Table of specification is a two-way chart which is constructed by the class teacher before the development of any classroom test. The main function of this chart is to ensure that all the important content areas have been included in the test and nothing worth assessment has been left behind. It guides the teacher in the process of test construction. It is like a blue print of a test. It shows the relationship between the content areas and the performance objectives. It usually consists of general instructional objectives, specific learning outcomes (derived from those general objectives), instructional contents (which indicate the area wherein the students are expected to show the desired performance) and the relative weights (which are usually represented by percentages in the table) given to each content area. The construction of table of specifications generally involves the following steps.
1. Specify general educational objectives.
2. Specify learning outcomes in light of the general educational objectives.
3. Specify the content areas in which the students would be assessed.
4. Specify the number of test items to be included in the test for each content area.
For example if a class teacher wants to construct a classroom test of 25 items on the topic of curriculum his/her table of specification may look like as follows.
Looking at the above table of specification, we see that the test consists of 25 test items in which eight items are about the nature of curriculum, eight items about the Types of curriculum and nine items about the various models of curriculum. This test may be either objective type or subjective type or a mix of both types, it depends solely on the discretion of a class teacher.
1. Specify general educational objectives.
2. Specify learning outcomes in light of the general educational objectives.
3. Specify the content areas in which the students would be assessed.
4. Specify the number of test items to be included in the test for each content area.
For example if a class teacher wants to construct a classroom test of 25 items on the topic of curriculum his/her table of specification may look like as follows.
Content Areas
| General Objectives | |||||||
Knowledge | Understand | Application | Analyze | Total
Items
| ||||
Specific Learning Outcomes | ||||||||
Define | Explain | Compare | Apply | Use | Analyze | Criticize | ||
Curriculum | 2
2
2
| 1
1
2
| 1
1
1
| 1
1
1
| 1
1
1
| 1
1
1
| 1
1
1
| 8
8
9
|
Nature
Types
Models
| ||||||||
Total Items | 6 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 25 |
