EDU 08 ASSESSMENT IN EDUCATION UNIT1 Perspectives on assessment and evaluation second part

CONTINUOUS AND COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION, CCE (concept, need and relevance)

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system was introduced by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in India for students of sixth to tenth grades. In this scheme the term `continuous’ means regularity of assessment, frequency of unit testing, diagnosis of learning gaps, use of corrective measures, retesting and 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.

The main aim is to evaluate every aspect of the child during their presence at the school.

1.      It assesses all aspects of a student’s development on a continuous basis throughout the year.

2.      The assessment covers both scholastic subjects as well as co-scholastic areas such as performance in sports, art, music, dance, drama, and other cultural activities and social qualities.

3.      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.

4.      This is non-threatening for all children including those with special needs as it discourages irrational comparison and labeling with no fear of examination.

5.      It brings a change to the usual chalk and talk method.

6.      It finds out the learning difficulties and can give remedial measures.

7.      It brings flexibility to plan academic schedules.

8.      It reduces workload on students and improves overall skill and ability of the student by means of evaluation of other activities.

9.      In this the marks of the students are replaced by grades. Grades are awarded to students based on work experience, skills, dexterity, innovation, steadiness, team work public speaking, behaviour etc to evaluate and present an overall measure of the students ability. This helps the students who are not good in academics to show their talent in other fields such as arts, humanities, sports, music athletics etc.

10.  It is done in projects, assignments, practical, seminar records and collections which are graded based on specific grading indicators.

11.  Co scholastic abilities are also considered in terms of work experience, art education health and physical education.

12.  It makes children and parents as active participants in learning and development of children.

13.  Opportunities of self-assessments and peer assessments enable children take charge of their learning and gradually progress towards self-learning.

14.  Sharing of their learning progress with timely feedback during teaching learning and constructive suggestions during quarterly Parent-Teacher Meetings (PTMs) makes them aware of the extent of accomplishment and be prepared for the further efforts required to be undertaken.

15.  Rational division of the syllabus to be covered in each quarter may be planned in advance for the yearly academic calendars.

16.  Teachers’ suggestions and participation towards development of such plans needs to be ensured. If possible, such a planning may be done at the school level.

17.  Resources and activities may only be suggestive and teachers need to be given freedom to chose or devise new learning aids or strategies.

18.  Assessment questions, exercises, assignments need to be process based and allow children to think critically and explore.

19.  They should not assess rote memory of children.

20.  The written tests if evaluated using marks or grades need to be supported with qualitative descriptions as marks or grades can help you to decide the learning level but remarks highlight the gaps and the suggestions for improvement.

21.  The levels assigned for different learning outcomes under different curricular areas provide useful information to the teachers on how many children are lagging behind on the specific learning outcome(s).

Hence, the data from the quarterly progress reports further provide insights to not just students but also the teachers on how to review their teaching learning to take steps (assessment for learning) for the next quarter.

 

Evaluation of Scholastic Areas

Scholastic subjects are assessed using two modes

Formative Assessment (FA) and Summative Assessment (SA).

Formative Assessment usually comprises of Class Tests, Homework, Quizzes, Projects, and Assignments directed throughout the year. Summative Assessment measures how much a student has learnt from the class through an examination/test conducted at the end of a term.

For institutions following the CCE grading system, typically an academic year is divided into two terms. Each term will have two FAs and one SAs. The weightage allotted to each term and assessment is as follows.

	Term 1			Term 2
	FA1	FA2	SA1	FA3	FA4	SA2
Weightage	10%	10%	30%	10%	10%	30%
Term Weightage	FA1+FA2+SA1=50%			FA3+FA4+SA2=50%

Total: Formative Assessments (FA) = FA1+FA2+ FA3+FA4 = 40%

Summative Assessments (SA) = SA1+SA2 = 60%

Scholastic Assessment grades are generally given on a 9 point grading scale.

Evaluation of Co-Scholastic Areas

Co-Scholastic areas are assessed using multiple techniques on the basis of specific criteria. Assessments of co-scholastic areas are done at the end of the year, and grades are generally given on a 5 point grading scale.

Types of Grading Systems

There are 7 Types of grading systems available. They are :

1.      Percentage Grading – From 0 to 100 Percent

2.      Letter grading and variations – From A Grade to F Grade

3.      Norm-referenced grading – Comparing students to each other usually letter grades

4.      Mastery grading – Grading students as “masters” or “passers” when their attainment reaches a pre specified level

5.      Pass/Fail – Using the Common Scale as Pass/Fail

6.      Standards (or Absolute-Standards) grading – Comparing student performance to a pre established standard (level) of performance

7.      Narrative grading -Writing Comments about students

1.Grading System in India

Percentage	Grade Point	Grade	Classification/ Division
60–100	3.5–4.0	A or (O)	First class/ Distinction / Outstanding
55–59	3.15–3.49	B+	Second Class
50–54	2.5–3.14	B	Second Class
43–49	2.15–2.49	C+	Third Division
35*–42	1.5–2.14	C	Fail/Third Division
0–34	0–1.49	F	Fail

Grading

Grading in education is the process of applying standardized measurements of varying levels of achievement in a course. Grading system gives verbal description and symbols to the achievement rather than scoring numerically traditional marking scheme.

Grades can be assigned as letters (for example A through F), as a range (for example 1 to 6), as a percentage of a total number of questions answered correctly, or as a number out of a possible total (for example out of 20 or 100). Grading system is a method used by teachers to assess students’ educational performance. In early times, simple marking procedure was used by educators. But now, a proper grading system is followed by every educational institute. The grades such as A, A-, A+, B, B-, B+, C, D E and so on are used to evaluate the performance of a student in a test, presentation or final examination. Each grade contains a range of percentage or marks

Advantages of Grading System in Education:

1. Takes the pressure off from the students at certain levels:

In a general grading system as considered above, a student’s real scores and its associated marks are not accounted on the official transcript, which denotes that their GPA will not have an effect on either a pass or a fail mark category. This spares the students from getting preoccupied and become fussy about getting an elevated letter grade.  It still provides the necessary educational prerequisites for them to land themselves comfortably on a good job and also mold themselves to become more responsible citizens in the future.

2. Grading Pattern description:

Students are bundled and grouped according to the different types of grading scales they get which are entirely based on the marks that they get in each subject that is taught in school.

In case of India the general pattern is as follows

A1: 91 to 100

A2 : 81 to 90

B1: 71 to 80

B2: 61 to 70

C1 : 51 to 60

C2 : 41 to 50

D for 33 to 40 and lesser for E’s.

Another advantage of this method is that it has introduced the notion of measuring the students’ knowledge based on their internal assignments, projects, and their answering ability in class and their overall performance in all the major examinations. It is not just a solitary examination forced method. Earlier the marks that were obtained in the exams are the only indicator of whether a child is studying or not. But, this system analyzes whether a child understands the concept or not.

3. Gives the students an obvious idea about their weaknesses and strengths:

Knowing precisely which subject(s) are their weak spots, students can easily decide where to toggle their focal point on. In a grading system where the alphabets are the scales, a grade of C or grade of D is known to speak a lot.

So, when the total grades arrive these students can easily get to know their forte.

4. Make class work easier:

The student does not need to toil them to achieve the necessary minimum.

5. Leads to better ideas:

Classes or the courses that are often taught in a classroom medium within the confined premises of a school are highly difficult and are taken in the ultimate sense as getting a pass or a fail on a subject and this builds a sense of responsibility in their minds to work and train hard in their weak spots.

Disadvantages of Grading System in Education:

Also, the following points can be considered as worthy of our importance while considering the disadvantages of grading system in education. They are,

1. It doesn’t instill a sense of competition:

When all that required is a mere pass mark, we would neither have the urge to outperform others nor do we want to excel with the overall grades.

The A grade speaks a lot about our calibre than a D or an F. With a D or an F, we can be only satisfied that we are okay enough in studies, which will make us go lazy.

2. Not an accurate representation of the performance and the knowledge gained:

As we have said already, passing in an examination cannot be considered as plausible enough to declare that the same student has gained an immense amount of knowledge by these exams.

An alphabet cannot explain the inner knowledge gained by a student and there is no easy way of gauging a student’s level of performance and knowledge in the examinations.

3. It is not an exact scoring system:

the inner knowledge we have gained via these grades can be nil, as we may have attempted for learning without understanding the concept, with the sole perspective of getting an A or a C.

4. Demotivation: Grading system demotivates the students who perform higher because they stand equal to those making less efforts. For instance, grade A will be assigned to all those scoring from 90 to 100. So students who made no mistakes and those who made a few, all will stand equally at one grade.

5. Increased Lethargy: As grading system has divided the marks among different tasks such as assignments, presentations and final exams, the students become lethargic due to it. They score enough in assignments and projects and become lesser active in final exams.

What is GPA and CGPA?

Grade Point Average

The GPA is calculated by taking the number of grade points a student earned in a given period of time in school and in undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate courses in most universities. GPA is an abbreviation for Grade Point Average. It is a standard method of calculating a student’s average grade over a stipulated period, like one term/semester. GPA is calculated by dividing the average of grade points a student achieves, by the total credit hours attended by the student. GPA, or Grade Point Average, is a number that indicates how well or how high you scored in your courses on average. It’s meant to score (usually on a scale between 1 and 4) studies, and shows whether the grades have been high or low overall in your classes. This number is then used to assess whether you meet the standards and expectations set by the degree programme or university

A cumulative grade point average (CGPA) is a calculation of the average of all of a student's total earned points divided by the possible number of points. This grading system calculates for all of his or her complete education career.

CGPA refers to ‘Cumulative Grade Point Average’. It is used to denote a student’s overall average performance throughout their academic program in high school, Bachelor’s, or Master’s program. To start off with, credit hours are the total amount of time a student spends in classes. Grade points are the marks you receive for your subjects.

TO CALCULATE CGPA

Divide your total score of grade points for all subjects throughout your semesters by the total number of credit hours attended throughout your semesters. GPA and CGPA are indicated by a number as opposed to percentages, and grades are assigned under the Indian grading system.

DIRECT GRADING

Performance is assessed in qualitative terms

Evaluator gives grades such as A B C D E F according to the standards without assigning scores.

Preferred to non cognitive learning outcomes

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

INDIRECT GRADING

Evaluator gives grades through marks. Convert marks to grades

This is of two types

They are absolute and relative

Absolute grading

Relative grading

ABSOLUTE GRADING

Based on predetermined standard which becomes a reference point for assessing students performance. Direct conversion of marks into grades irrespective of the distribution of marks

For example, a common absolute grading scale would be

A = 90-100
B = 80-89
C = 70-79
D = 60-69
F = 0-59

Whatever score the student earns is their grade.  There are no adjustments made to their grade. For example, if everyone gets a score between 90-100 everyone gets an “A” or if everyone gets below 59 everyone gets an “F.” The absolute nature of absolute grading makes it inflexible and constraining for unique situations.

RELATIVE GRADING

Range varies in tune with the relative position of the group. The evaluation is done according to the performance of members. Relative grading allows for the teacher to interpret the results of an assessment and determine grades based on student performance.

A = Top 10% of students
B = Next 25% of students
C = Middle 30% of students
D = Next 25% of students
F = Bottom 10% of students

As such, if the entire class had a score on an exam between 90-100% using relative grading would still create a distribution that is balanced.

WEIGHTED AVERAGES

We can calculate the arithmetic mean or elementary average of the measurements by summing them and dividing by the number of measurements. However, in certain situations, some measurements count more than others, and to get a meaningful average, we have to assign weight to the measurements. The usual way to do this is to multiply each measurement by a factor that indicates its weight, then sum the new values, and divide by the number of weight units we assigned.

Mathematically

When calculating an arithmetic average, first sum all the measurements (m) and divide by the number of measurements (n).

∑(m₁...m_n) ÷ n

where the symbol ∑ means "sum all the measurements from 1 to n."

To calculate a weighted mean, multiply each measurement by a weighting factor (w).

In most cases, the weighting factors add up to 1 or, if you are using percentages, to 100 percent. If they don't add up to 1, use this formula:

∑ (m₁w₁...m_nw_n) ÷ ∑(w₁...w_n) or simply ∑mw ÷ ∑w

 

Weighted Averages in the Classroom

Teachers typically use weighted averages to assign appropriate importance to classwork, homework, quizzes and exams when calculating final grades.

 For example, in a certain physics class, the following weights may be assigned:

• Lab work: 20 percent
• Homework: 20 percent
• Quizzes: 20 percent
• Final Exam: 40 percent

In this case, all the weights add up to 100 percent, so a student's score can be calculated as follows:

[(Lab work score) * 0.2 + (homework) * 0.2 + (quizzes) * 0.2 + (final exam) * 0.4]

If a student's grades were 75 percent for lab work, 80 percent for homework, 70 percent for quizzes and 75 percent for the final exam, her final grade would be:

= (75) * 0.2 + (80) * 0.2 + (70) * 0.2 + (75) * 0.4

= 15 + 16 + 14 + 30 = 75 percent.

WEIGHTED SCORE

A weighted score or weighted grade is merely the average of a set of grades, where each set carries a different amount of importance.

Suppose your final grade will be determined in this manner:

Percentage of your Grade By Category

• Homework: 10%
• Quizzes: 20%
• Essays: 20%
• Midterm: 25%
• Final: 25%

Eg 1

Category Averages:

• Homework average: 98%
• Quiz average: 84%
• Essay average: 91%
• Midterm: 64%
• Final: ?

To figure out the math and determine what kind of studying efforts,we need to follow a 3-part process:

Step 1:

Set up an equation with  goal percentage (80%) in mind:

H%*(H average) + Q%*(Q average) + E%*(E average) + M%*(M average) + F%*(F average) = 80%

Step 2:

Next, we multiply the percentage of  grade by the average in each category:

• Homework: 10% of grade * 98% in category = (.10)(.98) = 0.098
• Quiz average: 20% of grade * 84% in category = (.20)(.84) = 0.168
• Essay average: 20% of grade * 91% in category = (.20)(.91) = 0.182
• Midterm: 25% of grade * 64% in category = (.25)(.64) = 0.16
• Final: 25% of grade * X in category = (.25)(x) = ?

Step 3:

Finally we, add them up and solve for x:
0.098 + 0.168 + 0.182 + 0.16 + .25x = .80
0.608 + .25x = .80
.25x = .80 – 0.608
.25x = .192
x = .192/.25
x = .768
x = 77%

Teacher uses weighted scores for final exam.

EDU – 08 ASSESSMENT IN EDUCATION UNIT I Perspectives on Assessment and Evaluation (25 hrs) Half

UNIT I

Perspectives on Assessment and Evaluation (25 hrs)

      Assessment and Evaluation in Education

      Purposes of 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.

      Factors to be considered for successful 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.

      Assessment in Education

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.

Assessment is the systematic process of documenting and using empirical data on the knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs. By taking the assessment, teachers try to improve student learning. This is a short definition of assessment.

Assessment involves the use of empirical data on student learning to refine programs and improve student learning. 

Assessments are also used to identify individual student weaknesses and strengths so that educators can provide specialized academic support, educational programming, or social services. In addition, assessments are developed by a wide array of groups and individuals, including teachers, district administrators, universities, private companies, state departments of education, and groups that include a combination of these individuals and institutions.

EVALUATION

1. James M. Bradfield:

Evaluation is the assignment of symbols to phenomenon, in order to characterise the worth or value of a phenomenon, usually with reference to some social, cultural or scientific standards.

2. Gronlund and Linn:

Evaluation is a systematic process of collecting, analysing and interpreting information to determine the extent to which pupils are achieving instructional objectives.

3.C.E. Beeby (1977), who described evaluation as “the systematic collection and interpretation of evidence leading as a part of process to a judgement of value with a view to action.”

In this definition, there are the following four key elements:

(i) Systematic collection of evidence.

(ii) Its interpretation.

(iii) Judgement of value.

(iv) With a view to action.

Evaluation in Education

Evaluation focuses on grades and may reflect classroom components other than course content and mastery level. Evaluation is a final review on your instruction to gauge the quality. It’s product-oriented. This means that the main question is: “What’s been learned?” Finally, evaluation is judgmental.

Difference between assessment and evaluation

Assessment                       Evaluation

Is ongoing                                       Provides closure

Improves quality                            Judges quality

Individualized                                Applied against standards

Not graded                                     Graded

Provides feedback                          Shows shortfalls

Process-oriented                            Product-oriented

A simple representation explaining the role of evaluation in the teaching-learning process is shown below:

Evaluation has its four different aspects namely:

(i) Objectives,

(ii) Learning experiences,

(iii) Learner appraisal and the and 

(iv) Relationship between the three.

CHARACTERISTICS OF EVALUATION

The analysis of all the above definitions makes us able to draw following characteristics of evaluation:

1. Evaluation implies a systematic process

2. Evaluation is a continuous process.

In an ideal situation, the teaching- learning process on the one hand and the evaluation procedure on the other hand, go together. It is certainly a wrong belief that the evaluation procedure follows the teaching-learning process.

3. Evaluation emphasizes the broad personality changes and major objectives of an educational programme. Therefore, it includes not only subject-matter achievements but also attitudes, interests and ideals, ways of thinking, work habits and personal and social adaptability.

4. Evaluation always assumes that educational objectives have previously been identified and defined.

5. A comprehensive programme of evaluation involves the use of many procedures (for example, analytico-synthetic, heuristic, experimental, lecture, etc.); a great variety of tests (for example, essay type, objective type, etc.); and other necessary techniques (for example, socio-metric, controlled-observation techniques, etc.).

6. Learning is more important than teaching. Teaching has no value if it does not result in learning on the part of the pupils. Objectives and learning experiences should be so relevant that ultimately they should direct the pupils towards the accomplishment of educational goals. To assess the students and their complete development brought about through education is evaluation.

9. Evaluation is the determination of the congruence between the performance and objectives.

STEPS INVOLVED IN EVALUATION

 

(i) Identifying and Defining General Objectives

In the evaluation process, first step is to determine what to evaluate, i.e., to set down educational objectives. The process of identifying and defining educational objectives is a complex one; there is no simple or single procedure which suits all teachers. Some prefer to begin with the course content, some with general aims, and some with lists of objectives suggested by curriculum experts in the area. While stating the objectives, therefore, we can successfully focus our attention on the product i.e., the pupil’s behaviour, at the end of a course of study and state it in terms of his knowledge, understanding, skill, application, attitudes, interests, appreciation, etc.

(ii) Identifying and Defining Specific Objectives:

The setting of specific objectives will provide direction to teaching-learning process. It determine two things; one, the various types of learning situations to be provided by the class teacher to his pupils and second, the method to be employed to evaluate both—the objectives and the learning experiences.

(iii) Selecting Teaching Points:

The next step in the process of evaluation is to select teaching points through which the objectives can be realised. Once the objectives are set up, the next step is to decide the content (curriculum, syllabus, course) to help in the realisation of objectives.

 (iv) Planning Suitable Learning Activities:

In the fourth step, the teacher will have to plan the learning activities by caring the objectives as well as teaching points. The process then becomes three dimensional, the three co-ordinates being objectives, teaching points and learning activities. The teacher gets the objectives and content readymade.

He is completely free to select the type of learning activities such as analytico-synthetic method; inducto-deductive reasoning; experimental method or a demonstration method; discovery method, lecture method; or he may ask the pupils to divide into groups and to do a sort of group work followed by a general discussion; and so on. One thing he has to remember is that he should select only such activities as will make it possible for him to realise his objectives.

(v) Evaluating:

In the fifth step, the teacher observes and measures the changes in the behaviour of his pupils through evaluation process.

Here the teacher will construct a test by making the maximum use of the teaching points already introduced in the class and the learning experiences already acquired by his pupils. He may plan for an oral lest or a written test; he may administer an essay type test or an objective type of lest; or he may arrange a practical test.

(vi) Using the Results as Feedback

If the teacher, after testing his pupils, finds that the objectives have not been realised to a great extent, he will use the results in reconsidering the objectives and in organising the learning activities. He will retrace his steps to find out the drawbacks in the objectives or in the learning activities he has provided for his students. This is known as feedback. Whatever results the teacher gets after testing his pupils should be utilised for the betterment of the students.

      Purposes of Evaluation

Evaluation is a very important requirement for the education system. It fulfills various purposes in systems of education like quality control in education, selection/entrance to a higher grade or tertiary level.

Functions of Evaluation:

Evaluation plays a vital role in teaching learning experiences. It is an integral part of the instructional programmes. It provides information’s on the basis of which many educational decisions are taken.

Evaluation has the following functions:

1. Placement Functions:

·         Evaluation helps to study the entry behaviour of the children in all respects.

·         That helps to undertake special instructional programmes.

·         To provide for individualisation of instruction.

·         It also helps to select pupils for higher studies, for different vocations and specialised courses.

2. Instructional Functions:

·         It helps in systematic determination of a subject's merit, worth and significance, using criteria governed by a set of standards.

·         Evaluation helps to build an educational programme, assess its achievements and improve upon its effectiveness.

·         It reviews the progress in learning from time to time.

·         It also provides valuable feedback on the design and the implementation of the programme.

·         Evaluation plays an enormous role in the teaching-learning process. It helps teachers and learners to improve teaching and learning.

·         Evaluation is a continuous process and a periodic exercise.

·         It helps in forming the values of judgement, educational status, or achievement of student.

·         In learning, it contributes to formulation of objectives, designing of learning experiences and assessment of learner performance.

·         Besides this, it is very useful to bring improvement in teaching and curriculum.

·         It provides accountability to the society, parents, and to the education system.

·         The improvement in courses/curricula, texts and teaching materials is brought about with the help of evaluation.

·         It helps in selecting instructional strategies.

3. Diagnostic Functions:

·         Evaluation has to diagnose the weak points in the school programme as well as weakness of the students.

·         To suggest relevant remedial programmes.

·         The aptitude, interest and intelligence are also to be recognised in each individual child so that he may be energised towards a right direction.

·         To adopt instruction to the different needs of the pupils.

·         To evaluate the progress of these weak students in terms of their capacity, ability and goal.

4. Predictive functions:

·         To discover potential abilities and aptitudes among the learners.

·         To predict the future success of the children.

·         And also helps the child in selecting the right electives.

5. Administrative Functions:

·         To adopt better educational policy and decision making.

·         Helps to classify pupils in different convenient groups.

·         To promote students to next higher class,

·         To appraise the supervisory practices.

·         To have appropriate placement.

·         To draw comparative statement on the performance of different children.

·         To have sound planning.

·          Helps to test the efficiency of teachers in providing suitable learning experiences.

·         To mobilise public opinion and to improve public relations.

·         Helps in developing a comprehensive criterion tests.

6. Guidance Functions:

·         Assists a person in making decisions about courses and careers.

·         Enables a learner to know his pace of learning and lapses in his learning.

·         Helps a teacher to know the children in details and to provide necessary educational, vocational and personal guidance.

7. Motivation Functions:

·         To motivate, to direct, to inspire and to involve the students in learning.

·         To reward their learning and thus to motivate them towards study.

8. Development Functions:

·         Gives reinforcement and feedback to teacher, students and the teaching learning processes.

·         Assists in the modification and improvement of the teaching strategies and learning experiences.

·         Helps in the achievement of educational objectives and goals.

9. Research Functions:

·         Helps to provide data for research generalisation.

·         Evaluation clears the doubts for further studies and researches.

·         Helps to promote action research in education.

10. Communication Functions:

·         To communicate the results of progress to the students.

·         To intimate the results of progress to parents.

·         To circulate the results of progress to other schools.

      Types of evaluation-Formative and Summative, Outcome Evaluation, Process Evaluation, Self Evaluation, Peer Evaluation, Product Evaluation, External Evaluation, Internal Evaluation and Objective based Evaluation.

      Types of Evaluation:

Evaluation can be classified into different categories in many ways.

Some important classifications are as follows:

1. PLACEMENT EVALUATION:

Placement evaluation is designed to place the right person in the right place. The future success of the instructional process depends on the success of placement evaluation.  Placement evaluation aims at evaluating the pupil’s entry behaviour in a sequence of instruction. In other words the main goal of such evaluation is to determine the level or position of the child in the instructional sequence.

This type of evaluation is helpful for admission of pupils into a new course of instruction.

Examples:

i. Aptitude test

ii. Self-reporting inventories

iii. Observational techniques

iv. Medical entrance exam.

v. Engineering or Agriculture entrance exam.

2. FORMATIVE EVALUATION:

Formative evaluation are given at regular and frequent intervals during a course to monitor the learning progress of students during the period of instruction. It helps a teacher to ascertain the pupil-progress from time to time.

Its main objective is to provide continuous feedback to both teacher and student, concerning learning successes and failures while instruction is in process.

Feedback to students provides reinforcement of successful learning and identifies the specific learning errors that need correction. The pupil knows his learning progress from time to time. This type of evaluation is an essential tool to provide feedback to the learners for improvement of their self-learning. Thus, formative evaluation motivates the pupils for better learning.

Feedback to teacher provides information for the teachers to improve their methodologies of teaching, nature of instructional materials, etc. and to modify instruction and for prescribing group and individual remedial work.

Thus, it aims at improvement of instruction. “The idea of generating information to be used for revising or improving educational practices is the core concept of formative evaluation.”

Therefore, evaluation and development must go hand in hand. The evaluation has to take place in every possible situation or activity and throughout the period of formal education of a pupil.

The functions of formation evaluation are:

(a) Diagnosing:

Diagnosing is concerned with determining the most appropriate method or instructional materials conducive to learning.

(b) Placement:

Placement is concerned with the finding out the position of an individual in the curriculum from which he has to start learning.

(c) Monitoring:

Monitoring is concerned with keeping track of the day-to- day progress of the learners and to point out changes necessary in the methods of teaching, instructional strategies, etc.

Characteristics of Formative Evaluation:

The characteristics of formative evaluation are as follows:

1.      It is an integral part of the learning process.

2.      It occurs, frequently during the course of instruction.

3.      Its results are made immediately known to the learners.

4.      It may sometime takes form of teacher observation only.

5.      It reinforces learning of the students.

6.      It pinpoints difficulties being faced by a weak learner.

7.      Its results cannot be used for grading or placement purposes.

8.      It helps in modification of instructional strategies including method of teaching, immediately.

9.      It motivates learners, as it provides them with knowledge of progress made by them.

10.  It sees role of evaluation as a process.

11.  It is generally a teacher-made test.

12.  It does not take much time to be constructed.

Examples:

i. Monthly tests.

ii. Class tests.

iii. Periodical assessment.

iv. Teacher’s observation, etc.

3. Diagnostic Evaluation:

Formative evaluation provides first-aid treatment for simple learning problems whereas diagnostic evaluation searches for the underlying causes of those problems that do not respond to first-aid treatment. It is concerned with identifying the learning difficulties or weakness of pupils during instruction. It tries to locate or discover the specific area of weakness of a pupil in a given course of instruction and also tries to provide remedial measure.

When the teacher finds that inspite of the use of various alternative methods, techniques and corrective prescriptions the child still faces learning difficulties, he takes recourse to a detailed diagnosis through specifically designed tests called ‘diagnostic tests’.

Diagnosis can be made by employing observational techniques, too. In case of necessity the services of psychological and medical specialists can be utilized for diagnosing serious learning handicaps. 

4. SUMMATIVE EVALUATION:

Summative evaluation is done at the end of a course of instruction or at the end of a fairly long period (say, a semester) to know how far the extent the objectives previously fixed have been accomplished. In other words, it is the evaluation of pupils’ achievement at the end of a course. The traditional examinations are generally summative evaluation tools.

The main objective of the summative evaluation is

·         to assign grades to the pupils.

·         the degree to which the students have mastered the course content.

·         judge the appropriateness of instructional objectives.

·         generally the work of standardised tests.

·         to compare one course with another.

·         imply some sort of final comparison of one item or criteria against another.

The functions of this type of evaluation are:

(a) Crediting:

Crediting is concerned with collecting evidence that a learner has achieved some instructional goals in contents in respect to a defined curricular programme.

(b) Certifying:

Certifying is concerned with giving evidence that the learner is able to perform a job according to the previously determined standards.

(c) Promoting:

It is concerned with promoting pupils to next higher class.

(d) Selecting:

Selecting the pupils for different courses after completion of a particular course structure.

Characteristics of Summative Evaluation:

a. It is terminal in nature as it comes at the end of a course of instruction (or a programme).

b. It is judgemental in character in the sense that it judges the achievement of pupils.

c. It views evaluation “as a product”, because its chief concern is to point out the levels of attainment.

d. It cannot be based on teachers observations only.

e. It does not pin-point difficulties faced by the learner.

f. Its results can be used for placement or grading purposes.

g. It reinforces learning of the students who has learnt an area.

h. It may or may not motivate a learner. Sometimes, it may have negative effect.

Examples:

1. Traditional school and university examination,

2. Teacher-made tests,

3. Standardised tests,

4. Practical and oral tests, and 

5. Rating scales, etc.

5. NORM-REFERENCED AND CRITERION-REFERENCED EVALUATION:

 (i) Criterion-Referenced Evaluation:

When the evaluation is concerned with the performance of the individual in terms of what he can do is termed as criterion- referenced evaluation. There is no reference to the performance of other members of the group. In this evaluation there is a reference to a criterion. In it we refer an individual’s performance to a predetermined criterion which is well defined. The purpose of criterion-referenced evaluation/test is to assess the objectives. It is the objective based test. The objectives are assessed, in terms of behavioural changes among the students. Such type of test assesses the ability of the learner in relation to the criterion behaviour.

Examples

(i) Raman got 93 marks in a test of Mathematics.

(ii) A typist types 60 words per minute.

(iii) Amit’s score in a reading test is 70.

 (ii) Norm Referenced Evaluation:

A norm-referenced test is used to ascertain an individual’s status with respect to the performance of other individuals on that test.

Norm-referenced evaluation is the traditional class-based assignment of numerals to the attribute being measured. It means that the measurement act relates to some norm, group or a typical performance. It is an attempt to interpret the test results in terms of the performance of a certain group. This group is a norm group because it serves as a referent of norm for making judgements. Test scores are neither interpreted in terms of an individual (self-referenced) nor in terms of a standard of performance or a pre-determined acceptable level of achievement called the criterion behaviour (criterion-referenced). The measurement is made in terms of a class or any other norm group.

Almost all our classroom tests, public examinations and standardised tests are norm-referenced as they are interpreted in terms of a particular class and judgements are formed with reference to the class.

Examples:

(i) Raman stood first in Mathematics test in his class.

(ii) The typist who types 60 words per minute stands above 90 percent of the typists who appeared the interview.

(iii) Amit surpasses 65% of students of his class in reading test.

      OUTCOME EVALUATION

Outcome evaluation is a method of determining how well a program achieved its objectives by measuring results. For this, it is first important to have clearly defined objectives. Next, there must be a way to measure how well the objectives are being achieved. The third aspect of outcome-based evaluation is analyzing the measured results to determine how well the program performed. Utilizing the analysis, it can then be determined if corrective action should be taken to improve, terminate, or continue the program. 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?

A comprehensive outcome evaluation will include:

·                     An assessment of the impacts of each program component

·                     Data from a population group

·                     Choices of evaluation designs

·                     A selection of comparison groups which acts as a control, so they should not be receiving the same environmental intervention.

      PRODUCT EVALUATION:

'Product Evaluation' indicates the strengths and weaknesses of Educational Technology. Whether Educational Technology has been successful in producing expected outcomes or not; to what extent it has been successful in this direction; what are the limitations of products of Educational Technology can be' identified through product evaluation.

For example, we can assess the impact of the use of OHP on the final learning outcomes of students' achievement at the end of your teaching through product evaluation.

      PROCESS EVALUATION

Process Evaluation determines whether program activities have been implemented as intended and resulted in certain outputs. Monitoring the day-to-day operations of a programme and record keeping may generate a lot of data to identify strengths and weaknesses in the procedures adopted therein.

It helps us in making on the spot decisions about the programmes, bringing suitable modifications in the strategy etc. For example, you want to assess the impact of lecture method on the students' learning outcomes, you assess the processes of lecture. At each stage of the processes, you may evaluate the lecture method and ensure that it follows the right path.

Results of a process evaluation

·         will strengthen your ability to report on your program

·         use information to improve future activities.

·         It allows to track program information related to Who, What, When and Where questions

·         the barriers/facilitators to implementation of program activities

      SELF EVALUATION

Self-assessment is a process of formative assessment during which students reflect on and evaluate the quality of their work and their learning, judge the degree to which they reflect explicitly stated goals or criteria, identify strengths and weaknesses in their work, and revise accordingly.

Andrade and Du (2007)

Self-evaluation builds on a natural tendency to

·         check out the progress of one’s own learning

·         recognition of what needs to be learned. 

·         may motivate further learning. 

·         encourages reflection on one‟s own learning. 

·         promote learner responsibility and independence. 

·         encourage student ownership of the learning.

·         Self-assessment emphasizes the formative aspects of assessment. 

·         Self-assessment encourages a focus on process. 

·         Self-assessment can accommodate diversity of learners’ readiness, experience and backgrounds. 

·         Self-assessment practices align well with the shift in the higher education literature from a focus on teacher performance to an emphasis on student learning

·         self-assessment process can help to prepare students not just to solve the problems we already know the answer to, but to solve problems we cannot at the moment even conceive

·         helps them to deepen their understanding of what constitutes quality outcomes in a specified area.

·         Self-assessment needs to be designed to be appropriate for particular discipline contexts. 

·         Self-assessment can be used in conjunction with peer and teacher assessment.  Self-evaluation can be integrated into learning activities by regularly providing

      PEER EVALUATION

“Peer assessment requires students to provide either feedback or grades (or both) to their peers on a product or a performance, based on the criteria of excellence for that product or event which students may have been involved in determining”

Falchikov

Peer Evaluation or Peer review is a type of performance evaluation that is done by one or more people of matching competencies. Peer review is usually done among the members of the same team. This is a method employed to preserve the quality standard at a desired level and improve productivity and performance. It helps in pointing out the strengths and weaknesses at the ground level.

Peer evaluation helps in

·         collaborative learning through interchange about what constitutes good work. 

·         Students can help each other to make sense of the gaps in their learning and understanding and to get a more sophisticated grasp of the learning process. 

·         The conversation around the assessment process is enhanced.

·         Very effective in the development of students‟ writing skills. 

·         Students engaged in commentary on the work of others can heighten their own capacity for judgment and making intellectual choices.

·         Students receiving feedback from their peers can get a wider range of ideas about their work to promote development and improvement.

·          to lessen the power imbalance between teachers and students and can enhance the students‟ status in the learning process.

·          The focus of peer feedback can be on proces,

·          Encouraging students to clarify, review and edit their ideas.

·          It is possible to give immediate feedback, so formative learning can be enhanced.

·         Peer assessment processes can help students learn how to receive and give feedback which is an important part of most work contexts. 

·         to support future learning

Uses of Peer and self-assessment in total

 

In Peer and self-assessment students assess each other and themselves, can encourage students to take greater responsibility for their learning. Through this, students can learn from their previous mistakes, identify their strengths and weaknesses and learn to target their learning accordingly. Getting students to become more active in their learning in this way can help to alter the perception of learning as being a passive process whereby students listen to you and absorb the information in order to regurgitate during a subsequent assignment. Peer and self-assessment also give students a sense of all the things to effectively 'internalise' academic standards and assessment criteria. This enables students to have a better understand of assessment expectations and work towards improving their own performance. Getting students more actively involved in their assessment can make assessment itself a means by which they can learn and develop.

INTERNAL ASSESSMENT

Internal assessment is often called “Home examination”, “Class room test” or “Teacher made test. There are the assessments for which all the arrangement is made by the teachers of the same institution. Its main aim is to evaluate the progress of students in different classes at different levels. Teachers themselves frame the question papers, take the exam, examine the answer scripts/answer copies and decide about the Fail/Pass of the students.

Objectives of Internal Assessment:

·         To evaluate the Mental Nourishment of students.

·         To estimate the student’s educational progress, speed of achieving and ability of learning.

·         On passing the internal exam, promotion is given to next class.

·         Internal assessment creates the competing environment, which make pleasant effects over the educational achievements.

·         Students and teacher both know the status of each student, who is leading and who is lagging and how much.

·         Teacher evaluates his progress and his teaching methods and tries to overcame his weakness.

·         It evaluates the particular curriculum for a particular class.

·         Parents of the students are informed about the progress of students so that they can care for their children.

·         Teacher can group the students according to Ability, Hardwork, Intelligence on the basis of the result and make arrangements for weak students’ betterment.

·         Result of these test work as motive for further study and encourage or admonish the students accordingly.

·         It fulfills the objective of learning and retaining it for along time.

·         Teacher knows the hidden abilities, capabilities, desires and interests of the students, and became able to guide them accordingly on the basis of there.

Types of Internal Assessment

                            Following are the types of Assessment

·         Daily Test

·         Weekly Test

·         Fortnightly Test

·         Monthly Test

·         Three monthly or Terminal Test

·         Annual exam or Annual Promotion Test

·         Entrance Test or admission Test

Merits:

1.                                   It is direct, flexible and can easily be tied with the unit of instruction.

2.                                   It is economical in terms of time and money and can be conducted frequently.

3.                                   There is little scope of mal-practices and the students get satisfaction (by receiving back their scripts) that they have been accurately graded.

4.                                   It permits the use of a variety of evaluation tools and the results can be used for the improvement of teaching learning processes and providing remedial teaching.

5.                                   The student accepts it as of a variety of evaluation tools and the results can before the improvement of teaching learning processes and providing remedial teaching.

6.                                   The student accepts it as part of teaching learning process and faces it without squirm or fear.

7.                                   It provides essential date for the cumulative record, for grouping students according to their ability, and for reporting to parents as well as for making decisions with regard to annual promotion.

8.                                   It has content validity and scares are sufficiently reliable.

9.                                   Cheaper: Hiring an external evaluator often means someone HARC with lots of graduate education and years of expertise, and that doesn’t come cheap

10.                               Doesn’t require collaboration: This makes the process faster

Demerits

1.      Every teacher is not competent to construct and use these techniques of evaluation.

2.      Internal assessment tends to lead to indiscreet comparison of students.

3.      It is not possible to apply internal evaluation in respect of thousands of private candidates.

4.      Teacher can yield to local pressures.

5.      Grades will vary from school and will not have uniform significance.

6.      Pupils and their parents have lessor faith in internal evaluation.

7.      Teachers having freedom of evaluating their own students, may tend to be lax in covering the prescribed syllabus.

8.      Perceived lack of objectivity

9.      Lack of “outside the box” thinking

EXTERNAL EVALUATION

1.      External Assessment is organized and conducted through standardized test, observation, and other techniques by an external agency, other than the school.

2.      Process of External Assessment Conduct

a.       Setting and moderation of question papers.

b.      Printing and packing of question papers confidential nature of printing work.

c.       Selection of examination centres

d.      Appointment of superintendents and invigilators and staff for the fair conduct of examination at centres.

e.       Supply of stationary to centres.

f.       Distribution of question papers to examinees under the supervision of  the centre superintendent.

g.      Posting of police personnel at the centres.

h.      Packing of answer scripts and sending them to Board’s office or examining body’s office.

i.        Deployment of special squads for checking unfair means.

j.        Assignment of fake of fictitious or secret roll numbers to answer books at the Board’s office.

k.      On the spot evaluation at some specified centres where head examiner and examiners mark the scripts.

Importance & Objectives of External Assessment:

External evaluation provides

1.      Degree/Certificate

2.      A standard

3.      Comparison of abilities.

4.      To evaluate the progress of Institution

5.      Selection for Higher education

6.      To get employment

7.      Popularity/Standard of educational institution.

8.      Selection of intelligent students.

9.      Competition.

10.  Evaluation of teacher’s performance

11.  Evaluation of objectives and curriculum.

12.  Creation of good habits in students

13.  Satisfaction and happiness of parents

Merits

1.       Conducted by experts

2.       Perceived objectivity: Having a third-party do your evaluation is like a stamp of approval. People tend to take the results more seriously.

3. Outside-the-box perspective: Being one step removed, evaluators can see changes that have happened that might have gone unnoticed (or at least unmeasured) by you and your team.

De-Merits of External Assessment

1.      Use of unfair means in the examination hall.

2.      Just pass the exam/to get degree

3.      Partial curriculum is covered

4.      In complete evaluation of personality.

5.      Un reliable results.

6.      Use of helping books & guess papers.

7.      Chance/Luck

8.      Corruption

9.      Exams without specific objectives.

10.  Negative effect/Impact on the students.

11.  It is time consuming.

12.  Standards vary from Board to Board and University in the same year.

13.  Marking is not up to the standard.

14.  Expensive: A good evaluator doesn’t come cheap, and you get what you pay for.

15.  Requires collaboration: Collaboration is awesome when done right, but it does take time and effort on both parties, and there can be miscommunications between two teams just getting to know each other.

Suggestions for Improvement

1.      Comprehensive Evaluation

2.      Employees of examining bodies to be controlled.

3.      Invigilating staff.

4.      Secrecy sections should be fool proof.

5.      Appointment of Examiners

6.      Change in examination point of view, It should not be objective, It should be mean to achieve objectives.

7.      Reform in question papers.

8.      Marking of Answer Scripts.

9.      Ban on helping books and guess papers.

10.  Amalgamation of Internal and External exam.

11.  Oral test should be taken.

12.  Amalgamation of subjective and objective type test.

13.  Record of students.

14.  Question paper should be based on curriculum rather than text book.

In-spite of these flaws both are necessary for the betterment of education system. Internal assessment prepares the students for external Assessment. Therefore we can’t avoid any one. But we have to replace/remove the negative points from these to make more effective to these systems.

       OBJECTIVE-BASED EVALUATION

Objective-based evaluation is pre-determined. The evaluation indicates the success or failure of Educational Technology in the context of achievement of objectives.

Ie is whether the objectives are worth or worthless should be determined first. Evaluation of objectives helps the developers to determine what the goals of the Educational Technology programme should be.

Once suitable objectives are finalized, the evaluator's major task is to determine the extent to which the programme achieves the objectives in practice.