Assessment & Evaluationadapted from a presentation by Som Mony

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Discussion

1. What is the difference between assessment and evaluation?

2. What is a test?3. How many kinds of test are there?4. What are the qualities of a good

test?

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Testing, Assessing, and Teaching

Assessment vs. Evaluation As teachers, when we carry out assessment,

we have to measure the performance of our students and progress they make. We also need to diagnose the problems they have and provide our learners with useful feedback.

Evaluation involves looking at all the factors that influence the learning process, such as syllabus objectives, course design, materials, methodology, teacher performance and assessment.

What is a test?

A test, in simple terms, is a method of measuring a person’s ability, knowledge, or performance in a domain.

(Brown, 2004)

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Assessment and Teaching

TESTS

ASSESSMENT

TEACHING

What is teaching?

Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learner to learn, setting conditions for learning. (Brown, 2007)

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Types of AssessmentInformal Assessment• Carried out by the teacher not under special

test conditions, but in the normal classroom environment

• Can take a number of forms, starting with incidental, unplanned comments and responses, along with impromptu feedback to the student

What are some examples of informal assessment?

Formal Assessments• exercises or procedures specifically

designed to tap into a storehouse of skills and knowledge.

• Systematic, planned sampling techniques constructed to give teacher and student an appraisal of student achievement.

• All tests are formal assessments, but not all formal assessment is testing.

What are some examples of formal assessment?

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Formative Assessment• Evaluating students in the process of forming

their competencies and skills with the goal of helping them to continue that growth process.

• Primarily focuses on the ongoing development of the learner’s language.

• All kinds of informal assessment are formative.

Summative Assessment• Aims to measure, or summarize, what a

student has grasped.• Typically occurs at the end of a course or unit

of instruction.

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Task • Do TKT Worksheet 1 & 2

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Kinds of Tests

Placement Tests• The purpose of the test is to place into a

particular level or section of a language curriculum or school.

Diagnostic Tests • As the name suggests, this type of test is used

to find out problem areas.Achievement Tests• Progress achievement tests are intended to

measure the progress that students are making.

• Final achievement tests are those administered at the end of a course of study.

Proficiency Tests

• Proficiency tests are designed to measure people’s ability in a language regardless of any training they may have had in that language.

• Proficiency tests enable students to have some proof of their language ability in a language.

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Task• Do TKT Worksheet 3 & Sample Task

Ex 4

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Designing Classroom Language TestsQualities of a good test

Reliability

Validity

Practicality

Reliability: Does the test give fair and consistent results every time it is used?

There are three aspects to reliability: • Test taking circumstances

• How the test is marked

• The uniformity of the assessment it makes

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Validity: Does the test measure what it is intended to measure?• Content validity: concerned with what goes

into the test. Does the test reflect the syllabus?

• Face validity: concerned with what teachers and students think of the test. Does the test look good?

Practicality: Is the test usable for the teacher?• Not excessively expensive• Stays within appropriate time constraints• Relatively easy to administer, and• Has a scoring/evaluation procedure that is

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Common Test Items

• Translate: Kh—Eng or Eng – Kh

• Matching• True/False• Essay writing task• Speaking task• Fill-in blanks (also

called cloze)

• Multi-choice • Open comprehension

/ short answer Qs• Sentence completion

task• Sentence ordering

task• Odd one out task

Task• Do TKT Worksheet 4, exercise 1

Objective Test Questions: Only 1 possible answer

Subjective Test Questions: Many possible answers; Ss can include their own ideas

Task• Do TKT Worksheet 4, exercise 2

Summary• Tests are only 1 type assessment, and

assessment is only 1 part of teaching

• Ongoing informal formative assessment is just as important as formal summative assessment

• When designing any test, consider: is it reliable? valid? practical?

• When designing a language test, there are common items you can use. Consider your goals and subjectivity/objectivity as you choose your items.

Homework

• Read Scrivener pg. 290-291 & do Task 12.6• Optional: read Scrivener pg. 294-296 to read

more about test items (we will discuss specifics about test items in more detail tomorrow)