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DIAGNOSTIC TESTING AND REMEDIAL INSTRUCTION Flipbook PDF
DIAGNOSTIC TESTING AND REMEDIAL INSTRUCTION
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DIAGNOSTIC TESTING AND REMEDIAL INSTRUCTION
Evaluation is the process which is inevitable in instruction. Carefully collected evaluation data help teachers to understand the learners, plan learning experiences for them, and determine the extent to which the instructional objectives are being achieved. The main purpose of classroom instruction is to help pupils to achieve a set of intended learning outcomes. When classroom instruction is viewed in this light, evaluation becomes an important part of the teaching-learning process. Evaluation procedures may be classified and described in different ways. Gronlund classified evaluation procedures into four categories which follows the sequence in which evaluation procedures are likely to be used in classroom instruction. They are: i) ii) iii) iv)
Evaluation of pupil entry performance in a sequence of instruction (Placement evaluation). Evaluation of pupil learning progress during instruction (Formative evaluation). Evaluation of pupil learning difficulties during instruction (Diagnostic evaluation). Evaluation of pupil achievement at the end of instruction (Summative evaluation).
1. THE MEANING OF DIAGNOSTIC EVALUATION The term 'diagnosis' is borrowed from the medical science. A physician diagnoses the deficiencies of the patient causing the disease and then starts treatment to overcome the deficiencies. Diagnosis has many of the same implications for the teacher, as for the physician. Educational diagnosis is a technical procedure designed to locate specific learning and instructional difficulties and if possible to determine -their causes.
Diagnostic evaluation is concerned with the persistent or recurring learning difficulties that are left unsolved by the standard corrective prescriptions of formative evaluation. To a medical analogy, formative evaluation provides first aid treatment for simple learning problems, and diagnostic evaluation searches for the underlying causes of those problems that do not respond to first aid treatment. Diagnostic evaluation is much more comprehensive and detailed. It involves the use of specially prepared diagnostic tests and various observational techniques. The main aim of diagnostic evaluation is to determine the causes of learning problems and to formulate a plan for remedial action. There are two purposes of diagnostic evaluation either to place the student properly at the outset of instruction or to discover the underlying causes of deficiencies in student learning. Diagnostic evaluation can be performed prior to instruction, within the instruction and after the instruction. It attempts to focus instruction by locating the proper starting point; entry behaviours and classifying students according to certain characteristics such as interest, personality, aptitude, skill in prior to instruction stage. In instruction stage diagnostic evaluation has its function to determine the underlying circumstances or causes of repeated deficiencies in a student's learning that have not responded to the usual form of remedial instruction. The causes may be related to physical, emotional, cultural or environmental factors. Diagnostic evaluation can be used after instruction to reveal the difficulties in that particular unit. Diagnostic evaluation is closely related to educational grouping. There are three categories of grouping: i) Inter school, ii) Intra school and iii) Inter class. In interschool grouping students are assigned to different types of schools. In intra schools grouping the students are grouped into
proper instructional group according to their level of prerequisite entry behaviours as it is done in comprehensive multipurpose schools. Intra class grouping place students in rather broad tracks, such as 'bright' 'average' or 'slow' or it too can try to place students in the proper instructional group on the basis of student diagnosis. Good diagnosis must be parallel to the process of good teaching. The exact nature of pupils' handicap must be revealed before it is possible to undertake a remedial programme. The more specific the diagnostic information revealed, the more exactly the remedial material can be made to fit the need. Though the basic purpose of diagnosis is the location of weaknesses and the determination of their causes, the knowledge gain through it should also serve as the basis for the preventive measures. The real importance in the discovery should lie rather in the preventation of its reappearance elsewhere under similar conditions. In short, the diagnosis evaluation is the process that applies to the act of 'seeing through' with a view to improve the situation or to remove the defect. The diagnostic tests are useful for discovering difficulties encountered by the pupils who are failing to make normal progress. 2. A DIAGNOSTIC TEST: IT’S MEANING From the above discussion it is evident that the purpose of a diagnostic test is different from that of an achievement test. While an achievement test is intended to evaluate the level of attainment, a diagnostic test is intended to find out what a learner has not achieved and why. Because of this difference in purpose the nature of a diagnostic test will also be different. The definitions of a diagnostic test as given by different educationists are as follows : "A test that is sharply focused on some specific aspect of a skill or some specific cause of difficulty in acquiring
a skill, and that is useful in suggesting specific remedial actions that might help to improve mastery of that skill is a diagnostic test." The diagnostic test takes up where the formative test leaves off. Tests that have been specifically designed for diagnostic purposes differ from survey tests. They focus on only those objectives that are relevant to diagnosis, they have larger number of part scores and a correspondingly larger number of test items measuring each function; the test items are based on a detailed analysis of the specific skills involved in successful performance and a study of common pupil errors; test difficulty tends to be lower in order to provide adequate discrimination among pupils with learning difficulties. In short, a good diagnostic test will permit a pupil to demonstrate all aspects of the skill being measured and will pinpoint the types of errors that were made. A diagnostic test is a useful tool for analyzing difficulties but it is simply a starting point. Supplementary information concerning the physical, intellectual, social, and emotional development of the pupil is also needed before an effective remedial programme can be initiated. 3. SALIENT FEATURES OF THE DIAGNOSTIC TEST A good diagnostic test has following salient features – 1) A diagnostic test is more elaborate, covering all the minute aspects and will consist of a large number of items of different levels. 2) More than one item is included from each teaching point in order to make sure whether the students know thoroughly. 3) There is no time limit because it is not ability but weakness that is being evaluated. 4) Diagnostic testing may include a battery of tests necessary for a single unit.
5) A diagnostic test undertakes to provide a detailed picture of strengths and weaknesses in an area. It is anticipated that this detailed analysis will suggest causes for deficiencies and provide a guide for remedial procedures. 6) Diagnosis is after all, a matter of degree. The investigator may probe and analyses with varying degrees of thoroughness and detail. 7) Diagnostic test is concerned with those pupils who are seriously deficient in some skill. The teacher is concerned with specific weaknesses of the weak. Hence the desirable psychometric properties of a diagnostic test are quite different from those sought in a survey test. It is not cared whether the test will make differentiations among the top and bottom pupils. 8) Since all the subtests of a diagnostic test battery are related to some or one general area of skill, it is natural that the subtests show sizable intercorrelations. The pupil who is deficient in one skill is likely to be deficient in others. 9) The psychometric attributes desired in a survey test and in a diagnostic test are so contradictory that a test that serves well for one purpose will almost certainly be poor for the other. A well designed diagnostic test could be completely inadequate to measure the abilities of the top half or three quarters of an ordinary school class. Conversely, a survey test will provide only a very general and rough appraisal of the deficiency of the poor performer. 4. CONSTRUCTION OF A DIAGNOSTIC TEST Construction of any test needs planning. The test should be standardized. Standardization is a process for refining a measuring instrument through scientific procedures. The various steps involved in the construction and standardization of a diagnostic test are described in the following paragraphs.
(A) Design of the test: a) Determining the purpose of the test: The general purpose of the diagnostic test is to be determined first. b) Defining the objectives: When the purpose has been defined, it should further be spelt out in terms of specific behaviour changes expected in the pupils. c) Determining the weightage to be given: Weightage to objectives, questions, content areas and skills are to be determined. (B) Preparation of the Preliminary Form of the test : Preliminary form of the test is prepared which involves following four substeps : a) Writing of Items: Items should be selected in such a way that the expected pupil behaviour in different situations is reflected in them. Each item should fulfill the criteria of a good question, b) Arrangement of Test items: The test items are to be organized and arranged as perform and difficulty levels from easy to difficult. c) Item difficulty: The items are to be adjusted according to their difficulty level. The difficulty of the test items should lie determined by the purpose of the Test. The first few items should be so easy that nobody miss them. The items should cover wide range of difficulty. d) Preliminary Try out: The test is then to be administered to a small but representative group of students. This is a preliminary try out of the test. It helps in editing and revising the various test items. The items that do not fulfill the criteria can be either discarded or removed. Time taken by various students to complete the test is to be recorded which will help to fix up the time limit for the final form. Since this stage is to serve as the basis for item selection, more items must be included in this
preliminary form of the test than are to be included in the final form of the test. (C) Item Analysis: The item analysis is an important step in test construction. The analysis of responses helps to study the learning of pupils and their failure to learn certain things. It is helpful in improving test items themselves and thereby preparing better tests. It is done in the following manner: 1) The students are ranked in descending order as per their scores in the preliminary form of the test. The responses of the upper 27% and lower 27% students are compared for each item. The responses of the students in the middle 46% of the group are not included in the analysis but are assumed to follow the same trend as those in the upper and lower groups. 2} The item difficulty of each item is estimated. The item difficulty of the test item is indicated by facility index (F) which is calculated by the following formula : F= RH + RL x 100 2n Where n = number of students in the upper or lower group. RH = number of item right. students in the upper group who got the RL = number of students from the lower group who got the item right. 3) The discriminating power of a test item refers to the degree to which it discriminates between the bright and the dull students in a given group. It is denoted by the discriminating index (D) which can be calculated by the following formula : D = RH - RL n
4) The effectiveness of distracters in multiple choice items are determined by inspection. In general a good distracter is one that attracts more students from the lower group than the upper group. Ideal distracters should be equally attractive. A distracter which attracts less than 5% of the students should be rejected or replaced if possible. (D) Final Form of the Test: Final form of the test includes: a) Selection of items: Item analysis of the preliminary form of the test provides the basis for discarding, improvising or selecting the items for preparing the final form of the test. Selected or improvised items are to be arranged in an ascending order of difficulty. For motivational purposes the first few items are kept so easy that nobody would miss them. b) Fixing time limit: Appropriate time limits are to be set for the final form of test. More time is allowed for diagnostic tests. c) Directions for administering the test: The test constructor should provide careful instructions for answering different types of questions and for recording answers. Directions to the students should be as clear, complete and concise as possible. The instructions should be printed on the test booklets. Instructions to the examiners are to be given in the test manual. d) Preparation of the Scoring Key : Scoring should be done by a predetermined method. The scoring procedure should be fairly simple. (E) Administering the Final Form of the Test : The final form of the test is then administered to a large but representative group of the students. This is final try out of the test. It helps in establishing norms and reliability and validity of the test. i) Establishing Norms : There are variety of norms such as ago norm;'., grade norms, percentile norms, standard scores norms and quotients. Norms based on representative sample of the population are to be
established. The norms provide the basis for practical interpretation and application of results. ii) Establishing Validity and Reliability of the Test: The validity and reliability are two important characteristics of the measuring instrument. They are established by using various methods of their establishment. iii) Manual of the Test: Every standardized test should be accompanied by the test manual. The purpose of the manual is to explain in detail what the test is supposed to measure, how it was constructed, how it should be administered and scored and how the results should be interpreted and used. It should explain the nature of the sample selected the number of cases in the sample and the procedure of obtaining the norms. REMEDIAL INSTRUCTION: IT’S MEANING Diagnostic testing is a method of identifying the students who are experiencing learning difficulties. Remedial instruction or teaching helps in overcoming the difficulties due to instruction. It helps the students to be with the normal students in acquiring the common level of achievement. The term 'remedial teaching' is generally used instead of remedial instruction by various educationists. The definitions are given below : The dictionary meaning of the term 'remedial teaching' given by Carter is : "Remedial teaching means special instruction intended to overcome in part or in whole any particular deficiency of pupil not due to inferior general ability, for example, remedial reading instruction for pupils with reading difficulties ." "Remedial teaching tries to be specific and exact. It attempts to find a procedure which will cause the child to correct his errors of the past and thus in a sense prevents future error." Yokam. "Remedial teaching of course has one of its chief functions the remedying or removal of the effects of originally poor teaching and poor learning. It is thus concerned with the pupil who for one reason or another has formed ineffective methods of handling the tools of
education. It is based upon careful diagnosis of defects and causes and aims to correct weaknesses and eliminates bad habits which may be found". So, remedial teaching is a special instruction. It is intended to overcome the difficulties of the students related to instruction. It is based upon careful diagnosis of defects and causes. It eliminates bad habits of learning. It also prevents future errors. SALIENT FEATURES OF REMEDIAL INSTRUCTION 1) Remedial instruction is a dynamic side of the diagnostic testing. Hence it depends on the educational diagnosis. 2) To overcome the difficulties in learning and in acquisition of skills is the main purpose of remedial instruction. 3) Remedial instruction is not only useful to cure the shortcomings but also in preventive measures. 4) Remedial instruction is a short term treatment. 5) Remedial instruction helps the below average students to be with the normal students in acquiring the common level of achievement. PRINCIPLES AND SUGGESTIONS IN REMEDIAL INSTRUCTION Blair has given following principles in remedial instructions: i) Begin where the pupil is. ii) The pupil should he frequently progress. informed of his iii) The work must be real and vital to the pupil. iv) Definite satisfaction on the part of accompanying the work. the pupil should v) Abundant and varied exercises and be provided. Following are some suggestions about remedial instructions: 1) Do not think that the pupil needing remedial measure is a dull one. 2) Do not assume that brilliant students need not require remedial measures.
3) Never start remediating without diagnosing the difficulties. 4) Remedial measures are not only essential in cognitive domain but also in affective and psychomotor domain. From the above principles and suggestions, it is clear that the teacher should consider all the factors causing difficulties in learning. Sympathy to the students is also an important aspect of remedial instruction. The difficulties at affective or psychomotor domain may cause learning difficulties. Teacher should investigate and overcome the difficulties. Remedial instruction should be given according to the areas of difficulties. Teacher should classify the students according to the categories and instruct. Remedial instruction needs remedial instructional materials and graded assignments as per the areas of difficulties. INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS FOR REMEDIAL INSTRUCTION
The nature of instructional materials for remedial instruction depends upon the nature of difficulties of the pupils, the level of pupils and the causes of the difficulties. There are varieties of instructional materials as charts, flash cards, programmed learning booklets, graded assignments, audiocassettes, video cassettes, auto cued learning materials, computer aided learning materials etc.