Secondary school teachers who train students for international examinations such as the UCLES examinations need to have a comprehensive understanding of the various question types and patterns that professional examining bodies employ in their design of qualifying examinations.  This workshop is an advanced follow-up to Workshops 2 and 3 in this series to deepen teacher understanding of testing tools specifically focussed on question design and structure. The input for this workshop is based on   the findings of a doctoral research study that investigated the range of short-answer comprehension questions in the Cambridge University ‘O’ Level English Paper 2 of past years’ papers comprising a database of 338 questions.  A framework was proposed to classify the questions based on evaluation objectives and their implications to the structure of the question in terms of targeting words used to specify the kind of information wanted and the various question-text linking devices. This session will begin with a presentation of the proposed framework of question patterns to help participants gain a deeper awareness of how the question design impacts assessment of reading ability. Participants will then explore the applications of the framework to the design of suitable questions based on identified textual features.  This workshop hopes to empower teachers of reading comprehension of any level so that they can, not only, train their students to interpret questions well but also design appropriate, valid and reliable questions when developing teaching materials and testing instruments.

AIM:

To raise participants’ awareness of how the structure of questions impact their evaluation objective and how to apply the devices used by Cambridge examiners to design comprehension questions that match the complexity the of  ‘O’ Level English Language Paper 2.

     PROGRAMME OUTLINE:

1. Review of issues related to validity  and   reliability. 
   
2. Presentation of two frameworks :    Question Taxonomy  Framework &    Question Design Framework.
3. Participants' practice application of both frameworks, presentation and discussion.
4. Concluding remarks on pedagogical implications.