notes on evaluation in education

703 MODERN EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES

PART A EDUCATIONAL EVALUATION AND RESEARCH

UNIT 1 Evaluation in Education

Meaning of Evaluation

            Evaluation is process in which we assess or judge the value of something or assess the quality of something. In the field of education, evaluation is a process of determining the extend o which the educational objectives are attained. Evaluation is an important component of the teaching- learning process. It helps teachers and learners to improve teaching and learning. Evaluation is making judgement about something. It is a systematic determination of a subjects’ worth, merit or significance.

            Evaluation involves assessment and measurement. It is a wider and more inclusive term than assessment and measurement. It can be represented as

            Assessment refers to the process and products which are used to describe the nature and extent of some attribute. Measurement is the process of assigning numerals to objects or qualities.

Evaluation and Measurement

            Evaluation is often confused with the term measurement and both terms are used synonymously. But both are not the same. Measurement stands for measuring the performance of the student at a particular scale. The pattern of measurement which mostly followed in our assessment system relates to the marking in a scale of 0-100 marks.

Measurement   = quantitative description

Evaluation       = measurement + value judgement

Measurement is the science of collecting and ordering information about objects to be studied. As such it should be objective and impersonal. Evaluation involves the use of information collected by the process of measurement. If we use a ruler and determine that a desk is 5 feet long and 3 feet wide, that is measurement. If we then say that the desk is too large to go through an 18 inch door, which is evaluation.

Significance of evaluation

1.      Evaluation is an important component of teaching learning process

2.      Motivates students for better learning

3.      It diagnoses strength and weakness of students

4.      It judges effectiveness of instruction

5.      It helps in determining as to how far the learning objectives can be achieved

6.      It determines the rate of progress of students

7.      It helps in classifying students

8.      It provides base for certifying the students

9.      It predicts the success of students in future

Functions of evaluation

1.      Evaluation assesses r make appraisal of educational objectives, instructional materials, performance of teachers and learners

2.      Evaluation enhance the quality of the teacher

a.       It help the teacher to find out how far they have succeeded in their teaching

b.      Evaluation helps the teacher to adopt appropriate instructional strategies

3.      Evaluation help in clarifying the objectives

a.       Teacher will get deeper insight into various aspects to the topic

4.      Evaluation motivates the learner

a.       Evaluation is continuous that gives immediate feedback and act as a reinforcement

5.      Guidance can be given on the basis of evaluation

a.       Evaluation makes the individual differences clear

b.      Specific difficulties can be identified

6.      Evaluation can help in bringing changes in the curriculum

Different types of evaluation

      In practice the following two major category of evaluation is used in classroom setting. They are

Formative and Summative Evaluation

      The evaluation that will continue with the instruction is formative evaluation and the evaluation which is done at the end of a course of instruction is known as summative evaluation. The formative evaluation is a feedback to the students as well as the teacher. It helps the students in monitoring the progress of learning and teachers on the other hand can understand the efficiency of the teaching.

      The main purpose of formative evaluation is to determine the degree of mastery of a given learning task. The learners and teachers are helped to improve the learning process.  Formative evaluation is given at regular and frequent intervals.

      The aim of summative evaluation is not to monitor the progress of the students during instruction, but it is to assess the overall performance of the students at the end of the course. It helps to assign course grade or certify pupils’ mastery of the learning outcome. This ensures for the students’ promotion, selection etc. So summative evaluation is directed towards a much more general assessment of the degree to which the larger and more general outcomes of learning has been obtained over the entire course.

 

Scholastic and co-scholastic evaluation

      The evaluation procure which analyse the cognitive abilities of students are scholastic evaluation. For example evaluation of knowledge, understanding, analysis, synthesis etc

      The evaluation procedure which analyses the factors like physical health, habits, interest and attitude of students are co-scholastic evaluation.

      The evaluation system introduced in Kerala involves:

·         Evaluation of scholastic skills (subjects)

·         Evaluation of co-scholastic skills (art education, work experience, health and physical education)

·         Evaluation of personal and social qualities

Continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE)

            Evaluation has to be very comprehensive in system of evaluation which aims at many sided development of the personality of the child. ‘The school of today’s’ concerns itself not only with the intellectual pursuit but also with the emotional and social development of the child, physical and mental health, his social adjustment and other equal 

It is now agreed that evaluation is a continuous process, forms an integral part of the total system of education. Several important aspects of the students’ growth that cannot be measured by written examinations and other methods such as observation technique, oral test and practical examinations have to be devised for collecting evidence.

Modern concept of evaluation suggests that it should be continuous. The students must be evaluated continuously throughout the academic year. Project works, practical, collections, assignments, seminar internal examination etc. to be considered while evaluating the students.

Evaluation also to be comprehensive in nature. The traditional examination system evaluate the students achievements in scholastic area only but success of an individual depends upon his overall development of the individuality. Hence co-scholastic area also to be considered while evaluating the students. Students’ achievement in sports and games, arts and work experience etc. should give due importance in evaluation. Personal and social qualities of the students also to be considered to evaluate student’s performance.

The ‘continuous’ and ‘comprehensive’ evaluation implies two interrelated usages. Continuous means evaluation of students throughout his academic career and comprehensive means evaluation of the all aspects of the individual and group. However it does not de-emphasis the importance of term –end evaluation. We can summarize the modern concept of continuous and comprehensive evaluation as follows:

Norm referenced and Criterion referenced tests

            Testing is done to measure the students’ performance after teaching with a view to find out whether the learning has take place. Students’ performance is generally reported in terms of mark or grades. The common practice prevailing in educational institutions are to compare the performance of student with certain norms ie, classroom, school, locality regional or national.

Norm referenced test

            The classroom test and standardised test that report the test performance in terms of an individual’s relative position in the same group is called Norm referenced test. Most of our modern testing theories are based on this norm; where in a good spread of marks is expected so that selection and classification of students can be done.

            The aim of norm referenced testing is to rank the students in class rather than assess their attainment of special curriculum objectives. In norm referenced measurement, a particular students achievement is evaluated n terms of the comparison between his performance and performance of other members of the group. It hardly gives any information regarding the attainment of objectives by the individual learner.

Eg. PSC test

Criterion referenced test

            In criterion referenced test, the performance of student is described in behavioural terms without any reference to the marks obtained by other students in the group. Since a criterion or standard rather than a relative position in a normal group is used for describing test performance, such interpretation are called criterion referenced.

            In the context of mastery learning, the method of measurement is known as criterion referenced test was emerged. This type of testing emphasises that teachers should interpret the test results not a comparison t the performance of the group, but in relation to a specific performance criterion.

Eg. NET exam, Bank Test

Objective Based Evaluation

            Evaluation based on pre-determined objectives are called objective based evaluation. Objective based evaluation is designed to help teachers organise their curriculum and to present  reading to pupil in small logically sequenced increments. Objectives of teaching constitute the pivot of any teaching procedure. Objectives tell us what the pupil is expected to do that is the nature of learning experience are determined by the objective under discussion. Hence learning experiences are objective based. So developing learning experience is the second stage in the process of teaching learning. Objectives, learning experiences and evaluation are interrelated to each other.

Objective based evaluation is based upon clearly defined objectives like knowledge, understanding, application and the like.

Competency Based Evaluation

            Competency based evaluation focuses on outcomes of learning. CBE addresses what the learners are expected to do rather than on what they are expected to learn about. CBE emerged in US  in 1970’s and refer to an educational movement and advocates defining educational goals in terms of precise measurable description of knowledge, skills, behaviours which students should possess at the end of the course of a study.

            Competency based evaluation procedure is specifically constructed to check the proficiency of an individual in performing a skill in different situations.