Article Analysis: Educational Measurements
The article entitled “Educational Measurements” highlights the contributions made by researchers and practitioners in developing educational tests and other evaluative techniques.
In this review, the authors selected important contributions/improvements to tests and measurements regarding intelligence, personality, achievement, aptitude, child study techniques, interests and attitudes, and the statistical methods underlying the construction of various tests (Stroud et al., 1956). Accordingly, this review indicates that within the period of 25 years prior to its publication, researchers had made significant improvements in almost all areas of educational measurement and statistical methods underlying test construction. On the other hand, this article is critical of the limitations of some tests and their components in achieving their intended goals and objectives. As a result, the authors note that despite the marked improvements recorded in all areas of educational measurement over the period under review, more needs to be done, particularly in the area of statistical methods informing the tests and other evaluative techniques to maintain validity and reliability (Stroud et al., 1956).
Therefore, the essence of this article is to provide insights into the development and use of various educational measurements and their underlying advantages and limitations. From this article, it is evident that educational measurements take various forms, which cover different aspects of human development such as intelligence, attitudes and interests, personality, and educational achievements among others. In addition, the article highlights different aspects of measurement in the most critical areas of educational measurement and evaluation. For instance, intelligence testing involves sampling of intellectual abilities and measuring the intelligence quotient. As a result, the educational measurements underlying intelligence testing can go a long way in terms of determining individual knowledge and skills for the purpose of teaching and learning. Besides, the intelligence tests are important because they illuminate the major strengths, weaknesses, needs, and difficulties among the students, and hence they play a major role in terms of informing curriculum development in schools.
On the other hand, the effect of confounding factors in the measurement of intelligence, particularly the effect of mental age, reading proficiency, and cultural differences is emphasized in this article. Moreover, this implies that despite their effectiveness in measuring intelligence, the tests and evaluative techniques are not sufficient in the absence of mechanisms to factor in the effect of these confounding factors. As a result, researchers and practitioners who use these tests on their students should consider the effect of confounding factors before using them in predicting educational attainment. Another important aspect of educational measurement highlighted in this article involves aptitude testing. The use of aptitude tests in schools, professional fields, and even in the military has been recorded over the years.
According to Stroud et al. (1956), aptitude tests are important in determining general intelligence, motor coordination, numerical ability, spatial ability, verbal ability, and perception among other skills and abilities. However, the fact that validation of these tests has been an issue over the years cannot be overlooked. As a result, this article highlights some well-developed and validated aptitude tests in order to guide educational practitioners in selecting the best tests for their students. This is a very important aspect of this article considering that some of these aptitude tests hold the key to scholastic achievement, employment, and military recruitment, and hence, if they are applied wrongly, they may end up hurting the same people they are meant to serve. Most importantly, this article highlights the contribution of research in the area of educational achievement testing over the period under review.
Accordingly, Stroud et al. (1956) posit that educational achievement tests have experienced marked growth over the years. However, the article indicates that the need for test validation has been over-emphasized at the expense of reliability. As a result, there is the imperative need to strike a balance between test validation and reliability not only in educational achievement tests, but also in all educational measurement and evaluation techniques. In so doing, researchers and practitioners in the area of educational measurement can rest assured that the core functions of their tests are achievable.
Overall, this article is appropriate for academic use, and therefore, it can be recommended as a starting point for researchers and students conducting their research on educational measurements and other evaluative techniques.
