EVALUATION OF CONSTRUCTION PROCEDURE IN SENIOR SECONDARY CHEMISTRY OBJECTIVE TEST

EVALUATION OF CONSTRUCTION PROCEDURE IN SENIOR SECONDARY CHEMISTRY OBJECTIVE TEST

​​​​​​Background of the study

Since its inception, testing has been a vital aspect of the educational system. The notion (testing) may be understood as a series of tasks provided to a person, the completion of which is contingent on the existence of a certain body of knowledge and competence. The emphasis on ongoing evaluation in Nigeria's educational system has therefore provided a boost to our educational institutions' testing systems. According to the National Policy on Education (2015), "Educational Evaluation and Evaluation will be liberalized by basing them in whole or in part on continuous assessment of the individual's development." This indicates that teachers should examine students' entry and exit behavior in the topic being taught, since this will disclose the particular student's development during the course. Continuous assessment has been proposed as a new technique to assessment according Engida (2015B), he opined that continuous evaluation is a more valid kind of assessment than traditional examination or assessment methods. The advantage of continuous assessment stems from its ability to sample a far broader variety of skills and abilities inherent in a course of study. In many ways, continuous assessment presents a challenge to both the student and the scientific instructor.

According to Mittal , Kasana, & Thakur (2015), continuous assessment is a means of determining what pupils have learned from their learning experiences in terms of information, thinking, reasoning, character development, industry, and so on. Science topics, particularly chemistry, offer unique potential for the use of continuous evaluation, as do many other educational fields. Any science topic has three key areas (components) that lend themselves to assessment: cognitive (theoretical) aspects, psychomotor (manipulative) aspects, and emotional (attitude) elements. With the introduction of continuous assessment, there has been an increase in the necessity for classroom instructors to prepare and deliver exams in order to collect specific information about what has been done during the teaching-learning process. In this way, testing may be utilized both as a teaching tool and as an assessment tool. These goals are critical in the teaching of chemistry. When utilized as a teaching tool, the results of a testing exercise offer immediate feedback on what learning has occurred in the classroom. Testing as an aid to teaching identifies difficulties with teaching tactics used or discovers the shortcomings and strengths of the pupils taught. In this case, testing functions as a diagnostic tool. A test, as an evaluation tool, assesses achievement, forecasts performance, and supports in selection processes. As a result, testing gives essential information for making decisions concerning students, teachers, and the program. Teachers offer achievement exams to determine the effectiveness of the instructional process. According to Field (2017), these are exams that assess the amount to which a person has learned specific knowledge or mastered certain abilities as a result of specific training. Most of these examinations are designed and administered by instructors in most of our schools in order to determine how much their pupils have learned throughout their education. Most of the time, these tests are not reviewed for validity and reliability, which are the most important prerequisites for a successful test. "Teacher-made assessments are often poor in a variety of ways," writes Osunde (2000). Ineffective communication is the most typical flaw." Some investigations showed another interesting discovery about the nature of exam and classroom questions asked by scientific professors. Studies such as those conducted by Odor, Solanke, and Azeke (1986); Williams and Buseri (1986); and Mani (1981) show that teacher-created examinations or questions are significantly laden with elements from Bloom's cognitive domain of educational aims. Concerns have been raised about identified inadequacies in test construction among science teachers. It is thus critical to rectify the problem by providing a guidance for the development of a good chemistry accomplishment exam available to chemistry instructors. This remedial assistance is required since the presence of these inadequacies will have a significant impact on students' performance, and the crucial purpose of a test as a teaching tool, as highlighted by Belyakov  (2017), will not be achieved.

Although the public has high expectations of Nigerian teachers, the poor state of service and limited resource materials prevent an appropriate achievement of the goals of continuous evaluation in the educational system. Continuous assessment throws an additional load on already underqualified instructors in terms of test construction. With no way to assist the teacher, he is likely to proceed with his ill-conceived test. This will invariably result in inadequate evaluation of students' learning since tests serve as measuring instruments, and their measuring capabilities is restricted to the objectives they are meant to evaluate. Thus, examinations designed to assess accomplishment at the knowledge level will be confined to this function and will not measure achievement at other levels. As a result, the supply of proper test instruments in chemistry merits considerable consideration since such instruments will aid the teacher in more effective evaluation of his students. When one considers the complex and challenging character of most chemistry topics, testing of students' success in chemistry becomes considerably more prone to these deficiencies. When one considers the sophisticated nature of the present senior high school chemistry curriculum, the situation becomes extremely troubling. As a result, the assessment of teachers' competency in test building of teacher-made objective tests in chemistry is required.

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