Which of the following tools is based on the technique of observation ?

Concept: Tools of evaluation are broadly grouped into testing techniques and non-testing techniques. Testing techniques - oral tests, written tests, and paper-pencil tests - require the examinee to actively produce a response to a set question or task, and they judge performance at one fixed point in time. Non-testing techniques - such as observation, checklists, rating scales, and anecdotal records - judge behaviour by watching and recording it as it occurs naturally, without posing any question or task to the student.

Application: The stem asks for the tool built on the technique of observation. An anecdotal record is prepared when a teacher watches a student's behaviour or a significant incident in the classroom or school and writes a factual, dated account of exactly what was seen, without interpretation at the time of recording. Since it is generated purely from watching behaviour as it naturally happens, it is a non-testing, observation-based tool.

Cross-check - contrasting each option by its own value:

• Oral test: the student must speak answers to questions posed in a formal test situation, so it depends on a produced verbal response, not on watching everyday behaviour.

• Written test: the student must write answers to set questions, so it depends on a produced written response, not on behaviour observed as it naturally occurs.

• Paper-pencil test: a written-response format scoring a fixed set of items on a sheet, so it too depends on a task-based response rather than passive observation.

• Anecdotal record: compiled entirely by watching and factually recording behaviour or an incident exactly as it happened, with no question or task posed - this matches the technique of observation described in the stem.

Hence, the tool based on observation is the anecdotal record.