Semester II Unit V Assessments for mathematics learning

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SEMESTER II

EDU.09.10 PEDAGOGIC PRACTICES IN MATHEMATICS

UNIT V: ASSESSMENT FOR MATHEMATICS LEARNING

v Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE)

 

CCE refers to a system of school based evaluation of students that covers all aspects of student’s developments. It is a developmental process of assessment which emphasis on to fold objectives. These objectives are continuity in evaluation and assessment of broad based learning and behavioral outcomes on the other. In this scheme, the continuous is meant to emphasize that evaluation of identified aspects of students growth and development is continuous process rather than an event built into the total session. It means regularity of assessment, frequency of unit testing, diagnosis of learning gaps, use of corrective measures, resting and for their self evaluation. The second term, comprehensive means that the scheme attempts to cover both the scholastic and co-scholastic aspects of student’s growth and development.

v  Objectives of CCE

v  To help to develop cognitive, psychomotor affective skills.

v  To lay emphasis on thought process and de-emphasis memorization.

v  To make evaluation an integral part of teaching learning process.

v  To use evaluation for improvement od students achievement and teaching-learning strategies on the basis of regular diagnosis followed by remedial instruction.

v  To use evaluation as a quality control device to maintain desired standard of performance.

v  To determine social utility, desirability or effectiveness of a programme and take appropriate decisions about the learner, the process of learning and the learning environment.

v  To make the process of teaching and learning a learner –centered activity.

v  Features of CCE

v  CCE refers to a system of school based evaluation of students development .

v  The continuous aspect of CCE takes care for “continual” & “ periodicity” of evaluation.

v  Continual means assessment of student during the instructional process .( Formative evaluation done informally using multiple techniques of evaluation)

v  Periodicity means assessment of performance done frequently at the end of unit/term (summative) using criterion- reference tests & employing multiple techniques of evaluation.

v  The comprehensive component of CCE takes care of assessment of alround development of the child’s personality. It includes assessment in scholastic as well as scholastic aspects of the pupils growth.

v  Scholastic aspects include curricular areas or subject specific areas, where as co-scholastic aspects include co-curricular and personal social qualities, interest, attitudes and values.

v  Assessment in scholastic areas is done informally and formally using multiple techniques of evaluation continuously and periodically. The diagnostic evaluation takes place at the end of unit /term test. The causes of poor performance in some units are diagnosed using diagnostic test. These are purposefully remediated by giving interventions followed by retesting.

v  Assessment in co-scholastic areas is done using multiple techniques on the basis of identified criteria, while assessment in social personal qualities is done using behaviour indicators for various interests, values, attitudes etc..

The modern concept of CCE represented as

CCE

Scholastic Achievement

Project

Assignment

Practical/ Seminar

Records/collections

class tests

term end evaluation

Co-Scholastic Achievement

Work experience

Art

Health and physical education

Personal & Social awareness

Communication skill

Character &conduct

Regularity

Group working skill

Leadership quality

School club activities

Difference between Conventional assessment system and CCE

Conventional Assessment	CCE
Assessment on a quarterly, half yearly &annual basis	Continuous & periodic
Scholastic ability based	Scholastic &no scholastic abilities
Limited tools of assessment	Multiple tools
Marks allotted	Grades awarded
Stressful for students	Non-stressful
Assessment of what has been achieved over a period of time	Assessment of an ongoing process of growth (includes summative but it largely formative)
Assessment as an end in itself	Assessment used to both improve one’s teaching & enhance support given to students.
Skewed development of scholastic abilities, limited to rote memorizing	Overall growth &personality development

 

Merits of CCE

• Ø  CCE helps in improving students performance by identifying his/her learning difficulties at regular time intervals right from the beginning of the academic session and employing suitable remedial measures for enhancing their learning performance.
• Ø  It encourages the students in forming good study habits
• Ø  The CCE focuses on holistic education which aims to develop various aspects of a student’s personality which ultimately helps them identify what they are better at and stronger at in terms of academics.

Ø  CCE helps in reducing stress of students by:

-       Identifying learning process of students at regular time intervals on small portions of content.

-          Encouraging learning through employment of a variety of teaching aids and techniques

-          Involving learners actively in the learning process.

-          Recognizing and encouraging specific abilities of students , who do excel in academics but perform well in other co-curricular areas.

Ø  CCE helps the teacher

-          To identify learning difficulties in mastering certain competencies and the intensity of such learning difficulties.

-          To improve students’ learning through diagnosis of their performance.

-          To plan appropriate remedial measures to enable the students who have learning difficulties in mastering the competency

-          To improve or after instructional strategies to enhance the quality of teaching

-          To decide upon the selecting of various media &materials as a supportive system in mastering the competencies.

-          To strengthen evaluation procedure itself.

Demerits of CCE

• Ø  Grading system: A downside of the CCE is the grading system .this is because the bracket is very wide. Eg. Students that score between 90 and 100 will get an A+ grade. However a student that scores 8 more points than someone else doesn’t receive a better grade may seen unfair
• Ø  Time consuming
• Ø  Increases the work load of teachers as well as students. Apart from studying for examination, excessive amount of time are spent for conducting separate projects, participating in external activities extra assignments etc..
• Ø  Bad things like bribery may increase in numbers and intensity.
• Ø  It’s difficult to execute CCE in large classes as the teachers are not able to give individual attention in such classes.
• Ø  Lack of trained teachers
• Ø  There is a tendency among students to make presentation & preparation

Problems associated with CCE

    Singhal p(2012) conducted a study entitles “ Continuous  and Comprehensive Evaluation – A study of Teachers perception”. The results of the study revealed that the teachers faced the following problems while executing CCE at school level.

        i.          -   Large number of students in classes – the teachers find it difficult execute CCE in large classes as they are not able to give individual attention in such classes.

      ii.          -   Lack of appropriate training – Other constrain for the smooth execution of CCE  lack of appropriate training among the school teachers.

    iii.        -     Lack of seriousness amongst the students – Students  lacks seriousness regarding CCE as they were aware of the fact that they will pass without making through efforts in academics

    iv.         -   Financial constraints – Likewise many teachers stated that CCE was time consuming and there were many financial constraints associated with it that does not suit the pocket of every student.

      v.       -    Increased volume of work – Teachers was over burdened with the increased volume of work that affected their teaching effectiveness in the classrooms.

v Formal and Informal tools/Techniques for  evaluating  mathematics learning

Formal evaluation is systematic, preplanned test that measure how well a student has reached the learning outcomes. A formal assessment is given a numerical score or grade based on student performance or final score. it will certify if the learners have attained the learning targets or if they can demonstrate the expected behaviors or outputs as stated in the objective. It will show evidence what the learners know, doesn’t know, can do and can’t do after all the series of activities conducted in class for them to be ready for the assessment time. Major Formal tools and techniques are: Achievement test, Diagnostic test, Observation, Rating scale, Checklist etc.

Informal evaluation helps the teacher to determine whether students learn the content taught in the class so that the teaching learning process can be made accordingly. It is very useful for diagnosis student’s specific problem areas and adapting appropriate intervention strategies at an early stage itself. The informal techniques allow the teacher to evaluate student progress regularly. Major informal techniques and tools are Anecdotal Records, Application cards, blogs, Chain notes, Brain storming, checklist, ratting scale, debates directed paraphrasing, Exit cards, Follow up questioning , Gallery walk, Graphic organizers, Guided reciprocal peer questioning, Hand signals, Reflective journals, Learning logs, Minute paper, Muddiest point, Pair check, Performance stars, RSQC2( recall, summarize, question, comment and connect), Rubrics, Short quizzes, Student generated questions etc. These are used only for formative evaluation and self evaluation.

v Formal : Achievement test, Diagnostic test , Observation,  Rating scale, Checklist

Observation: it is the process of observing and recording an individual’s behavior. Observation is a fundamental medium for obtaining information that cannot be acquired in any other ways. There are so many devices to record observation so that, the events observed can be preserved as a relatively permanent account of the occurrences. Mainly there are two types of observation-participant observation (the observer becomes a member of the group which is under observation) and non-participant observation (observer being an outsider of the group).

Checklist: A checklist is a simple instrument consisting preparedlist of expected items of performance or attributes, which are checked by a researcher for their presence or absence. A checklist is a set of phrase or statements that describes either the essential steps in a procedure or the most important elements of a product or any trait. The evaluator using a checklist will check the presence or absence of each step or element or trait.

          Checklist can also be considered as two dimensional charts in which the traits or behaviors measured are noted in one dimension and the name of the students as the other. Observations are made by the teacher with predetermined objectives both without and outside the classroom. The result of this observation is recorded by checking (using some symbols such as tick mark) against each of the behaviour noted in the case of a particular student. The cumulative result of a number of such observations, if possible by a number of teachers, will be used to evaluate that particular trait of the student. Since the result of the observation is recorded regularly, the final evaluation will be comparatively.

A format of check list given below

 

Behaviour to be Observed       Name of the student	Respects others	Comes to class time	Takes up responsibility	Learns lessons regularly
A B C

Advantages:

-         A checklist allows inter individual comparisons.

-         They provide a simple method to record observations.

-         They are adaptable to subject matter areas

-         It is useful in evaluating learning activities expected to be performed.

-         They are helpful in evaluating procedure work

-         Properly prepared checklists allow the observer to constrain the direct attention.

-         Checklists have objectively to evaluate the characteristics.

-         Decreases the chances of errors in observation

-         It decreases the chances of errors in observation.

-         It decreases the chances of error in observational methods.

Disadvantages:

-         Checklists don’t indicate quality of performance so the usefulness of checklists is limited.

-         Only a limited component of overall clinical performance can be evaluated.

-         Only the presence or absence of attribute, behaviour or performance or parameter may be assured.

-         It has limited use in qualitative observations.

-         Checklists are not easy to prepare.

-         Need of proper training to observer before using this technique.

 

Rating scale: rating scale refers to a scale with a set of opinion, which describes varying degree of the dimensions of an attitude being observed. Rating scale is a method of recording how frequently a certain behavior occurs or how high a quality or characteristic seems to be. It is a modification of checklist. In checklist the variable observed are merely checked as either yes/ no. there is no provision for determining the degree to which that variable exists. Hence discrimination of students within the group with reference to that particular trait is not possible. In order to rectify this limitation each trait can be scored on any number of convenient points representing a particular degree. The point obtained by an individual can be quantified by allotting a convenient score to each point. Usually 3 points. 5 points, 7 points, 9 points or 11points rating scales are used.

Rating scales can be classified mainly into three viz.,

-         Numerical rating scale

-         Graphical rating scale and

-         Descriptive graphic rating scale

Numerical rating scale: in numerical rating scales, the observer has to mark a number to indicate the degree to which a characteristic is present. This type is useful when the characteristics to be rated can be classified into a number of limited categories, and there is general agreement concerning the categories represented by each number.

Eg.: Tick the appropriate number showing the extent of pupil’s ability to solve mathematical problems.

5- Excellent, 4- Above average, 3- Average, 2- Below average, 1. Very poor

Behavior to be observed	Rating
Pupil’s ability to solve mathematical problems	1  2  3  4  5

 

Graphic rating scale: in graphic rating scale, each characteristic is followed by a horizontal or vertical line. The observer has to mark by placing a cross mark on the line to indicate the presence or absence of the trait. Various categories are marked on the line and the observer can mark between the two categories if he so desires.

Eg.: To what extent the pupil is able to solve mathematical problems.

• Very Poor
• Below Average
• Average
• Above Average
• Excellent

Descriptive graphic rating scale: This scale uses descriptive phrases in behavioral terms to identify the pupils’ level on a graphic scale. The types of behavior represent different degrees of progress of the pupils. e.g: to what extent does the pupil solve mathematical problems

• Not doing the problem
• Try to do the problem
• Does the problem with the help of others
• Does the problem individually
• Does the problem individually, speedily & correctly

          A good rating scale should define the traits clearly and the number of divisions must be optimum. The recommended divisions are 5 to 7 because if the number of divisions is too small, the rating will not be meaningful and suitable for the purpose, and large number of divisions will make the marking difficult for the examiner. Also, care must be taken while rating to avoid personal bias as halo effects (type of cognitive bias in which our overall impression of a person influences how we feel and think about his/her character)

Characteristics of rating scale

-         They are value judgments of the attributes of one person by another person.

-         These scales are most commonly used tools to carry out structured observations.

-         They are generally developed to make quantitative judgments about qualitative attributes.

-         They provide more flexibility to judge the level of performance or presence of attributes among subjects.

-         Clarity: it must be constructed using short, concise statements in simple and unambiguous language.

-         Relevance: the statement should be relevant to the phenomenon and should be exactly in accordance with the variables under study.

-         Variety: monotony of the statements must be avoided and variety and difference statements must be ensured.

-         Objectivity: it must be objective in a nature so that it is convenient for the rather to judge the attributes or performance of the subjects under study.

-         Uniqueness: each statement constructed must be unique in itself so that the attributes can be judged appropriately.

Advantages

1. ·        Rating scale is easy to administer and score the measured attributes.
2. ·        They have a wide range og application in nursing educational evaluation.
3. ·        Graphic rating scale in easier to make and less time consuming
4. ·        Rating can be easy use to a large group.
5. ·         They are also used for quantitative methods.
6. ·        Assessment of interest and attitudes and personal characteristics.
7. ·        They are used to evaluate performance, skill and product outcomes.
8. ·        Rating scale are adaptable and flexible assessment instruments.

Disadvantages

1. ·        It is difficult or dangerous to fix up rating about aspects of an individual.
2. ·        Misuse can result in a decrease of objectivity.
3. ·        They are chances of subjective evaluation thus the scales may become unscientific and unreliable.

 

v Informal Assessment strategies: Application cards, Exit cards, Graphic organizers, Guided reciprocal peer questioning

Application cards: can be used for knowing how far the students can transfer their learning to other situations. Here students are asked to write at least one situation in which the learnt principle or procedure can be applies.

 Exit cards: are the written student responses to questions posed by the teacher after a class or end of a day. These answers will help the teacher to know all the student understanding of the concept

Graphic organizers: are visual representations of the ideas attained by the learner. Concept maps, mind maps etc. are found to be effective tools for evaluating student understanding, at the same time they work as effective learning tools.

Guided reciprocal peer questioning: students develop questions on what they have learnt and ask each other so that they will understand what they know and do not know.

 

v Construction of Achievement Test and Diagnostic tests _Steps – Types of questions (construction, merits & demerits of each) –interpretation of test results, diagnosis

Achievement Test

The Kerala School Curriculum Approach 2013 postulated that the examination system should be re-cast so as to ensure a method of assessment that is a valid, reliable and objective measure of student development and a powerful instrument for improving the learning process. The outcome focused approach is being used for terminal assessment. In order to make the examination system effective and objective, quality of the question paper needs to be ensured. Questions of different types considering various learning outcomes, thinking skills and of varying difficulty levels are to be included in the achievement test. This makes construction of achievement test a significant task that has to be undertaken with the support of proper guidelines.

Kerala Curriculum Approach 2013 suggests the following aspects with regard to examination:

      Outcome Focused Assessment Approach should be adopted.

      While setting the question paper due weightage should be given to thinking skills.

      Design and Blue print should be prepared.

      Assessment should be done based on suitable scoring key and marking scheme.

Kerala Curriculum Framework (KCF 2007) recommended that:

• §     Learning Outcome should be indicated accurately and ensured.
• §    Shift to the content oriented questions to the testing of the process of learning and thought process.

National Curriculum Framework (NCF 2005) in its position paper on Examination Reforms states that: “questions not framed well, call for rote memorization and fails to test higher order skills. It also pointed out that:

• §    Typology of the question paper must change.
• §    Shift from content based testing to testing the higher level.

In order to understand how far the students have achieved we construct and implement achievement test. The reasons why the students are not achieving were determined by developing diagnostic test.

 

a.       Construction of an achievement test based on Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (RBT)

Since education is an integral part of teaching and learning students are observed in various situations. Continuously with a view to assess their level of achievement in terms of what has been expected of them. For this, classroom tests are frequently administrated.These may be administrated after completion of every unit of Teaching. This enables the teacher to know the rate progress of students as well as the extent of attainment of objectives of learning the unit. Various steps are included in the construction of such an achievement test.

b.      Steps involved in the construction of an achievement test based on RBT.

1. 1)      Planning of the test
2. 2)      Preparation of a design for the test
3. 3)      Preparation of the Blue print
4. 4)      Writing of test items
5. 5)      Preparation of the scoring key and marking scheme
6. 6)      Preparation of question wise analysis

1)      Planning of the test: A test is meant to serve many essential and important purposes. Therefore, it should be well-planned and systematically developed. Before constructing a good achievement test , the paper setter should think about the following aspects as part of his/ her planning.

The first consideration which is of utmost importance is what the paper setter intends to find out through the achievement test. There are certain outcomes of learning which any teacher would like to realize by teaching every unit. The paper setter should aim at testing the achievement of these objectives.

The next step is to determine the maximum time, maximum score and the nature of the test. These should be decided in terms of the nature and scope of the sub units or units involved in the testing.

2)      Preparation of a design for the test: After determining the broad scope of the test, a design has to be developed in tune with it. The learning outcomes, content ,form of questions , the difficulty level of items, scheme of options and scheme of sections are the most important factors to be considered in such a design

                    i.         Weightage to content: This indicates the various aspects of the content to be tested and the weightage to be given to each of these aspects. Suppose a lesson or unit including various aspects of study or subunits had been taught. To test these aspects/ subunits, questions covering all the aspects/subunits should be included in the design with due weightage assigned to each aspect/ subunit in relation to its importance with the other aspects. If the test is one covering a number of units taught over aspects. If the test is one covering a number of units taught over a term or for the whole year appropriate weightage is to be given to all the units.

                  ii.         Weightage to thinking skills: This indicates the weightage given to thinking skills. 60% weightage may be given to thinking skills used for factual and conceptual attainment (Lower Order Thinking skills –LOTS has to be ensured in this category) and 40% weightage may be given to thinking skills for conceptual generation (Higher Order Thinking Skills- HOTS has to be ensured in this category). Thinking skills for conceptual generation means thinking skills needed for elaborating the concepts.

                      iii.   Weightage to form of questions: This indicates the forms of the questions (objective type, short answer type and essay type) to be included in the test and the weightage to each form of questions. The paper setter should select those =form of questions that are suitable to the objectives and content to be tested. If we ask only essay type questions we cannot get a satisfactory content coverage. This defect can be rectified by including short answer type and objective type questions also. These type of questions will add to the objectivity of the test, which is a quality warranted by a good measuring tool. The weightage to be given to each form of question should be decided on the basis of the time needed for answering, difficulty level, objectives tested and the nature of the content involved.

Questions can be prepared based on a single or cluster of learning outcomes which is scattered over one particular unit or units. Cluster of learning outcomes from different units can be considered only for graded questions ( questions with subdivisions). The possibilities of graded questions reflecting different thinking skills can be explored.

15 to 20% weightage of total score must be given to objective type questions and upto 20% weightage of total score must be given to essay type questions. The highest score that can be given to a question is limited to 10 % of the total score.

                      iv.   Weightage to difficulty level: Priority should be given with regard to the difficulty level of the questions asked. The test should cater to the bright, the average, and the dull. Discriminating power that is the ability to discriminate high- achievers, average achievers and low- achievers is a quality to be maintained by a good test. If all the items are either too difficult or average or too easy the test cannot discriminate the levels of achievement. Here the test should contain easy, average and difficult questions.

                        v.   Scheme of Options: Scheme of options means the option or choices given to the students to select certain questions. There may be external option as well as internal option. External option (over-all option) means the choice is given to the students for selecting a given number of questions only from among the total number of questions provided. For example, the students are asked to attempt any eight questions out of the given ten. But in case of internal option, the choice is given within a question. For example, write short notes on any two of the following , etc.. If choice is given, the questions given fr choice should be comparable in all respects.

Choice can be given for questions upto 20% of the total score. While giving choice alternative questions should from the same unit with the same level of thinking skills.

                vi.   Scheme of Sections: Scheme of sections means the arrangement of questions into separate divisions. For example, the question paper carrying objective type, short answer type and essay type questions can be divided into Section A/ Part A, Section B/ Part B and  Section C/ Part C.

3)      Preparation of the Blue print: A blue print gives the details of the design in concrete terms. Blue print is prepared as a three dimensional chart indicating the distribution of questions objective-wise, content-wise and form-wise. Some people make it four dimensional adding difficulty level also as one of the dimensions. The blue-print gives the frame work for the test and indicates the broad limit within which the test constructor has to work.

4)      Writing of test items: the blue print gives a very clear idea about the number of questions to be written from each topic, their forms and objectives. With this precise dire3ctive suggested by the blue-print, the paper setter can start writing items according to the requirements. The difficulty level also has to be considered while writing items. It should also be checked whether all the questions included can be answered within the time allotted. Construction of test items calls for the mastery of the subject matter and technique of constructing each type of test item. If a pool of well prepared items in the form of a Question Bank is available., the constructor can easily choose the requires number of items for the test in tune with the specifications of the blue print.

After writing the preliminary details such as the name of the examination, title of the paper, maximum marks and time, instruction for answering each part, etc.. the setter has to arrange the question already written. It is advisable to arrange questions in the order of their difficulty level. Normally, Knowledge-item will be easier than an understanding item, which in turn may be easier than application item. This need not be always true, but may be taken as a clue for arranging questions in a test. Items for each section can then be arranged.

Structure of question paper

The question paper should reflect the following features in general:

ü  General instructions for the question paper should be given on the top.

ü  Instructions for specific questions can be given before the question text.

ü  Monotony of set patterns (Objective or Descriptive) should be avoided.

ü  While fixing the time for answering a question, time for reading, comprehending and writing the answer must be considered.

ü  The total time of the question paper- 2 hrs for 60 scores and 2.30 hrs for 80 scores question papers with an extra cool of time of 15 minutes.

ü  In the case of language, language of the questions and answers should be in the particular language concerned. Necessary direction in this regard must be given in the question paper.

5)      Preparation of the scoring key and marking scheme: in order to maintain objectivity, scoring should be made strictly in accordance with a predesigned scheme of evaluation. So it is essential to prepare the scoring key and the marking scheme simultaneously with the question paper. In the case of objective type items where the answers are in the form of some letter or other symbol, a scoring key is prepared. Normally no partial credit is given for an objective type item. In the case of short answer essay type questions, the marking scheme is prepared. In preparing marking scheme what the examiner has to do is to list out the value points to be credited and fix up the mark to be given to each value point. Clearly writing the value points will also help to identify defects, if any, that might have accidently crept into the test items and these could be corrected before the final test is released.

Usually, general instructions also are given at the end of the scheme of valuation in order to avoid subjectivity in scoring. Here indication may be given as to the penalty for committing errors, spelling mistakes, grammatical mistakes etc..

6)      Preparation of question wise analysis: in order to avoid all loopholes, the setter prepares a table containing all relevant details of all the items of the test. This is done by making an analysis of each item in terms of content, thinking skills LOTS/HOTS, specific thinking skills, form of question, marks and estimated time. This analysis is very helpful to check whether all the aspects envisaged in the design and blue-print are satisfied by the test in final form. If some mistake is noticed it should be rectified at this final stage.

                    

Diagnostic Test

A test designed to identify and investigate difficulties, disabilities, inadequacies and gaps of pupils in specific curriculum areas with a view to helping them overcome those difficulties through remedial instruction. Diagnosis is an important factor in the teaching –learning process. The teaching- learning process will not be complete without diagnosis and remedial teaching. Diagnosis means a careful study of the condition of learning to determine its nature and find out the causation with the main purpose of correcting and remedying the difficulty involved in learning.

Diagnostic tests are generally designed to analyze the individual’s specific strength and weakness in a subject and suggest causes for his difficulties. Since the focus is on the pupil’s learning deficiencies, diagnostic tests must be constructed in the light of the most common sources of error encountered by pupils. These tests are confined to a limited area of instruction and the test item tends to have a relatively low level of difficulty.

The techniques of educational diagnosis enable the teacher to infer the internal and external factors that hamper achievement of perfection in learning. The difficulties faced by the students vary from individuals to individual, subject to subject and class to class. In order to make the teaching –learning process effective, it is essential to find the learning deficiencies of students and this can be done by making use of diagnostic tests.

Thus, a diagnostic test is a test designed to locate specific learning deficiencies of specific individuals in specific area so that specific efforts can be taken to remove these deficiencies.

The immediate aim of diagnostic test is to locate areas in which additional instruction is required or in which teaching methods have to be improved. The diagnostic test ressults will reveal in a comprehensive way, the exact level reached by pupils and the precise nature of difficulties.

Diagnosis

Principle of Diagnosis

• The principles underlying the technique of diagnosis are
• 1.      It is an essential aspect of teaching and is preliminary step to sound instruction.
• 2.   It should be continuous because the growth of child depends upon the sequential development of knowledge and skills.
• 3.      It is an individual task since each child is different.

4.      Diagnosis and remediation are not only the special privileges of the slow and the retarded learners but also for the gifted and the average as well.

5.      Genuine diagnosis looks around the causes of the symptoms.

6.      The causes of a learner’s inadequacy are usually multiple rather than single or unitary

7.      Diagnosis must act as a basis for remedial work and preventive work.

Steps of Diagnosis

Mainly diagnosis is done at two levels: (i) Corrective diagnosis in which measures are taken to make up the deficiencies in learning  and (ii) Preventive diagnosis in which deficiencies are prevented from occurring. A usual classroom teacher focuses more corrective diagnosis than preventive.

Corrective diagnosis can be done through the following steps.

1.      Classification : This process includes locating students who have deficiencies in learning. This can be done by identifying students who have not reached their expected level of performance.

2.      Finding the nature of difficulties : Here areas of difficulties are to be identified by administrating an achievement test. The learning pints done poorly by most of the students are to be undergone for a re-teach. But this will not give any idea about the reason for these errors.

3.      Inferring the causes of difficulties : No tests give an idea about causes of learning difficulty, but if items are so phrases and arranged in a systematic manner, we can know about the nature of difficulties the learner faces. A thorough analysis of the responses of students gives an idea about the probable causes of deficiencies. Generally, the causes are varies and complex in nature. These cause may be internal to the individual (like retardation of basic skills, work habits, physical and emotional factors) or environmental (family background, classroom climate, etc..) or a combination of the two. These causes can be located by using different tools and techniques like interview, observation, checklists, questionnaires, etc.

Preventive diagnosis

            The knowledge gained through the diagnostic procedures should act as the basis for the preventive diagnosis. That is, accurate and detailed educational diagnosis may ultimately offer the basis for the development of a programme of preventive work in education. The identified weaknesses should act as the basis for decisions taken to reduce the probability of their reoccurrence in the future.

            An error analysis based on the student responses will suggest the remedial measures to be taken for each case. These measures must be highly individualized. After planning and implementing the remedial programme, its effectiveness is to evaluated by administrating an achievement test.

            Construction of an diagnostic test

After identifying the area in which diagnostic test is to be constructed, one has to analyse the content thoroughly so that the essential learning points and skills contributing to success in that subject are isolated and identifies. As the test should locate the point at which pupil’s mastery breaks down, the analysis must be penetrating and the diagnosis must be precise. The sequence of learning points or sub skills are to be kept in the test and for each point, an adequate number of questions are to be included in order to provide decisive evidence.

     In a diagnostic test, objective and very short answer type of questions are recommended, which will facilitate the diagnostic process. It is better to provide supply type questions than selective type.

No options are to be provided in a diagnostic test. Items based on the same learning points are to be given together, regardless of their type. The students are requested to write all questions and they can take their own time. There is no rigid specification of time limit in a diagnostic test.

     After administering the test, the student responses are to be analyzed qualitatively so that the exact point of deficiencies can be located and possible causes may be inferred.

a.       Steps involved in the construction of diagnostic test

1.      Purposeful planning

2.      Analysis of the learning material concerned

3.      Writing of test items

4.      Division of items into small sections

5.      Provisions of clear instructions

·         Purposeful planning: This aims at identification of learning materials that are known to have potential difficulties. An experienced teacher can identify such areas by proper analysis. Such areas will have more weightage in the test.

·         Analysis of the learning material concerned: the content should be thoroughly analyzed, first into teaching-points. Each teaching point may be including a number of stages. These stages should be arranged in the sequential order of difficulty as well as logical sequence. This is a very important step that needs great care and insight. For example, consider the problem – area Addition of two-digit numbers in the Primary class. Let us see how the stages are logically and sequentially arranged.

Stage 1.	Two two- digit numbers involving no ‘carrying’.	(21+41 =   )
Stage 2.	Two two- digit numbers with ‘carrying’ at the unit’s place only	(27+15 =   )
Stage 3.	Two two-digit numbers involving ‘zero-difficulty’	(58+22 =   )
Stage 4.	Two two-digit numbers with ‘carrying at both the places’	(36+95 =   )

 

Under each of these four stages, there may be items of different difficulty levels. For example item 22+33 will be much easier than 45+34, though both belong to Stage 1. Analyse the unit so thoroughly as to include all possible points, all possible stages in each of the points and items of all difficulty levels within the same stage.

·         Writing of test items: Write test items representing all the minute steps arising out of the analysis. Arrange these items in the order, taking into consideration both sequence of the stage and difficulty level.

·         Division of items into small sections: Sometimes the total number of items will be very large then, more time will be reqired to work out these items. In such cases, items may be divided into two or three sections to suit the convenience of the learners. The subtests thus obtained may be administered on different occasions

·         Provisions of clear instructions: Very clear instructions should be given as to what the pupil should do and how. If they find any difficulty with a particular item, they should be directed to pass on to the next item without wasting time.

What we have been discussed above is related to the construction of Diagnostic test in general.  All these principles and strategies are applicable to pre- diagnostic test also with the limitation that the content of such tests will be limited to the prerequisites for learning the topic concerned. Hence the analysis for arriving at the items should be carefully done thoroughly with respect to the pre-requisites. A sample post diagnostic test meant to diagnose difficulties in the ‘Fundamental concepts of percentage” is given below.

Analysis of the diagnostic results: the result of the diagnostic test has to be analyzed with a view to find out the exact area in which difficulties exist and to determine what exactly the nature of difficulty is. This may be done with respect to the group tested (group diagnosis) as well as for each individual student (individual diagnosis). The former is meant to locate difficulties general for the groups while the latter aims at helping each individual solve specific difficulties of his own. On the basis of this analysis the reason for each difficulty has to be determined. This process is one of the requires both competence and imagination, arising out of the experience.

Before us conducting a post-diagnostic test we should prepare a pre- test within a specific content area based on learning points. Then prepare a diagnostic chart from which we can identify the real difficult area such as which is mostly wrongly answered / mostly omitted / mostly partially attended by the student using the below table.

Sl. No.	Name of the student (who attended the pre-test)	Number of questions										Pupil response
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	W	O	P
1
2
3
4
Total no. of right answers (R)
Total no. of wrong answers (W)
Total no. of omission (O)
Total no. of partially correct answers (P)

 

 

 

b.      Remedial teaching

When the causes are located, the learning deficiencies of the individuals can be removed by taking special attempts. These special attempts to remove the deficiencies of students in learning are known as remedial measures or remedial teaching. Remedial measures include reviewing and re-teaching of more complicated areas, extensive effort to improve motivation, remove emotional disturbances and overcome the deficiencies in the study habits. The success of the remedial or corrective teaching depends upon the accuracy of the analysis of student’s responses.

·         Remedial instruction is the process of instruction that follows immediate after diagnostic testing.

·         May be done in group level or individual level.

·         Remedial teaching provides lecturing learning experiences for solving the difficulties.

·         Learning experiences provided in remedial teaching depends upon the nature of difficulty and reason for difficulty.

·         A remedial class increases the self- confidence of the learner.

Uses of Diagnosis Test

The diagnostic tests

o   Point out inadequacies in specific skills

o   Locate areas in which individual instruction is required

o   Furnish continuous information in order that learning activities may be most productive of desirable out comes.

o   Serve as a basis for improving instructional methods, instructional materials and learning procedures.

Difference between Achievement test and Diagnostic test

            A diagnostic test is different from an achievement test in its purpose and nature. An achievement test measures how much a student has achieved where as a diagnostic test measures how much a student has not been able to achieve and provides clues for the probable reasons. Its purpose is to identify the exact nature of the difficulties and locate the causes that result in poor performance.

           An achievement test is prepared for a broader content area and it gives proper weightage to content, objectives, form of questions and difficulty level. But for a diagnostic test, only a small content area in which students have difficulties is selected. While preparing a diagnostic test, the first step is to analyze each teaching point into a number of stages in terms of sequential order and difficulty level. As the diagnostic test has to probe into the exact nature of difficulties, a number of items of different difficulty level from the same area are to be included.

           After administrating the test, the student responses are to be analyzed qualitatively so that the exact point of deficiencies can be located and the possible causes may be inferred.

Achievement test	Diagnostic test
Measures how much a student has achieved.	Measures how much a student has not been able to achieve and why
Gives weightage to objectives, content, form of questions & difficulty level all in general way.	Considers each and every one of these aspects in a specialized way this is done in a critical and analytical way.
Give due weightage to every topic and content area.	Gives greater emphasis to the aspects with potential difficulties.
Strictly observes the time factor in answering. Measures how much can be  performed in a fixed duration of time no extra times is allowed.	Not concerned with the time factor. This is because it is meant to identify deficiencies and difficulties of the learner.
Marks scored in achievement tests are very important because grading, ranking and placement are its functions.	Marks are not normally assigned in diagnostic test because grading, ranking and placement are not its functions. It aims only at identifying difficulties.
Construction is comparatively easy though the test constructor has to prepare a design, blue print et.	Construction requires more imagination. The test constructor has analyse the content arrange them in the order of their difficulty, and present each item with clear instructions.

 

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