Chapter 5

DEVELOPMENT OF
VARIED ASSESSMENT
TOOLS
• We are concerned with developing objective tests for
assessing the attainment of educational objectives
based on bloom’s taxonomy.
• Development of paper-and-pencil tests requires
careful planning and expertise in terms of actual test
construction.
• Types of paper-and-pencil tests:
 True-false type items
 Multiple-choice type items
 Matching type items
 Enumeration
 Completion
Essay
• The important steps in planning for a test are:
 Identifying test objectives / lesson outcomes.
 Deciding on the type of objective test to be prepared.
 Preparing a Table of Specification (TOS).
 Try-out validation.
• Identifying Test Objectives. An objective test, if it
is to be comprehensive, must cover the various
levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Each objective consists
of a statement of what is to be achieved preferably
by the students.
• Example: We want to construct a test on the topic:
“Subject-Verb Agreement in English” for a Grade V
class. The following are the typical objectives:
• Knowledge / Remembering. The students must be able
to identify the subject and verb agreement in the sentence.
• Comprehension / Understanding. The students must be
able to determine the appropriate form of a verb to be
used given the subject of a sentence.
• Application / Applying. The students must be able to write
sentences observing rules on subject-verb agreement.
• Analysis / Analyzing. The students must be able to break
down a given sentence into its subject and predicate.
• Evaluation / Evaluating. The students must be able to
evaluate whether or not a sentence observes rules on
subject-verb agreement.
• Synthesis / Creating. The students must be able to
formulate rules to be followed regarding subject-verb
agreement.
• Deciding on the type of objective test. The test objectives
guide the kind of objective tests that will be designed and
constructed by the teacher.
• For example: The first 4 levels, we may want to construct a
multiple-choice type of test while for application and judgement, we
may opt to give an essay test.
• Preparing a table of specifications (TOS). A TOS is a test
map that guides the teacher in constructing a test. It ensures
that there is a balance between items that test lower order
thinking skills (LOTS) and those which test higher order
thinking skills (HOTS) in the test.
Example of TOS:
LEVEL OBJECTIVE ITEMS # No. %
1. Knowledge Identify subject-verb 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 5 14.29%
2. Comprehension Form appropriate verb forms 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 5 14.29%
3. Application Write sentences observing rules on subject-verb agreement 11, 13, 15, 17, 19 5 14.29%
4. Analysis Determine subject and predicate 12, 15, 18, 21, 23 5 14.29%
5. Evaluation Evaluate whether or not a sentence observes rules 13, 16, 19, 22, 24 5 14.29%
6. Synthesis Formulate rules on subject-verb agreement Part II 10 pts 28.57%
Total 35 100%
• Constructing the test items. The actual construction of the items
follows the TOS. As a general rule, it is advised that the actual
number of items to be constructed in the draft should be double the
desired number of items. For instance, if there are 5 knowledge level
items to be included in the final test form, then at least 10 knowledge
level items should be included in the draft.
•Item Analysis and try-out. The test draft is tried out to a
group of pupils / students. The purpose of this try out is to
determine the:
a. Item characteristics through item analysis, and;
b. characteristics of the test itself-validity, reliability, and
practicality.
• Binomial-choice or alternate response tests are tests that have only two options
such as true or false, right or wrong, yes or no good or better, check or cross out,
and so on.
• A student who knows nothing of the content of the examination would have
50% chance of getting the correct answer by guessing. It is the best that the
teacher recognize who knows and those who are just guessing.
• A modified true-false test can offset the effect of guessing by requiring students
to prove that their answers are correct by modifying a part of a sentence which
makes it incorrect.
• Rules in Constructing True or False items:
1. Do not give a hint in the body of the question.
2. Avoid using the words “always”, “never”, “often”, and other
words that tend to be either always true or always false.
3. Avoid long sentences as these tend to be “true”.
Keep sentences short.
• Rules in Constructing True or False items:
4. Avoid trick statements with some minor misleading word or
spelling anomaly, misplaced phrases, etc.
5. Avoid quoting verbatim from reference materials or textbooks.
6. Avoid specific determiners or give-way qualifiers.
7. With true-false questions, avoid grossly disproportionate
number of either true or false statements or even patterns.
• Rules in Constructing True or False items:
4. With true-false questions, avoid grossly disproportionate
number of either true or false statements or even patterns.
• A generalization of the true-false test, the multiple choice type of test offers the
student with more than two options per item to choose from.
• Each item in a multiple choice test consists of two parts: (a) the stem, and (b)
the options. In the set of options, there is a “correct” or “best” option while the
others are considered “distracters”.
• The distracters are chosen in such a way that they are attractive to those who do
not know the answer or those who are guessing, but at the same time have no
appeal to those who knows the answer.
• Guidelines in Constructing Multiple Choice Items:
1. Do not use unfamiliar words, terms, and phrases.
2. Do not use modifiers that are vague and whose meanings can differ from one
person to the next such as; much, often, usually, etc.
3. Avoid complex or awkward word arrangements. Also, avoid use of negatives in
the stem as this may add unnecessary comprehension difficulties.
4. Do not use negatives or double negatives as such statements tend to be confusing.
T is best to use simpler sentences rather than sentences that would require
expertise in grammatical construction.
• Guidelines in Constructing Multiple Choice Items:
5. Each item should be as short as possible; otherwise you risk testing more for
reading and comprehension skills.
6. Distracters should be equally plausible and attractive.
7. All multiple choice options should be grammatically consistent with the stem.
8. The length, explicitness, or degree of technicality of alternatives should not be the
determinants of the correctness of the answer.
9. Avoid stems that reveal the answer to another item.
• Guidelines in Constructing Multiple Choice Items:
10. Avoid alternatives that are synonymous with others or those that, include or
overlap others.
11. Avoid presenting sequenced items in the same order as in the text.
12. Avoid use of assumed qualifiers that many examinees may not be aware of.
13. Avoid use of unnecessary words or phrases, which are not relevant to the problem.
14. Avoid use of non-relevant sources of difficulty such as requiring s complex
calculation when only knowledge of a principle is being tested.
• Guidelines in Constructing Multiple Choice Items:
15. Pack the question in the stem. Avoid a question which has no question.
16. Use the “none of the above” option only when the keyed answer is totally correct.
17. Note that use of “all of the above” may allow credit for partial knowledge.
Students assume that you are allowed only one correct choice.
18. Better still use “none of the above” and “all of the above” sparingly. But best not to
use them at all.
19. Having compound response choices may purposefully increase difficulty of an
item.
• Matching Type Test:
The matching type items may be considered modified multiple choice type items
where the choices progressively reduce as one successfully matches the items on the
left with the items on the right.
• Guidelines in Constructing a Matching Type of Test
1. Match homogeneous not heterogeneous items
2. The stem must be in the first column while the options (usually shorter)
must be in the second column.
• Guidelines in Constructing a Matching Type of Test
3. The options must be more in number than the stems to prevent the student
from arriving at the answer by mere process of elimination.
4. To help the examinee find the answer easier, arrange the options
alphabetically or chronologically.
5. Like any other test, the direction of the test must be given. The examiees
must know exactly what to do.
• Another useful device for testing lower order thinking skills is the
supply type of tests. Like the multiple choice test, the items in this
kind of test consist of a stem and a blank where the students would
write the correct answer.
• Supply type tests depend heavily on the way the stems are
constructed. These tests allow for one and only one answer and,
hence, often test inly the students’ knowledge.
• It is, however, possible to construct supply type of tests that will test
higher order thinking.
• Example: Write an appropriate synonym for each of the following:
Each blank corresponds to a letter:
Flourish: _ _ _ _ Metamorphose: _ _ _ _ _ _
Answers: GROW CHANGE
• Guidelines in the Formulation of Completion Type of Test:
1. Avoid over mutilated sentences. Give enough clue to the students.
2. Avoid open-ended item. There should be only one acceptable answer.
3. The blank should be at the end or near the end of sentence. The question must
first be asked before an answer is expected.
4. Ask question on more significant item not on trivial matter.
5. The length of the blanks must not suggest the answer. So better to make the
blanks uniform in size.
• Essays, classified as non-objective tests, allow for the
assessment of higher order thinking skills. Such tests require
students to organize their thoughts on a subject matter in
coherent sentences in order to inform an audience. In essay
tests, students are required to write one or more paragraphs
on a specific topic.
• Essay questions can be used to measure attainment of a
variety of objectives.
1. Comparing
-Describe the similarities and differences between.
-Compare the following methods for….
2. Relating cause-and-effect
-What are the major causes of ….
-What would be the most likely effects of….
3. Justifying
-Which of the following alternatives would you favor and why?
-Explain why you agree or disagree with the following
statement.
4. Summarizing
-State the points included in ….
-Briefly summarize the contents of ….
5. Generalizing
-Formulate several valid generalizations from the following data.
-State a set of principles that can explain the following events.
6. Inferring
-In the light of the facts presented, what is most likely to happen when ….
-How would Senator X be more likely to react to the bomb explosion after
the bar examination last September?
7. Classifying
-Group the following items according to ….
-What do the following items have in common?
8. Applying
-Using the principles of ____________ as guide, describe how you would
solve the following problem situation.
-Describe a situation that illustrates the principles of __________.
9. Analyzing
-Describe the reasoning errors in the following paragraphs.
-List and describe the main characteristics of ….
10. Applying
-Using the principles of ____________ as guide, describe how you would
solve the following problem situation.
-Describe a situation that illustrates the principles of __________.
11. Analyzing
-Describe the reasoning errors in the following paragraphs.
-List and describe the main characteristics of ….