LECTURE 7

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF TEST CONSTRUCTION

Introduction

This unit is a very important one. You need to know how to construct
different kinds of tests. Indeed, tests are not just designed casually or in
a haphazard manner. There are rules and regulations guiding this
activity. The unit gives you basic principles to follow when
constructing tests. Before you study this unit, quickly revise
the previous unit on characteristics of good tests.

OBJECTIVES

By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

a. recognize how different types of tests are being constructed;

b. determine the basic principles to follow in constructing tests; and

c. apply these principles in the practical construction of tests.

Construction of Tests in the Classroom

Teacher-made tests are indispensable in evaluation as they are handy in

assessing the degree of mastery of the specific units taught by the
teacher. The principles behind the construction of the different
categories of Tests mentioned above are essentially the same. These
shall now be discussed.

Planning for the Test

Many teacher-made tests often suffer from inadequate and improper
planning. Many teachers often jump into the classroom to announce to
the class that they are having a test or construct the test haphazardly. It
is at the planning stage that such questions as the ones listed below are
resolved:

i. What is the intended function of this test? Is it to test

the effectiveness of your method, level of competence of the
pupils, or diagnose area of weakness before other topics are
taught?

ii. What are the specific objectives of the content area you are trying
to achieve?

iii. What content area has been taught? How much emphasis has
been given to each topic?

iv. What type of test will be most suitable (in terms of effectiveness,
cost and practicality) to achieve the intended objectives of the
contents?

Defining Objectives

As a competent teacher, you should be able to develop instructional

objectives that are behavioural, precise, realistic and at an appropriate
level of generality that will serve as a useful guide to teaching
and evaluation. This job has been made easier as these are already
stated in the various curriculum packages designed by the Federal
Ministry of Education, which are available in schools. However, when you
write your behavioural objectives, use such action verbs like define,
compare, contrast, draw, explain, describe, classify, summarize, apply,
solve, express, state, list and give. You should avoid vague and global
statements involving the use of verbs such as appreciate, understand,
feel, grasp, think etc.

It is important that we state objectives in behavioural terms so as to

determine the terminal behaviour of a student after having completed a
learning task. Martin Haberman (1964) says the teacher receives
the following benefits by using behavioural objectives:

1. Teacher and students get clear purposes.

2. Broad content is broken down to manageable and meaningful pieces.

3. Organizing content into sequences and hierarchies is facilitated.

4. Evaluation is simplified and becomes self-evident.

5. Selecting of materials is clarified (The result of knowing precisely what

youngstersare to do leads to control in the selection of materials,
equipment and the management of resources generally).

Specifying the Content to be covered

You should determine the area of the content you want to test. It is
through the content that you will know whether the objectives have
been achieved or not.

Preparation of the Test Blueprint

Test blueprint is a table showing the number of items that will be asked
under each topic of the content and the process objective. This is why it
is often called Specification Table. Thus, there are two dimensions to
the test blueprint, the content and the process objectives. As
mentioned earlier, the content consists of the series of topics from
which the competence of the pupils is to be tested. These are usually
listed on the left hand side of the table. The process objectives or
mental processes are usually listed on the top-row of the table. The
process objectives are derived from the behavioural objectives stated for
the course initially. They are the various mental processes involved
in achieving each objective. Usually, there are about six of these as listed
under the cognitive domain viz: Knowledge, Comprehension, Analysis,
Synthesis, Application and Evaluation.

i. Knowledge or Remembering
This involves the ability of the pupils to recall specific facts, terms,
vocabulary, principles, concepts and generalizations from memory. This
may involve the teacher asking pupils to give the date of a particular event,
capital of a state or recite multiplication tables.

Examples:

Behavioural objectives: To determine whether students are able to define

technical terms by giving their properties, relations or attributes.

Question:

Volt is a unit of(a) weight (b) force (c) distance (d) work (e) volume

You can also use picture tests to test knowledge of classification and
matching tests to test knowledge of relationships.

ii. Comprehension and Understanding

This is testing the ability of the pupils to translate, infer, compare, explain,
interpret or extrapolate what is taught. The pupils should be able to
identify similarities and differences among objects or concepts; predict or
draw conclusions from given information; describe or define a given set
of data i.e. what is democracy? Explain the role of chloroplast in
photosynthesis.

iii. Application
Here you want to test the ability of the students to use principles; rule and
generalizations in solving problems in novel situations, e.g. how would you
recover table salt from water?

iv. Analysis
This is to analyze or break an idea into its parts and show that the student
understands their relationships.

v. Synthesis
The student is expected to synthesize or put elements together to form a
new matter and produce a unique communication, plan or set of abstract
relations.

vi. Evaluation
The student is expected to make judgments based upon evidence.

Activity I

Construct a test considering the following:

i. What is the intended function of this test? Is it to test

the effectiveness of your method, level of competence of the
pupils, or diagnose area of weakness before other topics are
taught?
ii. What are the specific objectives of the content area you are trying
to achieve?
iii. What content area has been taught? How much emphasis has
been given to each topic?
iv. What type of test will be most suitable (in terms of effectiveness,
cost and practicality) to achieve the intended objectives of the
contents?

Weighting of the Content and Process Objectives

The proportion of test items on each topic depends on the emphasis

placed on it during teaching and the amount of time spent. Also, the
proportion of items on each process objectives depends on how
important you view the particular process skill to the level of students to
be tested. However, it is important that you make the test a balanced
one in terms of the content and the process objectives you have been
trying to achieve through your series of lessons. Percentages are usually
assigned to the topics of the content and the process objectives such
that each dimension will add up to 100%. (see the table below).After this,
you should decide on the type of test you want to use and this will
depend on the process objective to be measured, the content and your
own skill in constructing the different types of tests.

Determination of the Total Number of Items

At this stage, you consider the time available for the test, types of test
items to be used (essay or objective) and other factors like the age,
ability level of the students and the type of process objectives to be
measured. When this decision is made, you then proceed to determine
the total number of items for each topic and process objectives as
follows:

(i) To obtain the number of items per topic, you multiply the percentage
of each by the total number of items to be constructed and divide
by 100. This you will record in the column in front of each topic in the
extreme right corner of the blueprint. For example, if 25% was
 assigned to topic ‘soil’ and if the total number of items is 50 then 12
items will come from the topic ie (25% of 50 items = 12 items).
(ii) To obtain the number of items per process objective, we also multiply
the percentageof each by the total number of items for test and
divide by 100. These will be recorded in the bottom row of the
blueprint under each process objective for example
the percentage assigned to comprehension is 30% of the total numb
er of itemswhich is 50. Hence, there will be 15 items for this objective
(30% of 50items).

(b) To decide the number of items in each cell of the blue print, you simp
lymultiply the total number of items in a topic by the percentage
assigned to the process objective in each row and divide by 100. This
procedure is repeated for all the cells in the blue print. For example, to
obtain the number of items on under knowledge on topic water with
30% coverage, you multiply 30% by 10 and divide by 100 i.e. 3.

In summary, planning for a test involves the following basic steps:

(1) Outlining content and process objectives.

(2) Choosing what will be covered under each combination of content an

d process objectives.

(3) Assigning percentage of the total test by content area and by proces
s objectives and getting an estimate of the total number of items.

(4) Choosing the type of item format to be used and an estimate of the n
umber of such items per cell of the test blue print.

Test and their Development

A test is a systematic procedure for measuring a sample of behaviour. It is a
measuring instrument.

Two important things to note are:

1. Systematic procedure.
2. Sample of behaviour.

Systematic

The test should not be given anyhow that must be a systematic way of giving it.

Look at:

- Construction
- Administration.
- Scoring
- Analysis
- Disseminations
These must follow form specific rules. A test should be a sample/representative
at what has been actually covered:- two things to note:

- The questions must be valid. e.g. in statistics the questions should

measure how much one knows statistics
- The questions must have reliability.

The terms test, measurement and evaluation are easily confused because all may
be involved in a simple process.

Test – is the set of questions. Measurement- is the assigning of numbers to the

test results according to a specific rule (counting correct answers). Evaluation –
adds the value judgment (good learning process of collecting, analyzing, and
interpreting information to determine the extent to which pupils are achieving
instructional objectives).
Construction of Classroom Tests:

The development or construction of classroom tests can be divided into three

major steps.

1. Planning the test.

2. Item writing.
3. Item analysis.
Testing, especially the classroom tests play a central role in the evaluation of
student progress. It is an essential part of teaching and therefore every teacher
at whatever level he/she teaches is called upon to test his/her learners. Testing
is important at all stages of education: primary, secondary and higher education.
As the test given by teachers/lecturers can have a permanent effect on the future
career of a student, he should take our responsibility of testing seriously. He
should know:

- Why we test
- How we test
- What use we should make of the marks we obtain from our tests.

General Principles of Planning a Test

1. The nature of the test must take into consideration the purpose it is to
serve, since as motivation, diagrams, mastery and achievement.
2. The nature of the test must take into consideration the conditions under
which it is to be administered such as age, level, ability and time.
3. Use a table of specifications, which relates the objectives to the subject
matter/ content. Specific test items are constructed in accordance with
table of specifications.

The Table of Specification

What is a table specification?

This is a two-way chart which relates the instructional objectives to the

instructional content and thus specifies the nature of the test sample. This is a
 plan of teacher/blue print especially when he wants to give a test. The table of
specification should have:-

-Specific content of the course/subject (general area/specific area of coverage)

-Specific objectives.

Table of specification

Example: 1

Table of specification for an educational statistics unit in the university

Objectives Knowledge
Comprehens
Application
Analysis
synthesis
EvaluateTotal
ion

Content

Definition of terms 2 2 3 3 4 1 15 15

Measures of central
3 3 3 5 5 5 25 25%
tendency

Measures of variability
3 3 3 5 6 5 25 25%

Standardization 1 of 1 3 3 4 3 15 15%
scores

Corrections/measures
1 1 3 4 5 6 20 20%
of relationships
 Total 10 10 15 20 25 20 10 100%

PERCENTAGE OF ITEMS
10 10 15 20 25 20 10

NB. There should be 100% in terms of content and objectives. Some cells may
be left blank because items in those areas are inappropriate.

Factors guiding the filling of the Table of Specification

1. Time taken in teaching the content.

- Long topics require many questions. Areas of content receiving
more instruction - time should be allocated more test items.
2. Emphasis put on the content/topic.
- Objectives considered more important by the teacher should be
allocated more test items.

Example 2:

Objectives

Content Knowledge comprehends application analyses synthesis evaluate Ev

definition 2 2 3 3 4 1 15

Measure of central
3 3 3 5 6 5 25
tendency

Measure of variability
3 3 3 5 6 5 25
Standardization 1 of 1 6 6 7 4 25
scores

correction 1 1 - 1 2 5 10

Total 10% 10% 15% 20% 25% 20% 10

There should be 100% in terms of content and objectives ways of filling the table
of specification/things to guide.

1. Time taken in the content.

- Long topic
- Emphasis on content.
- Long topical requires more questions.
2. Emphasis put on the content/topic.
Knowledge comes 10%

=>15x10 = 1.5 ≈ 2 questions.

150

Activity II

i. What is a table specification?

ii. Discuss Factors guiding the filling of the Table of Specification
iii. Construct a table of specification for 50 items in three topics of your
choices

Importance of table of Specification

1. It provides assurance that a classroom test will measure a representative

sample of instructionally relevant task.
2. By listing the objectives across the top of the table and the subject –
matter/ topics down the side of the table, we can weigh each cell of the
table in accordance with the importance we attach to each objective and
 each subject matter/topic. These weights indicate the number of tests
items to be devoted to each objective ad each subject matter/topic.
3. Without it, there will be a tendency to overload the test with items
measuring knowledge of isolated facts and to neglect the more complex
learning outcomes.
4. Without a carefully developed test plan, ease of construction all too
frequently becomes the dominant criteria in selecting and constructing
test items. Without a carefully developed test plan, the test tends to lack
content validity.

Writing the test

In preparing/writing a set of items for a test, there are some general rules of
item writing that apply to all item writing types of which include

1. Use the table of specification as a guide.

This describes the performance to be measured and the sample of tasks
to include. It serves as an aid for selecting the types of items to prepare for item
writing and for determining how many items are needed for each section
of the test.

2. Write more test items than needed for a particular test will permit the weaker
items to be discarded during later item review.
3. Write the tests items well in advance of the testing date.
Setting the items aside for several days and then reviewing them with a fresh
outlook will reveal any lack of clarity or ambiguity that was overlooked during
their preparation. It is frequently surprising how many defects slipped
through during the original item writing.

4. Writing each item so that it calls forth the performance described in the
intended learning outcome.
Both during item writing and later item review, compare the test task to the
performance it is designed to measure the two matches.

5. Write each test items so that it does not provide help in answering other
items in the test.
 Unless care is taken during item writing, one item may provide information
that is useful in answering another item.

6. Write each test item so that it is at the proper level of difficulty.

Be sure the difficulty of the item matches the performance to be measured
and the purpose of the test. Do not increase difficulty by adding unimportant
or irrelevant material.

7. Write each test item so that the answer is one that would be agreed upon by
experts.
This rule is easy to satisfy when measuring factual knowledge but more
difficult when measuring complex outcomes calling for the best answers.
Thus when asking for the “best reason”, the “best method”, the “best
interpretation” and the like, be sure that expert would agree that the answer
is clearly best.

Activity III

i. Discuss the Importance of table of Specification

ii. Discuss some general rules of item writing that apply to all item