MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION

INTRODUCTION
 Evaluation is an essential part of teaching learning process.
 In educational setting it is the process of judging the effectiveness of experience
through careful and systemic appraisal.
 It is the most crucial although most neglected part of nursing education as well as
nursing care provided by nurses.
 It is the only way by which a teacher can know how much successful his or her
teaching was, what areas in teaching need improvement, etc.
 Evaluation is also necessary to determine the extent to which curriculum
objectives have been realized or if there is need of any improvement.
Evaluation, measurement and assessment are three different terms which are used
synonymously, although the meanings of these terms are slightly different from each
other.

CONCEPTS OF MEASUREMENT, ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION

Measurement
 Measurement refers to the process by which physical specification (length, height,
weight) of an object is determined.
 It is the process of assigning a number to an attribute (or phenomenon) according
to some set of rules.
 It involves collection of quantitative data as well as comparison of a quantity with
a standard unit.
 In an educational setting it may involve the measurement of attitude, IQ, etc.
 Measurement in the context of learning objectives is the application of a standard
scale or measuring device to an object, events, or conditions according to practices
accepted by those who are skilled in the use of the particular device or scale.
Assessment
 Assessment refers to a test which is conducted to check the progress of a student
against some predetermined learning objectives.
Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
  It can be defined as the process of documenting knowledge, skills, attitudes and
beliefs of the students, usually in measurable terms.

Remember that all tests are assessment but all assessments are not tests. Sometimes a
teacher may require some tools for assessment, for instance, basic life-support (BLS)
skill assessment checklist is a tool used to assess the BLS skills of undergraduate nursing
students. Therefore, assessment is the specified conditions by which the behavior laid
down in an objective may be ascertained. Such specifications are usually in the form of
written descriptions.
Evaluation
 Evaluation is perhaps the most frequently used but least frequently noticed term
among nursing faculties.
 It is not simply administering a test to the students, checking the answer sheets and
announcing the marks to them, but it is the process of systematically assessing the
design, implementation and impact of programs, policies or projects.
 It is the most powerful tool in the hands of teachers to enhance learning. What
remains in the heart of evaluation is the “value or quality judgment”; without using
these two core words, the term “evaluation” cannot be explained.
American Evaluation Association states “evaluation involves assessing the strengths
and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve
their effectiveness”.
Clara M. Brown defines evaluation as never ending cycle of formulating goals,
measuring progress towards them and determining new goals, which means objective
quantitative evidence.
K Sudha R defines educational evaluations as a process of estimating and appraising
the degree and dimension of students’ achievements. Further, it is the process of
estimating and appraising the proficiency level of the particular educational practice
which is being conducted.
From the above definitions it can be inferred that evaluation is systematic process to
determine worth, merit, and significance of something or someone (procedure, policy,
curriculum, teaching methods, etc.) using criteria against a set of standards.

Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
PURPOSES OF EVALUATION
The overall purpose of evaluation is to provide information to enable each student so
that, he can develop according to his potential within the framework of educational
objectives.
 To provide feedback to the student about his or her strength and weakness
requiring special attention by him or her.
 To assess the progress of the student throughout the year.
 To determine whether a particular student is competent enough to be advanced
to the next class.
 To ascertain whether teaching strategies are effective or not; whether there is a
need to change the teaching strategies.
 To improve the curriculum in the light of recent advances.
 To satisfy the requirements of university for a curriculum.
 To recommend the names of students, who are eligible for a degree, to the
university.
 To report the progress of the student to the parents.
 To prevent the society from the quacks and those who are not competent
professionals by blocking them from getting degrees/diplomas.
 To assess the non-scholastic domains of a student's personality (interests,
attitudes, values).
 For the purpose of research.
Bloom stated the following main purposes of evaluation.
 To predict the educational practices which a particular student/teacher can best
participate in or organize.
 To discover the extent of competence which the students have developed in
initiating, organizing and improving their day to day work and to diagnose their
strengths and weaknesses with a view to further guidance.
 At the end of the course to certify students’ degree of proficiency in a particular
educational practice.
Purposes of evaluation in nursing education are as follows.
 To determine the level of knowledge and understanding of the students in their
classes at various times during the year or semester.
Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
  To determine the level of the students’ clinical performance at various stages.
 To determine each student's strengths and weaknesses and to suggest remedial
measures that may be needed.
 To encourage students’ learning by measuring their achievements and inform
them of their successes/failures.
 To help the students to become increasingly self-directing in their study.
 To provide the additional motivation of examinations that provides opportunities
to practice critical thinking, the application of principles, etc.
 To estimate the effectiveness of teaching and learning techniques of subject
content and instructional media in reaching the goal of their course.

PROCESS OF EVALUATION
Following are the steps that the process of evaluation follows.
 Determine the learning objectives which are supposed to be evaluated.
 Determine the type of learning objectives (cognitive, skill, and attitude).
 Develop valid and reliable tools to gather data related to the learning objectives.
 Tools for evaluation can be questionnaires containing essay type
questions and SAQs or MCQs, or it may be an observation checklist for
the evaluation of the skills. Choosing a right tool for a particular type of
learning objectives is essential for the success of the evaluation.
 The tools must fulfil the requirements of validity and reliability.
 Determine the approach for test administration (oral or written test, skill
performance, role play, etc.).
 Finalize the settings where it will be appropriate to administer the test
(classroom, clinical area, laboratory etc.).
 Administer the test/tools.
 Collect data.
 Analyze the data.
 Make judgment regarding quality and worthiness of the program on the basis of
the students’ scores on the test.
 Provide feedback to students.
 Revaluate whenever necessary.
Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
PROBLEMS IN EVALUATION / MEASUREMENT
1. Lack of Time
 Nursing faculty often makes complaints/excuses of lack of time for not evaluating
the students regularly.
 Lack of time may be a result of poor time management skills hence faculty must
try to overcome this barrier; still, if it is not manageable then they can hire external
evaluators from outside to manage the affairs so that, this core activity of the
education will not be jeopardized.
2. Lack of the Skills to Carry Out Evaluation
 Some teachers may not be competent enough to plan and execute the evaluation
schedule. These teachers must be identified by the principal of the college and
remedial actions, e.g., in-service education, refresher courses, etc., can be planned
for those who are in need.
3. Continuous Evaluation is not Cost Effective
 Sometimes continuous comprehensive evaluation may not be cost effective. But it
should not be a reason to hamper the process of evaluation; remedies to manage
the budgets should be explored and employed.
4. We Already Know Everything Which an Evaluation Will Tell Us
 This is a common misconception among the nursing faculty that they already know
about the students as they are routinely encountering the students, and hence there
is no need to administer any kind of test to assess the level of students, and it is
merely wastage of time, money and material. This psychology is totally wrong
because nobody can know about how good a student is in his or her studies until an
objective, reliable test is conducted.
5. Problem of Workloads of the Teachers
 Nursing faculty may be excessively burdened with teaching and non-teaching
works; for instance, they have to go to the clinical area for four hours daily
thereafter they have to take 10–12 hour classes per week, which means 2 classes
per day; beside that they have to perform a lot of clerical works (maintain class
and clinical attendance registers, getting the students’ leave signed by the
principal, planning time table, clinical rotations, etc.) so it becomes very difficult

Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
 to plan and implement this rigorous evaluation strategy which includes setting of
question papers, checking answer sheets and maintaining records of internal
assessment. That is a reason why the faculty avoids taking responsibility of
internal assessments. Education experts are required to give a thought on this issue
to solve the problem.
6. Problem of Lack of Curriculum Guidelines for Internal Assessment
 Most of the teachers are ignorant about the items that should be covered in internal
evaluation. Sometimes curriculum may not have appropriate guidelines for the
planning and implementation of internal assessment, or there may be lack of
guidelines regarding weightage of various internal assessment activities. Some
experts in the field of education suggest that following items should be covered in
internal assessment to make it comprehensive.
 Monthly tests.
 Unit tests.
 Assignments.
 Case presentations, planned health teachings.
 Participation in declamation, debate and related contests.
7. Lack of Uniform Standards of Evaluation
 Lack of uniform standards will cause inconsistency in the evaluation process that
may lead to frustration among students. Given below are some examples of
inconsistency in evaluation.
 Some teachers will allow retakes of tests and quizzes, others do not.
 Different policies exist for work turned in late.
 The validity and reliability of student assessments vary.
 There are major philosophical differences regarding evaluation. Some
teachers view learning as primarily a student responsibility, while some
place the responsibility for teaching mainly on themselves.
 There is little agreement on how many assessments and what kinds are
needed for evaluation.
 Even within the same school different teachers teach differently and test
differently for the same course.

Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
PRINCIPLES OF EVALUATION
Following are the principles of evaluation which must be observed to make it an effective
educational exercise.
 Principle of learning objectives: this principle reflects the importance of
learning experiences in the process of evaluation. Ideally, the evaluation should
be based on learning objectives of the curriculum.
 Principle of continuity: principle of continuity emphasizes that evaluation
should be a continuous activity throughout the academic session. Data collected
over the extended period of time are more reliable and valid indicator of a
student's performance rather than a one-day test. Therefore, students should be
subjected to evaluation every day.
 Principle of comprehensiveness: evaluation should be as comprehensive as
possible and involve scholastic as well as non-scholastic achievements of the
students (e.g., punctuality, honesty, personality). One of the reasons for the slow
progress of the nursing profession in India is attributed to less focus on the non-
scholastic part of achievement during evaluation, which shapes the overall
personality of the nursing professional.
 Reliable and valid tools: tools used in evaluation play a key role in the
effectiveness of evaluation. If the evaluation tools are lacking in reliability and
validity, it will not produce authentic data of students’ performance. Essay type
questions in particular are poor in reliability and validity, and hence a lot of
effort is required while framing essay types questions so that errors can be
reduced in evaluation.
 Variety: principle of variety emphasizes the use of multiple techniques in
evaluation. For instance evaluation should involve variety of tests as per the
different types of learning objectives.

Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
TYPES OF EVALUATION
Evaluation is a judgmental process and as such it reflects the belief, value and
attitude of the participant or student. Evaluation is divided into two categories, which are
as follows.
 Formative assessment or evaluation.
 Summative assessment or evaluation.
The term assessment is generally used to refer to all activities teachers use to help
students to learn and to gauge student progress.
Michael Scriven (1967) coined the terms formative and summative evaluation and
emphasized their differences both in terms of the goals of the information they seek and
how the information is used. It is assessment of learning versus assessment for learning.
The concept of formative and summative assessment can be explained by using the
example of day-to-day life “when the wife tastes the soup in kitchen while preparing, it is
called formative; when the husband tastes the soup and says wow! What a great soup!
That's summative evaluation.”
Formative and summative assessments are two different types of evaluation
approaches. Let us discuss one by one.
1. Formative Assessment
Formative assessment has a long history. It has evolved as a means to adapt to
student needs. It is more or less a reflective process that intends to promote students’
attainment.
Cowie and Bell defined it as the bidirectional process between teacher and student
to enhance, recognize and respond to the learning.
Bronwen, Cowie and BeverleyBell (1999) defined it as “the process used by
teachers and students to recognize and respond to student learning in order to enhance
that learning, during the teaching.”
 Formative assessment is the continuous comprehensive assessment of the student
throughout the year.
 It includes assignments, class tests, unit tests, midterm examinations, clinical case
presentations and drug presentations, which may be conducted weekly or
fortnightly.

Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
  Similarly, after teaching a unit of curriculum, the teacher should plan a test to
evaluate whether the objectives of that unit are realized or not.
 By doing so, the teacher can identify the students’ learning problems; effectiveness
of his or her teaching as well as provide immediate feedback to the students about
their progress.
 It also acts as a means of reinforcement to the students because when the students
know that they are doing a very good job it motivates them to learn better.

Formative Assessments are

 To enhance learning—the purpose of formative assessment is to enhance
learning not to allocate grades, whereas summative assessments are designed to
allocate grades.
 Part of instruction—formative assessments are considered as a part of
instruction and the instructional sequence. What students are taught is reflected
in their assessment.
Formative Assessments Produce
 Non-threatening results—the purpose of formative assessment is to identify
students’ learning difficulties and to take remedial actions to rectify them. Its
results are non-threatening as the students are not labeled as pass or fail.
 Immediate feedback—results of formative assessments are produced “on the
spot;” teachers and students get them immediately. Teachers get a view of both
individual and class performances while students learn how well they have done.
 Structured information—teachers can judge success and plan improvements
based on the formative results. Students can see progress and experience
success. Both teachers and students learn from the assessment results.
 Ways to improve—summarized formative results provide a basis for the teacher
to re-visit topics in the unit if necessary. Individual student responses provide a
basis for giving students additional experiences in areas where they performed
less well.

Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
Characteristics of Formative Assessment
 Small units are selected for assessment as soon as the teacher finishes his
teaching and students are asked for a unit test.
 It includes items at each of behavioral level specified.
 It helps the students to master each unit in particular and curriculum in general.
 It provides the teachers a platform to evaluate the students comprehensively
throughout the year which is a more reliable indicator of a student's performance
as compared to summative assessment.
 Results of the formative assessment can be effective in reinforcing to the
students if they achieve mastery or near mastery level in each unit of learning.
 Works as effective motivators as the marks are immediately shown to students
after the result.
 It helps the teachers in identifying the difficulties of the students, and modify
their teaching strategies to overcome learning difficulties faced by students.
Merits of Formative Assessments (Boston, 2002)
For Teachers
 Teachers are able to determine what standards the students have achieved and up
to what degree.
 Teachers can decide the requirements of minor modifications or major changes
in instruction so that all students can succeed in upcoming instruction and on
subsequent assessments.
 Teachers can create appropriate lessons and activities for groups of learners or
individual students.
 Teachers can inform students about their current progress in order to help them
in goal setting for improvement.
For Students
 Students are more motivated to learn.
 Students take responsibility for their own learning.
 Students can become users of assessment alongside the teacher.
 Students learn valuable lifelong skills such as self-evaluation, self-assessment,
and goal setting.
 Student achievement can improve from 21–41 percentile points.
Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
2. SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Summative assessment refers to the evaluation of the students at the end of the
session or term for the purpose of certification, grading or placement of the students.
When evaluation focuses on the results or outcomes of a program it is called
summative evaluation.
It involves the whole syllabus of the study rather than a particular unit and includes
a mark or grade against an expected standard.
The purpose of summative evaluation is to assess the overall achievements of the
students and to judge whether a particular student has learned enough to be promoted in
the next class or is eligible for the degree/diploma as per the predetermined criteria of
evaluation. It should not be oppressive as well as reactive as far as possible.
Bloom further classified the summative assessment in to two types, which are as
follows.
 Intermediate summative evaluation: concerned with less generalized, less
transferable and more direct outcomes.
 Long-term summative evaluation: refers to the evaluation of the entire range of
the outcomes that a student is supposed to learn.

Characteristics of Summative Assessment

 It is the procedure to grade students’ level of learning in predefined period of
time.
 It provides descriptive analysis of the students’ performance.
 It is not oppressive and non-reactive as far as possible.
 It is positive, tending to emphasize what students can do rather than what they
cannot.
 It is concerned with broad range of educational issues.

Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
 Differences between Formative and Summative Evaluation

Characteristics Formative Summative

To monitor progress of student by To check final status of

Purpose
getting feedback student

Content Focus Detailed General

Narrow scope Broad scope

Methods Daily assignment Tests

Observation Projects

Frequency Daily Weekly, Quarterly, etc.

Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
INTERNAL ASSESSMENT AND EXTERNAL EXAMINATION: ADVANTAGES
AND DISADVANTAGES
Internal and external examinations are two important evaluation strategies for the
overall assessment of the student in an academic year.

EXTERNAL EXAMINATION
The process of external examination involves the external components in terms of
question paper, viva voce, examiner and checking of answer sheets. The question papers
of examination are prepared by external panel of university experts; viva voice and
practical are conducted by external examiners appointed by the university. External
examinations are usually planned for summative assessment for a final decision. There
are some advantages and disadvantages of this approach of examination.
Advantages
 It ensures uniformity of evaluation for all students under a particular university
or board of examination.
 It strives to ensure objectivity in the examination system.
 It reduces chances of biasness that may occur if examinations are planned and
executed by internal teachers only.
Disadvantages
 It takes a lot of time to plan and implement external examination.
 It requires the need of appointing external examiners.
 External examiners cannot evaluate students’ comprehensively in a three-hour
practical test.
 It is time consuming for the external examiners as they require traveling to and
fro to conduct exam.

INTERNAL ASSESSMENT
Internal assessment is the assessment of the student by the teachers who teach
them a particular subject. The teachers themselves set the question papers or any other
activities for evaluation, administer the test and check the answer sheets.

Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
 Sometimes, it may serve as a full dress rehearsal of external examination for the
students. The marks obtained by the students may or may not be used for final grading of
the students.
Internal assessment takes into consideration not only the scholastic but also non-
scholastic achievements (punctuality, attendance, sincerity, etc.) of the students.
It fulfils the requirements of continuous comprehensive assessment of the students
by including a variety of evaluative activities, as follows.
 Viva voce.
 Class work.
 Assignments.
 Project activities.
 Problem-solving activities.
 Clinical diary.
 Cumulative records.
 Written tests.
 Case presentation.
 Participation in declamation, debate, community health service activities (pulse
polio program).

Purposes of Internal Assessment

 To help students know their strength and weakness so that they can be motivated
to work hard.
 To inform teachers about the strength and weakness of their teachings.
 To provide feedback for the improvement of the course contents, teaching
methods and teaching–learning process.
 To reduce fear of external examinations.
 To assess social, moral and personality development of the students.
 To inculcate regular study habits among students.
 To assess learning difficulties of the students so that remedial actions can be
taken by the teachers.
 To supplement external examinations.
 To manage the teaching–learning environment of the institution.
Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
Advantages
 Validity: internal examinations are more valid as compared to external
examination as it extensively covers the whole curriculum through the tests
conducted weekly or fortnightly.
 Reliability: it is a more reliable indicator of the student's performance as it
collects data over extended periods of time.
 It motivates students to study regularly throughout the academic session, which
in turn is helpful to maintain discipline of the institution.
 It enables teachers to identify difficulty in teaching–learning process.
 It helps to explore potentialities among students and to overcome learning
difficulties through remedial actions taken by the teachers for individual student.
 Reduces fear of external examination among students as it makes students
habitual to regular tests.
Disadvantages
 It is a time-consuming activity that requires a lot of time on the part of the
teacher to plan and implement internal tests throughout the year.
 It may be not be cost effective.
 It may include subjectivity on the part of the teacher; favoritism may be another
problem. Teachers may become liberal and lenient because of their personal
rapport with the students or some pressure from outside.

Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
CRITERION- AND NORM-REFERENCED EVALUATION

CRITERION-REFERENCED EVALUATION
It is an assessment technique where an individual's performance is compared to a
specific learning objective or performance standard and not to the performance of other
students.
Criterion-referenced assessment tells us how well students are performing on
specific goals or standards rather than just telling how their performance compares to a
norm group of students nationally or locally.
In criterion-referenced assessments, it is possible that none or all of the examinees
will reach a particular goal or performance standard as it is based on prescribed learning
outcomes.
Purposes
 Determine individual performance in comparison to some standard or criterion.
 Items based on standards given to students (i.e., objectives); most students
should answer correctly.
 Discrimination is irrelevant and should not take place; discrimination may point
to errors in instruction.

NORM-REFERENCED EVALUATION
Combined aptitude test (CAT) which is conducted for admission in Indian Institute
of Management (IIM) is an example of norm-referenced evaluation in which a particular
examinee's performance is compared with other examinees, and finally scores are given
in percentile and not in percentage.
Standardized tests compare students’ performance to that of a norm or sample
group. Norm group is the group of students who are in the same grade. Students’
performances are communicated in percentile ranks, grade-equivalent scores, or scaled
scores.
The term normative assessment refers to the process of comparing one test taker to
his or her peers.

Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
 A norm-referenced test (NRT) is a type of test, assessment, or evaluation which
yields an estimate of the position of the tested individual in a predefined population, with
respect to the trait being measured.

Purposes
 To classify students across a continuum of achievement from high achievers to
low achievers.
 Ascertains the rank of students.
 Determine individual performance in comparison to others.
 Items produce great variance in scores, perhaps with less than 50% scoring
correctly.
 Item analysis is used to select those items that were answered correctly by those
scoring high on a test but incorrectly by those scoring low on a test (a positively
discriminating item).
 It is inappropriate to use NRMs to determine the effectiveness of educational
programs and to provide diagnostic information for individual students; items
cover a broad range of content and often represent a mismatch between what is
taught locally and what is taught in other states.

Advantages
 One among the many advantages of this type of assessment is that students and
teachers alike know what to expect from the test and just how the test will be
conducted and graded.

Disadvantages
 It cannot measure progress of the population as a whole, only where individuals
fall within the whole.

Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)
 Differences between Criterion-Referenced Tests and Norm-Referenced Tests

Criterion-referenced tests Norm-referenced tests

Criterion-referenced test (CRT) is aimed Norm-referenced test (NRT) is aimed

to determine whether each student has to rank each student with respect to the
achieved the learning objectives specified in achievement of others so that, high and
the curriculum. low achievers can be discriminated.

At least four items are used to test every NRT uses less than four items to test
skill so that an adequate sample of student every skill and each test item is not
performance can be obtained for that equal in difficulty level so that
particular skill. All these four test items are discrimination between high and low
equal in difficulty level. achievers can be made.

CRT is based on the learning objectives NRT is based on broad knowledge and
which are clearly specified in the skill areas that are chosen from a variety
curriculum. CRT identifies how much an of textbooks, syllabi, and the opinion of
individual student has learned in relation to curriculum experts.
these objectives.

Each student's score is not compared with Each student's score is compared with
the score of others students because it is other students to assign percentile or a
irrelevant in CRT to compare the scores of grade-equivalent score for each student.
students with others.

A student's score is usually expressed as a Scores are expressed in percentile.

percentage.

Student achievement is reported for Student's performance is usually

individual skills. reported for broad skill areas.

Measurement & Evaluation (Mr. Anilkumar Jarali. Asst. Professor, MTIN, CHARUSAT)