Friday, May 24, 2013

Tests' Effectiveness


Tests' Effectiveness 


This entry is about Brown's Language Assessment Principles and Classroom Practices, chapter 2.

Do we teachers pay attention to the effectiveness of the exams we apply? In some cases, teachers -especially those who teach at English institutes- must create or design the tests. We probably do not even give a second look to the test we just designed for our students before handing it in because we might think our test is good. But it is not only important to take care of the exam. Also, external factors, or even students’ personal issues play a role in the development of a good or a bad exam.  Brown (2000) proposes five criteria for "testing a test". They are: practicality, reliability, validity, authenticity, and washback. In this entry, I'm going to focus on reliability. 

One of the factors that can make a test unreliable is Student-Related Reliability. Sometimes we do not take into account the fact that one student is sick, or is having family issues, or is just too nervous when it comes to taking an exam. The deal is that sometimes we do not even notice it. These factors can affect prominently a student's performance in an exam. What can we do in those cases? I remember this was one of the matters we were discussing in the previous assessment class. One of my classmates proposed a good alternative. It was to apply the test again, in another time and when the student's condition was better. But then, will we evaluate that student with the same criteria? Will the rest of the students accept this? How can we know if the student was really sick or not? How can we be really fair with all of the students?

The test reliability is another important factor. The exam should be as clear as possible and here, the appropriate instruction plays and important role. If the test's instructions are not understandable enough it would be difficult to our students to do the right things. Time also counts. There are many students -I have to say  that sometimes it was my case- that freak out when they know how much time they have for the test and then, when time is running out they start writing whatever comes to their minds, even nonsense. This applies mostly for writing tests. Thus, giving the students clear instructions of the test might also avoid this problem of time to happen.
    

When the students are in the middle of an exam, there are factors that will not let them concentrate, such as music or people chatting around the classroom. In my own experience, I am a person who needs total silence when taking a test. I think this may cause a student not to have a good performance in an exam. But how do we teachers deal with that? How do we teachers take that into account?

I think a teacher should not be biased. A way to avoid this is to make the evaluation criteria clear to the students, thus they know what exactly they must focus on and how they are going to be evaluated.  I do not think judging a student by their class behavior is fair. We can evaluate the student’s performance in classes, but the test is something apart.

There are other factors that should be taken into account when evaluating how effective a test is. Of course there will never be the excellent conditions, or there will always be students who are feeling bad, or the devices might not work for all the students –in a listening test, for instance-. This is why we teachers should be prepared for those things, and learning from our mistakes is a positive result of experience.

If you want to answer some of the questions in this post, feel free to do it. It would be enriching for my current and future teaching experience.