Doris Shirley Hernandez

Jose Jaspi

Jaime Romero

William Lemos

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The purpose of the present chapter is to make reference about the differences between measurements, assessment, evaluation, and testing is fundamental to the knowledge base of professional teachers and effective teaching. Where Burhan (2009), defines evaluation as the process of obtaining information the process is made up five stages, namely, preparing, collecting the data, making judgments, making decision, and reporting. When he talks about Assessment, testing is the narrowest in scope. It is one of the techniques for collecting the data or scores. Additionally, Kizlik (2010) say: Assessment is a process by which information is obtained relative to some known objective or goal. In other words, all tests are assessments; generally, any evaluation process requires information about the situation in question. A situation is an umbrella term that takes into account such ideas as objectives, goals, standards, procedures, and so on.

Chapter 2

Validity and reliability 

can be conflicting needs for assessment techniques and procedures. The most reliable assessments will be pencil and paper tests in which each item measures only a single aspect of a skill and which give each tester a numerical mark. But the most valid assessments will be on those that collect a lot of information about performance on several aspects of a skill. When validity increased, reliability decreased.

validity: the highest content of the validity of a test, it's likely to be an accurate measure of what is supposed to measure, a test in which the main areas identified in the specification are presented or not represented at all. such a test is likely to have a detrimental effect. areas that have not been tested are likely to become areas ignored in teaching and learning. Too often the content of the test is determined by the ease of testing rather than what is important to test. the best protection against this is to write the test specifications and to ensure that the content of the test is a true reflection of this, content validation should be performed while developing a test, you should not expect to complete the test used.

Reliability depends on the type of test and the time it could take to take, ie, the most important desicion for reliability is: if we are to reject someone on your opportunity to study abroad because of their score on a language test, then we must be very sure that your score would not have been very different if it was been tested for a day or two before or after. to explain the coefficient is contuniacion reliability can get to use and estimate possible differences of this kind.

The first requirement is to have two sets of scores to compare. The most obvious way to get these is to get a group of subjects and take the same test twice. This is known as the test-retest method. taking the test is too soon after the first, then subjects tend to remember the elements and responses, so that the probability of responses and ran them falsely elevated reliability. If too much time between tests and the other, then learning has taken place, and the ratio will be lower than it should be. When the time is very long it is unlikely that subjects take the same test twice, and this is also likely to have a negative effect on the coefficient. These effects are reduced somewhat by the use of different forms of the same test, however, the shape of the tests is not the same in many occasions.

Reliability is important because it verifies the form of how it should be built the test scores compared to administration in the form in which it can be administered on two separate occasions for the same group of students and the results will be similar.

Chapter 3.

Formative Vs. Summative Assessment

A formative assessment assists the teacher in forming new lessons,  and assist the learning process by providing feedback to the learner, which show students' strengths and weaknesses. Teachers use this data to plan strong lessons or modify strategies that are not working, while students use the results as a sign of their progress. While a summative assessment comes at the end of a lesson, semester or year for a summary of what the student has learned.  It is used primarily to make decisions for grading or determine readiness for progression.

Informal vs. Formal Assessment

Informal assessments include observations, interviews, record reviews, and performance reviews that are less structured than formal assessments and may not be validated or tested for reliability. Informal assessment is most often used to provide formative feedback. While Formal assessments consist primarily of standardized tests or performance reviews that have been validated and tested using samples of the intended test groups. Also, this assessments  should be held to higher standards of reliability and validity than informal assessments.

Continuous vs. Final Assessment

Continuous assessment is most appropriate when student and/or instructor knowledge of progress or achievement is needed to determine the subsequent progression or sequence of activities. Continuous assessment provides both students and teachers with the information needed to improve teaching and learning in process. Also, involves increased effort for both teacher and student.  While Final assessment is that which takes place only at the end of a learning activity, it is used for summative decision-making and cannot be used for formative purposes.

Process vs. Product Assessment

Process is most useful when a student is learning a new skill and for providing formative feedback to assist in improving performance.  They can provide diagnostic information on how well the students use learning strategies that leads to independent learning because it requires them to reflect on their learning and set goals to improve it. While product is appropriate for documenting proficiency or competency in a given skill for summative purposes. In general, product assessments are easier to create than product assessments, requiring only a specification of the attributes of the final product.

 Divergent vs. Convergent Assessment

Divergent assessments are those for which a range of answers or solutions might be considered correct and tend to be more authentic and most appropriate in evaluating higher cognitive skills but are often time consuming to evaluate and the resulting judgments often exhibit poor reliability. While convergent assessment has only one correct response, that's why this kind of assessments are easier to evaluate or score than divergent assessments.