Testing and Evaluation

 Hello readers !

Here on my blog.  This blog is related to the  thinking activity. And this thinking activity  name is " testing  and evaluation "

Some questions  connected with  this thinking activity. 

Question: 1 Write on validity  and  reliability of the  test.

Answer:

Validity refers to how accurately a method measures what it is intended to measure. If research has high validity, that means it produces results that correspond to real properties, characteristics, and variations in the physical or social world.

High reliability is one indicator that a measurement is valid. If a method is not reliable, it probably isn’t valid.

If the thermometer shows different temperatures each time, even though you have carefully controlled conditions to ensure the sample’s temperature stays the same, the thermometer is probably malfunctioning, and therefore its measurements are not valid.

If a symptom questionnaire results in a reliable diagnosis when answered at different times and with different doctors, this indicates that it has high validity as a measurement of the medical condition.

However, reliability on its own is not enough to ensure validity. Even if a test is reliable, it may not accurately reflect the real situation.

The thermometer that you used to test the sample gives reliable results. However, the thermometer has not been calibrated properly, so the result is 2 degrees lower than the true value. Therefore, the measurement is not valid.

A group of participants take a test designed to measure working memory. The results are reliable, but participants’ scores correlate strongly with their level of reading comprehension. This indicates that the method might have low validity: the test may be measuring participants’ reading comprehension instead of their working memory.

Validity is harder to assess than reliability, but it is even more important. To obtain useful results, the methods you use to collect your data must be valid: the research must be measuring what it claims to measure. This ensures that your discussion of the data and the conclusions you draw are also valid.

☆ Different between Validity and  Reliability: 

Reliability and validity are concepts used to evaluate the quality of research. They indicate how well a method, technique or test measures something. Reliability is about the consistency of a measure, and validity is about the accuracy of a measure.

It’s important to consider reliability and validity when you are creating your research design, planning your methods, and writing up your results, especially in quantitative research.

◇ What does it tell you?

The extent to which the results can be reproduced when the research is repeated under the same conditions.

The extent to which the results really measure what they are supposed to measure.

◇ How is it assessed?

By checking the consistency of results across time, across different observers, and across parts of the test itself.

By checking how well the results correspond to established theories and other measures of the same concept.

 ◇ How do they relate?

A reliable measurement is not always valid: the results might be reproducible, but they’re not necessarily correct.

A valid measurement is generally reliable: if a test produces accurate results, they should be reproducible.

☆ How are reliability and validity assessed?

Reliability can be estimated by comparing different versions of the same measurement. Validity is harder to assess, but it can be estimated by comparing the results to other relevant data or theory. Methods of estimating reliability and validity are usually split up into different 

Different types of reliability can be estimated through various statistical methods.

 ☆ Types of reliability

Test-retest

The consistency of a measure across time: do you get the same results when you repeat the measurement?

A group of participants complete a questionnaire designed to measure personality traits. If they repeat the questionnaire days, weeks or months apart and give the same answers, this indicates high test-retest reliability.

Interrater

The consistency of a measure across raters or observers: do you get the same results when different people conduct the 

same measurement?

Based on an assessment criteria checklist, five examiners submit substantially different results for the same student project. This indicates that the assessment checklist has low inter-rater reliability (for example, because the criteria are too subjective).

Internal consistency

The consistency of the measurement itself: do you get the same results from different parts of a test that are designed to measure the same questions .

Question : 2  Difference between  Assessment and  evaluation: 

Answer: 

Assessment is feedback from the student to the instructor about the student's learning. Evaluation uses methods and measures to judge student learning and understanding of the material for purposes of grading and reporting. Evaluation is feedback from the instructor to the student about the student's learning.

Assessment is the systematic process of documenting and using empirical data to measure knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs. By taking the assessment, teachers try to improve the student's path towards learning. This is a short definition of assessment.

Evaluation focuses on grades and might reflect classroom components other than course content and mastery level. An evaluation can be used as a final review to gauge the quality of instruction. It’s product-oriented. This means that the main question is: “What’s been learned?” In short, evaluation is judgmental.

Example:

You’re gifted a flower.

Evaluation: “The flower is purple and is too short with not enough leaves.”

Evaluation is judgmental

 

Assessment: “I’ll give the flower some water to improve its growth.”

Assessment increases the quality.

Assessment	Evaluation
《1》Is ongoing     closure.	《1》Provides.
《2》Improves learning quality               learning level.	《2》Judges.
《3》Individualized                                    against standards	《3》Applied.
《4》Ungraded.	《4》Graded.
《5》Provides feedback                            shortfalls.	《5》Shows.
《6》Process-oriented                             oriented	《6》 Product.

Question  : 3    what do you  understand  backwash  ?  

Answer: 

The "Washback" as we call it in the applied linguistics (termed 'backwash' in education), is a well-documented phenomenon known to all institutional learning process. (Philip Shawcross, p 2, What do we mean by the 'washback effect' of testing ?). The washback effect has tersely been referred to as 'the influence of testing on teaching, and learning.' (Gates 1995) This study ventured to examine the washback phenomenon from teachers' perspective taking learners as the inducing factors of the washback effect. The Qualitative approach was espoused. The data was collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with the HSC English language teachers of the government colleges in Hyderabad with a 'convenient sampling'. The participants numbering ten in total were equally taken from both the genders. The interview responses were thematically analyzed and coded to form a compact but summarized picture of the washback on teachers. The findings provided the breaking-through insights into the flip side of the washback from teachers' vantage point. It established that the apathy/lack of interest by students brings an intense kind of washback on teachers' teaching method, and content, and their overall morale. Assuming that students are directly receptive to the washback coming from tests; it sought to know as to 'how they reflect the same back on their teachers'. The respondents named many a handicap placed by apathetic students on how and what they teach. The study corroborated the fact that the teachers are at least, as affected as the learners by the washback phenomenon.

 

Question:  4  How do you  define  good assessment ? 

Answer: 

'An assessment requiring students to use the same competencies, or combinations of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that they need to apply in the criterion situation in professional life.'

Assessments can range from pop quizzes to final exams to midterm papers and project-based assignments; what unites them all is that they measure students’ learning. There are three key areas on which the quality of an assessment can be measured: reliability, validity, and bias. A good assessment should be reliable, valid, and free of bias.

First, reliability refers to the consistency of students’ scores; that is, an assessment is reliable when it produces stable and consistent results. Reliability can come in two major forms: (1) stability and (2)alternate form reliability. Stability means that tests or assessments produce consistent results at different testing times with the same group of students. If they do not produce similar results, the assessment may not be reliable.

Alternate form reliability means that multiple versions of the assessment or test produce the same results with the same group of students.The alternate versions must be equivalent so that students cannot automatically score better on one version than the other, and this type of reliability is critical for multiple-choice tests, and less important for essays or writing-based assessments.

Second, validity refers to whether or not the assessments actually measure the learning objective it purports to evaluate. An assessment is valid when it measures the content that was taught and when it reflects the content and skills you emphasize when teaching the course. Validity is critical because educators make inferences from assessment scores about student achievement or mastery of content. Professors and instructors can trust valid assessments to determine what their students have learned, but invalid assessments cannot be trusted.

Third, absence of bias refers to grades flowing from the students’ mastery of the learning objective instead of from the question itself.A good example of how bias could impact a student’s performance in an assessment is the rise of ESL learners – in a college environment that is becoming more and more diverse, idioms or slang words might trip up nonnative speakers of English, making the exam biased towards those who speak English as a first language. Another example is lack of objectivity in assessments – either in how questions are worded (taking certain things for fact when students may dispute their truth) or in professors awarding scores capriciously.

Question  : 5 write on practicality of the  test. 

Answer:  

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.

◇ The layout should be easy to follow and understand.

◇ It stays within appropriate time constraints.

◇ It is relatively easy to administer.

◇ Its correct evaluation procedure is specific and time-efficient.

■ Characteristics of impractical tests are:

 ♤ these test are excessively expensive

they are too long.

♤ they require a handful of examiners to administer and score.

♤it takes several hours to grade a test.

It refers to the economy of time, effort and money in testing. In other words, a test should be easy to design, easy to administer, easy to mark, and easy to interpret the results (Bachman and Palmer, 1996). Moreover, according to Brown (2004) said that the test that is practical needs to be within the means of financial limitations, appropriate time constraints, easy to administrator, score, and interpret.

Thank you...

Thinking Activity: teaching language through literature.

 Hello readers! 

Here on my blog.  This blog is related to the  teaching  language  through literature.

  

☆ Introduction   of teaching  language through literature: 

A major problem of language teaching in the classroom is the creation of  an  authentic  situation  for  language.  All  language  classrooms, especially those outside the community of native speakers, are isolated from  the  context  of  events  and  situations  which  produce  natural language.  Literature  can  overcome  this  problem  because,  in  literary works,  language  creates  its  own context.  The  actual situation  of  the reader becomes immaterial as he or she looks at the events created by language.  These events  create,  in turn,  a context  of the language of the book and enable it to transcend the artificial classroom situation.

☆  what sort of activities to  cane be designed  to  teach language  using  a " novel" or " short story." 

•What do we do to teach language through novels?

●  Teach language  using  a " Short story:

Short stories are very useful in the trials to improve students' vocabulary and  reading.  The  results of  Lao  and  Krashen‟s  (2000)  study  which compared the reading achievement between a group of students that read literary texts and a  second  group  that  read  non-literary  texts  at  a  university  in  Hong  Kong revealed  that the group  who read  literary  texts made  better improvement  in vocabulary and reading. 

The idea  that short stories are the most suitable literary genre to use in English  teaching  due  to  its  shortness  is  supported  by  Hirvela  and  Boyle‟s (1988)  study  on  adult  Hong  Kong  Chinese  students'  attitudes  towards  four genres of  literary texts (short story, novel, poetry  and drama) indicated short stories as the genre that is less feared and the second most enjoyed (43%; the novel is the most enjoyed with 44%), since short stories are easy to finish and definite to understand. The idea is also in line with Collie and Slater . when they list four advantages of using short stories for language teachers. First, short stories are practical as their length is long enough to cover entirely in  one  or two  class  sessions. 

if  students have  reached a  high level of  language proficiency. For example, if teachers bring to class A Long Walk.

  ◇ Home, they can assign the following writing activities: 

1. Write a dialogue between Jackson and his  father that morning (paragraph one). 

2. Paraphrase the last two paragraphs of the short story.

 3. Write  a  book  report  or summarize  the  story  in  five to  seven sentences, including the main character, setting, conflict, climax, and resolution. 

4. Write one sentence on the theme of the story.

 5. Write a paragraph to explain what you think Jackson has learned from that experience.

 6. Write a review on the story. 

7. Write an essay on what you like or dislike in the story.  

The idea that short stories are very suitable to use in English teaching is supported  by  Pardede‟s  (2010)  research  findings  on  the  interest,  perceptions, and  the perceived  needs  of the  students  of the  English  teachers training  of Christian University of Indonesia towards the incorporation of short story in language skills classes. The research revealed that a majority of the respondents basically  found  short  stories  interesting  to  use  both  as  materials  for  self-enjoyment  and of  as components  language  skill classes.  Most  of  them  also agreed or  strongly  agreed that  the incorporation of  short stories  in language skills classes will help learners achieve better mastery of language skills. They even  believed  that  English  teacher  candidates  should  master  the  skills  of employing  short  stories  to  teach  language  skills.  In  addition,  the  statistical analysis revealed that the students‟ interest and perceptions were positively and significantly correlated, and both variables significantly affected each other.

The use of short-story in English teaching should be aimed to encourage the students to use what they have previously learnt. By doing this, the learning process  will  be  student-centered.  However,  the  teacher  plays  a  great  role. She/he  must choose  a suitable  text  to use  in class,  and should  help her/his students understand the story with various activities.  In using short stories to teach English, story selection is indeed one of the most important roles of the teacher. Since the lengths of short-stories quite vary, choose a story short enough to handle within course hours. The shortness of the text  is  important for  the students  because  they will  see  that they  can  read, understand  and finish  something in  English,  and  it will  give the  students  a feeling of achievement and self-confidence.

 ● points out three other basic criteria of choosing the text:

 (1) the needs and abilities of the students; (2) the linguistic and  stylistic level of the text; 

(3) the amount of background information required for a true appreciation of the material.  

☆  what sort of activities to  cane be designed  to  teach language  using  a  " film " or " video " : 

Film can bring variety and flexibility to the language classroom by extending the range of teaching techniques and resources, helping students to develop all four communicative skills. For example, a whole film or sequence can be used to practise listening and reading, and as a model for speaking and writing. Film can also act as a springboard for follow-up tasks such as discussions, debates on social issues, role plays, reconstructing a dialogue or summarising. It is also possible to bring further variety to the language learning classroom by screening different types of film: feature-length films, short sequences of films, short films, and adverts.

Given the benefits of using film in the language learning classroom, it is not surprising that many teachers are keen to use film with their students, and an increasing number of them are successfully integrating film into the language-learning syllabus. 

Working with film in teaching, like with any medium or supporting object, requires some thought about how to get the best out of the materials. In education, this kind of thinking is about pedagogy – the theory, or sometimes the science, of teaching and learning. We say teaching AND learning, because the two are not always the same. Often what we teach is not the same as what learners take away.

In film education, a number of techniques and approaches have been devised, tested, and shared over the years. In this step we will look at three examples of pedagogical approaches to film, and ask you to write a few lines in response.

● The three approaches are:

《1》Basic Teaching Techniques.

《2》Cs and Ss.

《3》Tell Me.

《1》 Basic Teaching Techniques : 

The first set of approaches called Basic Teaching Techniques, come from a resource published many years ago called ‘Moving Images in the Classroom’. In this booklet, a group of teachers and advisers came up with eight ‘Basic Teaching Techniques’ (BTTs), designed to help teachers who hadn’t used film, video or TV before in their teaching to make the most out of these media.

● Eight Basic Teaching Techniques:

■ Freeze Frame – concentrates on the visual language of moving images.

■Sound and Image – highlights the important sound in the interpretation of moving image texts.

■Spot the Shots – draws attention to the editing process.

■Top and Tail – shows how moving image texts are produced and circulated to audiences.

■Attracting Audiences – shows how moving image texts are produced and circulated to audiences.

■Generic Translations – ways of making changes to moving image texts and relating them to other media.

■Cross- media Comparisons – changing moving image texts and relating them to other media.

■Simulation – changing moving image texts and relating them to other media

The eight basic techniques are designed to help you unravel the codes and conventions of the moving image, and enable you to use a wider range of film and video texts in the classroom when teaching languages. The techniques are not age-specific. If you wish to learn more about the eight BTTs and how they can be applied to language teaching please download the two ‘Basic Teaching Technique’ resources from the download section.

《2》 Cs and Ss: 

Cs and Ss are a way of categorising and analysing techniques in film that either share features with other modes of storytelling, or which are distinctive to film. The ‘Cs and Ss’ approach offers possibilities for vocabulary work in a variety of languages for example in identifying colours, places, character types and adjectival descriptions of mood. The original ‘family’ of Cs and Ss comprised:

Character, Story, and Setting (categories that could be applied across film, print, and other fiction media). Camera, Colour, and Sound (categories specific to film).

If you wish to learn more about this approach then please download the ‘Cs and Ss – Thinking About Film’ resource in the download section.

《3》Tell Me  : 

The ‘Tell Me’ approach is based on a questioning framework developed by a group of teachers, authors and advisors for eliciting children’s responses to the books they were reading. This questioning framework was worked on and refined over a long period, with teachers and children, in an attempt to ensure that the questions were generative – i.e. that they created spaces for children to talk extensively – and that they didn’t threaten, or imply a right answer. The effect is something like a conversation, rather than a lesson.

 ◇ Basic ‘Tell Me’ question examples:

•Was there anything you liked?

 • What caught your attention?

 • Was there anything you disliked? 

• Was there anything that puzzled you? 

•That you’d never seen in a film before? That surprised you? • 

•Were there any patterns?

Thank you...

Thinking Activity : one Night at the call center

 Hello readers! 

 Here on my blog.  This blog related  to chetan Bhagat's     book "  One Night @ the Call Center (ON@CC):

☆  Few Introduction about  Chetan Bhagat's One Night @ the Call Center (ON@CC):

Chetan Bhagat's "One Night @ the Call Center" (ON@CC) published in 2005, revolves around a group of six call center employees working in Connexions Call Center, Gurgaon, Haryana. It takes place during the span of one night. The six persons: Shyam, Vroom, Esha, Priyanka, Radhika, and Military Uncle pass through a very troublesome night. 

☆ Globalization and  Chetan Bhagat's One Night @ the Call Center (ON@CC) :

  Globalization conditions at the background against which the stories happen. Globalization has brought in new things that have changed the living conditions of the country and the individuals.To make the point clear and possibly encompassing, the paper approaches Bhagat's fictional  works mentioned in the title in a deductive way. First it talks about the aspects of globalization and there after relates them to the works under consideration. Cities and the urban zones are at the core of the development strategy of globalization. They are the grounds where all the factors conducive for globalization can handily come together and show results. In order to attain socio-economic political-cultural integration of the world's population, well developed cities are the demand of the time. Bhagat's fictions reflect the scene in globalizing cities in India. In his "One Night @ the Call Center"  we come across fast growing city structures like Gurgaon (Haryana), where now massive apartments and commercial malls are under construction, where people feel that they are moving through the maze of construction sites. Here there are long and broad highways, making travel easier. A number of efforts to remove infrastructural constraints in order to facilitate the process of globalization are underway.

Globalization has increased the pace of movement of people, goods and the economy across the national lines. Bhagat very comfortably depicts this atmosphere in the above cited works. There in we see people moving about quite frequently. The six people working in ON@CC are picked up by a call center's car every night from their respective homes in Delhi, and are dropped at their work place at Gurgaon, and vice-versa when their duty hours are over in morning. This commuting consumes near about five hours of their daily life. The Manager of the call centre, Bakshi, is almost dying to be promoted to work at Boston.

the economies of different countries can be seen to be pacing their ways with each other's help in a healthy manner.The young generation shown in both the fictions possesses a sense of competition, at the same time it is quite ambitious and wants to do everything that is possible to climb up the career ladder as higher as possible. In ON@CC the protagonist, Shyam Mehra, named in office as Sam Marcy, as it sounded to be a globally suited name, earlier worked in an ad agency but due to low payment he left the agency, and joined this call centre. Now Sam aspires to become a team leader from being merely an agent, so that he could prove himself as having guts and also become worthy to marry Priyanka. Shyam is a fine web designer. For the main bay of his company that dealt with the computer related problems of the US based customers he designs a trouble-shooting web site.Vroom, an ambitious youth, is also a trouble-shooter. In an effort to save the endangered job positions of the call center employees due to slack in the computer and software industry, Vroom subtly strikes upon an idea that he could scare the US based customers into calling them. Only that the customers were to be told that their PCs were hit by some virus, spread by evil forces, and only the experts of this company could save them out of this. Thus he buys time from the company authorities, and succeeds in saving the call centre from closing down. By the end both Shyam and Vroom decided to start their own web designing firm.

☆ Comment on Narrative structure of the novel. Compared with that of Life of Pi.

In both the novel's narrative structures are the same and the element of god is also there. In one night @ call center prologue and epilogue are very interesting one. In pie’s story pie has faith in god during his journey but then this idea deconstructs also. When we camped both novels at that time Life of pie was considered a classic novel rather than On@cc. Yan Martel had deep observation of India and he presented well even though he is not Indian like places, animal world, religions, schools etc. so on the other side we can find shallowness in ON@CC. ON@CC is known as ‘Dramedy’. Martel expresses the process of paradox well in his novel. Pie explained that ‘Maturity doesn’t come with age, it comes with experience’. When we look towards the end of the novels at that time we find that in Life of pie’s end is well projected with deep philosophy and in ON@CC the end is not much attractive and good. 

☆ Conclusion:

Thus the fictional works of Bhagat: One Night @ the Call Center & 2 States reflect the changing urban realities in globalizing India. Through these works Bhagat subtly portrays the fast growing cities and urban zones along with all the global factors, affecting the life, experience, dreams, and attitudes of today's youth. Bhagat very comfortably depicts women empowerment as one of the positive effects of globalization, at the sametime,consumerism, eroding values, and rising fears and anxieties of urban Indians as some of the negative offshoots of it can not escape his piercing observations. The works cited above can be considered as the subjective fictional stories of the changing urban.

Thank you...