What are the four degrees in educational measurement?

Educational measurement (educational measurement)

What is educational measurement [1]

Educational measurement refers to the evaluation of various things or phenomena in the educational field according to certain rules, and the quantitative description of the evaluation results, which can include the measurement of various educational activities.

The origin of educational measurement [2]

The development of educational evaluation is the reflection of the development and progress of science and technology in the field of education, and it is carried out in the pursuit of objectivity. Through the practice of examination, people can see that the objectivity of written examination is indeed higher than that of oral examination, and educational evaluation has taken a step towards objectification. To explore the origin and development of educational evaluation, we must know something about educational measurement, because the purpose of measurement is to pursue objective quantitative results.

(A) the significance of educational measurement

Educational measurement mainly quantifies students' academic achievements through examinations. Measurement means "measuring, measuring, measuring and weighing", and "inferring the height, depth, size and width of the ground with instruments is called measurement." S.S.Stevens thinks: "In a broad sense, measurement is to assign numbers to things according to laws (rules)." It can be seen that measurement is a technology to measure, measure, measure, weigh and display the corresponding results by using appropriate measuring tools and following certain operating procedures (rules) according to the needs of the measured object. General examinations only measure people's memory, understanding, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation of knowledge and skills. Examination can't measure the real state of matter, but it is wider than the object of examination. It includes not only the direct measurement of the real state of matter, but also the indirect measurement of people's spiritual world, such as psychology, education level, knowledge, skills, intelligence, interest, temperament, personality, morality, emotion and physique. What can educational measurement do, such as demand measurement, motivation measurement, attitude measurement, moral education measurement, etc. Therefore, examination is one of the means of educational measurement.

In the historical development of educational evaluation, both G. Fisher in Britain and J. M. Lice in America have tried to seek the objectivity of evaluation. In 1864, Fisher, as the principal, made a grading standard according to the degree of value, and the grading score ranged from L to 5, which was used to objectively grade the answers and works of students in our school. 1894, the spelling test designed by Rice as the mayor of Baltimore was regarded as an early measurement. His move had a great influence at that time, so Rice was called the pioneer of educational measurement.

(b) Psychological testing and educational measurement

Psychological test originated from social demand, and its emergence and development promoted the development of educational measurement. The early explorer of psychological test was Gao Erdun, the founder of British differential psychology. He devoted himself to the study of individual differences and psychological inheritance. He believes that all human characteristics can be described quantitatively, which is a necessary condition for the establishment of human science. Therefore, he first applied statistics to deal with psychological research data, and expressed the differences of psychological characteristics by quantity. Gao Erdun's psychometric tool not only paved the way for the later psychological test research, but also provided important conditions for the quantitative technology of educational evaluation.

J. M.Cattell, an American psychologist, is engaged in the study of individual differences in Feng Te Psychology Laboratory of the University of Leipzig. The study of cartel can be summarized into six items, namely, reaction time, association, perception and reading, psychophysics, ranking method and individual differences. However, his research focuses on psychological tests and individual differences, focusing on measuring basic physical activities or sensory-motor reactions, so his psychological tests are different from intelligence tests. He sorted out more than 50 kinds of psychological tests, and published a paper entitled "Psychological Tests and Measurements" in 1890, summarizing the experiment.

1889, French psychologist A. Binet.Alfred established the first psychology laboratory in France at the University of Paris. Biner's most important contribution to psychology is the research on intelligence and the innovation of intelligence test methods. 1905, Biner and Simon worked together to compile Biner-Simon intelligence scale, which was revised several times to become the intelligence age scale. Therefore, Biner is called the founder of intelligence test.

(3) Educational measurement movement

At the beginning of the 20th century, educational measurement became a movement, and its representative figure was American psychologist E.I.Thorndike, 1904. Thorndike published a world-famous book "Introduction to Psychosocial Measurement", which introduced the statistical methods and the basic principles of supplementary measurement. The book puts forward the basic viewpoint that "everything that exists has quantity, and everything that has quantity can be measured", which lays a theoretical foundation for educational measurement and makes great contributions to its construction and development, so Thorndike is called "the father of educational measurement in the world". In the following 20 years, Thorndike and his disciples successively compiled various test modes, such as arithmetic standard academic ability test, calligraphy scale, professional test and clerical ability test. As a representative tool of educational measurement-academic standards of teaching in various subjects-were also completed by other scholars, and about 1300 kinds were published during this period.

Since the 20th century, the educational measurement movement has been developed, but it was criticized in 1930s, so some scholars called 1930s-40s a critical period. The development of educational measurement movement in the west has had a great influence on China, and the educational circles in China have also begun to study the educational measurement theory. Educational measurement movement reflects the change from subjective evaluation to measurement, emphasizing the methodology of evaluation; The transformation from measurement to modern evaluation emphasizes the teleology of evaluation.

Characteristics of educational measurement [3]

Compared with physical measurement, the object of educational measurement is much more complicated, mainly measuring students' internal psychological characteristics. Therefore, it has different characteristics from physical measurement, mainly in the following aspects:

1. Indirectness of educational measurement

Educational measurement is generally indirect measurement. Because we can't directly measure students' internal psychological characteristics, we can only infer the characteristics and level of individual psychological activities by detecting their explicit behavior or external performance characteristics. In other words, we can only indirectly measure students' knowledge level, intelligence level, morality and ability through tests and reasoning. There are many subjective factors at work in the process of testing. The implementation of an exam, from the preparation of each item, the implementation process of the exam, to the process of grading and score analysis, can never rule out the role of human subjective factors. Therefore, educational measurement is subjective.

2. Diversity of educational measurement

Measurement must have a corresponding measuring tool, and the performance of the measuring tool determines the measurement effect. The main tool of educational measurement is testing. The test used in educational measurement consists of a set of questions, which are the elements of the test. Because each question can only reflect the explicit behavior or external performance characteristics of the subjects from one side, the test of multiple questions can comprehensively reflect the overall attributes of a certain aspect of the subjects. Therefore, whether a test can achieve a certain measurement purpose depends not only on the merits of each topic, but also on the mutual cooperation between topics. Testing a topic for many times can achieve the purpose of accurate measurement, but in practice, it is impossible to test the same topic for many times, otherwise it will also affect the accuracy of measurement, which determines the diversity of educational measurement.

3. Uncertainty of educational measurement

The uncertainty of educational measurement shows randomness and fuzziness. The development and change of educational phenomena are partly determined by accidental factors, which contain a large number of random phenomena. Educational measurement measures students' internal psychological characteristics, and it is difficult to exclude the influence of some other psychological changes when measuring some psychological characteristics; Educational measurement is not only an indirect measurement, but also highly subjective, which may be influenced by the external environment at any time. Therefore, students will be more or less affected by their own emotions, health status and surrounding environment when conducting tests, thus making the measurement results random or erroneous. For example, when measuring students' moral character, some students may deliberately hide their original moral character. In educational practice, the uncertainty of educational phenomenon is not only random, but also a more basic and profound manifestation than random-fuzziness. This is because the characteristics of educational measurement objects are often vague, and the units of educational measurement are generally relative, and their meanings are also vague. The same score has different meanings in people's minds; For example, "1" in multiple-choice questions is not equal to "1" in fill-in-the-blank questions and "1"in essay questions. The same score in different exams in the same subject is not necessarily the same. Therefore, the evaluation of students' academic performance is only an "approximate" data, a trend of knowledge mastery or ability, and can not accurately reflect the actual situation of students.

4. The purpose of educational measurement

Any measurement has a clear purpose, and educational measurement must serve the purpose of education, that is, educational measurement is to master students' academic, intellectual, ideological and moral conditions and understand the effect of education and teaching, so as to organize educational activities more reasonably, arrange teaching content, choose teaching methods, implement teaching in accordance with their aptitude, and promote students' all-round development in morality, intelligence, physique, beauty and labor. We can't make a scale and measure it at will, which is divorced from the educational purpose and teaching material requirements. Otherwise, educational measurement can not only promote the continuous improvement of education and teaching level, but may be counterproductive.

The above four characteristics of educational measurement profoundly explain the complexity of educational measurement. Because of this, it is necessary to evaluate the quality of educational measurement. The quality of educational measurement is generally measured by calculating the reliability, validity, difficulty and discrimination of the test. The above four characteristics of educational measurement, which will be done in Chapter 10, profoundly illustrate the complexity of educational measurement. Because of this, it is necessary to evaluate the quality of educational measurement. The quality of educational measurement is generally measured by calculating the reliability, validity, difficulty and discrimination of the test. The related content will be introduced in detail in Chapter 10.

Many educators will give test questions and organize various tests, but it will be difficult to improve the test work and quality without understanding and mastering the science of educational measurement. With the development of modern educational theory, people's quality education, subjective initiative and teaching students in accordance with their aptitude are paid more and more attention. Testing the educational effect is inseparable from the evaluation of the educated, and the most important part is to use the method of educational measurement to test the educational effect. Therefore, every educator who implements educational measurement should have a deep understanding of its characteristics, correctly use it, including defining its purpose or goal, scientific design and compilation of educational measurement, reasonable measurement organization and evaluation of measurement results, so as to give full play to its functions, minimize its adverse effects and provide accurate and reliable measurement data for educational disciplines, especially educational evaluation.

Functions and elements of educational measurement

(A) the function of educational measurement:

1. Educational measurement is a good tool to improve teaching.

2. Educational measurement is an important means of teaching management.

3. Educational measurement is an important method of educational research.

(2) Elements of educational measurement:

1, unit

2. Frame of reference

3. Scale

refer to

Xu Dao. Management and application of modern educational technology. National University of Defense Technology Press, 2002.

Editor Meng Yan. Higher education courses. Xi An: Northwestern Polytechnical University Press, 20 1 1.08.