Formulating Appropriate Questions for Assessing Readiness Levels of Learners CTET Notes
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Formulating Appropriate Questions for Assessing Readiness Levels of Learners
Beeby opines,
“Evaluation is the systematic collection and inter- pretation of evidence leading as a part of process to a judgement of value with a view to action.”
Diagnostic evaluation is a type of pre-assessment which allows teachers to assess the strengths, weaknesses, knowledge, and skills of the learners before starting the teaching learning process. Prognostic evaluation refers to the assessment that includes the prediction of a learner’s future career through the means of estimation.
Firstly, a diagnostic test must be constructed for assessing the readiness level of learners and for determining the errors. A diagnostic test refers to a type of educational test which has two types of purpose namely prognostic purpose and diagnostic purpose. Prognostic purpose refers to measuring the level and extent of learning outcomes or how much the student has obtained in specific subjects which has been taught to them. Diagnostic purpose refers to identifying the causes behind their weakness and poor attainment of the students. Both of these purposes are important in educational measurement and evaluation.
Diagnostic test provides a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the students. They are qualitative in nature and it doesn’t produce any scores.
Types of Diagnostic Test
1. Educational Diagnostic Tests, “are various types related to different subjects for specific level or class or grade.”
2. The Clinical Diagnostic Tests, “are also of several types relating to hearing, vision and other aspects. The knowledge about the students, the classroom teachers can be more confident in their orientation towards group approaches. The teacher would expect normal actions and behaviours on the part of all students. They would be prepaid, however, to deal with reasonable departure from normal behaviour, and for unusual cases, the teacher would feel free to invite the person with special skill in diagnosing and treating such cases to bring them at par with the normal students of the class.”
According to Mary Thorpe,
“Evaluation is the collection, analysis and interpretation of information about any aspect of a programme of education, as part of a recognised process of judging its effectiveness, its efficiency and any other outcomes it may have.”
Assessment refers to the process of collecting information that reflects the performance of a student, school, classroom, or an academic system based on a set of standards, learning criteria, or curricula.
Methods of Evaluation in Education
1. Diagnostic vs Prognostic Evaluation
| Diagnostic Evaluation | Prognostic Evaluation |
| 1. It is a type of pre-evaluation. | It is a type of the learner’s estimation. |
| 2. It enables the teacher to assess the learner’s performance. | It enables the teacher to predict the learner’s future performance. |
| 3. It is concerned with the past and present performance of the student. | It is concerned with the future performance of the learner. |
| 4. It allows the teacher to assess their instructional methods. | It allows the teacher to shape their instructional methods for the future. |
| 5. Through this evaluation, teachers can understand the effectiveness of their teaching. | Through this evaluation, teachers can develop their future teaching strategies. |
Formative vs Summative Evaluation
| Formative Evaluation | Summative Evaluation |
| It is an ongoing activity. | It is a one-time activity. |
| It takes place not just once but several times during the learning process. | It takes place at the end of the learning process and not during it. |
| The main aim is to monitor and evaluate the progress of the learner. | The main aim is to evaluate the achievements of the learners. |
| It monitors learning to offer ongoing feedback that can improve teaching and learning. | It evaluates learning at the end of an academic session to compare the learner’s score against a standard. |
| It assesses smaller content areas. | It assesses the understanding of complete chapters or bigger content areas. |
Fenton (1996) states,
“Evaluation is the application of a standard and a decision-making system to assessment data to produce judgments about the amount and adequacy of the learning that has taken place.”
Evaluation is a process which is continuous as well as comprehensive and involves all the tasks of education and not merely tests, measurements, and examination. Evaluation is a quantitative measurement of instructional outcomes. It makes a quantitative determination of an individual’s performance.
