Nursing Education For Evaluation and Developing, Format, Planning, Purposes & Grading of Test
Developing and Using Classroom Tests Multiple Choice and Alternative Format Test Items In Nursing Education
Using test questions, either written by the faculty or selected from a test bank (and revised as needed) is one more strategy that nurse educators can use to assess student attainment of learning outcomes. Although developing classroom tests seems like a relatively straightforward task, it is, in fact, an involved process.
The purpose of this chapter is to offer a step-by-step approach to planning, developing, administering, analyzing, and revising classroom tests. Understanding these steps will not only assist faculty to develop their own fair, reliable, and valid tests, but will also provide information for judging the quality of test items used on standardized tests and preparing tests from commercially developed test banks.
Planning Test In Nursing Education
Developing or using a test that is valid (representative) and reliable (consistent) requires much thought and planning (Tarrant & Ware, 2012). During the planning stage faculty must make thoughtful and informed decisions about the test design, administration, and use of the test results.
These decisions must be based on evidence, follow
best practices, and be made before the test is administered and graded. This
section discusses determining the purpose of the test, understanding
criterion-referenced versus norm referenced tests, developing a table of
specifications, choosing item types, writing structured response test items,
and improving the reliability and validity of a test.
Purpose of the Test In Nursing Education
Tests in nursing education are
given for a variety of reasons and faculty must first determine how the test
will be used. If using an already developed test, it will also be important to
understand the validity and reliability and other metrics of the test because
test results have significant consequences for evaluating learning as well as
determining students' admission, progression and graduation.
Tests Used to Determine Admission, Progression, and Graduation In Nursing Education
One of the first tests nursing students may encounter are those used for admission. Although there are a variety of standardized college admissions tests such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), many schools of nursing now use a battery of tests specifically designed to test basic academic skills of nursing students.
Standardized tests are also used, particularly in prelicensure nursing programs, to monitor students' progress throughout the program, and as an exit exam at the end of the program that may be used to determine if the student graduates (Santo, Frander, & Hawkins, 2013).
Because the decisions made based on these tests have serious consequences for the applicant or the student admitted and progressing through the program, these tests are referred to as high-stakes tests (Sullivan, 2014).
When administering high-stakes tests to make decisions about admission, progression, and graduation, the National League for Nursing (2010) recommends faculty make thoughtful decisions and understand how the test was developed, what constructs the test measures, the validity and reliability of the test, the readability of the test items, and the presence of linguistic or cultural bias.
If the test is to be used to predict success on a licensing examination, faculty must know how those data are determined and for which population of students. When using commercially developed high-stakes tests, faculty must also consider the ethical and legal aspects of using these tests as well as the cultural and socioeconomic diversity of the students who will be taking the tests (Santo et al., 2013).
For example, faculty must consider the implications for students
when standardized tests are used to determine progression or graduation for students
who have paid tuition, demonstrated attainment of learning on teacher-made
tests, and demonstrated requisite knowledge, skills, and attitudes in clinical
practice.
Tests Used to Determine Readiness or Placement or as Advance Organizers In Nursing Education
If the test is to be given before
instruction, as a pretest, the test may be used to determine readiness (the
grasp of prerequisite skills needed to be successful) or placement (the level
of mastery of instructional objectives). Administering a test that is similar
to a unit or final exam can also serve as an “advance organizer” to alert
students to significant content that should be learned and will be subsequently
tested (Carey, 2014).
Tests Used to Improve Learning (Practice Tests) In Nursing Education
During instruction, the test may be
used as a formative evaluation of learning or as a diagnostic tool to identify
learning problems. With the wide availability of test banks, such as those that
accompany textbooks, and the ease of creating tests in a test-authoring
component of a learning management system, faculty can also use tests as a way
for students to practice and assess their own learning .
Tests Used to Determine Grades In Nursing Education
As measures of learning outcomes, tests provide summative evaluation of learning on which grading decisions may be based. Tests may serve a variety of additional functions. For example, testing may provide the structure (eg, deadlines) that some students need to direct their learning activities or faculty may use testing as one means of evaluating teaching effectiveness by measuring the outcomes of student learning.
Types of Tests Criterion Referenced In Nursing Education
Tests Criterion-referenced tests are those that are constructed and interpreted according to a specific set of learning outcomes (McDonald, 2013). This type of test is useful for measuring mastery of subject matter.
An absolute standard of performance is set for grading purposes. Typically, nurse educators tend to use criterion-referenced tests because the goal of nursing education is for all students to attain mastery of the content.
For example, criterion-referenced tests are frequently
used to ensure safety in areas such as drug dosage calculation, in which the
absolute standard of performance may be set as high as 100%, regardless of the
performance of other students.
Norm Referenced Tests In Nursing Education
Norm-referenced tests are those
that are constructed and interpreted to provide a relative ranking of students
(McDonald, 2013). This type of test is useful for measuring differential
performance among students. A relative standard of performance is used for
grading purposes. Standardized tests such as the SAT and GRE are examples of
norm referenced tests.
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