It is felt necessary that a format of a Checklist indicating therein the weightages and the rating scales ; a scoring card for the evaluation of text books, instruction as to how to go about scoring them and also instructions as to how to use the scoring card for the Evaluation of Text Books be given to provide a specimen sample. The suggested formats of the above items may be seen below :
DETAILED CHECKLIST FOR THE EVALUATION OF
TEXT BOOKS
C o n t e n t :
Does the text book follow
the stated aims and object-
tives of the course?Are the facts presented
accurate and up-to-date?Are the contents adequate
for instructional hours
allotted?Are the contents compati-
ble with the mental matu-
rity of the student to whom
the book is written?Are they compatible with
the achievement of the
student in the previous
level?Organization and Presenta
tionAre the components sequen-
ced in terms of pupils diffi-
culties?Do different topics receive
adequate treatment?Are the topics in each
chapter presented with pro-
per preamble?Are the topics sub-divided?
Are the titles given to sub-
topics?Are there summaries at the
end of every lesson/chapter?Are there notes or mean-
ings of difficult words at the
end of every lesson?Are there English equiva-
lents of the technical terms
at the end of the lessons?Does the book contain an
appendix giving glossary of
terminology?
Does it give a list of useful
reference books?Does it contain a good
preface outlining the ins-
tructional objectives?Are the pupils led through
useful activities?Are the experiments or
activities properly explain-
ed?Does the book encourage
practical outdoor observa-
tion?Are the tasks suggested
practicable?Are sufficient number of
problems worked out?Is the book free from
irrelevant descriptions?Illustrations
Is the book adequately
Illustrated ? (Consider
number of illustrations,
their location and necessity
etc.)Is the book free from ire-
levant art work?Are the illustrations clear?
Are they accurate?
Are they suitability sized?
Are the tables, charts,
graphs etc. adequately
presented?Exercises
Do the exercise relate to
the stated objectives?Do they contain task des-
criptions so that the student
can understand what he is
supposed to do?Is there variety in the
exercise?Are they free from the
questions which contain
hints for the answers?Do they call for critical
answers?
Are they graded in terms
of student difficulty?Does the book contain
more difficult questions to
meet the needs of intelligent
studeats?Are the exercise interest-
ing enough to motivate the
student to go further on
his own accord?Are the tasks suggested
relating to Indian situa-
tions?Language Aspect :
Is the style used appropri-
ate?Is it the standard style
accepted in all parts of the
state?
Is it appropriate to the
student?Are the technical terms used
Appropriate?
Is the discourse free froma) translation difficulty?
b) standardization diffi-
culty?
c) technical terms diffi-
culy?Is it compatible with the
previous achievement of
the student?Is there inter-subject com-
patibility with regard to
language?Are the sentences syntacti-
cally appropriate?Physical Aspects :
Is the design of the book
attractive?Is the binding durable?
Is the type size suitable?
Is the paper good enough?
Is the printing neat?
Is the cost reasonable?
Is the book free from prin-
ting errors?What colour is sued?
SCORE CARD FOR THE EVALUATION OF TEXTBOOKS
PART-A : IDENTITY
Language of the book :
Publisher :
1. Title of the Book
2. a) Discipline
b) Special Area3. a) Level (Pre-Degree/Degree)
b) Whether for General/
Elective Study
c) Whether Syllabus bound/
Supplementary4. Author (s)
Name Designation
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
5. Editor/Supervisor (if any) Name Designation
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
6. a) Date of first Edition
b) No. of Present Edition
c) Whether Reprinted or Revised7. No. of pages
8. Price
PART-B : SUBJECT
I-Content :
1.
Does the book follow
the stated aims and
objectives of the
course?2. Are they compatible
with the achievement
of the student in the
previous level?3. Does the book lead
the student to the
following level?4. Are the facts pre-
sented-
a) accurate?
b) up-to-date?5. Are the contents com-
patible with the ex-
pected ability of the
student for whom the
book is written?
6. Are the contents
adequate for the ins-
tructional hours
allotted?"
II - Organisation and
presentation1. Are the components
sequenced so as to
introduce ad deve-
lop the subject
matter in terms of
pupils difficulties?2. Do different topics
receive proportion-
ate treatment on the
basis of the syllabi?3. a) Are the topics
properly sub-divid-
ded?b) Are appropriate
titles given?
4. Are there summaries
at the end of every
chapter?
5. Are critical notes
added either by way
of foot-notes at the
end of the chapter
or the book?6. a) Are the English
equivalents of the
technical terms given
when they are first
introduced?b) Are the techni-
cal terms well defin-
ed when they are
first introduced?
c) Are the techni-
cal terms consistent-
ly used?7. Does the book con-
tain appendices like:
a) an index of tech-
nical terms English
versus Regional lan-
guage?b) an index of tech-
nical terms Regional
language versus
English?c) an alphabetized
list of important
conceptual terms of
the book with brief
explanation?8. a) Does it give a
list of materials for
further reading at
the end of each chap-
ter?
b) Does it give
comprehensive bib-
liography at the end
of the book?9. Is the book free from
irrelevant descrip-
tions?10. Are the significant
points conspicuously
displayed in the body
of the book ( like
using italics etc.)?11.
led through useful
activities?12
ments or activities
properly explained?13.
encourage practical
outdoor observa-
tion?14.
suggested practi-
cable?15.
ber of problems
worked out?
III - Illustrations
1. Is the book adequately
illustrated? (Consider
the number of illustra-
tions, their location,
necessity and appro-
priateness to Indian
conditions)2. Are the illustrations-
a) clear?
b) accurate?
c) suitably sized?3.
number of necessary
a) tables?
b) charts?
c) graphs?
d) schematic dia-
grams?IV-Exercises/Questions :
1. Do the exercises/ques-
tions relate to the
stated objectives?2. Is there variety in the
exercises?
3. Do they call for citi-
cal answers?4. Are they graded in
terms of student's
difficulty?5. Does the book contain
more difficult exerci-
ses/questions to meet
the needs of intelligent
students?6. Are the exercises/
questions interesting
enough to motivate
the student to go
further on his own
accord?7.
task description so
that the student can
understand what he is
supposed to do?8.
the questions which
contain hints for the
answers?9.
ested relating to
Indian situations?10
given at the end of
the book?
PART-C LANGUAGE
1. Is the language appro-
priate to the linguistic
accomplishment of
the student?Are the technical
terms made a blend
with the language?2. a) Is the current
language used consis-
tently?b) Is the book free
from-
i) archaic express-
ions?ii) exclusive of lite-
rary expressions?3. Is the book free from-
a) translation diffi-
culty?b) standardization
difficulty?c) technical term diffi-
culty?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 4. Are the sentences
naturally constructed?5. Is there inter-subject
compatibility with re-
gard to language?PART-D : PHYSICAL
ASPECT1. Is the design of the
book attractive?2. Is the binding durable?
3. Is the paper good
enough?4. Is the printing neat?
5. Is the type size
suitable?6. Is the book free from
printing errors?7. Is the cost reasonable?
H O W T O S C O R E
By means of the score card it should be possible to determine, in an analytical manner, the extent to which a book fulfills the standards. Two steps are involved in this determination.1. To provide method, whereby, the several items in the score card would be
assigned weights in accordance with their importance. This may be done in the
following ways :
a) The main heads of the score-card are : the objectives of the curriculum and
content, organization of the content and the methods of its presentation, language, learning and teaching aids, and physical features. Value or weight may be fixed to any one of these; this weighted head would be considered as a basic head. For instance, if the organization of the content is considered as a basic head. And 10 marks are assigned to it, then, judging the relative importance of other heads in comparison to the basic head, their weights may be fixed accordingly. If, for example, language is considered half as important as the basic head, then 5 marks may be assigned to it. Weights may similarly be fixed for other heads also.b) The value or weight assigned to a main head may be distributed to the sub
heads or questions, according to their relative importance.For the sake of convenience, the total of the weights may not exceed 50 or 100.
The judges, however, may follow some definite plan of fixing weights to
questions, which, in their judgement is more objective.2. After fixing the weights to questions, the second step is to measure or evaluate
a book with respect to the standards developed, or questions given in the score
card. This necessarily involves rating the quality of a book, item by item or
question by question. The evaluation of an item may be done on a five point
scale with values fixed as follows:-1. Very good 5 marks
2. Good 4 marks
3. Average 3 marks
4. Below average 2 marks
5. Poor 1 mark
Now, suppose, it is necessary to rate the question as to how far the illustrations in a book are attractive. According to the judgement of the reviewer, if they are quite satisfactory, or "very good", he should give 5 marks to the item. If he is not impressed with the quality and feels they are just "average", he may give three marks. If he, however, is of opinion, that the quality of the illustration is thoroughly unsatisfactory or "poor", he should rate the item at the bottom of the scale and give only one mark. In between the three qualities very good, average, and poor, two more qualities, good and below average are also available to are viewer, and full use may be taken of the entire scale. However, the teachers in the country are quite used to evaluation of this type, and, therefore, the use of this scale may not entail any difficulty.
METHOD OF SCORING :A reviewer may first read an item in the score card, then look for the desirable standards that item is required/expected to fulfil, than he may analyse the book with this background in mind. After forming an opinion about the item, he may evaluate it into any of the five grades, very good, good, average, below average or poor, and enter the value in column 3 of the score card. The value of the grade given in column 3 of the score card. The value of the grade given in column 3, multiplied by the weight allotted to the item in column 2, gives the score for the item to be entered in 4. The scores for all the items or questions are than added up. This total gives the score of the book in respect of all the qualities examined.
The average value of a book on a five-point-scale can be found by diving the total score of the book by the total weight. Suppose the total weight of a score card is 100 and a book scores 340 marks, apparently, on a five-point scale, its average value is 340/100=3, 4 or between the qualities average and Good. The book is therefore rated as slightly above average.
EVALUATION OF TEXT BOOKS
HOW TO USE THE SCORING CARDFormat :The scoring card has been divided into four parts. Part-A covers only general information about the book. Part-B has four sub-parts: such as content, organization and presentation, illustrations and exercise/questions. For the others, a rating scale will be found from column No. 4 to 8.
The column 3 is meant for relative weightage of the item (about weightage we shall dicuss slightly later).
The rating scale has five points ranging from very high to low. For 'very high' a score of 4 will be giver. and for a 'low' rating a score of zero will be given. In this way each item will have one rating score. The result will be total score of hat item. This procedure is introduced for easier qualitative rating for a book.
Wrightage :Weightages are relative values given to various aspects of the book. Each aspect is different. Moreover, their importance for the total value of a book differs from aspect to aspect.
Before actually beginning to score, it is advisable to divide he weightages of the items.
Once the weightages are decided, they may be multiples to the ratings given to the individual items and the product can be taken as the total score for that item. An example has been worked out below to explain this procedure. It may be noted that the weightages given here are arbitrarily fixed and they are not to be taken as defined weightages. They are only meant to illustrated the procedure.
Questions
Weightage
Rating
TotalScore
4
3
2
1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Part-B
I-Content
1
2
6X2=12
2
2
2X3=6
3
2
2X4=8
4
6
6X1=6
5
2
2X2=4
6
2
2X1=2
II-Organization
1
2
2X3=6
2
3
3X2=6
3
2
2*4=8
4
1
1X4=4
5
1
1X3=3
6
3
3X2=6
7
3
3X3=6
8
2
2X3=6
9
1
1X4=4
10
1
1X3=3
11
1
1X2=2
1X2=2 III-Illustration 1 4 4X4=16 2 2 2X3=6 3 2 2X3=6 IV-Exercises/
Quetions1 1 1X4=4 2 1 1X2=2 3 1 1X1=1 4 2 2X4=8 5 1 1X3=3 6 1 1X4=4 7 2 2X1=2 8 1 * 1X3=3 9 1 * 1X4=4 10 1 * 1X3=3 Part-C:Language 1 6 * 6X2=12 2 6 * 6X3=18 3 6 * 6X4=24 4 5 * 5X3=15 5 2 * 2X3=6 Part-D:Physical
Aspects1 1 * 1X3=3 2 1 * 1X3=3 3 1 * 1X4=4 4 1 * 1X4=4 5 1 * 1X3=3 6 3 * 3X2=6 7 2 * 2X3=6 Total 100 276
Thus, the total value of each aspect or item will be its weight multiplied by its rating by the reviewer. This score will be as shown above in column 'total score' against each question. Thus, the total value of the book in respect of the 46 aspects or items examined, will be the 'sum total' of different scores given above in the column 'total score'. In the present case, it will be 276.
INSTRUCTION TO THE EVALUATOR
The average value of the book may also be calculated by dividing the total score by the amount of 100 and thus a book scoring 276, has an average value of 276/100 or equal to 2.76, which means that on a five point scale this places the book half way between '3' and '2' but a little nearer the 'High' score.
How to decide the weightages:
A total number, say 100 or 50 (or any convenient number for that matter) may be fixed as the sum of the weightages value given to different aspects or questions to be considered. This may then be distributed to all aspects depending on the relative importance of a given aspect in judging the worth of the book. It is always desirable to take the opinion of several experts in fixing the weightage for each aspect. Opinions should be pooled up and weightages decided. This can be done by considering the weightages given by different judges and taking their averages.
*The star marks indicate the rating of the book b the reviewer in respect of each
question.How to rate:
Rate the aspects one by one, preferably listing evidence where necessary. First decide on two categories: 'high' or 'low'. Then consider to what extent it is high or low in a five point scale. It is better to keep the justification in mind or even to write down on a separate sheet.Then multiply the rating scores by weightages and enter the product in column number 9 as the total score. Add up the total scores of each aspect and take the average as worked out in the example given above.At this stage, the evaluator has to compute and average the total scores under sub-headings such as content, language etc. For this purpose, take the total weightage of that sub-heading for computing the average. For example, the average on content for the book in the example worked out will be 38 ÷ 20 = 1.9. Thus in a five point scale, this is closer to a low score. Such a course will help us to develop of a review report.
How to write your report:Keeping the total scores in mind develop a review report of the book. The personal comments of the evaluator on each major sub-heading like 'content' 'presentation', 'language' etc. should be written down. If any revision is felt necessary, it could also be pointed out.