Innovations in Evaluation

Unit V- Innovations in Evaluation

Evaluation of Student

Continuous Evaluation

            Continuous Evaluation refers to the practice of evaluating students skills and proficiency periodically throughout the course and maintaining a record of the cumulative progress achieved. It is highly unjustified to assess the proficiency in knowledge or skills of a student based on his/her performance in a single examination of three hours at the end of the course completion, ignoring the track record of his progress during the course. The practice of having continuous evaluation for each level of the course and maintaining cumulative records is in vogue only in some institutions. Student’s performance in monthly tests, bimonthly tests, quarterly and half-yearly examinations could be taken into account by assigning proper weightage for each while judging the merit of each candidate and determining the level of proficiency attained at the end of the year. For example, giving a weightage of 60% to annual examination marks, 20% weightage for quarterly and half-yearly examination marks respectively and 20% weightage for bimonthly test marks could notify the level of proficiency.

Concept of Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation : 

            Continuous comprehensive evaluation seems to be the solution of all the ills that are being faced through the process of traditional examinations, which lays stress more on written examination than on the objective evaluation of acquisition of knowledge and skills.  Oral tests do not find a place in our examination system.  No effort is made to test the skills acquired by the students.

            They only test the power of memorization of the student.  They are not objective because there is too much of subjectivity on the part of examiners.  These are not reliable as different examiners may award different marks for the same answer given by the student.  They are not objective because there is too much of subjectivity on the part of examiners.  These are not reliable as different examiners may award different marks for the same answer given by the student.  Therefore, it is high time that we make evaluation an integral part of the total teaching –learning process.

            Unlike the traditional system of testing which takes into consideration only the academic side, continuous evaluation aims at testing all the aspects of personality of the learner such as –

1.                  Evaluation of the Scholastic Achievement:

In order to evaluate the scholastic achievement of a student, the following tools which supplement each other will be used:

(A)             Written Examinations which include:

(i)                 Essay type tests

(ii)               Short answer type tests

(iii)             Objective type tests.

(B)       Oral Tests

2.                  Evaluation of sessional work done by the students:

Assessment of sessional work includes the following:

(i)                 Home assignments

(ii)               Classroom discussions

(iii)             Use of Library

(iv)             Practical work done in laboratory

3.                  Evaluation of Personality Development:

Education helps in the over all development of a person.  So the different traits of personality of an individual should be assessed.  The teacher should record the behaviour of a student inside and outside the classroom, in laboratory, in the playground and in the field of other activities.  It can be done in the following ways:

(i)                 The pupils’ diary which he himself maintains should be assessed.

(ii)               Assessment of the diary maintained by the teacher.

(iii)             Giving personality tests to the student from time to time.

4.                  Evaluation of the Social Development of the Pupils;

                                    It can be done in the following ways:

(i)                 The teacher takes into consideration the work being done by student in the field of social service, participating in cleanliness drives and games. etc.

(ii)               Participation in various co-curricular activities for displaying their qualities like sociability, co-operation, sympathetic disposition and attitudes etc.

5.                  Evaluation of the Physical Development of the Pupils :

Physical development is an important as intellectual and social development.  Therefore there should be continuous evaluation of the physical development of the pupils from time to time as it is very rightly said that there is “healthy mind in healthy body”.

**********************************************************************

Self-evaluation

Self-evaluation is defined as students judging the quality of their work, based on evidence and explicit criteria, for the purpose of doing better work in the future. When we teach students how to assess their own progress, and when they do so against known and challenging quality standards, we find that there is a lot to gain. Self-evaluation is a potentially powerful technique because of its impact on student performance through enhanced self-efficacy and increased intrinsic motivation. Evidence about the positive effect of self-evaluation on student performance is particularly convincing for difficult tasks , especially in academically oriented schools and among high need pupils. Perhaps just as important, students like to evaluate their work.

Research indicates that self-evaluation plays a key role in fostering an upward cycle of learning. When students evaluate their performance positively, self-evaluations encourage students to set higher goals (1) and commit more personal resources or effort (2) to them. The combination of goals (1) and effort (2) equals achievement (3). A student's achievement results in self-judgment (4), such as a student contemplating the question, "Were my goals met?" The result of the self-judgment is self-reaction (5), or a student responding to the judgment with the question, "How do I feel about that?"

Goals, effort, achievement, self-judgment, and self-reaction all can combine to impact self-confidence (6) in a positive way. Self-evaluation is really the combination of the self-judgment and self-reaction components of the model, and if we can teach students to do this better we can contribute to an upward cycle of better learning. 

Question Bank:

            The idea of question bank has been evolved to eliminate one of the glaring defects in the present examination system.  Through it some uniformity of standards in the question papers can be achieved.  When autonomy is given to all schools and colleges to conduct their own examination, question bank can help in keeping the question papers free form various defects.

            The examining body or central authority appoints a board of experts to prepare a question bank.  This board functions throughout the year and replaces the team of paper setters.  It examines the syllabus and objectives of teaching a subject matter, and in this light decides the number, nature and type of questions.   The prescribed syllabus is divided into a number of units.  If twenty questions are to be measured in the question paper, the syllabus is divided into equal number of units.  All the concerned teachers are informed about this plan.  They are also invited to submit model questions and answers to these questions. 

            The board examines all the questions received from the teachers, improves and incorporates them in the question paper.  Questions are grouped into units.  Care is taken to ensure that the questions in one unit are of the same standard. While preparing a question paper for a school, the teacher usually draws at random one question form each unit.  This set of questions will constitute a fair and representative question paper.  Thus any number of question papers can be drawn from the same question bank.

            Further, all the questions in the question bank can be used throughout the year for assisting the students in their studies.  As all the questions are known already, there will be no element of surprise or fear on seeing a question paper.  Also as the question bank contains a very large number of questions, it will be very difficult for the students to guess or predict the questions.  There is no problem of leakage of questions or question paper.

The question bank is,  a planned library of test items for the use of evaluators, academics and students in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the teaching learning process. It is, therefore, a systematic collection of a number of questions.

Uses of Question Bank:

·         It can be used by the teachers at the pre-testing stage for the development of a unit and for revision purpose.

·         It can be used for self assessment questions (SAQ) as assignments and for term end examination.

·         A pool of test questions can be used to frame a unit or a topic and to test for formative evaluation.

·         It can also be made use of in preparing question papers at the end of a term or a session for summative evaluation.

·         Questions for mastery testing can be used for diagnosis of the student's difficulties while going through the learning material.

Development of Question Bank

The type of questions that make up the bank depends entirely on the total framework of reference envisaged at the planning stage whether only the written examination questions, oral examination questions, practical exam questions or the questions of all three are to be kept in mind for developing the question bank. This development will involve the following guidance.   

The following are the steps involved in developing a question bank.

(i)         Blue Printing for Developing Question Bank: The blue print in question bank may be thought of as a two dimensional grid:

·         the behaviour/objective aspect; and

·         the content/subject area aspect.

·         The objective aspect refers to the expected learning out comes in terms of abilities like recall, recognition, translation, extrapolation, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation and any other abilities.

·         The content aspect connotes the unit, sub unit of topic through the medium of which the above  mentioned abilities are developed or tested.

(ii)        Collection of questions from resources

In accordance with the blue print, questions are written or collected from various sources as under:

• Ready made questions may be collected from old question papers set in various examinations,

• In the case of new questions, these may be invited from experienced teachers, examiners and paper setters.

(iii)       Screening of Questions

After the questions are written, the question sheets are passed onto other members of the group for their comments. The comments are further passed onto the author of the question who in consultation with two or three participants finalizes the question. The second level screening may be done with the help of a group of three subject experts, all conversant with the technique of test construction. Such a group may consists of subject specialists , a teacher and an evaluation expert Further refinement is  possible only after try out of the question.

Using the Question Bank

When a sufficient number of questions, unit tests and question papers are ready in the pool, these can be used for the following purposes:

• A judicious selection of questions can be made for instructional purpose.
• Different types of questions selected from a question bank may be used for pre testing, development, review and revision of a lesson.
• In the preparation of textual material a question pool can be utilised for preparing review exercises in text books.
• For evaluating pupils’ progress the question bank can be used most efficiently. When question banks are established in institutions, students can use them for self evaluation in their spare time.
• As an outline answer or key is provided in such questions, students can check their response against such keys and answers, especially in case of short answer and objective type questions.
• When questions on all topics of the prescribed syllabus are available pupils can revise their lessons.
• Even teachers can make use of such cards for quick revision.

Open Book Examination:

             All our efforts to evaluate the pupil’s real ability are likely to be futile if we cannot stop cheating and copying in our examinations.  Cheating and other malpractices in the examinations have largely lowered educational standards and made the examination results highly undependable and invalid.  That is why, some experts on examination system suggest the introduction of open book examination.

What are Open Book Exams?

Open Book exams allow students to take notes, texts or resource materials into an exam situation. Open Book exams test their ability to find and apply information and knowledge. They are often used in subjects requiring direct reference to written materials, like law, statistics or acts of parliament.

Open Book exams usually come in two forms:

·         Traditional sit-down/ limited-time exams, with varying degrees of access to resources and references.

·         Take Home exams–Open Book exams you do at home. Question(s) are handed out, answers are attempted without help from others, and the exam is returned within a specified period of time (often the next day).

Advantages of Open Book Examination:

v  Open Book Examinations encourage sound preparation by the students, may test the worth of a course content, may present a natural situation and may necessitate through provoking questions. 

v  These questions will require ability to see the situation and may necessitate thought provoking questions.

v  These questions will require ability to see the situation as a whole, ability to use facts in solving problems, ability to draw inferences from known to unknown situation and ability to achieve broader and more permanent objectives of instruction.

Materials used in Open Book exams:

The materials you can take into an Open Book exam can vary. Some Open Book exams restrict the type of materials (e.g. formula sheets and tables or a limited number of texts). Others may be totally unrestricted (any quantity of any material). An open book assessment is directly related to its ability to expose higher order “thinking” skills of candidates. For example, studies have suggested that assessments designed for open book completion prompt students to exhibit their levels of skill in analysing, synthesising, and evaluating course materials.

Nature of Open Book Examination:

Open Book Exams don't test our memory. They test our ability to find and use information for problem solving, and to deliver well-structured and well-presented arguments and solutions.

Benefits of Open Book Examination :

            These examinations compel the teachers to stress mental processes other than memory.  A similar trend will develop in the pupil’s study habits and methods of  preparation for examinations.

·         Open book examinations appeal to pupils as more natural.  In real life, problem-solving is done with the help of available sources of information. 

·         It has been found that the open book examination does not increase or decrease a student’s score as obtained in the traditional examination. 

·         Open book tests can be constructed and used in all the traditional test forms-essay, objective, etc. 

·         Fear and emotional blockings are reduced in this type of examination. 

·         Cheating is eliminated. 

·         There is less emphasis on cramming than on reasoning. 

·         This approach is useful in these measurement of traits other than achievement also.

Grading :

            Grades are standardized measurements of varying levels of comprehension within a subject area. Grades can be assigned in letters (for example, A, B, C, D, E or F), as a range (for example 1.0–4.0), as descriptors (excellent, great, satisfactory, needs improvement), in percentages, or, as is common in some post-secondary institutions in some countries, as a Grade Point Average (GPA). The GPA can be used by potential employers or further post-secondary institutions to assess and compare applicants. A Cumulative Grade Point Average is a calculation of the average of all of a student's grades for all semesters and courses completed up to a given academic term, whereas the GPA may only refer to one term.

            The public in our country has not been made aware of the inaccuracies of our making scheme.  They take the raw mark as the true mark and have exclusively depended on it for various purposes.  For example, a candidate getting 60 per cent marks is in a much superior position to get employment or admission as compared to an unlucky candidate who got 59.9 pr cent marks.  This results in a considerable confusion and frustration.

The 101 point scale of making together with the arbitrary minimum for a first division, second division or a pass, is statistically unsound.  There is need to eliminate dependence on this scale for the purpose of considering candidates for admission to higher courses and jobs.  For this purpose many authorities have  already introduced their own entrance and tests and competitive examinations. 

            According to one suggestion, grading can be done using  the following table by assuming a normally distributed sample of 100 candidates.

Classification	Grade	Percentage of the group
Outstanding	1	7
Very good	2	24
Good	3	38
Fair	4	24
Poor	5	7

             In this system there is no question of failure.  All the candidates are assigned one of the grades.  In the case of grade 5, the candidate’s performance is mentioned as poor.  Such a candidate can sit for an examination again and improve his grade, if he so desires.  The grade system indicates a five-point scale in terms of 1,2,3,4 or 5 grades. It is certainly more practical than the awarding of marks.

            Situations may arise, where an overall grades is to be awarded on the basis of grades in individual courses. The grades  may be weighed according to the credit hours of the courses concerned.  For example, if the grades are g1,g2, g3 etc. and credits for courses are c1,c2,c3 etc. the average grade will be

         G1,c1 + g2 c2 + g3 c3 + ……..                                                            

               C1 + c2 + c3 + ……….

********************************************************************

Teacher Evaluation

Self Evaluation:

               It is also important for teachers, as professionals, to engage in self-evaluation. Teachers should take stock of their professional capabilities, set improvement targets, and participate in professional development activities.

Purposes of a self-evaluation system

·         To promote an on-going, innovative approach to teaching.

·         To encourage individual professional growth in areas of interest to the teacher.

·         To improve teacher morale and motivation by treating the teacher as a professional in charge of his or her own professional growth.

·         To encourage teacher collegiality and discussion about practices among peers in a school.

·         To support teachers as they experiment with instructional approaches that will move all students to higher levels of performance

The following questions may assist teachers in  self evaluation :

v  Is there sufficient probing of student knowledge, understanding, skills, attitudes, and processes?

v  Are the students active participants in the classroom?

v  Are the educational objective attained?

v  You refer resources other than text books for your teaching?

v  You provide enrichment activities for students?

v  Do you make the best use of the teaching time?

v  Do you take care to develop yourself professionally?

v  Do you adopt fair strategies for assessment of students?

********************************************************

Peer Evaluation:

Peer review has its origins in peer assistance. Peer assistance is a practice in which experienced teachers, often called consulting teachers, mentor new and veteran teachers to improve their knowledge and teaching skills. Consulting teachers observe classrooms, sharing ideas and skills and recommending study materials to assist struggling teachers and improve teacher quality has give rise to the concept of peer review. Historically, principals have been the primary evaluators of teachers. However, saddled with increasing administrative and managerial responsibilities, principals are not always effective instructional leaders. Under traditional teacher assessment systems, teachers with poor evaluations typically do not receive assistance or support, nor are they dismissed.  Peer evaluation helps to improve the teaching of struggling teachers.

PROCEDURES FOR PEER EVALUATION

Peer evaluation of teaching requires observation of instruction methodologies, review of course materials, and a written assessment of these observations.

Observation Procedures

1.         The evaluator(s) communicates and meets with the teacher prior to making observations in order to learn the course objectives and become aware of the range of methods/materials/media utilized to achieve these objectives.

2.         Observation must include visits to the classroom review materials used in instruction and review interactions between students and teacher as applicable.

3.         The evaluator must complete a section of the peer evaluation instrument during the class observation period.

4.         The observation must be disused with the teacher

5.         The key strengths and weaknesses of the teacher must be emphasized

6.         The cycle of observation and discussion must be conducted regularly until tangible improvementes6.2

7.         Peer evaluation reports must be kept confidential.  No embarrassing remarks should be made in the evaluation report.

 Proforma for Peer Evaluation :

S.No	Evaluation Criteria	Assessment
		Very  Poor	Poor	Satisfactory	Good	Very Good
1	Subject Knowledge
2	Teaching Skill
3	Teaching aptitude
4	Use of instructional aids
5	Interest in student welfare
6	Relationship with colleagues
7	Professional development
8	Activities
9	Achievements
10	Punctuality
11	Commitment
12	Interest in institutional growth
13	Professional ethics
14	Personality traits
15	Interest in educational innovations

                                                                                      Signature of the evaluator

Student evaluation of teachers:

            The students are potential sources to assess the efficiency of teachers.  Students perceive teachers as they interact and instruct them and their perceptions can be a valid source to get suggestions for improvement.  Anonymity and confidentiality are very essential for successful student evaluation of teachers.

Student Evaluation of Teachers Proforma:

S.No	Evaluation Criteria	Assessment
		Very Poor	Poor	Satisfactory	Good	Very Good
1	Appearance of the teacher
2	Subject Knowledge
3	Teaching Skill
4	Teaching aptitude
5	Teaching method
6	Use of instructional aids
7	Time consciousness
8	Impartiality
9	Interest in student welfare
10	Professional ethics

                                                                                                                                                                                                              Signature of the evaluator

National Testing Service :

                   The National Policy of Education/Programme of Action (1986), The National Policy of Education/Ramamoorthy Committee (1990) and Central Advisory Board of Education (1992) had suggested the establishment of a centre to cater to the testing requirements of the country.  To fulfil this need, the Centre for Testing and Evaluation, Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore established National Testing Service in the year 2004.

. The objectives of the NTS:

• To formulate concept based continuum of graded syllabi for the courses in Indian languages applicable to all the seven levels of general education.
• To develop norms and standards for making use of them;
• To create a centralized mechanism of quality control (common scale) for determining the language competence of any individual.
• To maintain inter-language comparability across the courses in Indian languages at the national level
• To maintain Intra language comparability at the regional levels;
• To accredit the language courses as well as the institutions that are involved in imparting them;
• To decide an individual’s aptitude / achievement / proficiency in the context of Native / Second / Foreign Language for the purpose of admission, certification, and employment; also
• To facilitate delinking of degrees from jobs in due course.

Services of National Testing Service

Testing Language Aptitude

            NTS conducts General Tests so as to evaluate the critical thinking skills of analytical reasoning and also performance assessment of candidates with regard to quantitative ability and Englist Language Skills.

Services for Test Preparation

NTS provides complete guidelines with regard to Test Preparation. A guide for users is available on website as well as in the market in a printed form. Besides, Model Questions and Sample Tests are also available on the website for helping the candidates to practice and be well prepared for the test. Furthermore, Reference Books are also recommended by NTS to be a source of more help for the test takers for Computer Science Subject Tests.

Administrative Services

NTS provides the administrative services for not only the candidates but the institutions also. All the administrative arrangements regarding registration, test center selection, test execution, result preparation and then its reporting etc. are taken as a responsibility by NTS.