MEASUREMENTS AND EVALUATION
DEFINITION AND MEANING OF KEY TERMS
Education
Shaping/modification of behavior individual for adequate adjustment in the
society or process of learning to live as a useful and acceptable member of the
community.
Measurements
Comparison of something with a unit standard amount or comparison of quantity
with that of something in order to represent the magnitude of variable being
measured or assigning numeral to individuals or objects in a systematic way as a
means of presenting properties of the individual or objects. Numbers are assigned
according to carefully prescribed repeatable procedure.
Evaluation
Process of judging the worth of something in terms of its cost, adequately or
effectiveness.
Test
Is a device for obtaining a sample of an individual’s behavior?
Assessment
Process of collecting, interpreting and synthesizing information to aid in specifying
and verifying problems mainly in academic behavior.
EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENTS
Meaning of education
The child at birth is born with certain biological inheritance. Biological heredity
alone is not enough to enable him to develop harmoniously in a social culture.
To equip him with necessary skills, and information, concepts and attitudes, and
to enable him to adjust properly in his environment, society has created a
separate agency - school - where he can develop all the qualities and the abilities
required for successful social adjustment. In the school the child is taken through
as education process – which is facilitated by trained teachers who are a
stipulated syllabus/syllabi.
Educational Property
In the educational process, we try to shape the behavior of young children in
accordance with the aims and goals of national life.
Therefore education can be defined as the shaping of behavior of the individual
for adequate adjustment in the society.
Others have defined it as the process of learning to live at useful and acceptable
member of the community.
There are five components of education:
i) Student needs - viewed as the reason why educational institution exists.
ii) Educational objectives - viewed as what the educational process is set
to accomplish.
iii) School program - viewed as how the educational process is to
accomplish the goal to serve the need of students.
iv) Information - viewed as how well the school program is functioning.
v) Measurements and evaluation - viewed as how well the school program
is functioning.
The 4th and 5th components should answer the question on how do we know if
students needs are being met? (This is a student-centred curriculum)
MEASUREMENTS AND EVALUATION AND THE TEACHING-LEARNING
PROCESS/PROCEDURE.
Broadly concerned, the main purpose of a classroom teaching is to change the
learner’s behaviour to desired directions.
Viewed from this perspective, measurement and evaluation become an integral
part of the teaching-learning process.
The desired directions are the educational objectives established by the school
and the teacher.
Measurements and evaluation are the process of determining the extent to which
those objectives are being achieved after employing various teaching or
instructional methods.
Therefore teaching and evaluation process (learning different methods),
education objectives and measurements/evaluation are independent and their
operations are cyclical in nature as shown by the diagram below.
Step 1 – objectives assists in giving directions to step 2 (methods)
Step 2 then aids in determining step 3 (measurements and evaluation)
NB The cycle should be regarded as continuous. The teaching-learning process is
never completed: rather, it is only changed as new goals, new methods, and
measurement/evaluation modify the process.
METHODS/PROCEDURES OF EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT
There are three basic procedures of educational measurement
1. Paper and pencil: Here, the learner answers questions either orally or more
commonly on paper production.
2. Here the student is asked to write a theme, type a letter, plant crops etc.
(very common in industrial education)
3. Direct observation of behaviour: here the student is observed while he
delivers a speech, presentation, runs a race etc.
Qualities/characteristics of each methods/procedure of each educational
measurement
1. Reliability refers to accuracy, preciseness or consistency
2. Validity relevancy a test should be measured what areas taught, nothing
more, nothing less and nothing else.
3. Usability a test should have appropriate time limits, clear directions, basis
of interpretation and application, cost ease of scoring etc.
Measuring and purpose of educational measurement
Meaning
Generally, measurements refer to the process by which things are differentiated.
It involves assigning of numbers to represent the amount of property possessed
by any objects, event or system. Educational measurement is basically concerned
with quantitative description of a student’s performance, thus finding out how
well a learner is performing in terms of specified objectives in relation to others.
Measurements aim of defining, explaining and predicting the performance of a
learner in a more precise manner. Measurement in its general terms answers the
question how much e.g. a student may answer 10 questions correctly out of 15
questions set in a physic paper. These figures may not mean much until they are
evaluated.
Properties of educational measurement
1. Numbers are assigned according to some rules e.g. points, marks etc.
2. It is concerned with certain attributes in a teaching-learning process.
Learning outcomes of the learner. The attributes are the ones being
measured and not the learner.
3. Numbers are used to represent the quantities of an attribute, e.g. learner X
who scores 90% has more of the attribute which is being measured than
learner Y who scores 60%
Purpose/functions of educational measurement
1. To determine how much learners have learned.
2. To diagnose or determine the area of difficulty in order to take the correct
measures.
3. To motivate the learners (measurement encourage over-learning)
4. To report the students/learners progress/general ability to the parents,
head teachers, and education administrators in more precise manner.
5. To predict learners performance in future.
6. For comparison purposes and compare performance of students in one
school with that of students in other schools.
7. To evaluate the work of education program and the teachers effectively.
8. To select learners/students for placement in a given group or stream for
better instruction or for selection for next levels of education.
