Q 1: Explain the significance and scope of establishment of partnership between the teacher training institutions of Pakistan?

Answer:

Society has developed itself into a complex system of organisations and interactions,
therefore the demands on schools and schooling has become greater. The need for
professional teachers grew with it. Teaching is formative in nature and one grows within the
profession and hence through daily experiences. As a result of this, various countries have
over the years developed different modes of school-based teacher training.
Society has developed itself into a complex system of organisations and interactions,
therefore the demands on schools and schooling has become greater. The need for
professional teachers grew with it. With the recognition of teaching as a profession it has
been acknowledged that all teachers require specialised training, in order to develop the
knowledge and competencies necessary to take on teaching. However, educating teachers in
specialized institutes was not the whole answer in the demand for qualified teachers. At the
end of the 1980s the growing dissatisfaction with ‘teaching practice’ culminated in a UNESCO
report. (Down, 1995). Teacher preparation was regarded as insufficient, due to a lack of
linkages between for instance subject matter and teaching processes, and preparation for
diverse class/school situations. Furthermore, the lack of training of cooperating teachers and
the lack of credibility of college or university supervisors was seen as a real problem. (Down,
1995). As a result of this, pre-service teacher education practically all over Europe, the USA
and Australia went through vigorous changes. One model which tried to address these
concerns was one which encouraged a strong partnership between universities, colleges and
schools. (Down, 1995). Since then, in different countries in and outside Europe, several models
of partnerships and types of cooperation between schools and institutes for teacher
education emerged, under the general heading of school-based teacher education. (e.g.
Furlong, 1996, Bulloch, 1997 and Snoek, 2001).

Therefore the main purpose of the Faculty of Education Professional Development School
Partnership will be simultaneous renewal of the teacher education programme at the
university and teaching and learning in schools. The setting up of Faculty-School Partnerships
offers us the possibility of exploring different ways of learning as a result of which there will
be greater relevance to the teaching-learning context (Teitel, 1998; Zeichner and Miller, 1997).
PDSs create opportunities, which allow us, st annual atee Association of Teacher Education in
Europe conference 749 as teacher educators, to take on different roles. It is within such a
context that we expect beginning teacher educators to feel at their best. They have just left
the classrooms and are therefore ideally positioned to establish the necessary philosophical
and pedagogical underpinnings necessary for any professional discourse to take place.
Experience has shown us the need to work together with teachers in schools. On the one
hand we need teachers at the school site who, through their diverse qualities, will be good
models to prospective teachers. In this respect teachers can serve as mentors or co-operating
teachers, both fulfilling different but complimentary roles. On the other hand, the university
lecturer has the opportunity of getting closer to the school and establishing the ground for
educational discourse to take place between the student-teachers and lecturers alike. Such
opportunities do not only effect the personal and professional development of participants in
the classroom context but also address areas which go beyond the classroom and which
effect school-life in general. The contribution by mentors should ascertain a faculty-school
partnership in at least the following areas: the training of student-teachers, the development
of school programmes and continued teacher formation. In this model, the student-teacher
learns from a mentor and a cooperating teacher by spending quality time in the classroom
observing the co-operating teacher perform tasks, asking questions and receiving assistance,
and gradually assuming increasing personal responsibilities as his/her knowledge and skills
develop. The cooperating teacher initially models the task for the student-teacher, and then
provides coaching (i.e. instructions, feedback) as the student-teacher attempts the task,
fading the amount of coaching and turning over more and more responsibility for
independent task completion to the student-teacher as his/her skills develop. In their
experience Neubert and Binko (1998) found that the PDS internship was more effective that
the regular programme in preparing teacher candidates to maintain classroom discipline, use

technology effectively, and reflect on their teaching. Berrill (1997) and Neubert and Binko
(1998) explain that the use of mentors as teacher trainers in schools, has actually even had a
profound developmental effect on the qualified teachers themselves. They become more
skilled at using theoretical discourse as part of their daily practice. With the introduction of
such partnerships we aim to create and sustain a climate where professional discourse and
action take place which will be of benefit to the student-teachers and the schools. Rather than
going in for a six-week block teaching practice where the student is in full-control of a
classroom we would like to introduce an atmosphere where the student has opportunities to
work in a number of scenarios/contexts with different groups of students. It will also create
opportunities for students to experience school life and whole school activities/initiatives
rather than being involved only with one class. Through this approach we hope to overcome
one of the main problems facing beginning teachers when they are confronted with
unexpected aspects of the job which reflect that teaching is by far a complex activity which
goes well beyond teaching a subject or class but one which involves countless interacting and
changing variables. The scenario we want is one which encourages, develops, nurtures and
sustains professional dialogue which enhances the teaching and learning experience of all
participants which now no longer involve student, class and university tutor only, but is
extended further to include mentor and co-operating teacher. It also allows the student to
engage in developing the skills of reflection and application which was difficult to engage in,
given the previous model (Pollard, 1998).



Q 2: Explain the concept of validity of a test; also explain different types of validity of test.

Answer:
Test validity is the extent to which a test (such as a chemical, physical, or scholastic test)
accurately measures what it is supposed to measure. In the fields of psychological testing and
educational testing, "validity refers to the degree to which evidence and theory support the
interpretations of test scores entailed by proposed uses of tests". Although classical models
divided the concept into various "validities" (such as content validity, criterion validity, and
construct validity), the currently dominant view is that validity is a single unitary construct.
Validity is generally considered the most important issue in psychological and educational
testing because it concerns the meaning placed on test results. Though many textbooks
present validity as a static construct, various models of validity have evolved since the first
published recommendations for constructing psychological and education tests.[6] These
models can be categorized into two primary groups: classical models, which include several
types of validity, and modern models, which present validity as a single construct. The
modern models reorganize classical "validities" into either "aspects" of validity[3] or "types" of
validity-supporting evidence
Test validity can itself be tested/validated using tests of inter-rater reliability, intra-rater
reliability, repeatability (test-retest reliability), and other traits, usually via multiple runs of the
test whose results are compared. Statistical analysis helps determine whether the differences
between the various results either are large enough to be a problem or are acceptably small.

Different types of validity of test:

External Validity
External validity is about generalization: To what extent can an effect in research, be
generalized to populations, settings, treatment variables, and measurement variables?
External validity is usually split into two distinct types, population validity and ecological
validity and they are both essential elements in judging the strength of an experimental
design.

Internal Validity
Internal validity is a measure which ensures that a researcher's experiment design closely
follows the principle of cause and effect.
“Could there be an alternative cause, or causes, that explain my observations and
results?”

Test Validity
Test validity is an indicator of how much meaning can be placed upon a set of test results.

Criterion Validity
Criterion Validity assesses whether a test reflects a certain set of abilities.
• Concurrent validity measures the test against a benchmark test and high correlation
indicates that the test has strong criterion validity.
• Predictive validity is a measure of how well a test predicts abilities. It involves testing a
group of subjects for a certain construct and then comparing them with results
obtained at some point in the future.

Content Validity
Content validity is the estimate of how much a measure represents every single element of a
construct.

Construct Validity
Construct validity defines how well a test or experiment measures up to its claims. A test
designed to measure depression must only measure that particular construct, not closely
related ideals such as anxiety or stress.
• Convergent validity tests that constructs that are expected to be related are, in fact,
related.
• Discriminant validity tests that constructs that should have no relationship do, in fact,
not have any relationship. (also referred to as divergent validity)

Face Validity
Face validity is a measure of how representative a research project is ‘at face value,' and
whether it appears to be a good project.



Q 3: Describe the importance of table of specification also develop a two way table of specification for 50 marks paper by selecting any unit from 9th class general science.

Answer:
The purpose of a Table of Specifications is to identify the achievement domains being
measured and to ensure that a fair and representative sample of questions appear on the test.
Teachers cannot measure every topic or objective and cannot ask every question they might
wish to ask. A Table of Specifications allows the teacher to construct a test which focuses on
the key areas and weights those different areas based on their importance. A Table of
Specifications provides the teacher with evidence that a test has content validity, that it covers
what should be covered.

Designing a Table of Specifications
Tables of Specification typically are designed based on the list of course objectives, the topics
covered in class, the amount of time spent on those topics, textbook chapter topics, and the
emphasis and space provided in the text. In some cases a great weight will be assigned to a
concept that is extremely important, even if relatively little class time was spent on the topic.

Three steps are involved in creating a Table of Specifications:
1) choosing the measurement goals and domain to be covered,
 2) breaking the domain into key or fairly independent parts- concepts, terms, procedures, applications, and
3) constructing the table. Teachers have
already made decisions (or the district has decided for them) about the broad areas that
should be taught, so the choice of what broad domains a test should cover has usually
already been made. A bit trickier is to outline the subject matter into smaller components, but
most teachers have already had to design teaching plans, strategies, and schedules based on
an outline of content. Lists of classroom objectives, district curriculum guidelines, and
textbook sections, and keywords are other commonly used sources for identifying categories
for Tables of Specification. When actually constructing the table, teachers may only wish to
use a simple structure, as with the first example above, or they may be interested in greater
detail about the types of items, the cognitive levels for items, the best mix of objectively
scored items, open-ended and constructed-response items, and so on, with even more
guidance than is provided in the second example.

Task Prompts Assessment Criteria (rubric)

Reading 3.0: Read and respond to
historically or culturally significant

works of literature and conduct in-
depth analyses of recurring themes.

Reading 3.2: Analyze how the theme
or meaning of a selection represents
a view or comment on life, using
textual evidence to support the

SWBAT:
• Draw conclusions about literature
through textual analysis.
• Respond in writing to recurring
themes
• Use examples and quotes from the
text to support their viewpoint on
themes in the literature.

Pick one recurring theme from The
House on Mango Street. What do
you think Cisneros is trying to
communicate through this personal
narrative? Write a 4 paragraph essay
on this question and use textual
evidence to support your thesis.

Ideas: Essay is focused and uses interesting, original
details. Thesis is clear, convincing, and fresh. Supporting
details are accurate and relevant. Quotations are carefully
selected, thought-provoking, and support thesis. Essay
analyzes literature and shows thorough understanding of
the text.
How can the use of a Table of Specifications benefit your students, including those with special needs?
A Table of Specifications benefits students in two ways. First, it improves the validity of teacher-made tests. Second, it can improve student
learning as well.
A Table of Specifications helps to ensure that there is a match between what is taught and what is tested. Classroom assessment should be
driven by classroom teaching which itself is driven by course goals and objectives. In the chain below, Tables of Specifications provide the
link between teaching and testing.
Objectives Teaching Testing
Tables of Specifications can help students at all ability levels learn better. By providing the table to students during instruction, students can
recognize the main ideas, key skills, and the relationships among concepts more easily. The Table of Specifications can act in the same way

as a concept map to analyze content areas. Teachers can even collaborate with students on the construction of the Table of Specifications-
what are the main ideas and topics, what emphasis should be placed on each topic, what should be on the test? Open discussion and

negotiation of these issues can encourage higher levels of understanding while also modeling good learning and study skills.
Table of Specifications for a Performance Task (Cells can be cleared to create your own. You can also add rows.)





Q 4: a) Explain the cognitive domain of Bloom’s Taxonomy of education objective.

Answer:
Bloom's Taxonomy was created in 1956 under the leadership of educational psychologist Dr
Benjamin Bloom in order to promote higher forms of thinking in education, such as analyzing
and evaluating concepts, processes, procedures, and principles, rather than just remembering
facts (rote learning). It is most often used when designing educational, training, and learning
processes.

The Three Domains of Learning

The committee identified three domains of educational activities or learning (Bloom, et al.
1956):
o Cognitive: mental skills (knowledge)
o Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (attitude or self)
o Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (skills)

Since the work was produced by higher education, the words tend to be a little bigger than
we normally use. Domains may be thought of as categories. Instructional designers, trainers,
and educators often refer to these three categories as KSA (Knowledge [cognitive], Skills
[psychomotor], and Attitudes [affective]). This taxonomy of learning behaviors may be
thought of as “the goals of the learning process.” That is, after a learning episode, the learner
should have acquired a new skill, knowledge, and/or attitude. While the committee produced
an elaborate compilation for the cognitive and affective domains, they omitted the
psychomotor domain. Their explanation for this oversight was that they have little experience
in teaching manual skills within the college level. However, there have been at least three
psychomotor models created by other researchers.
Their compilation divides the three domains into subdivisions, starting from the simplest
cognitive process or behavior to the most complex. The divisions outlined are not absolutes
and there are other systems or hierarchies that have been devised, such as the Structure of
Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO). However, Bloom's taxonomy is easily understood and is
probably the most widely applied one in use today.

Cognitive Domain

The cognitive domain involves knowledge and the development of intellectual skills (Bloom,
1956). This includes the recall or recognition of specific facts, procedural patterns, and
concepts that serve in the development of intellectual abilities and skills. There are six major
categories of cognitive an processes, starting from the simplest to the most complex (see
the table below for an in-depth coverage of each category):

o Knowledge
o Comprehension
o Application
o Analysis
o Synthesis
o Evaluation

The categories can be thought of as degrees of difficulties. That is, the first ones must
normally be mastered before the next one can take place.
Bloom's Revised Taxonomy
Lorin Anderson, a former student of Bloom, and David Krathwohl revisited the cognitive
domain in the mid-nineties and made some changes, with perhaps the three most prominent
ones being (Anderson, Krathwohl, Airasian, Cruikshank, Mayer, Pintrich, Raths, Wittrock, 2000):
o changing the names in the six categories from noun to verb forms
o rearranging them as shown in the chart below
o creating a processes and levels of knowledge matrix



Q 4: b) Compare the Blooms taxonomy with SOLO Taxonomy of educational objectives.

Answer:

The reasons why we prefer to use SOLO Taxonomy

The SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs & Collis, 1982), provides a measure of cognitive learning
outcomes or understanding of thinking, that, in my experience, teachers have felt comfortable
adopting. This hierarchical model is comprehensive, supported by objective criteria, and used
across different subjects and on differing types of assignments (Hattie & Purdie, 1998).
Teachers enjoy the way that SOLO represents student learning of quite diverse material in
stages of ascending structural complexity, and that these stages display a similar sequence
across tasks. Furthermore, surface or deep levels of understanding can be planned for and
assessed by coding a student’s thinking performance against unistructural, multistructural,
relational, or extended abstract categories, as shown in Table 1. Using visual symbols to
represent levels of understanding in SOLO means that coding for complexity of thinking can
be undertaken by both student and teacher, allowing “where should we go next?” decisions
and thinking interventions to more accurately target student learning needs. Hook, P. 2006 A
Thinking Curriculum NZCER p100

Notes from Professor John Hattie

Course 224: Assessment in the Classroom (The University of Auckland)
"Creating best tests using Bloom's taxonomy or the SOLO classification."

Critique of Bloom's taxonomy

The taxonomy was published in 1956, has sold over a million copies, has been translated into
several languages, and has been cited thousands of times. The Bloom taxonomy has been
extensively used in teacher education to suggest learning and teaching strategies, has formed
the basis of many tests developed by teachers (at least while they were in teacher training),
and has been used to evaluate many tests. It is thus remarkable that the taxonomy has been
subject to so little research or evaluation.
Most of the evaluations are philosophical treatises noting, among other criticisms, that there
is no evidence for the invariance of these stages, or claiming that the taxonomy is not based
on any known theory of learning or teaching.
▪ The Bloom taxonomy presupposes that there is a necessary relationship between the
questions asked and the responses to be elicited, whereas in the SOLO taxonomy both
the questions and the answers can be at differing levels.

▪ Whereas Bloom separates 'knowledge' from the intellectual abilities or process that
operate on this 'knowledge' , the SOLO taxonomy is primarily based on the processes
of understanding used by the students when answering the prompts. Knowledge,
therefore, permeates across all levels of the SOLO taxonomy.
▪ Bloom has argued that his taxonomy is related not only to complexity but also to an
order of difficulty such that problems requiring behaviour at one level should be
answered more correctly before tackling problems requiring behaviour at a higher
level. Although there may be measurement advantages to this increasing difficulty, this
is not a necessary requirement of the SOLO method. It is possible for an item at the
relational level, for example, to be constructed so that it is less difficult than an item at
the unistructural level. For example, an item aiming to elicit relational responses might
be 'How does the movement of the Earth relative to the sun define day and night'. This
may be easier (depending on instruction, etc.) than a unistructural item that asks 'What
does celestial rotation mean?'
▪ Bloom’s taxonomy is not accompanied by criteria for judging the outcome of the
activity (Ennis, 1985), whereas SOLO is explicitly useful for judging the outcomes. Take
for example, a series of art questions suggested by Hamben (1984).
Knowledge. Who painted Guernica?
Comprehension. Describe the subject matter of Guernica.
Application. Relate the theme of Guernica to a current event.
Analysis. What compositional principles did Picasso use in Guernica?
Synthesis. Imagine yourself as one of the figures in Guernica and describe your life history?
Evaluation. What is your opinion of Picasso’s Guernica?
When using Bloom’s taxonomy, the supposition is that the question leads to the particular
type of Bloom response. There is no necessary relationship, however, as a student may
respond with a very deep response to the supposedly lower order question: 'Describe the
subject matter of Guernica?' Similarly, a student may provide a very surface response to 'What
is your opinion of Picasso’s Guernica'? When using the SOLO taxonomy, either the questions
would be written in a different manner, or the test scorer would concentrate on classifying the
responses only. An example of re-writing to maximise the correspondence between the
question asked and the answer expected is:
Unistructural. Who painted Guernica?
Multistructural. Outline at least two compositional principles that Picasso used in Guernica.
Relational. Relate the theme of Guernica to a current event.
Extended Abstract. What do you consider Picasso was saying via his painting of Guernica?

Advantages of the SOLO model for evaluation of student learning

▪ There are several advantages of the SOLO model over the Bloom taxonomy in the
evaluation of student learning.
▪ These advantages concern not only item construction and scoring, but incorporate
features of the process of evaluation that pay attention to how students learn, and how
teachers devise instructional procedures to help students use progressively more
complex cognitive processes.
▪ Unlike the Bloom taxonomy, which tends to be used more by teachers than by
students, the SOLO can be taught to students such that they can learn to write
progressively more difficult answers or prompts.
▪ There is a closer parallel to how teachers teach and how students learn.
▪ Both teachers and students often progress from more surface to deeper constructs
and this is mirrored in the four levels of the SOLO taxonomy.
▪ There is no necessary progression in the manner of teaching or learning in the Bloom
taxonomy.
▪ The levels can be interpreted relative to the proficiency of the students. Six year old
students can be taught to derive general principles and suggest hypotheses, though
obviously to a different level of abstraction and detail than their older peers. Using the
SOLO method, it is relatively easy to construct items to assess such abstractions.
▪ The SOLO taxonomy not only suggests an item writing methodology, but the same
taxonomy can be used to score the items. The marker assesses each response to
establish either the number of ideas (one = unistructural; _ two = multistructural), or
the degree of interrelatedness (directly related or abstracted to more general
principles). This can lead to more dependability of scoring.
▪ Unlike the experience of some with the Bloom taxonomy it is relatively easy to identify
and categorise the SOLO levels.
▪ Similarly, teachers could be encouraged to use the 'plus one' principle when choosing
appropriate learning material for students. That is, the teacher can aim to move the
student one level higher in the taxonomy by appropriate choice of learning material
and instructional sequencing.



Q 5: Briefly describe the procedure for development of multiple choice tests items and assembling the test prepare ten multiple choice items from subject of your choice.

Answer:
Multiple choice test questions, also known as items, can be an effective and efficient way to
assess learning outcomes. Multiple choice test items have several potential advantages:

Versatility:

 Multiple choice test items can be written to assess various levels of learning
outcomes, from basic recall to application, analysis, and evaluation. Because students are
choosing from a set of potential answers, however, there are obvious limits on what can be
tested with multiple choice items. For example, they are not an effective way to test students’
ability to organize thoughts or articulate explanations or creative ideas.

Reliability:

 Reliability is defined as the degree to which a test consistently measures a
learning outcome. Multiple choice test items are less susceptible to guessing than true/false
questions, making them a more reliable means of assessment. The reliability is enhanced
when the number of MC items focused on a single learning objective is increased. In addition,
the objective scoring associated with multiple choice test items frees them from problems
with scorer inconsistency that can plague scoring of essay questions.

Validity:

 Validity is the degree to which a test measures the learning outcomes it purports to
measure. Because students can typically answer a multiple choice item much more quickly
than an essay question, tests based on multiple choice items can typically focus on a relatively
broad representation of course material, thus increasing the validity of the assessment.
The key to taking advantage of these strengths, however, is construction of good multiple
choice items.
A multiple choice item consists of a problem, known as the stem, and a list of suggested
solutions, known as alternatives. The alternatives consist of one correct or best alternative,
which is the answer, and incorrect or inferior alternatives, known as distractors.




Constructing an Effective Stem
1. The stem should be meaningful by itself and should present a definite problem. A stem
that presents a definite problem allows a focus on the learning outcome. A stem that does
not present a clear problem, however, may test students’ ability to draw inferences from
vague descriptions rather serving as a more direct test of students’ achievement of the
learning outcome.


2. The stem should not contain irrelevant material, which can decrease the reliability and
the validity of the test scores (Haldyna and Downing 1989).



3. The stem should be negatively stated only when significant learning outcomes
require it. Students often have difficulty understanding items with negative phrasing
(Rodriguez 1997). If a significant learning outcome requires negative phrasing, such as
identification of dangerous laboratory or clinical practices, the negative element should be
emphasized with italics or capitalization.





4. The stem should be a question or a partial sentence. A question stem is preferable
because it allows the student to focus on answering the question rather than holding the
partial sentence in working memory and sequentially completing it with each alternative
(Statman 1988). The cognitive load is increased when the stem is constructed with an initial or
interior blank, so this construction should be avoided.

Q 1: Elaborate the difference among sociograms, social distance scale and guess who questionnaire in terms of their use.
Answer:

A sociogram is a visual representation or map of the relationships between individuals. Learn
more about sociograms from examples and test your knowledge with a quiz.
Definition of Sociogram
Suppose you are a seventh grade teacher. There are ten students in your classroom: Mike, Olivia,
Connor, Tracy, Lena, Darren, James, Tiona, Lisa, and Taylor. You notice that your male and female
students have not been getting along well in recent weeks. You are interested in looking at the
relationships between your students to help you understand what is going on in your classroom.
One method that can help you examine relationships is creating a sociogram.
A sociogram is a visual depiction of the relationships among a specific group. The purpose of a
sociogram is to uncover the underlying relationships between people. A sociogram can be used
to increase your understanding of group behaviors.

How Do You Create a Sociogram?
Before you begin to create a sociogram of the students in your classroom, you must first come up
with a criterion, which is what you want to measure. The criterion that you use is usually some
question about a specific type of social interaction. A criterion can be either positive or negative.
Positive criterions are those that ask the students to choose something that they either enjoy or
would like to participate in with others. Negative criterions ask students to choose something
that they would not enjoy. Negative criterions are used to discover resistance or rejection in
interpersonal relationships.
Examples of positive criterions that can be used to create a sociogram are:
• Which three classmates would you most like to go on a vacation with?

• Which three classmates are your best friends?
• Which three classmates do you like the most?
Examples of negative criterions that can be used to create a sociogram are:
• Which three classmates would you least enjoy going on a vacation with?
• Which three classmates do you like to be around the least?
• Which three classmates would you least like to be stranded on an island with?
Once your students have all answered the question, you tabulate the results and use them to
create a sociogram.
Sociologist R.E. Park (1923) coined the term social distance for the first time while describing the
observed fact that the kinds of situations in which contact occurs between a dominant group and
subordinates vary in their degree of intimacy like, from Kinship by marriage, residence in the same
neighbourhood, work in the same occupation to absolutely no contact.
Emory Bogardus, an eminent sociologist of the University of Southern California in 1942
developed a scale for measuring the social distances among various groups in the United States.
It was further given prominence by Katz and Allport under the able guidance of Gallet and
Bogardus.
Bogardus was interested in measuring racial attitudes, attitudes of people towards different races,
towards different nationalities and comparing them through his social distance scale.
The procedure of the construction of the scale is as follows:
The investigator first formulates various statements indicating different degrees of acceptance or
rejection of the group.
The subject has to indicate how close or how far away he is from the members of the other group.
A distance is measured by these statements which are basically psychological. A favourable
attitude is indicated by the closeness and an unfavourable attitude is indicated by distance. The
greater the distance the greater is the unfavourable attitude and less the distance the greater is
the favourable attitude.

The psychological distance is progressively increased in the scale as one proceeds from the first to
the last statement starting from close kinship by marriage to exclusion from the country.
Bogardus thus asked the respondents to indicate to which of the following steps they would
admit members of the various groups in the United States of America.
Guess who questionnaire in terms of their use
This worksheet includes prompt questions to help students play the game 'guess who?'. It is for
beginner level. The worksheet includes short questions and descriptions of people. It is to help
students to complete a meaningful speaking activity where they have to guess the identity of
their partner's character based on questions about their appearance. The game can be played
with 2 or more players..


Q 2: Describe the terms of stress and anxiety for test. As a teacher what measures you suggest to reduce the test anxiety of the students.
Answer:

Many people experience stress or anxiety before an exam. In fact, a little nervousness can actually
help you perform your best. However, when this distress becomes so excessive that it actually
interferes with performance on an exam, it is known as test anxiety.
What does it feel like to experience test anxiety? You paid attention in class, took detailed notes,
read every chapter, and even attended extra study sessions after class, so you should do great on
that big exam, right? When the test is presented, however, you find yourself so nervous that you
blank out the answers to even the easiest questions. If this experience sounds familiar, then you
might be suffering from test anxiety.
What Is Text Anxiety?
Test anxiety is a psychological condition in which people experience extreme distress and anxiety
in testing situations. While many people experience some degree of stress and anxiety before and
during exams, test anxiety can actually impair learning and hurt test performance.
Test anxiety is a type of performance anxiety. In situations where the pressure is on and a good
performance counts, people can become so anxious that they are actually unable to do their best.

Other examples of performance anxiety:
• A high school basketball player becomes very anxious before a big game. During the
game, he is so overwhelmed by this stress that he starts missing even easy shots.
• A violin student becomes extremely nervous before a recital. During the performance, she
messes up on several key passages and flubs her solo.
• During a work presentation, a businessman freezes up and forgets the information he was
going to present to his co-workers and manager.
While people have the skills and knowledge to do very well in these situations, their excessive
anxiety impairs their performance.
The severity of test anxiety can vary considerably from one person to another. Some people might
feel like they have "butterflies" in their stomach and while others might find it difficult to
concentrate on the exam.
A little bit of nervousness can actually be helpful, making you feel mentally alert and ready to
tackle the challenges presented in an exam. The Yerkes-Dodson law suggests that there is a link
between arousal levels and performance. Essentially, increased arousal levels can help you do
better on exams, but only up to a certain point. Once these stress levels cross that line, the
excessive anxiety you might be experiencing can actually interfere with test performance.
Excessive fear can make it difficult to concentrate and you might struggle to recall things that you
have studied. You might feel like all the information you spent some much time reviewing
suddenly seems inaccessible in your mind. You blank out the answers to questions to which
you know you know the answers. This inability to concentrate and recall information then
contributes to even more anxiety and stress, which only makes it that much harder to focus
your attention on the test.
Overcoming Test Anxiety
So what exactly can you do to prevent or minimize test anxiety? Here are some strategies to help:
• Make sure you're prepared. That means studying for the test early until you feel
comfortable with the material. Don't wait until the night before. If you aren't sure how to

study, ask your teacher or parent for help. Being prepared will boost your confidence,
which will lessen your test anxiety.
• Banish the negative thoughts. If you start to have anxious or defeated thoughts, such as
"I'm not good enough," "I didn't study hard enough," or "I can't do this," push those
thoughts away and replace them with positive thoughts. "I can do this," "I know the
material," and "I studied hard," can go far in helping to manage your stress level when
taking a test.
• Get enough sleep. A good night's sleep will help your concentration and memory.
• Take deep breaths. If you start to feel anxious while you're taking your test, breathe
deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth. Work through each question or
problem one at a time, taking a deep breath in between each one as needed. Making sure
you are giving your lungs plenty of oxygen can help your focus and sense of calm.
• Avoid the perfectionist trap. Don't expect to be perfect. We all make mistakes and that's
okay. Knowing you've done your best and worked hard is really all that matters, not
perfection.
Therapy and Medications Can Also Help
• If you need extra support, make an appointment with your school counselor or primary
care physician.
• Depending on the severity of your symptoms, your physician may also
recommend cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), anti-anxiety medications, or a combination
of both. CBT focuses on helping people change both the behaviors and underlying
thoughts that contribute to the unwanted behaviors or feelings.


Q 3: Write down learning outcomes for any unit of English for 10th class and develop an easy type test item with rubric, 5 multiple choice questions and 5 short questions for the written learning outcomes.
Answer:

English is a main subject of our curriculum and is being taught in our schools and colleges. It is a
language basically and study of English language, composition, grammar and the literature.
SSC part II, 10th class English paper consists of 20% of objective and multiple choice questions are
main part of it. It has provided the excellent opportunity for the student of 9th class to prepare
their English paper online. On this page, 9th class students can easily judge their eligibility of
passing examination in notable grades.
9th class students can prepare their subject online here which will be beneficial for them in
passing English subject with exceptional marks. This online English test contains large number of
multiple choice questions and by attempting these online papers; students can judge their English
preparation in a better way. This is a free platform for students to prepare English exams to get
best accomplishments in annual exams.
9th class Students can analyze their self by attempting this online test system as many time as
they want until unless they find their self fully prepared. 9th class students are advised to attempt
this online test for English subject.
Humans are linguistic animals. Language is the most fundamental and pervasive tool we have for
interpreting our world and communicating with others as we act in and attempt to transform that
world. Whether they pursue an emphasis in literature or writing, English majors gain a deeper
understanding of the resources of the written word. Both literature and writing courses help
students explore how writers use the creative resources of language-in fiction, poetry, nonfiction
prose, and drama-to explore the entire range of human experience. English courses help students
build skills of analytical and interpretive argument; become careful and critical readers; practice
writing-in a variety of genres-as a process of intellectual inquiry and creative expression; and
ultimately to become more effective thinkers and communicators who are well-equipped for a
variety of careers in our information-intensive society.
Specific learning outcomes for English courses include the following:
1. Reading: Students will become accomplished, active readers who appreciate ambiguity and
complexity, and who can articulate their own interpretations with an awareness and curiosity for
other perspectives.

2. Writing skills and process: Students will be able to write effectively for a variety of professional
and social settings. They will practice writing as a process of motivated inquiry, engaging other
writers’ ideas as they explore and develop their own. They will demonstrate an ability to revise for
content and edit for grammatical and stylistic clarity. And they will develop an awareness of and
confidence in their own voice as a writer.
3. Sense of Genre: Students will develop an appreciation of how the formal elements of language
and genre shape meaning. They will recognize how writers can transgress or subvert generic
expectations, as well as fulfill them. And they will develop a facility at writing in appropriate
genres for a variety of purposes and audiences.
4. Culture and History: Students will gain a knowledge of the major traditions of literatures written
in English, and an appreciation for the diversity of literary and social voices within–and sometimes
marginalized by–those traditions. They will develop an ability to read texts in relation to their
historical and cultural contexts, in order to gain a richer understanding of both text and context,
and to become more aware of themselves as situated historically and culturally.
5. Critical Approaches: Students will develop the ability to read works of literary, rhetorical, and
cultural criticism, and deploy ideas from these texts in their own reading and writing. They will
express their own ideas as informed opinions that are in dialogue with a larger community of
interpreters, and understand how their own approach compares to the variety of critical and
theoretical approaches.
6. Research Skills: Students will be able to identify topics and formulate questions for productive
inquiry; they will identify appropriate methods and sources for research and evaluate critically the
sources they find; and they will use their chosen sources effectively in their own writing, citing all
sources appropriately.
7. Oral communication skills: Students will demonstrate the skills needed to participate in a
conversation that builds knowledge collaboratively: listening carefully and respectfully to others’
viewpoints; articulating their own ideas and questions clearly; and situating their own ideas in
relation to other voices and ideas. Students will be able to prepare, organize, and deliver an
engaging oral presentation.

8. Valuing literature, language, and imagination: Students will develop a passion for literature and
language. They will appreciate literature’s ability to elicit feeling, cultivate the imagination, and
call us to account as humans. They will cultivate their capacity to judge the aesthetic and ethical
value of literary texts–and be able to articulate the standards behind their judgments. They will
appreciate the expressive use of language as a fundamental and sustaining human activity,
preparing for a life of learning as readers and writers.
Q 4: a) Suggest measures to reduce cultural bias in the test?
Answer:

What is Cultural Bias?
Cultural bias in testing refers to a situation in which a given test is inappropriate for a certain
audience as it does not test the student's actual knowledge of a taught subject or includes details
tied to a culture that the student is unfamiliar with. As the test is not about the topic of culture,
the test should not include cultural tidbits that would throw off certain students. Try as we might
to make tests fair, it still happens today.
Gender Bias
Sometimes tests — for example, tests for gifted and talented programs — include questions or
probing for leadership from the testing student. What these types of tests do not take into
consideration is that there are various cultures in which girls are still trained to be followers and
boys the natural leaders. Therefore, due to no fault of their own, girls may not score well on this
topic and then not qualify for the program. Likewise on vocabulary tests, gender roles and
exposure to certain types of language may also contribute to whether or not a girl or boy gets the
vocabulary term right.
Unbalanced Special Education Referrals
In recent years, the process of referring a child for special education services has become more
and more complex. Educators and others began to notice the unbalanced number of ethnic
minorities being referred to and assigned special education services. Many of the oversights
being made were due to other disadvantages such as a low socio-economic level or less exposure

to academic materials in early childhood. Second language learners were also regularly referred
when their deficiencies were due to learning to pronounce a new language correctly or needing
more time to learn the language
Yet these factors were contributing to many students receiving a label early on that cannot be
escaped from until their school career was over. They were labeled for life. For this reason, many
districts are now implementing policies in which teachers must first show what interventions they
have used with these students in order to try to catch them up with the class. By documenting
these interventions and monitoring the results, it was easier to see who just needed a leg up and
who might actually need special education services. Today, it is more likely that students receiving
these services, along with being integrated into classroom strategies and using small group
interventions, are students who truly do require these services.
Language Discrimination
The United States today has a changing population. There are more and more languages other
than English spoken in homes across the country. When it comes to testing, this can pose
potential problems, not because students should not be expected to achieve a high level of
English as the mainstream language but because sometimes cultural factors to find their way into
what vocabulary a student is exposed to. For example, one test that I gave to early childhood
students asked the children to identify which picture was a casserole. Casserole is not a dish that
all households make. To be frank, a casserole can be composed of so many combinations of
things, it doesn't seem fair to have to identify one by sight regardless of cultural background;
however, this was one of the questions. Children in Iowa where the test was developed may or
may not be more culturally aware of what a casserole is, but in inner city schools in Texas, most of
us have never really had a casserole in our lives. I would think it safe to assume that many adults
here could not identify a casserole by sight.
Fair and Equitable Testing

For gifted and talented programs, some teachers have begun implementing or requesting non-
verbal testing, especially for early childhood students, so that language and speech development

do not block children who are gifted in other ways from entering the program. Ask your campus

gifted and talented teacher what the process is to enter the program and what type of entrance
exam the students will be given. Sometimes other forms of evidence can be submitted in the
student's favor as well. You can also suggest or research tests that demonstrate student ability
through multiple intelligences instead of standard forms of testing. In the classroom, you can give
open-ended tests which allow for student expression and interpretation of knowledge instead of
rote memorization and allow for students to justify their ideas and answers. Using these
techniques will help to avoid and eliminate cultural bias in testing.
Finally, when standardized testing comes around, be an advocate by noticing questions or topics
which reveal obvious cultural bias and report them to your school official or testing agency. Test
writers may not be as aware of these intricacies as the teachers who interact with students every
day. If enough people speak up, changes might be made.

Q 4: b) Elaborate the importance of entrance tests in the universities?

Answer:

While exploring undergraduate or graduate level education, applicants are bound to come acrosssome form of required examination or an aptitude test as being a requirement for admission.Some universities even go to the extent of indicating the sum of scores needed to make thecutoff point. So what are these exams and what do they normally measure?

In general, we can classify these exams into three broad categories. One would be the general

English language proficiency tests that are required of non-native English language speakers, in
this case being the TOEFL and IELTS. Second would be the general aptitude tests like the PSAT,
ACT, SAT (for undergraduate) and the GMAT and GRE (for graduate level studies) mostly for theuniversities in the US and Canada. Third would be the field specific exams for Law school and Medical school like the MCAT, UKCAT, PCAT, and LSAT, etc that would be focused for admission to a singular program.
In most cases these tests are administered by an independent testing center or a professional
association. The main objective is to provide a common yard stick to measure the potentials of all applicants that might come from different backgrounds and curricular against a standardized set of skills that would be required by a specific program. It provides university and college admission counselors with a clear cut measure that is somewhat effective, in trying to assess a candidate’s ability to join their program. There are schools that don’t make these exams a requirement. But more and more schools are becoming inclined towards making them mandatory as these tests do give some indication about the applicant and therefore it is advisable to in most cases to consider taking these exams.The exam results are important and students should be well prepared. There are many ways to
prepare for these exams and I would not look down on coaching centers and tutors as they can
provide a lot of insight and tips that help students. The world is very competitive and professional coaching can only help. What is also worth knowing is that the exams are only one part of the entire admissions criteria. American Universities, especially the more competitive college take a holistic view of the student and non academic criteria can be critical in getting or denying admission. Your academic scores, essays, recommendation letters, community service and extracurricular activities are equally important. Apart from professional coaching educational consultancy is a must for pursuing undergraduate or postgraduate degrees abroad..

Q 5: Give the characteristics of normal curve, also discuss its uses in educational
assessment?

Answer:


Known characteristics of the normal curve make it possible to estimate the probability of
For example, 0.3413 of the curve falls between the mean and one standard deviation above the
In order to use the area of the normal curve to determine the probability of occurrence of a given

occurrence of any value of a normally distributed variable. Suppose that the total area under the curve is defined to be 1. You can multiply that number by 100 and say there is a 100 percent
chance that any value you can name will be somewhere in the distribution. ( Remember : The
distribution extends to infinity in both directions.) Similarly, because half the area of the curve is below the mean and half is above it, you can say that there is a 50 percent chance that a
randomly chosen value will be above the mean and the same chance that it will be below it.
It makes sense that the area under the normal curve is equivalent to the probability of randomly drawing a value in that range. The area is greatest in the middle, where the “hump” is, and thins out toward the tails. That is consistent with the fact that there are more values close to the mean in a normal distribution than far from it.
When the area of the standard normal curve is divided into sections by standard deviations above and below the mean, the area in each section is a known quantity (see Figure 1). As explained earlier, the area in each section is the same as the probability of randomly drawing a value in that range.

Figure 1.The normal curve and the area under the curve between σ units.


mean, which means that about 34 percent of all the values of a normally distributed variable are between the mean and one standard deviation above it. It also means that there is a 0.3413
chance that a value drawn at random from the distribution will lie between these two points.
Sections of the curve above and below the mean may be added together to find the probability
of obtaining a value within (plus or minus) a given number of standard deviations of the mean
(see Figure 2).
 For example, the amount of curve area between one standard deviation above the mean and one standard deviation below is 0.3413 + 0.3413 = 0.6826, which means that
approximately 68.26 percent of the values lie in that range. Similarly, about 95 percent of the
values lie within two standard deviations of the mean, and 99.7 percent of the values lie within
three standard deviations.

Figure 2.The normal curve and the area under the curve between σ units.
value, the value must first be standardized, or converted to a z‐score . To convert a value to
a z‐score is to express it in terms of how many standard deviations it is above or below the mean. After the z‐score is obtained, you can look up its corresponding probability in a table. The formula
to compute a z‐score is where x is the value to be converted, μ is the population mean, and σ is the population standard
deviation.

AIOU Solved Assignments 2019

AIOU

Critical Thinking and Reflective Practices (8611)

B. Ed (2/5, 1/5 Years)

Spring 2019

ASSIGNMENT No. 02

Q.1 When can teachers conduct action research, how is it different from applied research and why is it needed?

Answer:

Different from applied research and why is it needed:

Example 1

Example 2

Q.2 Write down a critical essay on the current syllabus of Urdu taught at grade five.

Answer:

Diversity of matter