COURSE OUTLINE: Assessment Instrument Development

COURSE OUTLINE

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MALANG

GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH EDUCATION

Course	Assessment Instrument Development		Code	PIGK908
Status	Compulsory		Pre req.	-
Credit	2 (two)		Hours	: 2 (two)
Schedule	:Wed.,4- 5   Wed.,7-8		Room	: H3.102   H2.103
Instructor	: Gunadi H. Sulistyo		Code	: 862210
Office Hours	: By appointment (0817532747; 082230685757)		Room	: International Relations Office (Gdg G-1 Lantai 2)

A. Course Objective

The course is provides students with advanced knowledge about the principles of assessment and skills to develop educational assessment instruments in English language teaching. It focusses on the advanced developments of assessment instruments to collect data in conducting their research studies for their dissertations, and/or to measure English skills for educational purposes.

More specifically the course is designed to provide the students with the opportunity (1) to make a general review of LT materials on educational tests and evaluation, on language testing in particular with its related aspects, which have presumably been discussed in LT textbooks and studied in S-1 and S-2; (2) to make more thorough and more elaborate studies of LT issues of importance or interest by critical review on concepts, theories and journal articles relevant to the issues for academic paper making on language assessment, and (3) to develop students’ own language tests, applying the basic principles and following the essential development steps down to administration of tryout tests and analysis of their results.

B. Content

The course content includes links between assessment and instruction (and research inquiries), approaches to language testing, principles of good assessment tools, LT current issues, including item response theory and data mining for language learning knowledge base, critical analyses on journal articles, stages of assessment tools (tests and non tests), and development of the assessment tools and the tryout.

C. Activities

Activities throughout the course include brief lectures, presentation, and discussion of assigned topics, assignment/project, and practice.

Classroom presentation and discussion: Prior to classroom presentation, individuals must prepare a brief summary based on the topic under discussion (max. 2 pages). Each has its turn of about a 20-minute power point presentation of the summary and discussions.

Project: Each student is assigned to construct a set of assessment devices as their final project.The test should be developed based on the test development principles followed with a tryout. The report of the final project is submitted no later than 3 (three) days after the last meeting.

D. Evaluation

The students` final grade will be determined on the basis of the following components:

            a.completion of weekly assignment/presentation       25%

            b. final project                                                             45%

            c  midterm                                                                   15%

            d  final examination                                                    15%

           

Regular attendance and presence will be considered as a criterion for admission to the final exams. Intelligent and active participation in class, if satisfactorily met, will be to round up the final grade.

E. References

1. Brown, H.D. 2004. Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices.White Plains: Pearson Education, Inc.

2. Baker, F.B. 1985. The Basics of Item Response Theory. Portsmouth, New Hamshire: Heinemann.

3. DeMars, C. 2010. Item Response Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

4. Heaton, J.B. 1988. Writing English Language Tests. New York: Longman Inc.

5. Hughes, A. 2003. Testing for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

6. Oller, J.D. 1979. Language Tests at School. New York: Longman Inc.

7. O’Malley, J.M. and Pierce, L.V. 1996: Authentic Assessment for English Language Teachers: Practical Approaches for Teachers. New York:Addison-Wesley Publishing Company

8. Weir, Cyril J. 1990. Communicative Language Testing. New York: Prentice Hall.

F. Schedule (Tentative)

Session	Topic/Materials
1	Orientation to the course, class grouping, topic/project assignment
2	Standard stages in assessment instrument development
3	Approaches to language testing: From Classical to Performance-Based
4	Test Forms based on Approaches and Their Applications in Standardized Tests
5	Quality assurance on internal attributes of a good assessment language devices: Reliability, Validity, and Classical Item Analysis
6	Test Wiseness: Definition, Types, and Implications, as well as Studies related with Testwiseness
7	Parallel Tests & Equating: Theory, Principles, and Practice
8	Mid Term
9-10	Issues in the Development of Standardized Proficiency Tests (Language Skills and Components): Academic: IELTS @ TOEFL and Vocational: BULATS @ TOEIC, TOEP
11	Issues in the Development of Non-Test Instruments (Rating scales, semantic differential scales, checklists, questionnaires and others)
12	Issues in the Development of Authentic Assessment: Portfolio, Project, Extended Response, etc.
13	Introduction to Item Response Theory (Comparison between CTT and IRT)
14	Requirements, Assumptions, @ Estimation of Parameters as well as Instrument Development based on IRT
15	Introduction to data mining (what, how, why) and its applications (for the purpose of students’ language learning knowledge base): theory, practice, and studies in ESL and EFL data mining
16	Final Examination
17	Final Project Due