Development of a Grade Level Assessment Tool in Social Sciences (GLAT-SS) of Karnataka State Education Board

Abstract

The social sciences encompass diverse concerns of society and include a wide range of content, drawn from the disciplines of history, geography, political science, economics, civics and sociology. Unlike other core subjects in formal schools, social sciences are different in content of each state as children of one particular state study more of their local geographical features, local history, economics and political science. The main goal of assessment is to assist students identify their learning gaps and the proper corrective actions to fill them so that students can continue or improve their learning which improves the students' attitudes towards the classes and their academic performance (Ozan & Kincal, 2017). An accurate assessment gives students a sense of their knowledge and ignorance of a subject. Formative assessment makes the teaching more effective (OECD, 2005). The aim of the present study was to develop the Grade Level Assessment Tool in Social Science (GLAT-SS) for the Karnataka State Education Board's grades VII and VIII employing a survey design. The study's target population consisted of 29 schools spread across five districts in Karnataka. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select participants for the study.In the study, a total 866 typically developing children from five districts (Mysore, Chamarajnagar, Mandya, Bengaluru & Kalaburagi) of Karnataka State participated. For the pilot study, 100 typically developing children participated and 766 typically developing children studying in Grade VII & VIII from five districts of Karnataka State participated in the final data collection, among them 263 students (154 English and 109 Kannada) were from Mysuru district; 82 students (English medium) were from Chamrajnagara district; 12 students (English medium) from Mandya district; and 32 students (25 English and 07 Kannada) were from Bengaluru district participated. The study was carried out in four stages, each with sub-stages. The initial phase contained of The Construction of Test Items (validated), second stage included the Pilot Study, third stage included Final Field Study of and the last stage included Determining Norms, validity and Reliability of the Test Materials. As a part of ethical procedure, permission was sought from school principals to carry out the study after getting the consent from the respective school principals, the data was collected for the study. The findings of the Shapiro-Wilks test and Kolmogorov-Smirnov, which are used to determine if the data is normally distributed (i.e., p<0.05), showed that the GLAT-SS total score data does not follow a normal distribution. Since the GLAT-SS total score data does not follow a normal distribution, the non-parametric test; Mann Whitney – U was employed in the study in order to test the hypotheses. The significance levels of 0.05 and 0.01 were used to compare all statistical significance values. The analysis is performed via the SPSS software. VIII grade Typically Developing 200 children studying in English Medium have 57.45 mean score and Hearing Impairment 33 children studying in English Medium obtained 34.24 mean score. VIII grade Typically Developing 81 children studying in Kannada Medium have 47.68 mean score and Hearing Impairment 63 children studying in Kannada Medium obtained 31.32 mean score. VII grade Typically Developing 236 children studying in English Medium have 56.62 mean score and Hearing Impairment 37 children studying in English Medium obtained 45.89 mean score. It also describes VII grade Typically Developing 97 children studying in Kannada Medium have 50.27 mean score and Hearing Impairment 19 children studying in Kannada Medium obtained 25.21 mean score.The final analysis and interpretations of results interpreted that There is significant difference found in performance of Grade Level Assessment Test (GLAT-SS) in Social Science between Typically Developing and Hearing Impaired grade VIII students studying in English Medium as well as Kannada Medium.