9. Test for student evaluation (*) Docimology (from dochimàzo

9. Test for student evaluation (*)
Docimology (from dochimàzo, Greek word for «I judge») studies the learning processes
with the purpose of producing more efficacious verification methods and objective
evaluation criteria; while docimacy examines the exams structure.
The quantitative/experimental docimology was created in the first half of last century by
Henry Piéron (1881-1964), the founder, in 1921, of the «Institute for Applied Psychology» at the Sorbonne University in Paris. He linked the concept of school evaluation
to the psychometric studies with the scope of limiting the evaluators discretion and
the criteria differences in assigning grades. Apart from the docimologic studies, it is
the teaching experience that gives us elements to prove the imprecision of the school
evaluation. Therefore, it is evident that should the teacher adopt all the instruments
produced by the learning experts, his evaluations would anyway carry a certain degree
of approximation.
Tests represent a very useful instrument with regard to an overall evaluation, if it includes the results of oral and non-structured written tests: each exam will, in fact, contribute to the verification of the different learning objectives. At the same time structured
tests are to be preferred for some objectives, while for others they result ineffective.
With reference to objectives programming, it’s necessary to consider the Bloom’s
Taxonomy because it may help the teacher to ponder on the nature of the teaching
objectives, and of their selection. In particular, Bloom lists in growing complexity order
the following objectives: mastery, competence, expression.
The most common type of «structured test» is that requiring a choice among many
alternatives, which, as the «true/false» kind, is utilized to verify the knowledge and
comprehension objectives of subjects, where «true» is clearly distinct from «false».
In case higher taxonomic levels need to be verified, the semi-structured type of tests
should be preferred, which, although utilize «open» questions (that is the answers are
not prefigured), contain functional bindings for an objective evaluation.
The Gelmini reform has retained necessary to intervene on the subject of school evaluation and end of terms assignment of marks by emanating new directives inspired
to meritocratic principles. Therefore, for a better transparency in the evaluation of
a student, it was decided that the adoption of a numeric evaluation scale would give
higher guarantees than the nominal one. The rules emanated by Minister Gelmini in the
2008-2009 timeframe emphasize the value of student conduct at school: if among the
educational objectives of learning and learning to do we also consider the «learning
to be», then, its inclusion in the school education subjects, becomes necessary.
(*) © Copyright Edizioni Simone S.p.A. Il brano è tratto dal volume 526/4, Competenze linguistiche (Inglese) - Concorso a Cattedre 2012.