TEACHER-MADE TEST

By Jaymie Eileen Victoria A. Casople

MA Industrial Psychology
 Teacher-made tests are normally prepared and
administered for testing classroom achievement of
students, evaluating the method of teaching adopted by
the teacher and other curricular programmes of the
school. Teacher-made test is one of the most valuable
instrument in the hands of the teacher to solve his
purpose.
 Classroom assessments are a big responsibility on educators’ plates. There are
plenty of possible formats out there: summative, formative, essay, multiple choice –
the list goes on and on. Rather than settling for a form response, many teachers
design their own assessments. Whether pre-made or not, when developing
classroom assessment tools, teachers should take the following criteria into
account:

Purpose: How will it be used?

Impact: How will it impact instruction?
Validity: Is it designed to measure what it was
supposed to measure?
Fairness: Will all the students have the same
opportunities to show what they have learned?
Reliability: Is the scoring system consistent with
that of the school and state benchmarks?
Significance: Does it address the contents that are
valued?
Efficiency: Is the test consistent with the time
available for the students to be able to complete it.
Teacher-designed tests offer clear
advantages:
They are better aligned with classroom objectives.
They present consistent evaluation material, having the
same questions for all the students in the class.
They are easy to store and offer accessible material for
parents to consult.
They are easy to administer.
And an important drawback:
Some teachers may not have the necessary abilities to
design their own test, and therefore evaluations may be
less reliable.
 The type of test chosen must be consistent with the
content of the course. Take the time to plan tests carefully
and to decide which type of test suits the content you taught.
Most teachers favor objective testing because it saves time
when marking and has much more reliability. It is highly
recommended that classroom tests should not contain a wide
variety of test items, because some students may find difficulty
in shifting ways of processing information. Additionally, each of
the items should evaluate whether the student has mastered
the objectives and separate these from those who haven’t.
 A test won’t be effective if students can guess the answers or
gain a perception of what the answer may be by means of
clues or aids extracted from the questions.
TEACHER-MADE VS STANDARDIZED
TEACHER MADE:

 (1) Learning Outcomes and Content Measured:

 They are used to evaluate the outcomes and content of
what has been taught in the classroom.
TEACHER-MADE VS STANDARDIZED
TEACHER MADE:

 (2) Purpose:
 The tests are required to suggest placement of the child
in relation to the class.
 Mainly used to know the students’ progress and to
improve the teaching learning programme of a particular
school.
TEACHER-MADE VS STANDARDIZED
TEACHER MADE:

 (3) Construction:
 They are prepared by the classroom teacher. These tests
are constructed hurriedly. Experts not involved in its
construction.
TEACHER-MADE VS STANDARDIZED
TEACHER MADE:

 (4) Test Items:

 Quality of test items unknown and is generally lower than
items of standardised tests. The questions may or may not
be objective type. They may be generally of short answer
type or essay Type.
TEACHER-MADE VS STANDARDIZED
TEACHER MADE:

 (5) Method of Administration:

 The teacher is the master of the situation. He is free to
administer the test according to his own lines of thinking.
TEACHER-MADE VS STANDARDIZED
TEACHER MADE:

 (6) Method of Scoring:

 Teacher prepares his own scoring key. Usually such
scoring can only be done by a person equally competent
as the teacher.
TEACHER-MADE VS STANDARDIZED
TEACHER MADE:

 (7) Interpretation of Scores:

 Scores can be compared and interpreted only in the
context of the local school situation.
The teacher-made tests do not have norms.
TEACHER-MADE VS STANDARDIZED
STANDARDIZED:

 (1) Learning Outcomes and Content Measured:

 They are used to evaluate outcomes and content that have been determined irrespective of what has been taught.
 (2) Purpose:
 The tests are required to suggest placement of the child in relation to the sample in which the test has been standardised.
 Used mainly in research work, guidance, counselling, selection and for administration purposes.
 (3) Construction:
 Use sophisticated procedures and time consuming for its construction. It is a collaborative venture. It has to involve experts along with practising
teacher in its own construction.
 (4) Test Items:
 Generally quality of items is high. They are pre-tested and selected on the basis of difficulty and discrimination power. The questions are bound to be
of objective type.
 The test has to be administered under the conditions prevailing at the time of administration of the test for standardisation. An user of the test
administers the test as per test direction.
 (5) Method of Administration:
 The scoring key is prepared previously. The user of the test has to apply the said scoring key. Such scoring does not require expert knowledge.
 (6) Method of Scoring:
 Scores can be compared to norm groups, Test manuals and other guides for interpretation and use.
 (7) Interpretation of Scores:
 Scores can be compared to norm groups, Test manuals and other guides for interpretation and use.
 (8) Norms:
 Standardised tests have norms meant for a population on which they have been standardised. The norms like T-score, Z-score, Percentile Scores,
Mean, Mdn, Mode, SD etc. help in valuing a raw score quickly and comparing the scores of two or more individuals, schools etc.
 Standardised tests have appreciable validity, reliability, objectivity and practicability.
ESSAY TYPE TEST