Thinking activity: Testing and Evaluation

Hello Readers!

Welcome to my blog,

This task was given by Dr. Dilip Barad sir head of department of English M.K Bhavnagar university.

questions:-

1. Write on validity and reliability of the test 

2. Write on practicality of the test

3. What do you understand by backwash ?

4. Difference between assessment and evaluation

5. How do you define good assessment?

 1) write on validity and reliability of the test 

Reliability

Reliability is the extent to which measurements are repeatable –when different persons perform the measurements, on different occasions, under different conditions, with supposedly alternative instruments which measure the same thing. In sum, reliability is consistency of measurement or stability of measurement over a variety of conditions in which basically the same results should be obtained.

Methods of testing reliability 

Because reliability is consistency of measurement over time or stability of measurement over a variety of conditions, the most commonly used technique to estimate reliability is with a measure of association, the correlation coefficient, often termed reliability. The reliability coefficient is the correlation between two or more variables (here, tests, items, or raters) which measure the same thing. 

1.Test-retest reliability

Test-retest reliability refers to the temporal stability of a test from one measurement session to another. The procedure is to administer the test to a group of respondents and then administer the same test to the same respondents at a later date. The correlation between scores on the identical tests given at different times operationally defines its test-retest reliability.

2. Alternative forms reliability

The alternative forms technique to estimate reliability is similar to the test retest method, except that different measures of a behaviour (rather than the same measure) are collected at different times. If the correlation between the alternative forms is low, it could indicate that considerable measurement error is present, because two different scales were used. 

3. Split-half method

The split-half approach is another method to test reliability which assumes that a number of items are available to measure a behavior. Half of the items are combined to form one new measure and the other half is combined to form the second new measure. The result is two tests and two new measures testing the same behavior. In contrast to the test-retest and alternative form methods, the split-half approach is usually measured in the same time period. The correlation between the two halves tests must be corrected to obtain the reliability coefficient for the whole test.

4. Inter-rater reliability

When raters or judges are used to measure behavior, the reliability of their judgments or combined internal consistency of judgments is assessed. 

The correlation between the ratings made by the two judges will tell us the reliability of either judge in the specific situation. The composite reliability of both judges, referred to as effective reliability, is calculated using the Spearman-Brown formula.

5. Internal consistency

Internal consistency concerns the reliability of the test components. Internal consistency measures consistency within the instrument and questions how well a set of items measures a particular behaviour or characteristic within the test. For a test to be internally consistent, estimates that reliability are based on the average intercorrelations among all the single items within a test. 

How to make a test more reliable? 

Writing items clearly

Making test instructions easily understood

Training the raters effectively by making the rules for scoring as explicit as possible.

Identifying Candidates by number Instead of names so that scores cannot inevitably award scores to those whom he/she knows

By not allowing the candidate too much freedom 

Factors affecting reliability of a test

1. Test length. Generally, the longer a test is, the more reliable it is.

2. Speed. When a test is a speed test, reliability can be problematic. It is inappropriate to estimate reliability using internal consistency, test-retest, or alternate form methods.

3. Group homogeneity. In general, the more heterogeneous the group of students who take the test, the more reliable the measure will be.

4. Item difficulty. When there is little variability among test scores, the reliability will be low. Thus, reliability will be low if a test is so easy that every student gets most or all of the items correct or so difficult that every student gets most or all of the items wrong.

5. Objectivity. Objectively scored tests, rather than subjectively scored tests, show a higher reliability.

6. Test-retest interval. The shorter the time interval between two administrations of a test, the less likely that changes will occur and the higher the reliability will be.

Variation with the testing situation. Errors in the testing situation (e.g., students misunderstanding or misreading test directions, noise level, distractions, and sickness) can cause test scores to vary.

Validity 

The term validity refers to whether or not the test measures what it claims to measure. On a test with high validity the items will be closely linked to the test's intended focus. For many certification and licensure tests this means that the items will be highly related to a specific job or occupation. If a test has poor validity then it does not measure the job-related content and competencies it ought to. When this is the case, there is no justification for using the test results for their intended purpose.

There are nine types of validity that researchers should consider, it includes the following;

Statistical conclusion validity 

Statistical conclusion validity pertains to the relationship being tested. Statistical conclusion validity refers to inferences about whether it is reasonable to presume co-variation given a specified alpha level and the obtained variances. There are some major threats to statistical conclusion validity such as low statistical power, violation of assumptions, reliability of measures, reliability of treatment, random irrelevancies in the experimental setting, and random heterogeneity of respondents.

Construct validity  

Construct validity refers to how well you translated or transformed a concept, idea, or behaviour that is a construct – into a functioning and operating reality, that is, the operationalization.

Translation Validity 

Translation validity centers on whether the operationalization reflects the true meaning of the construct. Translation validity attempts to assess the degree to which constructs are accurately translated into the operationalization, using subjective judgment. 

Face Validity

Face validity is a subjective judgment on the operationalization of a construct. For instance, one might look at a measure of reading ability, read through the paragraphs, and decide that it seems like a good measure of reading ability. Even though subjective judgment is needed throughout the research process, the aforementioned method of validation is not very convincing to others as a valid judgment. As a result, face validity is often seen as a weak form of validity.

Content validity

Content validity is a qualitative type of validity where the domain of the concept is made clear and the analyst judges whether the measures fully represent the domain. According to Bollen, for most concepts in the social sciences, no consensus exists on theoretical definitions, because the domain of content is ambiguous. 

Relationship between validity and reliability of a test

If a test is unreliable, it cannot be valid

For a test to be valid, it must be reliable

However, just because a test is reliable does not mean it would be valid

Reliability is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for validity

2)  Write on practicality of the test

An effective test is practical. This means that it

Is not excessively expensive,

Stays within appropriate time constraints,

Is relatively easy to administer, and

Has a scoring/evaluation procedure that is specific and time-efficient.

A test that is prohibitively expensive is impractical. A test of language proficiency that takes a student five hours to complete is impractical-it consumes more time (and money) than necessary to accomplish its objective. A test that requires individual one-on-one proctoring is impractical for a group of several hundred test-takers and only a handful of examiners. A test that takes a few minutes for a student to take and several hours for an examiner too evaluate is impractical for most classroom situations.

3)What do you understand by backwash ?

a backward flow or movement (as of water or air) produced especially by a propelling force also : the fluid that is moving backward.

In terms of water treatment, including water purification and sewage treatment, backwashing refers to pumping water backwards through the filters media, sometimes including intermittent use of compressed air during the process. 

4)Difference between assessment and evaluation

Assessment:-

For assuring quality and drawing out clear strategies for optimising education, we need to have a summative overview of all the key elements involved. This includes making things clear about how we should assess and evaluate the teaching-learning and student performances. In this blog, we intend to put the terms ‘assessment’ and ‘evaluation’ under the microscope, and see how we should assess the learning for efficient and optimised educational workflow.

Assessment is continuous, long term, and feedback-based. It revolves around clearly defined goals or outcomes, and whether the student achieves those goals or not. On the other hand, an evaluation is the act of critical interpretation of the learners’ work and providing marks/grades for that.

Assessments:-

Let’s begin by looking at some common misconceptions about learning assessments.

Evaluation:-

Evaluation is judgemental and is highly result oriented. It ‘measures’ quality and integrity of the work rather than improving it. The teacher has to take the evaluation data to form their strategy to improve the student performance. Evaluation also let us know the shortfalls of the course plan, where the student failed to perform well, and it’s mostly done against pre-set standards.

Under our current circumstances, evaluation is usually done with exams, projects, classroom interactions, and proficiency in skills. To definitively explain, we’ll break down the evaluation process into three main categories.

5)How do you define good assessment?

Several attempts to define good assessment have been made. There is a general agreement that good assessment (especially summative) should be:

Valid: measures what it is supposed to measure, at the appropriate level, in the appropriate domains (constructive alignment).

Fair: is non-discriminatory and matches expectations.

Transparent: processes and documentation, including assessment briefing and marking criteria, are clear.

Reliable: assessment is accurate, consistent and repeatable.

Feasible: assessment is practicable in terms of time, resources and student numbers.

Educational impact: assessment results in learning what is important and is authentic and worthwhile.

Hence it puts emphasis on being assessed on real life skills through real life tasks that will be or could be performed by students once they leave university. Some examples of how this can be achieved in practical terms can be found in Assessment methods.

Assessment principles

The good assessment principles below were created as part of the REAP Reenginering Assessment Practices Project which looked into re-evaluating and reforming assessment and feedback practice. This set of principles in particular is referred to here as it serves as the basis for many assessment strategies across UK HE institutions. For each of the principles a number of practical strategies are provided which give a more pragmatic indication of how to put them in practice.

Thank you…...

Thinking activity: teaching language through literature

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welcome to my blog!

1) what sort of activities or tasks can be designed to teach language using a 'novel' or a 'short story'.

A short story is basically shorter than a novel. Novel is a complete book covering a single story or fiction.

When selecting a novel to be used in the foreign language class, the language teacher should pay attention to whether the novel has an intriguing story that will be of interest to the entire class. 

Themes and settings captivating their imagination and exploring the human condition should be included in the nature of the selected novels. Novel should have a powerful, fast-paced plot and interesting, well delineated, memorable characters. The content of the novel should be suitable to students' cognitive and emotional levels. Specific themes and concepts being developed in class should also be incorporated within the novel. When assessing comprehension, teachers may employ novel tests requiring students to develop the sub-skills of written language like spelling, handwriting, grammar, and punctuation. Essay type tests written by teachers help students to gradually improve their skills in writing and organizing material into paragraphs with acceptable sentence structure. The tests are made up of not only fact-based questions serving as a basis of evaluating comprehension but also open-ended questions developing critical thinking abilities. The open-ended questions enable students to predict outcomes, make comparisons and contrasts, and draw conclusions. Class discussions of each novel event should comprise the main idea and supporting details, including who, what, when, where, and how. Details of various social issues such as sexual harassment and abortion, which are often an integral part of the plot, can provoke interesting debate. Discussions can also facilitate vocabulary development .

In sum, the use of novel is a very beneficial technique in today’s foreign language classes. If selected carefully, using a novel makes the students’ reading lesson motivating, interesting and entertaining. Though many students find reading a novel written in a target language difficult, boring, unmotivating, novel is a very effective way of building vocabulary and developing reading comprehension skills. It is through reading that students broaden their horizons, become familiar with other cultures, and hence develop their intercultural communicative competence, learning how to view the world from different perspectives. The result will be the possession of critical thinking and writing.

Short fiction is a supreme resource for observing not only language but life itself. In short fiction, characters act out all the real and symbolic acts people carry out in daily lives, and do so in a variety of registers and tones. The world of short fiction both mirrors and illuminates human lives . The inclusion of short fiction in the ESL / EFL curriculum offers the following educational benefits makes the students’ reading task easier due to being simple and short when compared with the other literary genres. enlarges the advanced level readers’ worldviews about different cultures and different groups of people, provides more creative, encrypt, challenging texts that require personal exploration supported with prior knowledge for advanced level readers, motivates learners to read due to being an authentic material,offers a world of wonders and a world of mystery,gives students the chance to use their creativity,promotes critical thinking skills,facilitates teaching a foreign culture (i.e. serves as a valuable instrument in attaining cultural knowledge of the selected community,makes students feel themselves comfortable and free,helps students coming from various backgrounds communicate with each of the because of its universal language, helps students to go beyond the surface meaning and dive into underlying meanings, acts as a perfect vehicle to help students understand the positions ofthemselves as well as the others by transfering these gained knowledge to their own world.

In brief, the use of a short story seems to be a very helpful technique in today’s foreign language classes. As it is short, it makes the students’ reading task and the teacher’s coverage easier. An important feature of short fiction is its being universal. To put it differently, students all over the world have experienced stories and can relate to them. Moreover, short fiction, like all other types of literature, makes contribution to the development of cognitive analytical abilities by bringing the whole self to bear on a compressed account of a situation in a single place and moment .

2) what sort of activities or tasks can be designed to teach language using a 'poem'.

Poetry can pave the way for the learning and teaching of basic language skills. It is metaphor that is the most prominent connection between learning and poetry. Because most poetry consciously or unconsciously makes use of metaphor as one of its primary methods, poetry offers a significant learning process. There are at least two learning benefits that can be derived from studying poetry: The appreciation of the writer’s composition process, which students gain by studying poems by components.

 Developing sensitivity for words and discoveries that may later grow into a deeper interest and greater analytical ability. Sarac (2003) also explains the educational benefits of poetry as follows: It ‘s provides readers with a different viewpoint towards language use by going beyond the known usages and rules of grammar, syntax and vocabulary.

 It triggers unmotivated readers owing to being so open to explorations and differenti interpretations It evokes feelings and thoughts in heart and in mind.It makes students familiar with figures of speech due to their being a part of daily language use.As Cubukcu (2001) mentions, poetry is a rewarding and enjoyable experience with the properties of rhyming and rhythm both of which convey “love and appreciation for the sound and power of language.” At this juncture, it can be stated that students become familiar with the suprasegmental aspects of the target language, such as stress, pitch, juncture, intonation by studying poetry. Moreover, poetry employs language to evoke and exalt special qualities of life, and suffices readers with feelings. It is particularly lyric poetry which is based on feelings and provides still another emotional benefit. Poetry is one of the most effective and powerful transmitters of culture. 

Thinking activity : On @ tcc

 

Hello Readers,

Welcome to my blog!

About Chetan Bhagat:-

Chetan Bhagat is an Indian author and columnist. He was included in Time magazine's list of World's 100 Most Influential People in 2010. Bhagat graduated in mechanical engineering at IIT Delhi and completed a master's of business administration degree at IIM Ahmedabad.

One Night @ the Call Center:-

One Night @ the Call Center is a novel written by Chetan Bhagat and first published in 2005. The novel revolves around a group of six call center employees working at the Connexions call center in Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

One Night @ the call center example:-

First definition of the of the Self-help book:     

                                             

A book is one that is written with the intention to instruct its readers on solving personal problems. The books take their name from Self-Help, an 1859 best-seller by Samuel Smiles, but are also known and classified under "self-improvement", a term that is a modernized version of self-help. Self-help books moved from a niche position to being a postmodern cultural phenomenon in the late twentieth century.”

                We can say that self-help books  mean books that represent the reality of the time. Self-help books show the real image of the society and we also learn in the self-help book. With the help of self-help books readers solve their problems and also improve themselves. Self-help books present modern culture.

Some Famous examples of the self-help book:

                        Some social observers have suggested that the ‘Bible’ is really the first and most significant and most helpful self-help book.

Ø  Act Like a Lady, Think like a Man. –by Steve Harvey.

Here we see that Chetan Bhagat gives one small exercise, in this exercise he asks some questions, and those three questions about our personal thing. All three questions about our own self. He asks like our fear, when we are angry and do not like ourselves. So these all things present that Chetan Bhagat saw that our self.

                        Also in Chetan Bhagat all books we see the Prologue and Epilogue. In One Night @ the Call Center in epilogue we see one line like:

               “It is true thought; we all have a dark side – something we don’t like about ourselves, Something that makes us angry and something we want to change about ourselves. The difference is how we choose to face it. Here Chetan Bhagat connects to us with all characters, and says that how we handle this type of situation in our life, that depends on ourselves.   

                        One more thing in One Night @ the Call center that is God episode means when all characters in one problem that time God call them. God calls them is also the turning point of the story. God calls them and that time they ask God how our life changes and what we do. That time god gives them answer like this:

            ‘The inner call,’ God said.  

‘The inner call’? Everyone said in unison.

    Yes, the little voice inside that wants to talk to you.

            Here we see that Chetan Bhagat tries to say that how we solve our problem with only ourselves. In the book ahead we read the conversation of god and all characters and we find that everyone knows how they solve their problem. But no one knew that, because they all never listened to their inner voice.

        Episode of god that saw that we need only know about ourselves. Not ignore our inner voice. Whenever we all have some problem that time we try to listen to ourselves, what we want? And how we choose the right way. In the end we see that all characters find their solution because now they all know how to face the problem and choose the right way of our life.

       We also need to listen to our inner voice and face the problem and then get a solution to the problem.

#Globalization and 'one night @ the call center

~What is Globalization?

"Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology."

#The title it is deep symbol of Globalization:-

Chetan Bhagat is such a potential novelist who considers it his responsibility to appeal the young generation in India by writing a novel based on the call center, which is a gift of globalization. Although call center is considered as a boon for India which is facing the problem of unemployment.

~ Highlights the influence of call center, which is a child of globalization, on the personal, social,more, intellectual and cultural relations of the call center employes.

# Globalization in " one night @ The call center"

• Cultural Homogenisation of workers in call center

• Exploitation of employees

• English language issues

• Growing awareness to the technology

• Men and women are equal consumerism

• Rising anxieties, fears and stress

# Effect of globalization

One of the bright sides of globalization is that Indian youth are getting good job opportunities  in companies like Microsoft cannot think about their business without taking into consideration the Indian software engineers.  Today women are not emancipated to show their potentiality. They have various paths open for their career.

~ Think about the number individuals who sacrifice their creativity and skills and join call center.

~ Chatan Bhagat is not against the call centers. He realizes that these call centers. He realizes that these call centers are heaven for underperformers or for those who need money for their education.

~ working during day and night.

~Use and through culture

# Conclusion

Globalization spread everywhere.we never escape from impact of Globalization. Even in literature there is effect of globalization,specially in modern and new literature.