Teachers’ Test Construction Competencies: Basis For Proposed Intervention Plan

Abstract

Classroom tests have always been tagged as a reflection of the effectiveness of instruction by the teacher. For such to be considered as of quality, then it must be valid, reliable, and well-aligned. With these, it is then crucial that a teacher must be equipped with the competencies needed in test construction, for these do not only allow quality assessments for the learners, but also a way of training students to answer both low and high-level type of test as a preparation for high-stakes examinations, most especially when they are enrolled in programs with board examination.

With this, the study aimed to assess the test construction competencies of one-hundred sixty-five (165) full-time permanent and probationary teachers of University of Cagayan Valley, whereby the results and findings would become a baseline for an intervention plan. This study used the descriptive-comparative research design to systematically determine the comparisons among the variables, while thematic analysis was utilized to specifically determine the issues and concerns of the respondents regarding test construction. As to results and findings, it was found out that the respondents were “Highly Competent” in their knowledge and skills in test construction. Furthermore, it was also found out that there was a significant difference in the skills of the respondents in test construction along their Number of Years in Teaching. However, despite high competence in both dimensions, they still encountered issues and concerns such as Item Writing and Clarity Issues; Time Constraints and Workload; Validity, Reliability, and Alignment; Difficulty Level and Higher-order Thinking Skills; Content Coverage and Balance; Fairness, Bias, and Test Security; Administrative and Resource Constraints; and, Scoring and Evaluation Concerns.

With these, in spite of the high competency among the respondents in both dimensions, there remained a room for enhancing their test construction competencies, thereby the proposed intervention plan was crucial to ensure a valid, reliable, fair, and well-aligned tests.