following factors;
1. Ease of administration- The test manual should contain clear and precise instructions regarding how
to conduct the test.
2. Ease of scoring – Scoring of the test should be easy, objective and simple.
3. Ease of interpretation- Interpretation depends upon the fact that the test is accompanied by complete
norms based on age, grade etc.
4. Economy- A good evaluation tool should not be expensive with respect to money, time and energy.

5. Utility: A test posse’s utility to the degree that it satisfies the definite purpose for which it is used.
Utility is the final check on the value of the test.
A good evaluation tool yields more accurate and precise score. However it will have its own
limitations which must be always considered by the evaluator while conducting evaluation.

Item Analysis :Item Analysis is a process by which a test constructor evaluates the effectiveness of
the test items in terms of the discriminating power and difficulty index of the test items. For item analysis the
answer scripts are scored and arranged in ascending order of the total scores and the top 27% is taken as the
 upper group and the bottom 27% is taken as the lower group. Then the students response for each item is
analyzed for the lower and the upper group.
Discriminating Power: Discriminating power of an item in a test is its power to discriminate
between the upper and the lower groups who took the test. If an item is answered by all or not by all
then it is a bad item. Discriminating power the maximum value is1. An item whose discriminating
power is above .04 is chosen.
Then the discriminating power is found out using the formula D= (U-L)/N
And
difficulty index = (U+L)/2N
Where; L- Number of students who answered the item correctly in the lower group.
U- Number of students who answered the item correctly in the upper group.
N- Number of students in each group.

Difficulty Index: Difficulty index is the proportion of students who correctly answered the test item. The
difficulty index of a test item is inversely proportional to the difficulty of an item. The least value of
difficulty index shows the item is very difficult and maximum value for difficulty index shows that the item
is very easy. Items with difficulty index ranging from 0.4 to 0.6 are chosen.
Purposes of item analysis:
1. To find the difficulty level of the test items.
2. To find the discriminating power of the test items.
3. To find the effectiveness of the distracters.
4. Provides useful feedback for the students regarding their performance in the test.
5. Provides insight and skill which leads to the preparation of better tests on future occasions.

CRITERION-REFERENCED TEST (CRT) & NORM-REFERENCED TEST (NRT) - Testing

results in scores, but they are meaningless unless they are interpreted. Interpretation of a test give rise
to NRT and CRT.
Criterion referenced test - Glaser (1963) first used the term CRT to highlight the need for tests that
can describe the position of a learner on a performance continuum, rather than the learner’s rank
within a group of learner. CRT are those tests which are used to ascertain an individual’s status with
respect to some criterion i.e. performance standard. So the meaning of an individual score is not
dependent on comparison with other students. We want to know what the individual can do, not how
much he stands in comparison to others.
Characteristics of criterion-referenced test
• Its main objective is to measure student’s achievement of curriculum based skills
• It is prepared for a particular grade or course level.
• It has balanced representation of goals and objectives.
• It is used to evaluate the curriculum plan instruction progress and group student’s interaction.
• It can be administered before and after instruction
• It is generally reported in the form of
i. Minimum scores for partial and total mastery of main skill areas.
ii. Number of correct items.
iii. Percent of correct items
iv. Derived score based on correct items and other factors
Uses of criterion-reference testing
• To discover the inadequacies in learner’s learning and assist the weaker section of learners to
reach the level of other students through a regular programme of remedial instruction
 • To identify the master learners and non-master learner in a class To find out the level of
attainment of various objectives of instruction
• To find out the level at which a particular concept has been learnt. To better placement of
concepts at different grade levels
• To make instructional decisions of what to do with a learner in individually prescribed
instruction programme.
Limitations of criterion referenced testing
1. Criterion-referenced tests tell only whether a learner has reached proficiency in a task area but
does not show how good or poor is the learner’s level of ability.
2. Tasks included in the criterion-referenced test may be highly influenced by a given teacher’s
interests or bases, leading to general validity problem
3. Only some area readily lend themselves for listing specific behavioural objectives around
which criterion-referenced tests can be built and this may be a constructing element for
teachers.
4. Criterion-referenced tests are important for only a small fraction of important educational
achievements. On the contrary, promotion and assessment of various skills is a very important
function of the school and it requires norm-referenced testing.
Norm-referenced test - Norm-Referenced Test as a test designed to provide a measure of
performance that is interpretable in terms of an individual's relative standing in some known group.
This test is used primarily for comparing achievement of an examinee to that of a large representative
group of examinees at the same grade level. The representative group is known as the ‘Norm
Group’,that may be made up of examinees at the local level, district level, state level or national level,
same age group, gender etc.
Chief characteristics of a norm-referenced test
1. Its basic purpose is to measure student’s achievement in curriculum based skills.
2. It is prepared for a particular grade level
3. It is administered after instruction
4. It is used for forming homogeneous or heterogeneous class groups.
5. It classifies achievement a above average, average or below average for a given grade.
6. It is generally reported in the form of Percentile Rank, Linear Standard Score, Normalized
Standard Score and Grade Equivalent Score.
Uses of norm-referenced testing
1. In aptitude testing for making differential prediction
2. To get a reliable rank ordering of the pupils with respect to the achievement we are measuring
3. To identity the pupils who have mastered the essentials of the course more than others
4. To select the best of the applicants for a particular programme
5. To find out how effective programme is in comparison to other possible programmes.
Draw backs of norm-referenced testing
1. Test items that are answered correctly by most of the pupils are not included in this test
because of their inadequate contribution to response variance. They will be the items that deal
with important concepts of course content.
2. There is lack of congruence between what the test measures and what is stressed in a local
curriculum
3. Norm-referencing promotes unhealthy competition and is injurious to self-concepts of low
scoring students.
Similarities between NRT AND CRT
1. Validity and reliability are needed in both
2. Achievement domain is measured in both
 3. Sample of test items should be relevant and representative in both
4. Same types of items can be used in both
5. Same rules are followed for writing items in both excepting the item of difficulty

Differences of NRT AND CRT

NRT CRT

NRT covers a large domain of learning task
with just a few items measuring each
specific task.
It stress discrimination among individuals.
Promotes unhealthy competition
The result is reported in terms of Rank,
Percentile rank, Linear standard score,
Normal standard score. E.g. Raj secured I
rank in the class.
Test administered only after instruction
It contains items of average difficulty
Classifies achievement as above average,
below average and average.
In this test, interpretation needs a defined
group
A student is tested after each unit and 1.
allowed to go to the next that along with the
whole class. A student is assigned the marks
or grades to indicate his performance. A
student is presented with the new materials
of the next unit. A student tested for the new
material and assigned marks. 2.
It focuses on a delimited domain of learning tasks
with a relatively large number of items measuring
each specific task.
It stress what examinees can do and what they can't
do.
No such problem of unhealthy competition
The result is reported in terms of number of correct
items, minimum score for total mastery. E.g. Mary
answered 90 items out of 100 items correctly in 1
hour.
Test administered before and after instruction
It contains easy as well as difficult items
Classifies achievement as the attainment and non-
attainment of objectives.
Interpretation needs defined as well as delimited
achievement domain
A student is tested after each unit for mastery of
objectives and is allowed to proceed to the new
material only if mastery is obtained .A student is given
remedial instruction if the material presented is not
mastered. A student is tested again after remedial work
to check for mastery of the material.

Similarities of NRT and CRT: - Both have essentially the same job to do, that is to measure
achievement in learning. Elements of quality are essentially the same for both. An individual test
question used in the two is indistinguishable. In general, criterion-referenced test are best to assist in
categorical pass- fail decision with respect to separate specific items or competencies. Norm-
referenced form is useful in measuring a person’s general level of knowledge or understanding of a
subject.

ACHIEVEMENT TEST

Achievement test is a test which measures the relative accomplishment of the students in specific
areas of learning.

Principles of achievement test construction

Or
Steps in the construction of an Achievement test.
The steps in the construction of an Achievement Test are
A. Planning the test.
 B. Preparing the test.
C. Try-out of the test.
D. Evaluation of the test.

A. Planning the test: Planning includes all operations that go into producing the test. We have to plan the
standard, subject, unit, time for the test, objectives to tbe tested, total marks, distribution of marks for
each question, type of questions, difficulty level of question before actually preparing the test.
B. Preparing the test:
1. Preparation of designs- This includes giving weightage to objectives, content, form of questions
and difficulty level. The four types of designs are design for content, design for objectives, design
for form of questions and design for difficulty level.
Design for instructional Objectives.
Sl. No. Objectives Marks %

1. Knowledge 5 20

2. Understanding 6 24

3. Application 10 40

4. Skill 4 16

Total 25 100

Design for content.

Sl. No. Content Marks %

1. Unit 1 10 40

2. Unit 2 8 32

3. Unit 3 7 28

Total 25 100

Design for form of questions.

Sl. No. Form of questions Marks %

1. Objective 10 40

2. Short Answer 11 44
 3. Essay 4 16

Total 25 100

Design for difficulty level.

Sl. No. Difficulty level Marks %

1. Easy 6 24

2. Average 15 60

3. Difficult 4 16

Total 25 100

2. Preparation of blue print for the test – A blue print is a three dimensional chart which shows the
weightage given to the objectives, content and form of questions. Blue print is also known as the
table of specifications as it relates the content to the objectives and gives the weightage given to
each.

BLUE PRINT
Objectives
Knowledge Understanding Application Skill
Type of
questions
O S E O S E O S E O S E To
t
a
l
Content
Unit 1 1(2) 1(1) 2(1) 1(2) 1½(2) 10

Unit 2 1(2) 1(1) 1(1) 2(1) 8

Unit 3 1(1) 2(1) 4(1) 7

 Total 5 2 4 3 7 4

Grand
total 5 6 10 4 25

O- Objective type question

S- Short answer type question
E- Essay type question
The number inside the bracket shows the number of questions and that outside shows the mark for
each question.
3. Scheme of section – It shows the number of sections into which the question paper is divided.
Usually the question paper is divided into three sections: Section A consisting of objective type
questions, Section B consisting of short answer type questions and Section C consisting of essay
type questions.
4. Scheme of option – It shows the option oe choice given to the students to answer the question
paper. The scheme of option can be either for the whole paper or section wise.
5. Preparation of test items – After preparing the blue print the next step is to select or write the test
items. The test items should be in accordance with the various dimensions of the blue print. It is
desirable to prepare additional items as it will make easier to maintain the distribution of items as
shown in the blue print.
6. Arrangement of items – The test items can be arranged in any way according to the objectives,
content, difficulty level etc. The common procedure is to group the same type of questions
together and arrange in increasing order of difficulty.
7. Instructions for the question paper – Instructions can be either for the whole test or section wise.
Instructions for administration of the test must also be given. The directions should be simple and
concise and yet contain all information concerning the test: name of the test, subject, standard,
time, and marks for each question, section and whole test, how to record the answer etc.
8. Preparation of scoring key and marking scheme – Scoring key and marking scheme are prepared
to make the valuation objective based. They are prepared before the administration of the test.
Scoring key
Question No. Key Answers Marks
1.
2.
3.

Marking scheme:
Question No. Value Points Mark for each Total
value point mark
1.
2.
3.
 9. Question-wise analysis – This is done by analyzing each item in the question paper with respect to
all aspects that influence the test result – objectives, content, specification, form of questions,
difficulty level, marks and expected time. This helps in assessing the effectiveness of the test item
with reference to designs and other requirements in the blue print.

Q.N. Topic Objectives Specifications Form of Difficulty Marks Expected

Question level Time
Score Total
for
each
point
I 1.
2.
3.
II 1.
2.
3.

C. Try out of the test – First the test is administered to a sample representing the population. This is to
find the language difficulties and other faults in the test. The faulty items are removed by item
analysis. The final form of the test is prepared and ten administered to the population.
D. Evaluation of the test –This is the final step in the construction of a test. The test is evaluated for
many purposes.
Uses of evaluation of the test:
1. To find out whether the test was easy or difficult, too long or too short.
2. To find out whether the instructions was clear and specific.
3. To find out whether the test is practicable and feasible.
4. To find out whether the items were clear and unambiguous.
Importance of designs and blue print:
1. It helps to improve the validity of the test.
2. Ti relates objectives to the content.
3. Makes the test more objective based.
4. Keeps the process of test construction in track and ensures proper construction of the test.
5. Lays a complete picture of the test before the test maker before its preparation.
Importance of a marking scheme:
A marking scheme is essential because it indicates
1. The number of steps or learning points expected in the answers.
2. The outline of each steps in the answer.
3. The weightage to each point is specified clearly.
4. The level of accuracy expected of each step.
5. This makes scoring objective.
Importance of reviewing and editing the test items.
After pooling the test items for a particular test the items have to be reviewed and edited. This is done
on the basis of the following;
1. Does each item present a clearly formulated task?
2. Is the language simple and clear?
3. Is the item free from extraneous clues?
 4. Does each item fit into one of the cells of the blue print?
5. Is each item independent and are the items as a group free from overlapping?
6. Is the difficulty of the item appropriate for the students to be tested?

Concept of educational diagnosis:

Educational diagnosis includes all activities in measurement and evaluation that helps to identify
growth lags and their causaotry factors for individuals or the class. The process of determining the causes of
educational difficulties is known as educational diagnosis. It is important in the teaching-learning process as it
gives an indication of the strength and weakness of the students. All evaluation serves the purpose of diagnosis
but to get real information regarding specific areas of difficulty diagnostic evaluation is necessary.
According to Ross and Stanely the five levels of diagnosis are:

1. Who are the pupils having trouble?

2. Where these errors are located? Corrective diagnosis.
3. Why did the errors occur?
4. What remedies are suggested?

5. How can the errors be prevented? Preventive diagnosis.

The steps in educational diagnosis are

1. Locating the individuals needing diagnosis. For this different procedures are adopted- based on
teacher’s observation, administration of achievement test and intelligence test etc.
2. Locate the errors and areas of difficulty. A careful study of the child, diagnostic tests for specific skills
etc are used for this.
3. Providing remedial measures.
The most widely accepted method of diagnostic evaluation calls for testing, remedial instruction,
retesting, further remedial instruction etc until the difficulty is overcome.
Diagnostic test: A diagnostic test is a test designed to identify and investigate the difficulties and disabilities
and inadequacies of pupils in specific fields. They are designed to analyze individual’s performance and
provide information on the causes of difficulty. It is basically an achievement test but differs from the
following points
1. Coverage of content area
2. Purpose of the test
3. Use of the test

Steps in the construction of a Diagnostic Test.

The specific area of difficulty is located. This is done using an achievement test. After scoring the answer
scripts, question-wise analysis of the answer scripts are done. For this a diagnostic chart is used. Diagnostic
chart is a check list which checks the questions that are answered correctly, partially correct, and wrong or
omitted by each student. In a diagnostic chart the names of students are written in one dimension and the
question number in the other. Any of the following symbols are marked against each question number for each
student.

Fully correct answer.

Partially correct answer

Question omitted.

Wrong answer.
 Then the total number of students who have not answered (O), written incorrect (W) and incomplete
answers (pc) and those who have answered the items (fc ) are found. This can be done either for the whole class
or for the students who have secures below µ-σ i.e., for the below average students. Also the number of
questions answered, written incorrect and incomplete answers and omitted by each student is found.
The subject area corresponding to which most students have not answered (including omitted and
incomplete answers) is chosen to prepare the diagnostic test. The areas of difficulty are divided into a number
of small important teaching-learning points and several test items from each teaching-learning point should be
prepared. Replication of items is necessary for confirmation of evidence. The test items should be arranged in a
sequential order and should be divided into two or more sections. Clear instructions should be given.
The diagnostic test is administered to the below average students. Approximate time required to
answer the test may be indicated but the pupils may be allowed their own time to answer the test. It should be
clear to the students that the purpose of the test is not to allocate grade or provide rank but to locate their
difficulties. The students should be asked to attempt all the items.
After administering the diagnostic test the answer scripts are scored and analyzed using a diagnostic
chart. If the entire item under a particular teaching point is answered by a pupil then the pupil has no difficulty
regarding that teaching point. If on the other hand he answers only one or two out of five questions under a
teaching point then it is a difficult area for the pupil. The difficulty found common to a majority of the pupils
should be taken for group remedial teaching and the others, individual teaching should be provided.

DIAGNOSTIC CHART

No. Question No. 1. 2. 3. 4. ……. fc pc O W T

Name O
T
A
L
1. Ann

2. Ana

3. Ben

fc
pc
O
W

Total
 Remedial teaching:
Remedial teaching is the process of instruction that follows immediately after diagnostic testing, when the
exact nature of the difficulties and the reason for them are known. The teacher has to take steps for remedial
teaching. Additional learning experiences are provided tot eh pupils to reduce their difficulties.
Remedial teaching consists of remedial activities taking place outside the framework of regular classroom
instruction. It is restricted to a small group with severe learning difficulties. This programme is designed for
the student who is not benefitting from the corrective instruction, which is the remedial instruction carried out
within the framework of regular classroom instruction.
Suggested methods of remedial teaching:
Remedial teaching lessons should be prepared. It should be carefully planned. Begin the lesson from
where the pupil knows. Provide a variety of learning experiences. Give more explanation and use more
examples to explain a single concept. The teacher can make use of audio-visual aids, other methods of
individualization of instruction etc. a large number of exercises and activities should be provides. Avoid
introducing too many concepts in one and in the same class. Conduct small tests after they have mastered a
small content area. the first test should permit the students to experience success. New concepts should be built
on ideas already comprehended and developed. The teacher should be patient and take time to build on the
various concepts regarding that particular content area.

Purposes of diagnostic tests:

1. To find out the specific difficulties of the students.
2. To identify inadequacies in specific skills.
3. To locate areas in which additional instruction is required or in which teaching methods is to be
improved.
4. To identify faulty and incorrect procedures of teaching.
5. Gives evidences of lack of understanding, precision and accuracy.
6. Provides feedback for the teacher.

Two types of test items are fixed or forced response type and free response type. And objective type, essay
type and short answer type.
Differences between achievement test and diagnostic test.

Achievement test Diagnostic test

Achievement test is meant to measure how much Diagnostic test is meant to measure how much a
a student has achieved. student has not been able to achieve.

Achievement test gives weightage to every topic Diagnostic test gives more emphasis to problem area
in the content area. of the content.

Achievement test is strict in its time factor. Diagnostic test does not give much importance to the
time factor.

Achievement test gives weightage to objectives, Diagnostic test considers each and every factor in a
content, form of questions and difficulty level all more critical and analytical way.
in a general way.

Achievement test gives importance to the marks Marks scored in a diagnostic test are not important.
of the students.

Construction of an achievement test is easy. Construction of a diagnostic test is more difficult.

Achievement test can be used for educational A diagnostic test can’t be used as an achievement test.
diagnosis.
A diagnostic test is given after an achievement test
Achievement test precedes diagnostic test. and is always proceeded by remedial teaching.
And may or not give remedial instruction after it.
Diagnostic test is for the below average students only.
Achievement test is given for the whole class.

Objective type questions are questions, that require a specific answer. An objective question usually has only
one potential correct answer and they leave no room for opinion. An Objective test is so named because the
system of scoring is objective rather than subjective. The problem may be stated as a direct question or as an
incomplete statement and is called the stem. The list of suggested solutions may include words, symbols, etc,
are called alternatives.

USES * to measure variety of knowledge out comes ( Specific facts, terminology, principles, methods and
procedures etc.

The different types of Objective type test items are

True or False Questions (Alternative response type) A true or false question is essentially a statement, called
a proposition. The learner judges whether the proposition is true or false. 1. There should be about an equal
number of true and false statements. 2. Both true and false statements should be about equal length. 3. False
items should be plausible.
A multiple choice item consists of a stem, which contains the problem, and a list of suggested responses. The
incorrect responses are called "foils" or "distracters." And the correct response is called the key response.
Multiple choice questions are some of the most useful test items. You can test everything from factual recall to
application of principles to problems. The stem should be a whole, positive statement. Correct answers and
foils should be short. There should be only one correct answer Answer and foils should be mutually exclusive.

A matching item question is one that requires the test taker to match an item in one column with an item from
a second column. In general, the items that have a blank space next to them are called the "questions" and the
items that you choose from to fill in the blank are called the "answers." Instructions should indicate the basis
for matching. Questions and responses are all from the same category. Responses should be same or more in
number than the questions.

A completion item is a form of short answer question in which the learner completes a sentence by supplying
a key word or phrase. A completion item is comprised of two parts, the "cue" and the blank. Completion
questions are the simplest types of test items in which the learner is required to supply the correct answer,
rather than to choose the correct answer. As such, it requires a higher level of learning – recall learning – rather
than simple recognition.

Advantages: Objective evaluation. Students can answer quick.  Evaluation time will be less.  Rapid
scoring is possible.  It covers all the aspects of the content.

Disadvantages: It takes more time in construction. The specific abilities like expression and organization
are not tested.  Content validity cannot be tested.  Blind guessing is possible. 

Short Answer Questions A short answer question is a complete question that requires the learner to supply
the correct answer. The answer should be brief. Short answer questions are another type of question where the
learner must supply the answer rather than recognize it from a list of choices. It differs from its close relative,
the completion question, in that it poses a question to be answered, rather than a blank to be completed. It
differs from the essay question according to the length of its response, which should be brief and specific. It
uses a direct question Short answer type questions are the type, that can be answered by a word or a few
sentences

It contains objectives individually like knowledge, understanding, synthesis, application, analysis and
evaluation.

CHARACTERESTICS Can cover a wide range of content.  Is highly thought provoking.  Can be
answered in few sentences.  Comes between objective and essay type.  It is suitable for measuring a wide
variety of relatively simple learning outcomes.

ADVANTAGES Easy to construct, because it measures simple learning outcomes. Large portion of content
can be covered. It is useful in interpreting diagrams, charts etc. There is little opportunity for guessing.

LIMITATIONS Writing skill cannot be measure properly. It cannot test the expression ability of students. 
Personal bias of teacher and students are involved.  It leads to rote learning

Suggestions while constructing- Ensure that tests measure more than the memorization of factual
knowledge. Avoid the irrelevant clues
 Essay Questions An essay question calls for an extended response from the learner. The response can be
extended, with virtually no restrictions on the answer, or it can be restricted according to length. Essay
questions allow the learner maximum freedom to respond. Higher order mental processes can be tested using
essay questions such as description, comparison, evaluation and prediction. Essay test is a test that requires the
student to structure a rather long written response up to several paragraphs. Student get much freedom to
express his ideas.

Characteristics Less time needed for preparation. It is easy to prepare Contains fewer questions than
objectives and short answer questions. Allows freedom of response to a problem. It demands long answers. 

ADVANTAGES Ensure content validity. Enable plan and answer. Reduce chances of on-the-spot copying.
Leads to qualitative evaluation of student’s achievements. Test pupil’s ability to use knowledge. Brings
language mastery. Easy to construct.

DISADVANTAGES It encourages bluffing. Dearth of comprehensiveness. No objectivity. Lack of reliability.

It is of a time consuming type. It covers only few areas.

Distinguish Between Objective type and Essay type questions

Objective type Essay type

Objective in nature. No scorer bias
Only one correct answer
Mostly fixed response type
Chance of copying and guessing
Covers larger content area with more number of
questions
Difficult to construct but easy to score
Mostly tests students lower order thinking
Students language ability, creativity and organization
of ideas and thoughts are not given importance
Students handwriting does not affect their score
Takes less time for the test
Mechanical scoring possible
Subjective in nature. Scorer bias
More than one correct answer
Free response from the students
Less chance of copying and no chance of guessing
Covers lesser content area with less number of
questions
Easy to construct but difficult to score
Tests students higher order thinking
Students language ability, creativity and organization
of ideas and thoughts are given importance
Students handwriting affect their score
Takes more time for the test
Mechanical Scoring not possible

TEACHER MADE AND STANDARDIZED TEST-

Teacher- made- test- A teacher made test is an evaluation tool constructed by the classroom teacher
to assess the student’s achievement in a particular unit/content. E.g. Classroom question paper on a
unit.
Characteristics
1. It is usually flexible in scope and format.
2. It is variable in difficulty and significance.
3. It is prepared by the classroom instructor.
4. It usually contains content validity.
5. It is not computer generated or taken from a book.
Uses
1. To know whether the students has attained knowledge in specific field.
2. To determine how far the specific aims of educations have been fulfilled.
3. To classify students in accordance with their achievement.
 4. To motivate students towards further learning and teachers towards self evaluation.
5. To determine final grades or make promotion decisions.
6. To identify areas of deficiency.
Advantages of teacher made tests
1. Reflects instruction and curriculum.
2. Sensitive to student's ability and needs.
3. Can be made to reflect small changes in knowledge.
4. Provide immediate feedback about student progress.
5. Teachers can make changes immediately to meet the needs of their students.
Disadvantages of teacher made tests
1. May not reflect content standards.
2. Little variety in types of assessment used.
3. Informal or un-standardized.
4. Concerns about reliability.
5. Concerns about validity.
Standardized test
• Standardized test is an evaluation constructed by researchers or experts to assess a broad range
of behaviors for generalization.
Eg: Aptitude test, personality inventories.
• The first standardized test was made by Cliff .W. Stone in 1908. It was a test to measure
mathematic reasoning.
Characteristics
• They consist of items of high quality.
• The directions for administering, exact time limit and scoring are precisely stated.
• Norms based on representative groups of individuals are provided as an aid for interpreting
the test scores.
• Information needed for judging the value of the test is provided.
• A manual is supplied that explains the purposes and uses of the test.
Uses
1. It is used in comparing achievement of individual or groups.
2. It is used to compare achievement in various fields of knowledge or performance.
3. To assess a student’s proficiency in specific subject such as maths, science and literature.
4. To compare classes or schools among themselves and to measure growth over a period of
years.
Advantages
1. It is constructed by experts who are well qualified and experienced.
2. They are of high validity and reliability.
3. They are norm based.
4. They provide value points and clear directions for valuation.

Disadvantages
1. Narrows curricular format and encourages teaching to the test.
2. Poor predictive quality.
3. Grade inflation of test scores or grades.
4. Culturally or socioeconomically biased.
Similarities
1. Both are constructed on the basis of carefully planned table of specifications.
2. Both have the same type of test items.
 3. Both provide clear directions to the students.
4. Both assign grades and can be compared with other students.
Differences
Standardized test Teacher made test
Concerned with whole field of knowledge or ability Concerned with limited and specific field of
tested. knowledge tested.
It is based on different sources. It is based on personal experience of the teacher.
Constructed by experts through the process of Constructed by teachers without any method of
standardization. standardization.
Aimed at objectives shared by educators across the Aimed at local objectives.
country.
Always have a manual which gives all the directions No such manual is provided.
for the test usage, scoring and interpretation
Both reliability and validity is ensured No need of reliability and validity
Quality of items is ensured by item analysis The quality of items need not be found out and is
generally low.
Used by many persons in different context Used by the concerned teacher is a particular
situation
Used to evaluate outcomes and objectives that have Used to evaluate outcomes and content of what
been determined irrespective of what has been taught has been taught in the classroom (limited
(wider content). content).
Procedure of administration and scoring is Procedure of administration and scoring is
standardized and as per instructions given in the flexible.
manual.
Scores can be compared and interpreted within the Scores can be compared and interpreted only in
norm groups. Test manuals are used for the context of the local school situation.
interpretation.
Test results show the students knowledge in various Test results show the students achievement in
fileds or subjects or their intelligence, attitude, specific fields or subjects and the attainment of
personality, aptitude, performance etc. certain objectives.
Norms for various groups are given. No norms are provided
The content chosen is broader on the basis of various The content chosen is limited and is made on the
books, journals, articles and other standardized tests basis of the personal experiences of the teacher.
etc.
ONLINE EXAMINATION - Online examinations, sometimes referred as e-examinations, are the
examination conducted through the internet or intranet. This may utilize
an online computer connected to a network. This definition embraces a wide range of student activity
ranging from the use of a word processor to on-screen testing. Specific types of e-assessment include
multiple choice, online/electronic submission, computerized adaptive testing and computerized
classification testing. Different types of online assessments contain elements of one or more of the
following components, depending on the assessment's purpose: formative, diagnostic, or summative.
Instant and detailed feedback may (or may not) be enabled.
For a remote candidate most of the examinations issue results as the candidate finish the examination
when an answer processing module is also included with the system. Candidates are given a limited
time to answer the questions and after the time expiry the answer paper is disabled automatically and
the answer is send to the examiner. The examiner will evaluate answers, either through automated
process or manually and the results will be send to the candidate through email or made available in
the websites. Today many organizations are conducting online examinations worldwide successfully
and issue results online.
Importance of Online Examinations.
1. Fast Process: Traditional exams are good but it takes them many day or months to display the
results of the examination as the copies are checked manually.While is online examination
checking and result process is completely online performed by a computer that makes it
faster.Results of an online exam can be declared within a few days of the exam.
2. Three major components have to be catered for efficiently.
1.Creation exams.
2.Supervision of examination.
3.Marking of exams.
3. A major highlight of using a web based exam software or an online examination system is
that it gives a high level of transparency as opposed to the traditional method or remote
method.
4. It is almost impossible to compromise exam questions and evaluations because they cannot
be influenced.
5. Most online exams generate their results instantly and it is often possible for the exam taker
to get information on his results immediately.
6. Assessments that are served on desktops, mobiles and tablets at ease. Conduct tests on any
device seamlessly.
7. Built for candidate’s ease
8. Simplify how your conduct assessments
Advantages of Online Examination
• immediate feedback, tailored to help students improve their knowledge and performance
• access for students in different geographical locations and at different times
• sophisticated reporting, allowing you to refine the exercise or identify areas in which more
instruction is needed
• students undertake online tests many times to assess and re-assess their knowledge
• Testing in an online environment can be a lot more interactive than traditional paper and pen
tests. Instructors can embed multimedia in test questions to provide more engaging
assessments. For example: Students may be asked to identify a particular area of an image by
directly clicking on it instead of having to answer in written form.
• Online test can be more accessible to students with disabilities who have assistive
technologies built in to their computers than hand written tests are.
• Low cost, minimum effort, saving time ,instant result and conduct an examination India and
abroad.
• Although creating online tests is labour-intensive, once a test is developed in black board it is
relatively easy to transfer it and repeat it in other black board courses.
• Rapid turnaround on test results
• Greater choice of where and when to test
• Centralized registration and scheduling
• Reduced manual processes and errors
• Increased test security
• More standardized, automated processes
• Quicker updates to test content
• Less human error
Disadvantages of online examination
 1. Unlilke collaborative project based online assessment multiple choice or essay tests online can
feel even more impersonal than they do in the class room which may contribute to an online
students sense of isolation.
2. While it is tempting to use the multiple choice quizzes provided by the text book
publisher,these types of assessment lack creativity and many not be suitable to the specific
needs of your learners.
3. Some students will not be accustomed to taking quizzed and tests online and they
may need some hand-holding early in the semester before they feel comfortable with the
technology.
4. Cheating on an online test is as simple as opening up another window and searching google
or asking a classmate for the correct answers. Furthermore, cheating on online multiple choice
tests is near impossible for instructor to prevent or catch.
5. Though the technology that makes online tests possible is a great thing, it can also cause
problems. If you do online testing, have a back-up plan for students who have technical
difficulties and be ready to field some frantic emails from students who have poor internet
connections or faulty computers.
6. May be loss of Internet during examination.
7. Theoretical exam can't be conduct in this criteria.
8. Computer Hardware and Software peripherals problems may encountered.
9. It's a new strategy. So, never use at all levels of education.
10. Basic computer knowledge is compulsory to have.
11. It's risky and may have mental fear than theoretical exam.
12. No way to estimate the intellectual level of individual just by objective type online exam.
13. One can crack the exam just by luck, not by knowledge.

COMPUTER BASED EXAMINATION

A computer based assessment, also known as computer based testing (CBT), e-exams, computerized
testing and computer administrated testing is a method of administrating tests in which the responses
are electronically recorded, assessed or both. As the name implies ,computer-based assessment makes
use of a computer or an equivalent electronic device(i.e. hand held computer) Computer based
assessment enables educators and trainers to author, scheduled deliver and report on surveys, quizzes,
tests and exams. Computer based testing may be a standalone system or a part of a virtual
learning environment, possibly accessed via the world wide web.
Computer based Test simply refers to tests and assessments conducted through the use of the
organized systems on computers. Chalmers (2011) sees Computer Based test as a test that can be used
in a supervised or non-supervised environment, and can allow students to check their own progress
through self-assessment. Test administration via computer (NOT online) . Responses are recorded
and scored electronically . Advanced questions types available: multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks,
essay, etc.

It is a Computer Based Exam which will be conducted using the Local Area Network (LAN) to make
it safe, secure and un-interrupted.
a) The candidate can review or re-answer any question at any point of time during the examination.
b) The candidate can change the option of the answer during the exam duration and it is one of the
most important feature of computer based examination
c) The candidate also has the option to mark any answer for review at later stage during the
examination.
d) There will be a panel on computer screen showing all the question nos in different colour scheme
which will indicate which are the questions answered, left un answered and marked for review
e) Candidate gets the flexibility in choosing the exam date of his/her choice as per his/her
convenience.
f) It will make Candidate feel confident on use of Information technology.
Analysis of data: An enormous advantage of computerized tests is that data analysis both for
individuals and for groups, is made absurdly easy.
Presentation of results to subjects: Immediately the test is finished the computer can present the
results to the subject either on the screen or a printed document.
Items: However, a computer test even if it consists of what might be called computer bound
items,must still e judged against the stsndard psychometric criteria of reliability, discriminatory
power, validity and quality of normative data where these are applicable.
Comparability between a paper and pencil and a computer-administered test. It is far easier to
present on the computer. Verbal and numerical items than visual. Items where there is always the
possibility that the screen image will be different from the printed test, even with modern graphics
and light sensitive pens. Nevertheless, no matter how identical the two tests appear to be it is essential
that the reliability, validity and standardization of the computer version be checked.
Advantages
1.Reduced testing time
2.Increased test security
3.Provision of instant scoring.
4.Better use of professionals time.
5.Reduce time lag
6.Greater accuracy: Computer can combine a variety human are less accurate and less consistent
when they attempt to do this. Computer can handle extensive amount of normative data but human
are limited. Computer can use very complex way, human are quite limited in these capabilities.
7.Computers can be programmed so that they continuously update the norms, predictive regression
equation etc.
8.Create standardization :The computer demands a high degree of standardization both test
procedures and test interpretation and ordinarily does not tolerate deviance from such standardization.
9.Greater Control: This relates to the previous point but the issue here is that the error variance
attributable to the examiner is greatly reduced if not totally eliminated.
10. Greater utility with special students and group. There are obvious benefits with computerized
testing of special groups, such as the severely disabled for whom-Paper-Pencil tests may be quite
limited or inappropriate.
11.Long term cost savings: Although the initial coasts of purchasing computer equipment of
developing program software etc., can be quite high once a test is automated it can be administered
repeatedly at little extra cost.

Disadvantages
• Higher level anxiety
• Testing reduced the potential for observing the subject’s behavior.
• The need for individual computer terminals for each person limits the number of subject who
can be tested at any one time.

Portfolio - Portfolio are collection of work samples to illustrate a person's accomplishments in a

talent area. Photographers collect portfolios of their best photos, artists collect their art work,
composers their compositions.
 Portfolio is a methodology for assembling and organizing student's products and assessment
data.
Assessment portfolios are used to document what a child has achieved in school. Portfolio assessment
refers to the purposeful, selective collection of learner work and reflective self-assessment that is used
to document progress and achievement over a period of time. In this technique teachers or students
collect samples of students work and put them in a folder. Portfolio also includes some reflective
accounts (e.g. diaries/logs). Example: in education, students collect in a portfolio, essays around
particular teaching methods, lesson plans, teaching materials that they have developed and a report
about the teaching experience itself.
Portfolio is an assessment tool that is gaining popularity and is being used in many schools
and colleges. The debate about the benefits and deficiencies of portfolios, questions about portfolio
validity, challenges about the portfolio assessment procedure etc will be raised. A good teacher will
rise to these challenges and become well equipped to use, adapt and create assessment techniques that
will combine the best of traditional and portfolio assessment.

Definition: A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits to the student (and/or
others) the student's effort, progress or achievement in (a) given area(s). The collection must include:
• Student participation in the selection of the portfolio content
• The criteria for selection
• The criteria for judging the merit
• Evidence of student reflection
Characteristics of portfolio:
1. It is primarily created by the student
2. An alternative to traditional testing
3. The portfolio has pedagogic and assessment functions.
4. Portfolios can include a wide variety of materials: teacher notes, teacher-completed, checklists,
students’ self-reflections, written summaries, reading logs, or audiotapes of student talks
5. Comprehensive ways to assess students’ knowledge and skills
6. Portfolios can be either paper or e-portfolios.
7. Authenticity of assessment
8. Students’ active participation in the evaluation process
9. Development of students’ reflective thinking.
10. Includes only ongoing information that is meaningful to the learner and useful in planning
current and instructional goals.
Development of a portfolio
Planning - A teacher who uses portfolio for students assessment have to first plan well in advance
how to prepare and use portfolios. Portfolios can be maintained in different ways. A teacher must fix
its physical and conceptual structure. So first a teacher has to decide how the portfolio would be
maintained and based on that decide the type of documents to be collected in a portfolio. Teacher has
to plan in advance how, when and what will be selected. A portfolio may include student's very best
work or even ordinary work to show the students maximum and daily performance. It can be kept for
a long or a short time. A short term portfolio is kept for a particular unit and a long term portfolio to
compare the development of the child over a period of time. Portfolios can be used at any grade
levels, subjects or courses. It can reflect work samples in one subject area alone or across the whole
curriculum. At school levels it usually maintained for each subject the student is learning. It can also
be created under categories such as verbal work, technical work or artistic work etc. A portfolio can
be maintained manually or electronically. An electronic portfolio can be maintained as a folder in a
computer or a CD that contains the work of the students as word documents, presentations, videos or
audio recordings (reflections can be recorded), photographs etc.
Collecting students work - Based on the purpose of the portfolio assessment student's variety of
works is collected. At primary level it is the responsibility of the teacher to maintain portfolios but in
higher levels it is the responsibility of the student. Teachers must be clear about what products can be
included in the portfolio.
The criteria for selection of materials for portfolio are:
• The products are selected by and personally meaningful to the learner
• The products reflect development and/or learning in all domains, in varying contexts, and on
an ongoing process throughout the period.
• The products are related to instructional objectives
• The products clarify performance expectations
• The products provide a medium for sharing information between the student and others
Several drafts of a work showing initial conception and planning, different attempts made for
implementation, final product, report of the process, student's reflection at different stages can be
collected. A teacher can ask the students to re-examine all the stages of work and reflect on the
process and products from the beginning to end. Self-evaluation is valuable in developing meta-
cognitive abilities of students. At the beginning of a course an initial portfolio can be developed
which created and evaluated. Evaluation of the initial portfolio by the teacher can give feedback to
the students. It can also give awareness for the students about what materials to be included in a
portfolio and how it should be maintained. Then later the students can maintain term portfolios,
semester portfolios or year-end portfolios.
Materials in the portfolio must be dated and sequenced to reflect the most recent work.
Categorizing student products according to the domains of learning can help in organizing the
material and for analysis and interpretation. There is no fixed way to assemble, store and retrieve
portfolio contents. This depends on the type of portfolio products chosen. The important factor is that
it should be readily accessible to the students.
Evaluation of portfolios - The portfolios can be evaluated in different ways. At the end of every
month portfolio weeks can be conducted at the final week. During this time the students consult with
a teacher or an adult mentor to discuss their past accomplishments, future goals etc. It can be
examined whether substantial learning has occurred and necessary feedback can be provided. If the
portfolio contains incomplete or unsuccessful work, the student may be given additional assignments
or special programmes for learning. The assessment report based on the portfolio is shared with the
students and parents in the parent teachers meeting. To maintain consistent standards teachers can
cross-read of portfolios from other teachers. Cross reading of selected portfolios of students of
different levels of learning can be done.
In another method a teacher can establish a process folio of work in progress. This can include
teacher's comments and observations, student self evaluation, progress notes and planning notes. A
teacher works with each child reviewing and revising the work and deciding which works to be
transferred to the archival portfolio. At the end of the year a student can take the archival portfolio
home or is forwarded to the next grade.
The year-end or semester end or course end portfolio or archival portfolio is a portfolio from
which the summative data will be derived. It will give a report of the year's accomplishment of a
student. It contains all the best work of the students is used to evaluate their progress in learning. It
can be used as the basis for providing grades and communicating what they have accomplished.
Criteria for evaluating a portfolio:
• Reflect all context of learning
 • Reflect and facilitate individual learning styles
• Contain student reflection
• Show progress towards learning goals
• Reflect individual capabilities and interests
• Meaningful means of communication
• Reflect the three dimensions of growth and development, learning and teaching
Also portfolio exhibitions can be done to display the finest accomplishments and others can ask
questions regarding that work to the student. To validate the accuracy of portfolio assessment
examining by external examiners can be done. They would look at the quality of work, skill of
teacher to assess and give feedback, appropriateness of the grade provided, whether all students had
access to the type of learning they needed etc. Their findings and recommendations can be made to
the school board or examination board.
Advantages portfolio assessment
1. A more comprehensive way to assess their students’ knowledge and skills,
2. Help students be more accountable for the work they do in class and the skills and knowledge
they acquire; involve students in the assessment process, thus giving them a more meaningful
role in improving achievement; invite students to reflect upon their growth and performance
as learners.
3. Develop students’ skills of reflective thinking. It can be used as a means of promoting learner
reflection. Portfolios can serve as a means of motivating students and promoting their self-
evaluation and self-understanding.
4. It documents the students’ learning process. It can either include a record of students’
achievements or simply document their best work.
5. The portfolio can help in assessing product or process according to the context and design of
its development.
6. Portfolio assessment is closely linked to instruction because they reveal weaknesses in
instructional processes. Portfolios provide teachers with a wealth of information upon which
to base instructional decisions and to evaluate student progress.
7. It offers the teacher an in-depth knowledge of the learner and helps in individualization of
instruction. They allow the teacher to see the student as an individual, each with his or her
own unique set of characteristics, needs, and strengths.
8. Portfolios can develop meta-cognition of students, awareness of their own learning and
thinking. May judge their own work and compare performance in different assignments.
9. It is an effective way of getting students to take a second look and think about how they could
improve future work. Portfolios can provide structure for involving students in developing and
understanding criteria for good efforts and in applying the criteria to their own work.
10. Help teachers standardize and evaluate the skills and knowledge students acquire without
limiting creativity in the classroom.
Limitations of portfolios
1. They place additional demands on teachers and students.
2. Teachers need additional time for planning, developing strategies and materials, meeting with
individual students and small groups, and reviewing and commenting on student work.
3. Portfolio assessments may be less reliable. It can be subjective.
4. It can be time consuming for teachers and staff, especially if portfolios are done in addition to
traditional testing and grading.
5. Teachers must develop their own individualized criteria, which can be initially difficult or
unfamiliar.
 6. Data from portfolio assessments can be difficult to analyze or aggregate, particularly over
long periods of time.

Traditional vs. Portfolio assessment.

Traditional Assessment Portfolio Assessment
Assessment is not continuous Continuous and comprehensive
Short term assessment Long term assessment
Timed, fixed response format Untimed, free-response format
Primarily created by teachers Primarily created by students
Provides opportunity for students Provides opportunity for students to select and examine
to know their present status of one's own work, reflect on the completed work, review and
achievement. revisit past products
Based mainly on tests and exams Uses techniques, tools, creative works, self reflections etc
Scores suffice for feedback Individualized feedback
Norm-referenced scores Criterion-referenced scores
Focus on the right answer Open-ended, creative answers
Summative Formative
Oriented to product Oriented to process and product
Non-interactive performance Interactive performance
Fosters extrinsic motivation Fosters intrinsic motivation

Rubrics for Evaluation Meaning of Rubric: The traditional meanings of the word Rubric stem from
the Latin word, rubrica which means a heading on a document (often written in red), or a direction for
conducting church services". The term has long been used as medical labels for diseases and
procedures. The bridge from medicine to education occurred through the construction of
"Standardized Developmental Ratings." These were first defined for writing assessment in the mid-
1970s and used to train raters for New York State's Regents Exam in Writing by the late 1970s. That
exam required raters to use multidimensional standardized developmental ratings to determine a
holistic score. The term "rubrics" was applied to such ratings by Grubb, 1981 in a book advocating
holistic scoring. In this new sense, a rubric is a set of criteria and standards typically linked to
learning objectives. It is used to assess or communicate about product, performance, or process tasks.
Authentic assessments typically are criterion-referenced measures. That is, a student's aptitude on a
task is determined by matching the student's performance against a set of criteria to determine the
degree to which the student's performance meets the criteria for the task. To measure student
performance against a pre-determined set of criteria, a rubric, or scoring scale, is typically created
which contains the essential criteria for the task and appropriate levels of performance for each
criterion.
Rubric: A scoring scale used to assess student performance along a task-specific set of criteria.
“A rubric is a tool used to assess or guide a student’s performance on a given task in a given context
given certain standards” (Varvel, 2011,para. 1). Using rubrics is an evaluation approach used to judge
the quality of performance (Morrison, Ross, Kemp, 2004). “A rubric is intended to give a more
descriptive, holistic characterization of the quality of students’ work” (p. 290). Rubrics place
emphasis on explicit descriptions of what a student will do, know, and to what degree.
Rubrics are performance-based assessments that evaluate student performance on any given task or
set of tasks that ultimately leads to a final product, or learning outcome. Rubrics use specific criteria
as a basis for evaluating or assessing student performances as indicated in narrative descriptions that
are separated into levels of possible performance related to a given task. Starting with the highest
level and progressing to the lowest, these levels of performance are used to assess the defined set of
tasks as they relate to a final product or behavior.
A rubric can be defined as a descriptive guideline, a scoring guide or specific pre-established
performance criteria in which each level of performance is described to contrast it with the
performance at other levels. This is in contrast to a rating scale which provides a scale (1-5) and a
description of each number in the scale (1 = Unacceptable to 5 = Exceeds Expectations), but does not
provide a description of what the specific differences are among performances at each level.

Steps in the construction of Rubrics for a Task

A rubric is comprised mainly of two components: criteria and levels of performance. Each rubric
must have at least two criteria and at least two levels of performance.
1. Identify the Criteria for the Task- The criteria are the characteristics of good performance on
a task. A criteria is used to evaluate how well students completed the task and, thus, how well
they have met the standards. So think "What does good performance on this task look like?"
or "How will I know they have done a good job on this task?" In answering those questions
you will be able to identify the criteria for good performance on that task.
2. Identify the level of performance - For each criterion; the evaluator applying the rubric can
determine to what degree the student has met the criterion, i.e., the level of performance. A
score can be assigned to each level of performance.
3. Writing descriptors - In this step find how students can demonstrate that they are fully capable
of meeting the standard. Descriptors are statements of what students should know and be able
to do. A descriptor tells students more precisely what performance looks like at each level and
how their work may be distinguished from the work of others for each criterion. They are
typically narrower in scope and more amenable to assessment; it must be observable and
measurable. A well-written descriptor can spell out what task should students do to
demonstrate their mastery of it.
4. Create the Rubric – After setting the criteria, level of performances and descriptors you next
decide whether to consider the criteria analytically or holistically based on which you create
analytic or holistic rubrics.
Thus a well constructed rubric identifies (Carnegie Mellon, 2001):
1. Criteria: the aspects of performance that will be assessed
2. Performance levels: a rating scale that identifies students’ level of mastery within each
criterion
3. Descriptors: the characteristics associated with each dimension
Types of Performances That Can Be Assessed with Rubrics
Type of Performance Examples
Processes • Playing a musical instrument
• Physical skills • Preparing a slide for the microscope
• Use of equipment • Making a speech to the class
• Oral communication • Conversing in a foreign language
• Work habits • Working independently
Products • Watercolor painting
• Constructed objects • Laboratory report
• Written essays, themes, reports,• Term paper on theatrical conventions in Shakespeare's day
term papers • Written analysis of the effects of a Plan
• Other academic products that• Model or diagram of a structure (atom, flower, planetary
 demonstrate understanding of system, etc.)
concepts • Concept map

Types of Rubrics: Rubrics can be holistic or analytic, general or task specific.

Holistic rubrics provide a single score based on an overall impression of a student’s performance on a
task.
• Advantages: Quick scoring provides an overview of student achievement
Easily obtain a single dimension if that is adequate for your purpose.
• Disadvantages: Does not provide detailed information, may be difficult to provide one overall
score.
Not very useful to help plan instruction because they lack a detailed analysis of a
student’s strengths or weaknesses of a product.
• Use when: you want a quick snapshot of achievement.
a single dimension is adequate to define quality.

Analytic rubrics provide feedback along several dimensions.

• Advantages: Provides meaningful and specific feedback along multiple dimensions.
Scoring tends to be more consistent across students and grades.
Easier for the teacher to share with students and parents about certain strengths
and weaknesses.
Helps students to better understand the nature of quality work.

• Disadvantage: It is more difficult to construct analytical rubrics for all tasks.

Tends to be quite time consuming.
Lower consistency among different raters
• Use when:
o you want to see relative strengths and weaknesses.
o you want detailed feedback.
o you want to assess complicated skills or performance.
o you want students to self-assess their understanding or performance.

General rubrics contain criteria that are general across tasks.

• Advantage: can use the same rubric across different tasks
• Disadvantage: feedback may not be specific enough.
• Use when:
o you want to assess reasoning, skills, and products.
o all students are not doing exactly the same task.

Task specific rubrics are unique to a specific task.

• Advantage: more reliable assessment of performance
• Disadvantage: difficult to construct rubrics for all tasks.
• Use when:
o you want to assess knowledge.
o when consistency of scoring is extremely important.
 Holistic Template for Holistic Rubrics
Score Description
Demonstrates complete understanding of the problem. All
5
requirements of task are included in response.
Demonstrates considerable understanding of the problem. All
4
requirements of task are included.
Demonstrates partial understanding of the problem. Most
3
requirements of task are included.
Demonstrates little understanding of the problem. Many
2
requirements of task are missing.
1 Demonstrates no understanding of the problem.
0 No response/task not attempted.

Analytical Template for analytic rubrics

Beginning Developing Accomplished Exemplary

Score
1 2 3 4

Criteria Description Description Description Description

#1 reflecting reflecting reflecting reflecting
beginning movement achievement highest
level of toward of mastery level of
performance mastery level of performance
level of performance
performance

Criteria Description Description Description Description

#2 reflecting reflecting reflecting reflecting
beginning movement achievement highest
level of toward of mastery level of
performance mastery level of performance
level of performance
performance

Holistic Rubric for Assessing Student Essay

Rating Detailed Description of Performance at Each Level
Inadequate The essay has at least one serious weakness. It may be unfocused,
underdeveloped, or rambling. Problems with the use of language seriously
interfere with the reader’s ability to understand what is being
 communicated.

Developing The essay may be somewhat unfocused, underdeveloped, or rambling, but it

Competence does have some coherence. Problems with the use of language occasionally
interfere with the reader’s ability to understand what is being
communicated.
Acceptable The essay is generally focused and contains some development of ideas, but
the discussion may be simplistic or repetitive. The language lacks syntactic
complexity and may contain occasional grammatical errors, but the reader is
able to understand what is being communicated.
Sophisticated The essay is focused and clearly organized, and it shows depth of
development. The language is precise and shows syntactic variety, and ideas
are clearly communicated to the reader.

Example Analytic Rubric: Articulating thoughts through written communication— final

paper/project.
NEEDS
IMPROVE- ABOVE
MENT DEVELOPING SUFFICIENT AVERAGE
(1) (2) (3) (4)
The purpose of
the student The central
work is not The central purpose purpose of the
well-defined. of the student work student work is
Central ideas The central purpose is clear and ideas clear and
are not focused of the student work are almost always supporting ideas
Clarity (Thesis to support the is identified. Ideas focused in a way always are always
supported by thesis. are generally that supports the well-focused.
relevant Thoughts focused in a way thesis. Relevant Details are
information appear that supports the details illustrate the relevant, enrich
and ideas.) disconnected. thesis. author’s ideas. the work.
Information
and ideas are
poorly
sequenced (the Information and
author jumps Information and Information and ideas are
around). The ideas are presented ideas are presented presented in a
audience has in an order that the in a logical logical sequence
difficulty audience can sequence which is which flows
Organization following the follow with followed by the naturally and is
(Sequencing of thread of minimum reader with little or engaging to the
elements/ideas) thought. difficulty. no difficulty. audience.
Mechanics There are five There are no more There are no more There are no more
(Correctness or more than four than three than two
of grammar misspellings misspellings and/or misspellings and/or misspelled words
and spelling) and/or systematic grammatical errors or grammatical
systematic grammatical errors per page and no errors in the
grammatical per page or six or more than five in document.
errors per page more in the entire the entire
or 8 or more in document. Errors document. The
the entire distract from the readability of the
document. The work. work is minimally
readability of interrupted by
the work is errors.
seriously
hampered by
errors.

Advantages of using rubrics

• Help to better communicating teacher expectations, levels of performance permit the teacher
to more consistently and objectively distinguish between good and bad performance, or
between superior, mediocre and poor performance, when evaluating student work.
• Identifying specific levels of student performance allows the teacher to provide more detailed
feedback to students. The teacher can more clearly recognize areas that need improvement.
• Rubrics assist faculty in rating qualities of learning outcomes. Therefore, rubrics effectively
help teachers to specifically and consistently assess and evaluate qualities of learning and
communicate expected standards of learning.
• When provided to students before and during learning, rubrics also assist students to more
successfully interpret and anticipate expected levels of performance. Motivates students to
reach the standards specified.
• Help students interpret their own level of performance, learn what must be done to improve
performance and achieve higher standards of performance.
• Rubrics can be modified and can reasonably vary from teacher to teacher. So they are flexible
tools that can be shaped to your purposes. Flexible tool, having uses across many contexts, in
many grade levels and for a wide range of abilities.
• Narrows the gap between instruction and assessment.
• Potential to be transferred into grades if necessary.
• Can offer a method of consistency in scoring by clearly defining the performance criteria.
• Helps the grading process become more efficient;
• Helps faculty grade/score more accurately, fairly and reliably;
• Requires faculty to set and define more precisely the criteria used in the grading process;
• Supports uniform and standardized grading processes among different faculty members;
• Students are able to self-assess their own work prior to submitting it;
• Students can understand better the rationale and the reason for grades;
Disadvantages of Rubrics
• Rubrics can also restrict the students mind power in that they will feel that they need to
complete the assignment strictly to the rubric instead of taking the initiative to explore their
learning.
• If the criteria that is in the rubric is too complex, students may feel overwhelmed with the
assignment, and little success may be imminent.
• For the teacher creating the rubric, the task of developing, testing, evaluating, and updating
would be difficult and increases the workload of the teacher.
• Development of rubrics can be complex and time-consuming;
• Using the correct language to express performance expectation can be difficult;
• Defining the correct set of criteria to define performance can be complex;
• Rubrics might need to be continuously revised before it can actually be usable in an easy
fashion.