Matching Items

1. Matching Items Presenter Pema Khandu B.Ed.II(S)Sci ‘B’

2. What is a matching item? • Matching items are considered selection assessments, as they require students to identify or recognize the correct association between provided alternatives. In addition, matching items are classified as an objective question type as there is only one correct answer for each premise. • It is a specialized form of the multiple choice item. • It consists of • A column of premises, often referred to as stems - entries in the list for which a match is sought. • A column of responses- entries in the list from which selection are made. • Directions for matching the two.

3. When is a matching item useful? • The format is particularly useful when the objective to be measured involves association skills or the ability to recognize, categorize, and organize information. • They are specialized for use when measuring the student's ability to identify the relationship between a set of similar items, each of which has two components, such as words and their definitions, symbols and their meanings, dates and events, people and their accomplishments, etc. • Matching items can be written to measure high levels of understanding but are most typically used at the knowledge level and for younger students.

4. Advantages of matching items useful as a test strategy • Ability to cover considerable material in small amount of spaces • Allows the comparison of related ideas, concepts, or theories • Efficient means of assessing the association between a variety of items within a given topic or category • Encourages the integration of information • Preferable item type when multiple-choice assessment repeatedly utilizes the same response options • Relatively easy and quick to score • Objective nature limits bias in scoring • Easily administered to large numbers of students

5. Disadvantages/ limitations of matching items • Have difficulty measuring learning objectives requiring more than simple recall of information • Are difficult to construct due to the problem of selecting a common set of stimuli and responses • Difficult to generate a sufficient number of plausible premises • Not effective in testing isolated facts or bits of information • May limit assessment to higher levels of understanding • Only useful when there is a sufficient number of related items • May overestimate learning due to the influence of guessing

6. Guidelines for Constructing Matching Items 1. Use homogeneous material in each list of a matching exercise. The strength of matching items is their ability to assess the relationship between homogeneous concepts or terms. Thus, to be most effective, ensure all premises and responses are members of a similar category or topic. 2. Include directions that clearly state the basis for the matching. Inform students whether or not a response can be used more than once and where are answers are to be written. 3. Order of lists Put the problems or the stems (typically longer than the responses) in a column at the left, and the response choices in a column at the right. 4. Going for relative brevity Its much easier to respond to matching item if the entries on both lists are relatively few in numbers.

7. 5. Loading up a responses Always include more responses than questions. If the lists are the same length, the last choice may be determined by elimination rather than knowledge. 6. Ordering responses Arrange the list of responses in alphabetical or numerical order if possible in order to save reading time. 7. Framing responses All the response choices must be plausible, but make sure that there is only one correct choice for each stem or numbered question. In addition, avoid giving inadvertent grammatical clues to the correct association between premise and response. Premises should be written as a single short sentence or phrase 8. Formatting items to avoid page flipping Make sure all premises and responses for a matching item are on a single page.

8. Review Checklist: • Is a matching item an appropriate assessment of the learning objective? • Does the content of the matching item measure knowledge appropriate to the desired learning goal? • Do instructions clearly specify how premises and responses are to be matched? • Are all premises and responses within a matching item homogeneous? • Are premises and responses arranged in a logical order? • Are all premises direct and brief? • Does every element in the response list function as a plausible alternative to every element in the premise list? • Are the entries in the matching item few in number?

9. Questions for the discussion • What are some ways to enhance the Effectiveness of Matching Items? • How can the use of quality matching items benefit your students including those with special needs? • Do you find matching item relevant as one of the test strategies in assessing student?

10. References: Borich, G. & Kubiszym, T. (2007). Educational Testing and Measurement: Classroom application and practice. USA: John Wiley & Sons. Gronlund, N. E. (1988). How to construct achievement test. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. Hopkins, K. D. (1998). Educational and Psychological: Measurement and Evaluation. Singapore : Allyn and Bacon. Johnson, D. W. & Johnson, R. T. (2002). Meaningful Assessment: A manageable and cooperative process. Singapore: Allyn and Bacon Linn, R. L. & Gronlund, N. E. (2005). Measurement and Assessment in Teaching (8th ed.). Singapore: Pearson Education, Inc Nitko, A. J. & Brookhart, S. M. (2007). Educational assessment of students. New Jersey : Pearson Education, Inc. Popham, W. J. (2008). Classroom Assessment: What teachers need to know? New York: Pearson Education, Inc.. Retrieved on 2011, April 1st from http://fcit.usf.edu/assessment/popups/nonmatch4.html Retrieved on 2011, April 1st from http://www.park.edu/cetl2/quicktips/matching.html Retrieved on 2011, March 31st from http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu Trice, D. A. (2000). A Handbook of Classroom Assessment. Harlow, England: Addison Wasley Longman, Inc. Vashist, S. R. (2006). Theory of Educational Measurement. New Delhi: Mehra Offset Press.

11. Thank You!