Free Essay with a Critique of Educational Measurement Instruments

The educational measurement instrument at hand is used in the qualitative and quantitative testing and evaluation of student performance. It is called subjective and objective tests. The author is known as Kimau Jeremy. It was published on 7th October 2015.

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Content

There are constructs, domains and variables being measured by the instruments. They include the true-false items, the matching item, the multiple-choice items, as well as the completion items. They can be well discussed in the subsequently;

True - false test items

In case, the factual statement is made and constructed, and the learners and students are called to respond to them either with the true or false statements. They do so only depend on the level of accuracy and correctness of the presented statements (Liu, X. 2010). The statements are easy and simple to be prepared by the educational stakeholders at hand. They can also get marked objectively while at the same time covering a wide range of topics of interest by the educational stakeholders at hand. It is thus a multi-dimensional construct dealing with diverse topics being tested by the teachers. It is an advantageous construct because it can test a large body of the material being examined and also it is easy to score them.

However, it is of a disadvantage because it can be difficult for the partaker to construct questions which are unequivocally or definitely true or false. The questions constructed in either way can get the students mixed up due to a wide range of knowledge and multivariate nature of the statements, thus attracting answers in either way. Due to such circumstances, the questions are prone to be guessed thus leading to inaccuracy of the results in most cases.

Matching items

It is a test issued by the teachers and involves the connection of the contents presented in the form of lists. In this case, there are two lists with items which based on particular criteria, are to get matched. The learners are thus presented with two columns mostly dented column A and B. The contents in both of the columns are to get matched correctly. It has a wide range of advantages. One of them is the fact that it is capable of measuring primary relationship and association alongside the sequence of events. Besides, it is relatively cheap and easy to come up with because the contents are to be presented in two columns, A and B. The construct can also be used in measuring questions which begin with what, who, when, and where. It is also easy for the students to score them.

However, it comes with setbacks and disadvantages. One of them is the fact that it can be difficult for the teachers and educational stakeholders to come up and construct effective questions which are capable of measuring a higher order thinking. It also contains some distractors which are hard to avoid, that is they are plausible.

Multiple choice test items

Here, facts are stated. There are four or five alternative responses which follows the stated fact. Here, among the choices provided, only one of them must be chosen as it is the only correct one. The main question or statement is known as the stem, the other choices acting alternatives are known as choices. The correct alternative amongst the choices is known as the key while the other remaining choices are known as the distractors. There are the advantages associated with this construct. One of them is the fact that it measures a wide variety of levels of learning amongst the students. It is thus quite effective in a class because all the students cannot have the same level of learning and they are characterized by differences in learning only measurable using the tool at hand. Further, the items in the test can get analyzed to give a large variety of statistics useful to the educational stakeholders (In Caeiro, S. 2013). It has also been proven to be a very effective tool used for assessing the learning capabilities of students.

However, the tool comes with some setbacks. One of them is the fact that it can be difficult to construct effective questions which can be uses to measure the highest order of thinking. It also contains a large number of plausible characters and distracters.

Completion items/ short answer test items

It entails the requirements for the students to supply some of the characters which have been left out. The tests may be presented in the forms of phrases or even questions whereby learners are called upon to respond with either a phrase or a word. It is a construct which comes with some advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is the fact that it reduces the instances of guessing since the learners are required to supply their own words and phrases as answers, unlike when choices are provided which poses the risks of learners to guess any words amongst them. Also, the tool can cover a wide range of contents hence ensuring effective evaluation, assessment, and measurement of student intelligence capacities and learning levels. The tests in the construct are also quite easy to come up with, thus reducing energy and time wastage for the teachers.

However, it has some disadvantages associated with it. One of them is that it is prone to ambiguity since the students might approach the questions in different mind sets according to how they understand them, thus leading to hardship in finding a common grading ground. Further, the construct basically sued for the case of lower levels of thinking, thus cannot be suitable for testing all levels of thinking from the lower level through to the higher level of thinking. Finally, it must be constructed quite carefully to avoid providing clues to the answers for the students, which can then reduce the quality of the test. It is thus quite demanding and calls for high level of keenness for the teachers. It can also take a lot of time for the teachers as they decide on their effectiveness.

Purpose

The instrument is used to test the levels of thinking and learning capacities of the students. Through the two types of tests administered; the restricted and extended response items; the learning capacities of different students are tested as they answer the presented questions. The answers are then analyzed using standardized criteria. The instrument is designed for use by the teachers in testing the thinking level, learning level, and ,intelligence levels of students. The instrument is structured in such a way that the questions which act as tests for the students are presented in either of the four different forms presented above; the ,matching items, true - false item, multiple choice item, and the completion item.

In the construction of the tests, it should be done in such a way that the marks yielded from the answers of the students are able to reflect the abilities which are being measured. Further, the types of tests constructed depends on the nature of the learner abilities being tested in the long run (Information Resources Management Association,. 2017). Suitably trained teams should be tasked with the construction of particular types of tests to enhance effectiveness and reliability of the results. The number of the administered questions should also not be in an extent which bores the learners. They should be precise and up to the point, with only about fifteen questions being presented.

Administration

The procedure for the administration of the tests is that the teachers set the questions and presents them to the students. They will get answered and the answers evaluated using specific criteria. A wide of questions are formulated and examined before being given to the students to test their abilities. The teachers gives tests to students depending on their thinking levels. The teachers should also be qualified in the area they administer the tests. The scoring procedures and scales for the tests are;

• Knowledge- 12%
• Comprehension-16%
• Application -32%
• Analysis-20%
• Synthesis-12%
• Evaluation -8%
• Total= 100%

Evaluation

The measurement tool has been proven to be working having been utilized in different places across the world. The method has been used, especially in high schools in the United States, to measure the strengths of the students and as basis for the allocation of rewards to best performers. It is thus fit for use in schools.

Multicultural Application

The tool can be used to assess the learning levels, intelligence, strengths, and weaknesses of students in different levels of studies. It can thus measure from the lowest to the highest levels according to the setting and nature of the questions set, thus characterizing its multi-cultural tendencies.

Summary Evaluation and Critique

The instrument has some strengths as well as weaknesses. It strengths are that they enable the identification of what the students have learnt, identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the students, the act as a measure of the effectiveness of the school or teachers, and to provide a method for the reward and recognition. Its limitation are that it is insufficient for measuring the knowledge in factual materials. Its scoring is also unreliable and difficult to standardize, due to diverse conditions of the students.

References

In Caeiro, S. (2013). Sustainability assessment tools in higher education institutions: Mapping trends and good practices around the world.

Information Resources Management Association,. (2017). Educational leadership and administration: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications.

Liu, X. (2010). Using and developing measurement instruments in science education: A Rasch modeling approach. Charlotte, N.C: Information Age Pub.