Assessment Validity Definition of Terms

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F. Definition of Terms

There are some terms mentioned in this study that need to be defined in order to avoid misunderstanding and to lead the readers to a better understanding on the topic being discussed.

1. Assessment

As stated before, the assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning activity. Assessment can be defined as one or more activities aimed at obtaining the information about the students’ progress or students’ achievement in learning activities. It can be done in several ways namely giving quizzes and tests, paying attention to the students’ performance in the classroom, listening to the student response in teaching and learning activities, and many more Badder, 2000; Chatterji, 2003; and Brown, 2004. In this study, the assessments were prepared by the Practice Teaching students during their Practice Teaching period. In conducting Practice Teaching, the students had to prepare and design the instructional process. The instruction involved the process of planning the lesson and assessing the students’ progress. In this study, the assessment analyzed were any various activities conducted by the Practice Teaching students to obtain the information about the students’ performance and progress during the instructional process in their Practice Teaching period. Specifically, the assessments were any assessment documents prepared by the Practice Teaching students purposed to assess the students’ performance and progress during or at the end of the instructional process. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 11

2. Validity

Validity in this study directly points to the validity of the assessment. In an assessment, validity is one of the criteria for a good test. Brown 2001 stated in his book that validity is “the degree to which the test actually measures what it is intended to measure p. 378.” Gronlund 1998, p. 226 as cited by Brown 2004 stated that validity is “the extent to which inferences made from assessment results are appropriate, meaningful, and useful in terms of the purpose of the assessment p. 22.” This study grounds the validity of assessment to the definitions above. The assessment is valid if the results are appropriate, meaningful, and useful based on the purpose of the assessment or based on what is intended to be measured by the assessment. In this study, the writer focused on the content validity of assessment. Content validity is one of the assessment principles in which the intended results or the content of an assessment represent what is intended to measure or the instructional content. The content validity of an assessment is presented in the form of degree, namely high, moderate, and poor content validity. An assessment is said having high content validity if the intended result from the assessment can clearly represent what the content of the task or material learnt or what the students should master from teaching and learning activities. In the other hand, if the content of the assessment cannot clearly represent the content of the study, the assessment has poor content validity. The conclusion of the validity is derived from the analysis by comparing the content or the intended result of the assessment with the instructional content. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 12

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE