Testing and Evaluation

Testing and evaluation takes major role in language teaching and learning. ... Evaluation is defined as an attempt to understand what is going on to judge its worth and make decisions about it. One can add many more reasons for doing evaluation. It is not just for measuring students learning at the end of a course.

What is the difference between assessment and evaluation?

Assessment : focuses on learning, teaching and outcomes. It provides information for improving learning and teaching. Assessment is an interactive process between students and faculty that informs faculty how well their students are learning what they are teaching. The information is used by faculty to make changes in the learning environment, and is shared with students to assist them in improving their learning and study habits. This information is learner-centered, course based, frequently anonymous, and not graded.

 Evaluation: focuses on grades and may reflect classroom components other than course content and mastery level. These could include discussion, cooperation, attendance, and verbal ability.

• Dimension of Difference 
• Content: timing, primary purpose

• Assessment: Formative ongoing, 
• to improve learning.

• Evaluation: Summative: final, 
• to gauge quality.
• Orientation: focus of measurement
• Assessment: Process-oriented: 
• how learning is going.
• Evaluation: Product-oriented:
•  what’s been learned.
• Findings: uses thereof
• Assessment: Diagnostic:
•  identify areas for improvement
• Evaluation: Judgmental: 
• arrive at an overall grade/score

How do you Determine if a Test has Validity, Reliability

, Fairness,

and Legal Defensibility?

Validity is arguably the most important criteria for

the quality of a test. The term validity refers to whether or not the test measures what it claims to measure. On a test with high validity the items will be closely linked to the test's intended focus. For many certification and licensure tests this means that the items will be highly related to a specific job or

occupation. If a test has poor validity then it does not measure the job-related content and competencies it ought to. When this is the case, there is no justification for using the test results for their intended purpose. There are several ways to estimate the validity of a test including content validity, concurrent validity, and predictive validity. The face

validity of a test is sometimes also mentioned.

2. Reliability

Reliability is one of the most important elements of test quality. It has to do with the consistency, or reproducibility, or an examinee's performance on the test. For example, if you were to administer a test with high reliability to an examinee on two occasions, youwould be very likely to reach the same conclusions about the examinee's performance both times. A test with poor reliability, on the other hand, might result in very different scores for the examinee across the two test administrations. If a test yields inconsistent

scores, it may be unethical to take any substantive actions on the basis of the test. There are several methods for computing test reliability including test-retest reliability, parallel forms reliability, decision consistency, internal consistency, and interrater reliability. For many criterion-referenced tests decision consistency is often an appropriate choice.

 

Worth listening video for better understanding of the topic. 

 What do you Understand by Backwash?

As this concept describes that the after or before effect of teaching and learning which might considered as pre-psychological condition of human mind .  

- Hughes (1989:1): “The effect of testing on

teaching and learning” is known as backwash.

Spolsky (1994 [2]): The concept of

backwash deals with the unforeseen side-effects

of testing and not to the intended effects when

the primary goal of the examination is the

control of curricula.

This is again considered as The backwash effect (also known as the washback effect) is the influence that a test has on the way students are taught (e.g. the teaching mirrors the test because teachers want their students to pass). The washback effect is the outcome of a test or an examination which results either in positive or in a negative way.

"Practicality"

Practicality in assessment means that the test is easy to design, easy to administer and easy to score. No matter how valid or reliable a test is, it has to be practical to make and to take this means that: It is economical to deliver. It is not excessively expensive.

How do you define good assessment

Assessment is accurate, consistent and repeatable. Feasible: assessment is practicable in terms of time, resources and student numbers. Educational impact: assessment results in learning what is important and is authentic and worthwhile.

Type of writer	Coherence	Grammar and Vocabulary
Excellent	The task argues forcefully and there is a complete control over cohesive devices; the answer is coherent throughout and there is no strain whatsoever	Grammar is well managed though there may be occasional errors; the words used are appropriate and shows a wide range
Competent	There is good persuasion and the cohesive devices are managed well; there may be occasional errors; the answer is coherent but can cause temporary confusion	There may be a few grammatical errors but they are not noticeable; the words show some range though may not be always appropriate
Average	Though the writing sometimes causes confusion there is a sense of underlying coherence; cohesive devices are misused, overused or faulty	The grammatical errors are noticeable and causes strain for the reader; the range of words are limited and repetitive
Poor	Coherence is lost frequently and the writing tends to jump from one thing to another without appropriate linking; causes severe strain for the reader	The grammatical errors are numerous and cause severe strain for the reader; the range of words used is extremely limited

This is the example of rubric given by Attnu Bhttachary sir for how to evaluate the any assessment with certain criteria of  Coherence the work of art.

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