ESSAY TEST

ESSAY TEST

Concept of essay test

          The word essay has been derived from a French word ‘essayer’ which means ‘to try’ or ‘to attempt’.

Definition:

          “Essay test is a test that requires the student to structure a rather long written response up to several paragraphs.”

-William weirsama

I.e. the essay test refers to any written test that requires the examinee to write a sentence, a paragraph or longer passages.”

Characteristics of essay test:

1.       The length of the required responses varies with reference to marks and time

For e.g.: Bed papers where there are 10marks, 5marks and 3 marks questions so the length of the answers varies accordingly.

For 10marks, it needs to be completed within 15-20min for each 3marks; 5min is maximum so accordingly the length of answers varies with reference to time.

2.     It demands a subjective judgment:

Judgment means making judgment or assessing whereas subjective means not fair enough i.e. it differs from person to person

For e.g. criteria of writing the statement of specification. In that, we are supposed to give each criterion along with the examples. Some may write only criteria and others may write criteria along with the examples, accordingly the marks or grades are given depending on the degree of quality, correctness and completeness of the answers.

3.     Most familiar and widely used:

Essay has become a major part of a formal education. Secondary students are taught structured essays format to improve their writing skills. Magazines or newspapers essays use many of the same type of essays as like academic essays. Even employment essays detailing our experience in a certain occupational fields are required when applying for some jobs, especially government jobs. So it is most familiar and most widely used.

Essay is of two types:

1.       Restricted response questions:

The restricted response question usually limits both the content and the response the content is usually restricted by the scope of the topic to be discussed limitations on the form of response are generally indicated in the question another way of restricting responses in essay tests is to base the questions on specific problems. For this purpose, introductory material like that used in interpretive exercises can be presented. Such items differ from objective interpretive exercise only by the fact that essay questions are used instead of multiple choice or true or false items. Because the restricted response question is more structured it is most useful for measuring learning outcomes requiring the interpretation and application of date in a specific area.

For e.g.

1.       Write the life sketch of mahatma Gandhi in 100 words?

2.     State any five definition of education?

2.     Extended response questions:

No restriction is placed in students as to the points he will discuss and the type of organization he will use.

Teachers in such a way so as to give students the maximum possible freedom to determine the nature and scope of question and in a way he would give response of course being related topic and in stipulated time frame these types of questions.

The student may be select the points he thinks are most important, pertinent and relevant to his points and arrangement and organize the answers in whichever way he wishes. So they are also called free response questions.

This enables the teacher to judge the student’s abilities to organize, integrate, interpret the material and express themselves in their own words.

It also gives an opportunity to comment or look into students’ progress, quality of their thinking, the depth of their understanding problem solving skills and the difficulties they may be having. These skills interact with each other with the knowledge and understanding the problem requires.

Thus it is at the levels of synthesis and evaluation of writing skills that this type of questions makes the greatest contribution.

E.g.: 1. Describe at length the defects of the present day examination system in the state of Maharashtra. Suggest ways and means of improving the examination system. 2. Describe the character of hamlet. 3. Global warming is the next step to disaster. Explain

Merits of essay writing:

1. It is relatively easier to prepare and administer a six-question extended response essay test than to prepare and administer a comparable 60 item multiple choice test items.

2.     It is the only means that can assess an examinee’s ability to organize and present his ideas in a logical and coherent fashion and in effective prose.

3.     It can be successfully employed for practically all school subjects.

4.     Some of the objectives – such as ability to organize idea effectively ability to criticize or justify a statement, ability to criticize or justify a statement, ability to interpret etc. can be measured by this type of test.

5.     Logical thinking and critical reasoning, systematic presentation etc. can be best developed by this type of test.

6.     Its helps induce good study habits such as making outlines and summaries, organizing the arguments for and against, etc.

7.     The student can show their initiative, the originality of their thought and the fertility of their imagination, as they are permitted freedom of response.

8.     The response of the students need not be completely right or wrong. All degrees of comprehensiveness and accuracy are possible.

9.     It largely eliminates guessing.

Demerits of essay writing:

          Every coin has 2 sides same ways in essay test if there are merits than demerits are also there so we will see demerits of essay test writing.

1.       Limited sampling of the content: -

It means few questions can be included in given test. Example if in one particular book 18 chapter are given, teacher cannot ask question from all the chapters. They have to neglect some areas.

2.     Subjectivity of scoring:

If all students are writing same answer of one question, why they get different marks? In essay test answer of question are scored differently by different teacher. Even the same teacher scores the answer differently at different times.

3.     Halo effects:

It means teacher knows the particular student very well and has good impression because of his previous paper and writing skills.

4.     Mood of the examiner:

The general feeling of all students after writing your S.S.C board paper what you had discussed with your fried. I hope the teacher who is checking my paper has not quarreled with some”

5.     Ambiguous wording of the question:

Sometime essay questions are so worded that students do not know the exact implications of the questions.

6.     Examiner contaminated by various factors:

The examiner is contaminated by various factors like hand writing, spelling, grammar etc some students who has good verbal knowledge may write many things on an essay topic.

7.     It requires an excessive time on the part of students to write while assessing reading essays is very time-consuming and laborious.

8.     Only a teacher or competent professionals can assess it.

9.     The speed of writing can influence the performance of the learner. This results in low scores even if the learner may know the correct answer of all questions.

10.  It may not provide a true picture of the comprehension level of the leaner. Grammars may get good marks.

Suggestions for improving essay questions:

1.       Restrict the use of essay questions to those learning outcomes that cannot be satisfactorily measured by objective items. Such functions as ability to organize’ to express, to interpret and to elicit understanding may be tested through essay questions.

2.     Do not start the essay questions with words such as what, who, when, enumerate etc. in general start with compare, contrast, discuss, explain etc.

Wrong:  What are Thorndike’s laws of learning?

Correct explain how Thorndike’s law of learning can be applied to classroom    situation

3.     Write the essay question in such a way that the task is clearly and unambiguously defined for each examinee.

  Wrong: compare the essay examination with the objective type of examination.

This question is so general and comprehensive that different student will emphasize different aspects while the examiner may altogether have different view.

Correct: compare the essay examination with the objective type of examination w.r.t (a) learning outcomes to be measured (b) framing the question (c) scoring (d) influence of extraneous factors.

4.     Directions for the test should be explicitly written.

For example, (a) each question carries 20 marks (b) Marks will be deducted for spelling mistakes.

5.     Avoid the use of optional questions. A fairly common practice in the use of essay questions is to provide pupils with more questions than they are expected to answer. When pupils answer different questions, it is obvious they are taking different test and the common basis for evaluating their achievement is lost.

6.     Students are found to be misinformed about the meaning of important terms used in essay questions. For example: students frequently discuss or describe when asked to define. A solution would be to supply the necessary training to the students in writing essay questions.

7.     Allow liberal time limit so that the essay test will not be a test of speed of writing. While setting up the question paper s that it can be answered in the allotted time, leaving some time for reading the question, drawing up an outline of the answers and finally for revision.

8.     We have seen that the essay examination suffers from lack of adequate sampling. This defect can to some extent be overcome by increasing the number of questions any limiting the length of their answers. A question paper with 10 questions would represent a better sample than one with 5 questions only.

9.     One of the favourite questions of examiners is :

for example: write short notes on: 1. Social education. 2. Homework.

          This type of question is worse than the one mentioned in above. The student dos not know the limits and he goes on writing pages after pages. The better way to write is e.g. write short notes on (a) objectives of social education (b) misuse of homework.

Suggestions for scoring the essay examination

1.       Prepare on outline of the expected answers in advance, showing what points are required and the credits to be allowed for each. This will provide a common frame of reference for evaluating the individual papers

2.     Decide in advance that factors are to be measured. If the ability to organize, to interpret or to apply the principles is to be assessed, the examiner should not allow him to be biased by bad handwriting, spelling, sentence structure or neatness. The ability to write, to spell or to use correct English can be assessed through other suitable tests

3.     Examination should be scored as far as possible by the one who frames the questions. He is the person who can give a clear picture of the expected responses whenever more than one examiner is involved; they should be brought together to develop a uniform scoring procedure. Model answers and marking schemes may be discussed and finalized in this meeting

4.     Grade the paper as nearly anonymously as possible, the less you know about who wrote an answer, the more objectively you can grade papers before considering another question. This type of scoring permits the examiner to concentrate on the answer to a single question and judge better the merits of the several pupil responses to the same question.

5.     Score one question through all of the papers before considering another question. This type of scoring permits the examiner to concentrate on the answer to a single question and to judge better the merits of several pupils responses to the same question.

6.     When important decisions such as selection for awards or scholarships are to be based on the results, obtain two or more independent rating and average them.

7.     The mechanics of expression (legibility, spelling, punctuation, grammar) should be judged separately from what the student writes i.e. the subject matter content. Provide comments and correct answers in the answer book. This will explain the teacher’s, method of assigning a particular score or grade to particular paper.

Concept of Evaluation

EVALUATION

Definition :

1)      Evaluation is an act or a process that allows one to make a judgment about the desirability or value of a measure.

1)       Evaluation is a process of delineating, obtaining and providing useful information for judging decision alternatives.

The word evaluation refers to the act or process of determining the value of something.

Example :

1)      A teacher measures Rahul’s height to be 125 cm. She evaluates his height when she says that he is short.

2)       A teacher measures Hemlata’s achievement in History to be 56%. She evaluates her achievement in History when she says that Hemlata’s performance is satisfactory.

3)      Bharat and Mohan study in the same class. Bharat gets 85 marks in Geography while Mohan gets only 35.  After getting these measurements, their parents evaluate their achievement in geography when the say that, comparatively, Bharat’s progress is better.

Mathematically, it may be said that:

Evaluation :

= Quantitative description of pupils’ achievements.

+  Qualitative description of pupils’ abilities.

+  Value judgments about achievements and abilities.

Functions of Evaluation :

1) Diagnosis:

(a)   To locate and identify the weaknesses and strength in learning on the part of a learner.

(b)   To pinpoint areas where remedial measures may be desirable.

2) Modification:

  To provide a basis for a modification of the curriculum, syllabus or courses.

3) Prediction:

 To bring out the inherent capabilities of a student, such as proper attitudes,  habits, manipulative skills, appreciation and understanding in addition to conventional acquisition of knowledge.

4) Selection:

To select suitable persons ofr a particular course or career.

5) Motivation:

To motivate pupils towards better attainment and growth.

6) Teaching :

a)      To improve instruction.

b)      To ascertain how far could learning objective be achieved;

c)      To provide the empirical evidences about the effectiveness of teaching strategies, tactics and aids.

7) Guidance :

a)      To assist a person in decision making about a course or subjects within a course and careers;

b)      To enable a learner to know his pace of learning;

c)      To make provision for guiding the growth of individual pupils;

d)      To provide a basis for the introduction of experiences to meet the needs of individuals and groups of pupils.

8) Testing:

a)      To test the efficiency of teachers in providing learning experience and the effectiveness of instruction and of classroom activates;

b)      To help in developing a comprehensive criterion test.

9) Grading:

To assign rank or grade to the learners of a give group. ( Example : The unit test)

10) Feedback:

To give reinforcement and feedback to teachers and learners.

Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains The Three Types of Learning

 Source: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html
There is more than one type of learning. A committee of colleges, led by Benjamin Bloom (1956), identified three domains of educational activities:

• Cognitive: mental skills (Knowledge)
• Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (Attitude)
• Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (Skills)

Since the work was produced by higher education, the words tend to be a little bigger than we normally use. Domains can be thought of as categories. Trainers often refer to these three categories as KSA (Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude). This taxonomy of learning behaviors can be thought of as “the goals of the learning process.” That is, after a learning episode, the learner should have acquired new skills, knowledge, and/or attitudes.
The committee also produced an elaborate compilation for the cognitive and affective domains, but none for the psychomotor domain. Their explanation for this oversight was that they have little experience in teaching manual skills within the college level (I guess they never thought to check with their sports or drama department).
This compilation divides the three domains into subdivisions, starting from the simplest behavior to the most complex. The divisions outlined are not absolutes and there are other systems or hierarchies that have been devised in the educational and training world. However, Bloom's taxonomy is easily understood and is probably the most widely applied one in use today.