Do We Really Know What Students Know: Measuring and Assessing Knowledge Cover Image

Da li zaista znamo što studenti znaju: vrednovanje i ocjenjivanje znanja
Do We Really Know What Students Know: Measuring and Assessing Knowledge

Author(s): Dženana Husremović
Subject(s): Education
Published by: Univerzitet u Sarajevu
Keywords: measuring the knowledge; test construction; metric characteristics

Summary/Abstract: The teachers at the University are faced with many challenges in teaching imposed by contemporary society and science development. One of the greatest challenges is measuring and grading student's knowledge because of the constant dilemma defined in question: „What counts as knowledge and who owns the knowledge?“ The second challenge we face is what kind of knowledge makes student employable and socially functional? So, defining the educational goals as operational definitions and construction of tests which are of a high quality in terms of metrics (objectivity, reliability, sensitivity, content validity and criterion validity) is directly related to quality of education and outcomes like employability, work efficiency and active social behavior. According to information available to the author, there are no empirical data on university level about relationship between results on tests and above mentioned criteria. So, the teachers are in a position to use subjective judgments on what is important for students to know and to construct the tests / exams based on their own assumptions and time available. The construction of tests is a very complex assignment. The teacher is expected to prepare the test which is: in a high correlation with educational goals and competencies expected by future employers; measuring different levels of knowledge; made of questions representative for the whole content of teaching and, after all, are objective in terms of scoring. Taking into account the facts that many teachers did not finish a training in measuring and grading the knowledge, that time available for construction and revision of exams is usually very limited and number of exams which has to be checked is usually very high, it is inevitable to ask ourselves: „Do we really know what students know?“

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 06
  • Page Range: 145-153
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: Bosnian