Page 278 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

Educational outcomes should be assessed.
Source: CDC/Amanda Mills.

Some instructors may believe that a test should not be too easy, but the degree of difficulty of a test may not
be as important as whether a person can perform. The instructor may believe that some of the questions have
to be difficult so that a spread of scores is produced to separate the brightest from the rest, the As from the Bs
and Cs. Some tests are developed with the intent that not everyone will be successful and variation in
individual scores is expected. Students are graded in a norm-referenced manner by comparison with other
individuals on the same measuring device or with the norm of the group. A norm-referenced instrument
indicates, for example, whether the individual’s performance falls into the 50th percentile or the 90th
percentile in relation to the group norm. This method is not as appropriate for affective and psychomotor
objectives.

With criterion-referenced evaluation, everyone can do well by attaining a minimum standard. Instruction
has been successful when learners reach a defined level of expertise. The registration examinations for
dietitians and for dietetic technicians are examples of criterion-referenced tests.

Formative evaluation is almost always criterion-referenced. The instructor wants to know who is having
trouble learning, not where they rank compared with others. Summative evaluation may be either norm- or

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