SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY ?
EDUCATION 325-3
Testing in Schools
(E1.00) ?
(Cat.
#19845)
Regular Summer Semester, 1993
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Professor: Dr. Phil Winne
(May 3 - July 30)
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Office: ?
MPX 9506
Tuesday, 5:30 - 8:20 p.m.
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Telephone:
291-4858 or 3395
Location: MPX 9511
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E-mail: ?
winne@sfu.ca
PREREQUISITE: EDUC 220
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Students strive toward many achievements in school: knowledge and skills in various subjects, ability to think
critically, positive self concept, attitudes and cognitive tools for meeting challenges and solving problems,
creativity—and more. To plan and improve teaching, teachers need to sample and validly interpret information
about students' aptitudes, motivation, learning strategies, and achievements, and gather and use information about
how they teach. Tests—including observations, informal and structured performance assessments, practice exercises,
projects and portfolios, lab activities, teacher developed norm-referenced and criterion-referenced quizzes and
exams, and standardized tests—are tools helpful in reaching these goals.
Homework assignments and small group exercises provide primary milieu within which you will design tests,
analyze their qualities, critically interpret information they provide, and develop and justify a personal position
about the intersection of curriculum, learning, teaching, and testing in schools. Readings, modest lectures, and whole
class discussions will provide background information and integrative analyses.
OBJECTIVES
This course teaches knowledge and skills for assessing (a) students' learning processes, motivation, and
achievements, and (b) teachers' instruction so that the information obtained is accurate, clear, valid, and useful for
promoting students' growth, improving teaching, and evaluating educational programs. Topics include:
1.
Framing goals and developing objectives for students and for teachers.
2. Designing formal and informal assessments of students' behavior, cognitive and motivational processes, and
subject matter achievements.
3.
Designing and using assessments of classroom environment and of teaching.
4. Scaling and scales, reliability, and validity.
5.
Standardized tests used for diagnosis, placement, and certification.
6.
Issues attending educational assessment, including: test bias, accountability, ethics, evaluation of teachers and
educational programs, and provincial assessments.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Throughout the course, homework assignments and in-class activities will provide occasions to create, discuss, edit,
update, and justify a "unit evaluation plan." In the plan, you will characterize a classroom setting of your design,
develop objectives for students and for your teaching, create tests and assessments, and prototype communications
about test results for students, parents, and school staff. The unit evaluation plan and critical analysis of it will be
the basis for your grade in the course.
READINGS
Hanna, C. S. (1993).
Better teaching through better measurement.
Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
