Assessment Seminar-Workshop Conducted by NISMED in Pampanga

A seminar-workshop on the development of summative assessment items was conducted on-site by UP NISMED for 26 elementary school science teachers of two schools in the districts of Bacolor and Mexico, namely Don Antonio Lee Chi Uan Integrated School (DALCUIS) and Basic Thoughts Learning Center. It was held on January 25-27, 2011 at DALCUIS, Xevera Subdivision, Bgy. Calibutbut, Bacolor, Pampanga. Arrangements with UP NISMED and the two participating schools were coordinated by Ms. Anabel Legaspi, Education Supervisor (Science) of the Division of Pampanga. The training staff from NISMED included the director Dr. Merle C. Tan, Dr. Risa L. Reyes, Dr. Editha T. Villaflor, Ms. Pia C. Campo, and Mr. Rolando M. Tan.

Participants posing with UP NISMED Director Dr. Merle. C. Tan after the opening session.

This three-day professional development program focused on the different kinds and purposes of assessment with the workshop zeroing in on the construction of summative items of the selected and constructed response types under the cognitive domains of factual knowledge (FK), conceptual understanding (CU), and reasoning and analysis (R & A). A session on item analysis using actual test papers of pupils completed the activities during the seminar-workshop.

Inputs by the trainers consisted of sessions which familiarized participants with multiple choice and constructed response items categorized under the three cognitive domains. The samples included hands-on setups which enabled participants to anticipate pupils’ responses and discover equally attractive, plausible, as well as obviously wrong or right options. The exercise on item analysis gave participants the opportunity to determine difficulty and discrimination indices and interpret these.

Workshops in groups according to grade levels provided an opportunity for collaboration among the participants. Participants presented and critiqued each others’ outputs, enabling them to improve and finalize the items for tryout later and possible inclusion in the district’s test item bank. The final outputs were multiple choice and constructed response items with rubrics that may eventually be used in classrooms and serve as exemplars for further development of items in other unit topics. Such outputs will later be tried out with learners and analyzed to determine difficulty levels and discrimination indices.