TESTING, ASSESSING AND TEACHING

PROFESSOR: MAYRA A. SILVA ORTEGA

DO YOU PLAN YOURSELF AS A TEACHER?

What kind of teacher do you

want to be?
WHAT IS A TEST?

 A method
 Measuring
 Person’s ability, knowledge, or performance
 A given domain

What are the characteristics of

a test?
ASSESSMENT

 An ongoing process
 Encompassing
 Wider domain

1. Example: Students’ answers to questions.

2. Games
3. comments
WHAT IS TEACHING?

 “The process of carrying out certain activities that experience has shown
to be effective in getting students to learn“
 Setting up the opportunities for learners to listen, think, take, risks, set
goals, and process feedback from the “coach” and then recycle through
the skills that they are trying to master.
QUESTION

 What is the relationship between testing, assessing and teaching?

TEST, ASSESSMENT AND TEACHING

Teaching

Assessment

Tests
ASSESSMENT

Types of Assessment
Informal and formal

Formative and summative

Norm and Criterion referenced tests

INFORMAL AND FORMAL ASSESSMENT

 Informal Assessment starts with incidental, unplanned comments and

responses, along with coaching and other impromptu feedback to the
students. E.g. Nice job!, Good work!, etc.
 Formal assessment are exercises or procedures specifically designed to
tap a storehouse of skills or knowledge.
QUESTION

Is formal assessment the same as test?

FORMATIVE AND SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Formative: Evaluating students in Summative: Aims to measure, or

the process of formning their summarize, what a student has
competencies and skills with the grasped, and typically occurs at
goal of helping them to continue the end of the course or unit
that grow process. instruction.
NORM REFERENCED AND CRITERION REFERENCED TEST.

 Norm-referenced tests: each test-taker’s score is interpreted in relation to

a mean (average score), median (middle score), standard deviation (extent
of variance in scores), and/or percentile rank (Brown, 2004).
 Criterion referenced tests are designed to give test-takers feedback,
usually in the form of grades, on specific course or lesson objectives
(Brown, 2004)
APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE TESTING

Discrete-point Communicative Performance-

and integrative language based
testing testing assessment.
DISCRETE- POINT ASSESSMENT

 Are constructed on the assumption that language can be broken down into
its component parts and those parts can be tested successfully.
INTEGRATIVE TESTS

 Measure the level of mastery of the combination of two or more elements

of the language.
COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TESTING

 Ability to use language appropriately, both receptively and productively,

in real situations.
PERFORMANCE- BASED ASSESSMENT

1. Performance assessment is based on the observation appraisal valuation

of the activity as in the case of learners
2. To assess the learning outcomes of the students' observations are needed
when doing so.
CURRENT ISSUES

Computed-
based
Tradictional testing
and
New views alternative
of assessment
intelligence
NEW VIEWS OF INTELLIGENCE

 Gardner (1983,1999), for example, extended the traditional view of

intelligence to seven different components.
 2. Sternberg (1988,1997) also charted new territory in intelligence
research in recognizing thinking and manipulative strategies as part of
intelligence.
 3. Goleman (1995) concept of EQ has spurred us to underscore the
importance of the emotions I our cognitive processing.
TRADITIONAL ASSESSMENT

 Assumes knowledge has universal meaning

 Treats learning as a passive process
 Separates process from product
 Focuses on mastering discrete, isolated bits of information
 Assumes the purpose of assessment is to document learning
 Believes that cognitive abilities are separate from affective abilities
 Views assessment as objective, value-free, and neutral
 Embraces a hierarchical model of power and control
 Perceives learning as an individual enterprise
ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT

 Assumes knowledge has multiple meanings

 Treats learning as an active process
 Emphasizes process and product
 Focuses on inquiry
 Assumes the purpose of assessment is to facilitate learning
 Views assessment as subjective and value-laden
 Embraces a shared model of power and control
 Perceives learning as a collaborative process
COMPUTER- BASED TESTING

 Computer adaptive test (CAT).

1. a set of questions and
2. generally appropriate for test taker level.
QUESTION

What are the advantages and disadvantages of traditional

and alternative testing?