Ch.Ye. Larionova, A.V. Kiyanitsa, N.Ye. Gubenko
Recently much attention has been paid to the improvement of education quality. Of particular importance in the educational process is control and evaluation of knowledge and skills of students.
The combination of continuous control activities, allowing to monitor and adjust as necessary the student’s movement from ignorance to knowledge, is called the monitoring of the quality of education.
One of the critical issues of monitoring technology is the use of means and methods of controlling the Learning. There may be test questions, assignments, tasks, etc., but the most effective is the use of pedagogical tests [1].
Pedagogical testing, as such is a form of controlling knowledge of students, based on the use of teaching tests. Testing in Education has three major interrelated functions: diagnostic, training and educational:
- Diagnostic function is to identify the knowledge and skills of a student. This is the main and most obvious function of testing. In objectivity, breadth and speed of diagnosis, testing wins over all other forms of pedagogical control;
- Training function is to motivate students to intensify the learning. To enhance the training function testing can use additional measures to stimulate the students, such as the distribution by a teacher of the preliminary list of questions for self-training, the availability in the testing itself the leading questions and prompts, collective review of test results;
- Educational function is manifested in the frequency and inevitability of a test control. This disciplines, organizes and directs the activities of students, helps to identify and address gaps in knowledge, creates the desire to develop their skills [2].
This test aims at measure the achievements in a particular discipline. Automated testing is particularly effective. Using computer technology to automatically control the knowledge facilitates the verification and centralized storage of results, as well as various statistical data for monitoring the quality of training.
For self-knowledge in developing of an electronic textbook «Ecology» three types of teacher testing are taken: testing of an open type, as well as with one or more correct variants, examples of which are presented below.
1. Select modern definition of ecology:
1) science about the house, dwelling;
2) science about the relationship between living organisms and the environment;
3) fundamental complex science of the nature, combining basics of a number of classical natural sciences.
2. Finish the phrase: «Combination of assimilation reactions and dissimilation are called ...»
(metabolism)
3. Soil as a life medium has the following characteristics:
1) low light level, 4) abundance of carbon dioxide;
2) a lot of light, 5) low density;
3) lack of oxygen, 6) the abundance of air.
Developers of the tests have the right to choose any scale of estimation. Test with the choice of one correct answer - one point per correct answer and zero points for incorrect. This test uses this evaluation system.
Tasks with multiple correct answers are considered to be fulfilled properly if you select all the correct answers. Typically, one point is given for correctly completed task, zero - for the wrong answer. You can use a wide range of estimates. In this tutorial the first principle is used. To determine the level of students’ knowledge at the end of the test statistics of correct answers is given.
The evaluation system is given at the beginning of the test, and clearly shows the area of its content.
Consider the concept of the electronic textbook «Ecology» (Fig. 1) and the testing structure (Fig. 2).
Figure1 - UML-diagram of the electronic textbook «Ecology»
Figure 2 - UML-diagram of the testing process
Compared with other forms of knowledge control testing has its advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages of testing:
- Testing is a better and more objective way of evaluation, its objectivity is achieved through standardization of procedures, checking of quality indicators while at the oral examination only 2-4 topics are evaluated, while the writing - 3-5. This allows you to identify the student's knowledge throughout the course, removing the element of chance when choosing the ticket (exam questions). With the help of testing you can set the level of student knowledge on the subject in general and its separate sections.
- Test is a more accurate tool, for example estimating scale of test of 20 questions is composed of 20 marks, while the usual scale of assessments of knowledge - only four.
- Testing is more efficient from an economic point of view. Basic costs for testing are in the development of quality tools, that is, are ad hoc. Costs for the same test are significantly lower than with the written or verbal control. Testing and monitoring results in a group of 30 men took two hours and a half, oral or written examination - no less than four hours.
Disadvantages:
Development of quality testing instruments is a long, laborious and expensive process. The standard set of tests for the majority of subjects has not yet been developed, and the existing ones normally are of very low quality.
- Although data received by a teacher after testing includes information on gaps in knowledge on specific sections, they do not give evidence on the causes of these gaps.
- The test can not verify and evaluate the high productive levels of knowledge connected with the work, i.e. probability, abstract and methodological knowledge.
- Coverage of topics in testing has the other side. A student during testing, as opposed to oral or written examination, does not have enough time for any deep analysis of the topic.
- Insurance of the objectivity and fairness of tests requires special measures to ensure the confidentiality of test questions. During the second testing it is desirable to make some alterations in the testing tasks.
- The testing has an element of randomness. For example, a student who did not answer a simple question can give the correct answer to the more complex. The reason for this may be as random error in the first question, and guessing of the answer in the second one. This distorts the test results and leads to the need to take into account the probability factor during their analysis [2].
Literature
1. Д.В. Чернилевский Дидактические технологии в высшей школе / Чернилевский Д.В. Учеб. пособ. для вузов. – М.: ЮНИТИ-ДАНА, 2002. – 437 с.
© Ch. Larionova 2009