Updated: Mar 2000 | Assessment - Classroom Approaches | Teacher-made Tests

Teacher-made Tests

Teacher-made tests can be important parts of the teaching and learning process if they are integrated into daily classroom teaching, and are constructed to be part of the learning process - not just the culminating event. Burke. K., The Mindful School: How to Assess Authentic Learning, Revised edition (1997), p. 19

The key to the effectiveness of teacher-made tests is to make them an integral part of the teaching/ learning program.

Tests should be instructional and ongoing, to find out what students still need to learn and to determine different instructional methods to ensure success, rather than being given after the fact to find out what students did not learn.

Tests should cater for the diverse ways in which students learn: for example, by allowing for visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning.

Authentic tests will capture diversity by allowing students a wide variety of ways of demonstrating what they know and what they can do. Therefore:

	students need to understand the purpose and value of the test.
	the test must assess intended outcomes.
	clear directions must be given for each section of the test.
	the questions should vary from simple to complex.
	point values should be awarded for each section (e.g. true/false [2 points each]).
	the question types (true/false, fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, essay, matching) should be varied.
	tests must be easy to read (and leave space between questions to facilitate reading and writing).
	tests should reflect an appropriate reading level.
	tests should include a variety of visual, aural and kinaesthetic tasks.
	tests must make allowances for students with special needs.
	tests must give students some choice in the questions they select (e.g. a choice of graphic organisers or essay questions).
	tests should vary the levels of questions to include gathering, processing and applying information.
	tests must provide sufficient time for all students to finish.

... Pupils must be given the means and opportunities to work with the evidence of their difficulties. Black, P. Can teachers use assessment to improve learning? British Journal of Curriculum and Assessment, (1995), pp.7-11

Effective use of tests in formative assessment demands quality feedback to students. Feedback must be linked to opportunities for improvement through communication of strengths and weaknesses demonstrated. Errors or incorrect responses should be viewed as valuable evidence of where assistance is required.