Application Of DEA Model In Formative Assessment

To monitor the students’learning process and evaluate their study’s efficiency, a kind of mathematical model-Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model, together with formative assessment was applied to English academic paper writing for non-English doctoral postgraduates.DEA is a mathematical programming technique for measuring the efficiency of same type of units or branches on the basis of inputs and outputs’data from the tested. With the calculated results, every unit is to be analyzed and be confirmed as efficient or non-efficient. Subsequently, the reasons of being non-efficient are found out and the degree to be efficient is worked out. Finally, some suggestions for improvement are given. In this paper, the learning process of students was considered as a system of input-output. As a result, it is feasible to measure their study efficiency, analyze the characteristics and difference of every student and lastly offer some advice to students.One common point between DEA method and formative assessment is that they both aim to monitor the learning process of the students but not to take the final examination marks as a standard for evaluating a student’s study. Nevertheless, DEA needs to set some relevant input and output variables to achieve the goal.A total of75volunteers from non-English doctoral postgraduates of Beijing Forestry University were selected. The data were obtained by the methods of formative assessment such as pre-test, posttest, questionnaires and quantification and then according to the DEA method, the data were analyzed with DEA-Solver and Excel. The results are listed as follows:DEA Model made a full and comprehensive analysis of the students’learning situation, helped the students adjust their study strategy and then gave some suggestions to the student; through the DEA method, the students analyzed their study efficiencies in the whole class and found out the key factor affecting their learning. These research results are helpful to the further study of the application of DEA model in formative assessment and other English teaching activities except for English writing and offer some references to the application of DEA model with an independent means in teaching evaluation.This research is unique in the following aspects:1) DEA method is the first time to be applied to English writing’s teaching activity, especially English academic paper writings for non-English doctoral postgraduates;2) it is the first time to combine DEA method with formative assessment in the process of evaluation.