Evaluation, Assessment, Measurement

Evaluation, Assessment, Measurement.

Evaluation: It measures the effectiveness of the teaching-learning system, so it involves the three major elements, objectives, learning experiences and learner appraisal.

Assessment:  Is the process and instruments designed to measure the learner's achievement, judgement can be made on the basis of this assessment,  it precedes the final decision making stage in evaluation,  It has a narrower meaning than evaluation and a broader meaning than measurement.

Measurement:  It involves assigning a score on a given task performed by the learner, collection or gathering of data from the student's scores in an examination, measuring physical properties of objects, behavioural sciences, measurement of psychological characteristics such as neuroticism, etc.


1)  What is assessment?

The instruments on which the teacher is able to measure the student's learning and finally the teacher can make a judgement according to the results.

2)  What is measurement?

It is the score given on a performed task by the learner and also the collection of data from the students behaviour, the students psychological characteristics, etc.

3)  What is the relationship of evaluation, assessment and measurement?

Evaluation is a series of activities within the teaching learning process, where assessment, through a test, is needed to measure the student´s learning and achievements.

 Concept of Evaluation

It is a Systematic and Dynamic process, where the objectives clearly defined are the basis of an understanding between teacher and student and decision-making involves evaluation as a team work, to get an improvement of knowledge and develop abilities to achieve the goals according to the defined objectives.

In this definition, there are the following four key elements:

·         Systematic and dynamic process

·         Objectives clearly defined 

·         Team work  

·         Achieve the goals

·         Decision-making

·         Improvement      

Now, let’s discuss the importance of each,

·         Systematic and Dynamic process: The teacher and the student are constantly exchanging information according to a fixed objective methodically in a period of time; it is also associated with a critical thinking which is very significant for teachers and students in general.

·         Objectives clearly defined:  It is the desired direction of behaviour that learners should acquire and it is formulated by the school and the teacher.

·         Team work:  The teacher and student are allowed to challenge themselves, the students have freedom and have an active participation in the classroom and the exchange of information is permanent between them.

·         Achieve the goals: The result of a successful teaching learning process, where the objectives where clearly defined and the students acquire knowledge.  

·         Improvement: The team work is able to acquire all or most of the desired objectives defined from the beginning which also increases the abilities to go forward.

·     Decision-making:It involves evaluation so it helps to make better evaluative judgements in the future. When ever there is a decision made, there must be an action taken to guide the students in the right direction.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

A good Evaluation

(Summary)

A good evaluation should have Validity, Reliability, Practicability, Fairness and Usefulness.

Validity:  It measures the behaviour described by the objective.

Reliability:  It measures if the test or examination produces the same result under different conditions, it gives reproducible scores with similar populations of students. Reliability and validity are closely related,  a test can be totally reliable and have very low validity, a validity must be reliable, but a test can be reliable but may not be valid.

Practicability:  An evaluation procedure should be realistic, practical and efficient in term of their cost, time taken and ease of application.

Fairness:  Evaluation must be fair to all students and it is possible by an accurate reflection of the expected behaviours as desired by the course objectives. Students should know exactly how they are going to be evaluated, they should be provided with information about evaluation such as nature of the materials on which they are going to be examined, ex: context and objectives.

Usefulness:  Evaluation must be useful to all students, there must be feedback available to the students to help them to prove their current strengths and weaknesses, so in that way students can think of further improvement.