Shardha Sandapen
21 August 2007
opinion
Port Louis — As we move into the third term, most teachers start thinking about end-of-year examinations, as we shall soon be very busy preparing our question papers. At this time of the year, there are many questions that crop up in our minds, such as, how well have our students worked or what knowledge, skills or attitudes have they learnt and what have they not yet learned? And, of course, what are we teachers going to do about it?
When we have to deal with questions like these, it means that we are involved in the process of evaluation, which is the third major component of teaching, the two other components being planning and teaching. Hence, to begin with, the meaning of evaluation should be made clear as it is often confused with other concepts in teaching, such as assessment, measurement or decision-making.
Evaluation, therefore, is the process during which we collect data, analyse the data, draw conclusions and make value judgments followed by decision-making. It is often subjective as it depends on the criterion (judgment) of the teacher (evaluator) and the decision that he/she makes. However, it has to be based on assessment data and not on the teacher's whims or fancy.
Assessment, on the other hand, involves the interpretation of measurement data. Usually these data are interpreted in terms of whether or not an intended level of achievement has been attained. In turn, this achievement is expressed as a pass or fail or by some letter (A, B, C,) or numerical grade. Thus, in an examination, a learner's marks are interpreted as a pass or a fail.
There is a definite sequence from measurement to assessment to evaluation to decision- making in the evaluation process chain, with the final step setting up the process to start all over again. Hence, in many respects, the four processes of evaluation can be thought of as a cyclical model. This ongoing process enables us to use different types of evaluation at different phases of our teaching, for example, diagnostic, formative or summative evaluation.
Diagnostic evaluation, often used at the beginning of the year or term, is designed to ascertain the starting point for teaching. Examining student performances in a subject, topic or chapter may do this. It may also be administered as a pre-test to find out what the students know about a particular topic before beginning instruction. Teachers can then make judgments about what needs to be taught, the different abilities and grouping of students. Diagnostic evaluation is also used to identify learning difficulties among our students as a basis for follow-up teaching. In this instance, the numbers, types and sources of error are analysed and teachers develop appropriate remedial programmes. The main techniques that can be used in diagnostics are observation and testing.
Formative or process evaluation is used during teaching throughout the whole term or year. It is concerned with giving feedback to learners and the teacher about the progress of learning. This feedback can give students an indication of how the learning is going - what they are doing well and which areas of learning need improvement. From the teacher's viewpoint, formative evaluation provides information from which the learning tasks can, if necessary, be modified to meet the learner's needs. Techniques which are important in formative evaluation are observation, questioning, marking, collecting work samples, student presentations and demonstrations, short-answer tests and student self-evaluation.
Summative or product evaluation is what we most commonly use at the end of term or year. It is concerned with evaluation at the end of a learning experience and it focuses on the finished product. Typically, summative evaluation involves judgments about marks, the achievement of objectives and overall student and teacher performance. Techniques which are useful in summative evaluation, are testing, student presentations and demonstrations, and marking of assignments.
To evaluate effectively, teachers should be clear about its purposes. This will give focus to the sort of information we need to collect and the techniques we shall use. Finally, we have to consider any factors that may have affected the student's performance, such as, climate, noise, motivation, and misunderstanding of directions, fatigue or careless error; and we have to be very careful of areas of bias in marking.
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