Evaluation of Printed Educational Materials and Use of Cloze Procedure and Listing Test
Whats Is Cloze Procedure?
The cloze test, derived from the term closure based on Gestalt
psychology (Mc.Kamey, 2006), has been specifically recommended for assessing
understanding of health education literature. Although it takes more time and
resources to perform than do readability formulas, the cloze procedure has been
validated for its adequacy in ranking reading difficulty of medical literature,
which typically has a high concept load. This procedure is not a formula that
provides a school grade type level of readability like the formulas already
described but rather is an assessment that takes into consideration the context
of a written passage (Doak et al., 1996; Klapwijk, 2013).
Best Use of Cloze Test
The cloze test can be administered to individual clients who
demonstrate difficulty comprehending health materials used for instruction.
Nevertheless, it is suggested that this test not be administered to every
patient in a health setting but rather to a representative sample of consumers.
The cloze test should be used only with those individuals whose reading skills
are at sixth grade or higher (approximately Level 1 on the NALS scale);
otherwise, it is likely that the test will prove too difficult (Doak et al.,
1996).
The cloze test is best used when reviewing the appropriateness of
several texts of the same content for a certain audience. The reader may or may
not be familiar with the material being tested. This procedure is designed so
that every fifth word is systematically deleted from a portion of a text. The
reader is asked to fill in the blanks with the exact word replacements. One
point is scored for every missing word guessed correctly by the reader. The
final cloze score is the total number of blanks filled in correctly by the
reader.
To be successful, the reader must demonstrate sensitivity to clues related to grammar. syntax, and semantics. If the reader fills in the blanks with appropriate words, this process is an indication of how well the material has been understood that is, how much knowledge was obtained from the set surrounding the blank spaces and how well the information was used to supply the additional information (Dale & Chall, 1978; Doak et al., 1996).
The underlying theory is that the more readable a passage is, the better it will be understood even when words are omitted. The resulting score can be converted to a percentage for ease in interpreting and analyzing the data (Pichert & Elam, 1985). Appendix A and Figure A-3 provide details on constructing, administering, and scoring a Cloze test.
What Is Listening Test
Unlike the cloze test, which may be too difficult for clients who read below the sixth grade level that is, for those persons who likely lack fluency and read with hesitancy the listening test is a good approach to determining what a low literate person understands and remembers when listening to oral instruction (Doak et al., 1996). Although it may take several hours to develop this test, it takes only 10 to 20 minutes to administer.
Use of Listing Test
The procedure for administering the listening test is to select a
passage from instructional materials that takes about 3 minutes to read aloud
and is written at approximately the fifth grade level. Formulate 5 to 10 short
questions relevant to the content of the passage by selecting key points of the
text. Read the passage to the person at a normal rate. Ask the listener the
questions orally and record the answers (Doak et al., 1996).
To determine the percentage score, divide the number of questions answered correctly by the total number of questions. The instructional material will be appropriate for the client's comprehension level if the score is in the range of 75% to 89% (some additional assistance when teaching the material may be necessary for full comprehension).
A score of 90% or higher indicates that
the material is easy for the client and can be fully understood independently.
A score of less than 75% means that the material is too difficult and simpler
instructional material will need to be used when teaching the individual. Doak
et al. (1996) provide an example of a sample passage and questions for a
listening comprehension test.
Give your opinion if have any.