AN INTRODUCTION TO PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS
1.1 In any public examination written test, symbolised by Question Paper, remains one of the most significant tools of assessment. Though other measures of assessment namely practical examinations and oral examinations are also being progressively used to cover, different aspects of academic achievement, yet paper and pencil tests occupy a significant position. The type of questions asked in the written examination in general influence the quality of responses. During the last few decades, stress has been laid on improvement of the quality of questions as also overall format of the question papers so that they entail answers on desired lines. This movement is clearly reflected in the use of short answer questions in greater measure, wider coverage of the syllabus and balanced emphasis on different aspects of the curriculum introduced by the Central Board of Secondary Education during the last few years. The Board has taken up several studies to assess strengths and weaknesses of its question papers in relation to a pre-determined criteria. The feedback so obtained is provided to the paper setters of future examinations so that the quality of question papers may go on improving and there should be, further, refinement in the art of testing.
1.2 The public examinations provide yet another type of feedback which is more vital for the process of teaching and learning i.e. the quality of responses given by the students. As is well-known, each individual question acts as a stimulus and sets a train of ideas in the human mind. The mind operates as a scanning system to comprehensively survey the store house of factual information, concepts, principles, generalisations etc. During this process it also relates information to the stimulus provided and analyses, compares, weighs and discriminates between millions of bits of information. Thus it weaves a variety of patterns in relation to the demands of the stimulus contained in what we commonly call it as a question. Such variety of patterns and linkages among them shape the answers to different questions. These answers provide deep insight into what has been commonly achieved or what commonly been perceived and what vital points or linkages have been missed therein. This sort of analysis reveals where the learning, and for that matter teaching, has been most effective and where it has missed major or minor landmarks which can be helpful in gaining more wholesome and comprehensive picture of an idea or concept or principle. It is from this stand-point that qualitative analysis becomes more significant pedagogically than ordinarily quantitative analysis of student performance.
1.3 Any feedback provided to the teachers on these lines would indicate the points commonly achievable as also the hardspots; where the teachers, by and large may be requited to do more careful analysis and planning of the teaching-learning process and more systematic presentation of the content. This may also help the teachers in designing better strategies of learning as suggested by the flowing out of a qualitative analysis of students' responses in a given discipline. It is with this idea that the Central Board of Secondary Education this year took up, on an experimental basis, a study in Physics paper of the Senior School Certificate Examination (Class XII) 1992. The present study cannot be termed as a complete study since the design has yet to be perfected. The experience of successive years may perhaps be more helpful in grasping the complete scope of study and sharpening the focus on different aspects for getting a clearer and well defined picture of students' performance for a meaningful academic feedback. The major purposes of this study could be highlighted as under:-
1 ) to find out commonality of responses good or otherwise.
2) relate them to a commonly expected ideal or expectation and evaluate their effectiveness.
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3) to show relationship between major components of the answers and different patterns emerging out of them.
4) to show a general relationship between the cues provided in the questions and the different patterns of answers emerging. This relationship is very significant both from the point of view of precisely wording the answers in so far as the students are concerned and designing good questions in so far as teachers and paper setters are concerned.
5) to make the teachers more perceptive about different elements of the contents like facts, concepts, principles, generalisations etc. and various processes involved like comparing, discriminating, weighing, analysing as revealed by different patterns of answers.
6) last but not the least to see educational potentiality of this exercise from the point of view of teaching and designing remedial programmes.
1.4 THE PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS UNDERTAKEN AND ITS NATURE With the basic concept of performance analysis and its objectives in our mind, it has been decided to undertake the study of answer-books of Physics-one of the prime science subjects at senior secondary stage. Question papers of Physics for 1992 examination of Delhi region were taken up where the multiple set of four question papers were first administrated. The corresponding answer- books were also made available for the study. However, it may be noted that the final observations recorded in the study are not confined to a particular question of a particular paper or answerbook but are recorded topic-wise or content-wise and are more general in nature. And hence, the result of the study shall be always useful irrespective of the year of examination and region.
As regards the nature of the performance analysis undertaken, it concerns with the 'QUALITATIVE ASPECTS OF THE ANSWERS' only. It has little to do with the marks obtained by the students, The study is confined to judge as to how the candidates have attemped the questions, what are the weaknesses, their possible remedies and notable strong points, if any. Quite possible, during the study, the working team has gone into other aspects such as quality of the question papers itself, weakness of the marking scheme, its effectiveness, comparative study of different question papers of a set, marking, by examiners or any such items. However, once again it is made clear that in the present study, the objective is confined to our main purpose of performance analysis. For the other aspects as stated, necessary actions have been taken at some other levels.
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