8.5 ATTITUDE SCALE

8.5.1 Attitude: Meaning

Attitudes are ideas that come from emotional content, beliefs, pre-dispositions, prejudices etc. An attitude is a state of mental readiness or set which predisposes an individual to react more quickly to a stimulus than to other stimuli:

8.5.2 Measurement of Attitude

Attitude can be gauged by attitude scales. The following two scales are designed to measure the degree or strength of attitudes.

1. Thu stone’s scale

2. Likert’s scale.

Thurston’s scale is also called as Equal Appearing Interval Scale. In this, a number of statements with different degrees Of strength are given: The subject will indicate agreement or. disagreement with them. The items are selected in such a way as to range along an equal interval scale from extremely favorable to extremely unfavorable.

Whereas in the Likert’s scale a series of simple questions are given.  Each question will be followed by five point scale, Strongly Agree, Agree, Undecided, Disagree and Strongly Disagree. That is why, Likert’s scale is called as Summated Ratings.

8.5.3  Attitude Scales: Uses

1.      The likes and dislikes of the counselee can be found out by attitude scales.

2.      It is possible to find out the individual differences accurately by attitude scales.

3.      The Counselee’s behavioural characteristics can be found through attitudes as the bases for an individual’s behaviour.

4.      Attitude scale is used to change the counselee’s behavior reliability favorably.

5.      Group attitude can change the nature of individual attitude. Therefore, by group attitude, individual attitude can be found out.

8.6 ACHIEVEMENT TEST : MEANING

When a student acquires knowledge in some area, then his appraisal is necessary. Acquired knowledge is a pupil’s achievement and the test which verifies this achievement is called achievement test.. This test informs us the limit upto which a pupil

has made progress in the class or in the area in which he gets knowledge. It also explores whether the pupil has gained mastery in the subject or not.

Super has defined achievement test as an achievement or proficiency test used to ascertain what and how much has been learned or how well a task can be performed. The form is an evaluation of the past.

According to Bingham, “Measurement of past accomplishment, both in and out of school when judged in relation to the length and character of the training of experience is called achievement test”.

8.7              ACHIEVEMENT TEST : TYPES

8.7.1        Teacher – made Achievement Test

Achievement can be measured with the help of teacher-made tests.  These tests are made by teachers themselves.  Tests of all the subjects are made by the teacher.  Teacher’s test-construction ability determines the success of the test.  All the teachers don’t have similar test construction ability.  The difficulty level of the questions set by different teacher varies.  It is a clear indication of the improper evaluation level of the achievements of the pupils.  In other sense, teacher made tests are subjective, lack reliability.  There is a lot of difference between standardized achievement tests and teacher-made tests.

8.7.2    Standardized Achievement Test

            These are the tests where reliability and validity are known to us.  Besides this, they are:

            1.         Made by experts

            2.         Constructed for different classes and subjects.

            3.         Of many types for one class and one subject.

            4.         Sets of a large number of questions.

            5.         Are constructed according to the set principles and rules.

            6.         To follow set and uniform instructions.

8.7.3    The difference between Teacher-made Achievement Test and Standardized Achievement Test

            These differences are given below:

Teacher-made Tests	Standardized Tests
1. These tests lack reliability.	1. These are reliable.
2. Teacher himself constructs this test.	2. Help of experts is sought in this case.
3. These are made according to curriculum of the class.	3. These are constructed according to the curricula of all the states & country.
4. No norms are determined	4. Norms are determined for various groups in these tests.
5. The scope of these tests is limited.	5. The scope of standardized tests is wider.
6. The content of testing material is not tested at the initial stage.	6. The content of the testing material of standardized tests is tested before administering the tests.
7. The teacher takes less time in its construction.	7. Its construction is time consuming.
8. These tests lack in scoring method and instructions.	8. There tests have pre-written scoring method and instructions.

8.8 CONSTRUCTING AN ACHIEVEMENT TEST

The classroom teacher should completely know the procedure for constructing and standardizing tests for use in his own classroom situations. The following steps are involved in the construction and standardizing.

i.    Planning the test

ii.   Preparing the test

iii. Trying out the test

iv. Evaluating the fest.

8.8.1    Planning the Test

Test construction needs planning as any intelligent work needs some sort of planning. Good tests do not just happen. An efficient planning should be carried out before preparing the test. It is time consuming, systematic and methodical, the process of constructing a good test. The test constructor must clearly understand the objectives to be assessed on examinees and their test-taking behaviour. The following steps are essential for an effective and efficient planning:

1. Specifying and defining objectives.

2. Specifying content to be covered.

3. Preparing a test Blueprint

1. Specifying and Defining Objectives

In the educational process, there is an intimate relationship between the objectives, instruction and evaluation. The objectives should give direction to the curricular methods and content. So, care should be taken to make adequate provision for evaluating all the important objectives. The following suggestions are helpful:

a) Important objectives which are assessed to be identified.

b) The student behaviour should be taken into consideration.

c) Objectives should be unitary.

2. Specifying Content to be Covered

The course content provides the means through which the objectives are to be achieved and it is important to specify the course content to be covered.

3. Preparing a Blueprint

Preparing a Blueprint is a most important activity in planning a test. A test blueprint or a table of specifications is a two-way chart that relates the instructional objectives to the course content, specifies the characteristics of the test sample. The test maker can use of this blueprint as a guide. It provides greater assurance that the test will measure the desired instructional objectives and course content in a balanced manner.

The following points should be taken into consideration to make the planning complete and adequate.

i.       Determining relative emphasis of content areas and process objectives.

ii.      Determining the type or types of items for the test.

iii.     Determining the total number of items for the test.

a.      The types of items used in the test

b.      The age and educational level of students

c.      The ability level of students

d.      The length and complexity of the item

e.      The type of process objectives being tested

f.       The amount of computation or quantitative thinking required by the item

iv. Determining the appropriate level of difficulty of the items.

8.8.2 Preparing the Test

Preparing the actual test items is the next task of the test maker after preparing the blue print. The following suggestions may be taken into consideration while preparing the items:

1.      The test or blueprint should be kept in view.

2.      Begin the preliminary draft of the test as soon as possible.

3.      There maybe more than one type of items included in the test.

4.      In the final test, most of the items should be in the 50-80 per cent difficulty range.

5.      It is usually desirable to include more items in the first draft of the test than in the final form.

6.      The test should be subjected to critical review after some time has elapsed or over.

7.      The items should be so phrased that the content rather than the form of the statement will determine the answer..

8.      An item should be so worded that its whole content, rather than only a part of it, functions in determining the answer.

9.      In the test, the items of same kind should be kept together.

10.    The items of any particular kind in the test should be arranged in ascending order of difficulty.

11.    Classroom tests should be considered powerful than any other tests

12.    Keep the reading level of questions low.

13.    A regular sequence in the pattern of correct responses should be avoided.

14.    A convenient written record of pupil’s responses should be made.

1 5.   The instructions and directions to the students must be clear, complete and short.

The instructions and directions should be so simple that everyone should comprehend and understand completely.

8.8.3    Trying out the Test

The test is ready after the items are framed. It should be tried out with the pupils for whom it is meant. Try out step has three substeps: Preliminary try out, Final try out and Scoring.

1. Preliminary Try Out

The preliminary tryout can be conducted over a small sample students selected at random and this test has two purposes and they are:

i.          Determining the time:- The test maker does not have an idea of time required for the test to be carried out. During the preliminary try out he can easily find out approximate time required by the students for answering the test. Stanley and Ross are of the opinion that the time allowed should be such that 75 percent of pupils are able to try with all the test items.

ii.         Identifying ambiguity or defective wording:- During, this preliminary try out, the pupils can point out the ambiguity or defective wording of certain items. The test maker will be in a position to change or reword the item according to the pupil’s opinion.

2. Final Try Out

            The defect and flaws can be rectified through the preliminary tryout and is now ready for final try out with appropriate change and correction. A sufficiently large sample of  the population should be selected for this purpose. The following important suggestions should be taken into consideration while administering the test.

           

1. Take every reasonable precaution to ensure excellent testing conditions.
2. Do not talk unnecessarily before the test.
3. Keep interruptions during the test to a minimum.
4. Avoid giving hints to pupils.
5. Discourage Cheating

3. Scoring the Test

The scoring procedures should be effective and efficient. The scoring procedure should be fairly simple so that it will ensure Reliability refers to the consistency of measurement, which uniform and speedy scoring. For objective tests, it is better to give is also an important characteristic of a good test like validity. same creditor each correct answer. It is unnecessary to weight the There are various methods for calculating reliability items according to their estimated difficulty or importance.

The corrected scores of pupils are obtained through correction formula which can be used wherever needed and necessary.