New Trends In Measurement And Evaluation

New Trends In Measurement And Evaluation 

What is a Grading System?

A degree or step in a scale, as of rank, advancement, quality, value, or intensity.
                                                                        Dictionary.com

The strongest argument in favour of grading system is that it is a qualitative assessment of achievement of a student not quantitative one. The strength of personality of a person is determined on the basis of his quality not quantity. Desirable change in the behaviour of a learner is determined on the basis of its quality and grades assigned to behavioural changes are the best parameter of determining quality.

In grading system, grades instead of marks are assigned on the basis of quality of answer, various grades referring to various qualities are pre-determined. An example will illustrate this point in which various grades ranging from Excellent to Very Poor are given:

	Quality	Grades
1.	Excellent	O
2.	Very Good	A
3.	Good	B
4.	Satisfactory	C
5.	Average	D
6.	Poor	E
7.	Very Poor	F

Methods of Grading

There are basically two methods of grading used-

1.      Direct Grading: In this method grades are allotted to questions directly on the basis of their quality. If answers written by examine is of very fine quality and uncomparable it will be considered “Excellent(O)” and if the answer quality is of bad quality it will be considered “Very Poor(F)” as the seven point scale given as above.

If there are more than one question in a question paper say seven and each question is graded differently by the examiner, then final grade of the examinee will be calculated by using the following formula-

Overall Grade= ∑ Grades/ No. of Questions

2.      Grading by Score Conservation: It is a mid-way approach between grading and marking and thus ,it can remove some of the defects of both the systems, i.e.

It classifies the students into less number of categories and thus creates less confusion.

Qualitative assessment which is advocated by philosophers is possible here.

In this method, answer sheet of students are first scored in usual manner , then these scores are converted into grades on the basis of any of the two criteria given below:

i.        Determination of grades by fixing range of scores: In this method different grades are allotted to students on the basis of range of scores ,e.g., seven point scale can be prepared in the following manner:

	Grade	Scores
1.	O	Above 91 %
2.	A	81 %-90 %
3.	B	61 %-80 %
4.	C	51%-60 %
5.	D	41 %-50 %
6.	E	33 %-40 %
7.	F	Below 33 %

ii.      Determination of grade by preparing merit list of all the students: Those students who score less than 33 % in a particular subject are considered failed in that subject and they are allotted Grade-E .The remaining pass students in that subject are equally divided into eight sections as-A1,A2,B1,B2,C1,C2,D1,D2 and E are prepared.

Merits of Grading System:

Error of measurement is reduced to minimize here.

Inter subject comparisons of the same examinee and inter-examinees comparison in a particular subject both is possible here.

Grading system is a boon for weak students more than bright students. It reduces the frustration level of the weak students very much.

It classifies students into less number of categories and hence the tendency of cut throat completion among them for solitary marks is checked.

What is Semester?

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary gives the following meaning of the word Semester: “A period of term of six months, especially in German universities and some United States’ Colleges ,the college half year.”

It is thus clear that the semester signifies the division of academic year into two parts. Division of the academic year also implies that the courses are designed to cover one semester (instead of a year) and those final examinations are held twice a year.

There are several features which, though they are not necessary concomitants of the Semester system, are often associated with it. Those of major importance are the “CREDIT SYSTEM”, the system of “LETTER GRADES”, greater reliance on home study, INTERNAL ASSESSMENT, and use of QUESTION BANK, improved methods of Assessment etc.

Precautions to be taken before the implementation of the Semester System:

Teaching is a highly complex and sophisticated science requiring not only the knowledge of a particular discipline but also the ability to analyze, synthesize, evaluate ,communicate, demonstrate and finally promote learning in the class rooms, laboratories and field.

However, modern educators feel that good teaching is that which ensures effective learning, so before the implementation of the semester system students must be made to know some details about the semester system.

A rationale and scientific semester system implementation has certain implications on Syllabus (Curriculum), Teaching methods, evaluation methods etc.

Basic Psychological Principles for the Success of Semester System:

1.      Involvement of implementers decision making and giving their views on various issues.

2.      A consensus design of semester system must be evolved.

3.      A proper training programme for teachers in semester system implementation is to be held.

4.      Information must be passed on teachers /students/parents/administrators about semester system sufficiently in advance.

5.      Adequate preparation time must be allowed.

6.      A systematic ‘system evaluation’ must be instituted and results reported to concern people.

7.      Modifications and improvements are effected based on results of evaluation.

Continuous Internal Assessment

Continuous assessment is a form of educational examination that evaluates a student's progress throughout a prescribed course

                                                                                                         ---Wikipedia

The University Grants Commission recommends that we need to “……….move to a system

which emphasizes continuous internal assessment and reduces dependence on external examinations to a reasonable extent.”

Continuous Internal Assessment (CAI) is a system in which the teacher, who teaches the class sets examination papers, evaluates the answer sheets of students, declares the result in the class and gives feedback to his students. This assessment procedure is not time bound. It

goes side by side of teaching as a continuous process for regular improvement of the teaching-learning process.

Purpose of CIA:

To test those abilities which cannot be tested by term end examination?

We as teachers must identify the abilities that we want to develop in our student in our respective subject.

Devise valid and reliable tools for evaluation these abilities. Maintain and effective feedback

Characteristics:

Continuous awareness of the teacher regarding knowledge and development of his students.

Emphasizes observation of growth of various abilities thereby enabling the teacher to take corrective action as and when required.

Provides knowledge not only of achievement but also of progression towards it – not merely of where he has got to but also of how he got there.

Emphasizes both the process as well as product of learning.

Advantages of CIA:

It gives regular feedback to the teacher who teaches the subject and he can remove his mistakes and weakness every time.

CIA can give us the trend of progress of a student whether he is going up or he is coming down or he is stagnant at his progress. This will help the teacher to modify his strategies every time.

With the help of CIA the teacher can classify his students into different categories on the basis of their scores in tests and can adopt different strategies for different categories.

It is less time consuming .and the tests conducted through it are very short and hence immediate feedback can be given to the learner.

Question Banks

The question bank is a planned library of test items pooled through cooperative effort for the use of evaluators, teachers and students. It as an inbuilt feedback mechanism for improvement of questions. A question bank serves a number of number of purposes.

Questions for the question bank ,as far as possible, should be prepared by practicing teachers in workshops conducted by experts. Enrichment of questions by updating, discarding, replacing, modifying and adding new questions should be a continuous process.

Steps in preparing Question Bank:

i.        The whole syllabus for which the question bank is to be prepared is divided into different convenient topics.

ii.      Different topics are given to different experts for constructing questions from each topic.

iii.    Experts constructs at least three times the number of questions required from each topic and then after item analysis the required number of questions are selected.

The\us, first step of preparing question bank is completed.

iv.    The above three steps are repeated again and a large number of questions are given constructed and added to the goal.

v.      This unending process of adding questions to the question bank and taking some of them for use goes on intermittently.

Advantages of Question Bank System:

i.        There is least chance of leaking of question paper here because experts who have encountered the questions don’t know whether their questions have been included in the test or not.

ii.      Question papers can be set immediately by using Question bank.

iii.    If question bank is published for wide use, learners can be benefited from it very much.

iv.    Question bank can help in requiting the best candidates on the basis of the test.

v.      Question bank is also used I admissions. When only few out of so many candidates are to be selected, a test is prepared by taking out the items from the bank.

Computer In Evaluation

Computer based evaluation system is a key technology for research in computer architecture. The continuous growth in complexity of computer systems is making this task increasingly complex. In general, the problem of developing effective performance evaluation techniques can be stated as finding the best trade-off between accuracy and speed. This optimal trade-off is dependent on the particular use of the evaluation process.

Computer can be used in the evaluation process in the following ways:

Storing of Items: A large number of items (Question Bank) can be stored in the Compact Disk of the computer. Difficulty values of items, discriminating power and efficiency of detractors can also be given against each item.

Printing of the test: We can give a programme to the computer to print out such and such items of such and such difficulty value from such units and topics. Thus, a test covering the whole syllabus can be prepared and printed by the computer.

Analysis of Records: While conducting large scale competitive examinations, agencies use OMR sheet where informations are supplied by the candidates. Computer records these informations and match them with their eligibility criteria.

Scoring of Items: If answer sheets are to be evaluated by using computers, then OMR sheets is used. More than one thousand such sheets can be scored by the computer in one hour.

Item Analysis: Item analysis is an important procedure in standardization. If this is done manually it will take much time. Computer can perform this function very accurately and at a very fast speed.

Preparation of mark sheet: On the basis of achievement of a student in various subjects computer can prepare mark sheet of the student and print it out.

Use in internal assessment: If a number of internal tests are conducted by an educational institution, then result of all the students in all the tests can be stored in a computer. Computer can provide us the trend of achievement of a student graphically in no time.

Analysis of results: Computer can analyze the result of any examination not only quantitatively but also qualitatively.

Grading: Computer can convert marks into grades very easily. We will have only to give the criteria of conversion to the computer.

Transfer of Results: If networking facility is there in an educational institution, one department can get the information of other departments and all of them can get feedback from the result of students.