Paper and Pencil test, Assessment Tools

 

Hello, everyone… what do you remember in your schooldays? I think you remember and  always hear this “ok, class get your pencil and paper we will have a test. For the students whose prepare to the test they not terrified for this but for the students whose always busy doing other things for them it’s a judgment day.  So today we are going to talk about, what is paper and pencil test, need to be consider when doing this and why we need higher thinking skills in making it. If its really matter or it is just typical routine inside the classroom. Let’s see and discover what the significance of paper and pencil test inside the classroom. 

Paper-and-pencil assessment refers to traditional student assessment formats such as written tests and also to standardized tests that ask students to use pencils to fill in bubbles on a scannable answer sheet. Standardized tests are now commonly administered on computers, but classroom assessment usually requires students to submit written responses on paper. In the classroom, paper-and-pencil assessment frequently refers to tests scored objectively, which are meant to measure memorized knowledge and lower levels of understanding, as compared with performance-based assessment, which is meant to measure deeper understanding through skills and ability. The following sections discuss how assessments are developed and describe the current and future applications for paper-and-pencil assessment.

In constructing a paper and pencil test they have general principles of it;

● Measure all instructional objectives 

● Cover all learning task

● Use appropriate test items

● Make test valid and reliable

The paper and pencil test measure the outcome of the learners through written examination. It used also to validate if the instructional objective of an course outline are meet or need to be innovate.

And here are the lists of attributes of a good test as an assessment tools.

Validity- the degree to which a test measures what it seeks to measure.

Reliability- the accuracy with which a test consistently measures that which it does measures

Objectivity-the extent to which personal basis or subjective judgement of the test scorer is eliminated by checking the student’s responses to the test items, as there is only one correct answer for each question.

Scorability- easy to scores or check as answer key or answer sheet are provided.

Administrability- easy to  administer as clear and simple instruction are provided to the students, proctors and scorer.

Relevance- the correspondence between the behaviour require to respond correctly to a test item and the purpose in writing the item.

Balance- refers to the degree to which the proportion of items testing particular outcomes corresponds to the ideal test.

Efficiency-refers to the numbers of meaningful response per unit of time.

Difficulty – the test item should be appropriate in difficulty level.

Discrimination-    norm referenced item – generally index by the difference between the proportion of        good and poor students who respond correctly.

Criterion  referenced  test- usually associated with pretest and post test differences  of ability of the test or item to distinguish competent from less competent students.

Fairness- teacher should construct and administer the test in the manner that allows the student an equal chance to demonstrate their knowledge or skills.

In assessment there is some certain quality that is needed in evaluation of the students, and by this attributes the teacher will be aware performing assessment whether it be performance based assessment or written assessment.

After all this attributes needed let’s now go in constructing classroom test. And here is the list of making it.

● Identification of instructional objectives and learning outcomes.

● Listing of the topics to be covered by the test.

● Preparation of a table of specification (TOS)

● Selection of appropriate types of test 

● Writing of test items

● Writing the directions or instructions

● Preparation of the answer sheet and scoring key

By preparing classroom test  you need to clarify the instructional objectives and learning outcome of an course outline. After this list all the topic covered and used table of specification to easily track the lesson and easily construct a question depend on your covered lesson.

As a teacher you need to carefully extract all possible question that will test the critical thinking skills of the learner. And before it happens you need to prepare a test or examination that is valid and reliable questions.  As a future educator higher order thinking skill should be practice in making test and examination because it will measure the full potential of the learner if they can answer those question  correctly. 

Reference:

https://methods.sagepub.com/reference/the-sage-encyclopedia-of-educational-research-measurement-and-evaluation.