EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION

The terms educational measurement and evaluation represent concepts that are often used by educational workers while studying children and also while studying individual differences involving academic achievement and aptitude, special abilities, emotional and social adjustment, as well as physical strength and skill.

Measurement involves the gathering of the descriptive date that can be related to an appropriate standard of the norm.

Evaluation, on the other hand, consists of much more than mere collection and recording of data and is more comprehensive than measurement. It includes an informal and intuitive judgement about pupils progress as well as the act of “valuing” which means expressing what kind of behaviour is desirable and good. Thorndike and Hagen (1955) are for the opinion that good measurement techniques provide a solid foundation for sound evaluation.

Evaluation and measurement are not the same, although evaluation involves measurement. Example, if we assess students’ knowledge and understanding in a subject by means of an essay of objective type of test, which is measurement. If on the other hand the teacher puts a value on the students work, example talents, attitudes and other characteristics of behaviour, that is evaluation. Evaluation should in part involve testing that is non-subjective on the part of the teacher; otherwise, it is likely to be erratic and not reliable.

The purpose of Evaluation

Evaluation, like assessment, has many purposes. It can be used in the following ways:

1. Evaluation as basis for school marks or grades: The educational system requires that teachers occasionally submit marks or grades for students. These marks or grades can be arrived at through formal examinations, regular tests, assignments, laboratory work, observational data or a combination of these.

2. Evaluation as means of informing parents: Students’ parents want and have the right to know how their children are progressing in school. Student evaluation is the most important way of providing them with this information.

3. Evaluation for promotion to higher grades: Students’ evaluation is sometimes used to determine whether a student has made enough progress to be in the next grade or class in the school.

4. Evaluation for Student Motivation: Success in the test and examinations as well as other school activities can give great encouragement to students. Similarly, failure to do well can make students work harder or strive to do better. Teachers should try to give their students feedback on the evaluation of all aspects of their learning and behaviour so that both those who do well and those who do not do well be motivated to improve on their performance.

5. Evaluation for guidance and counselling purposes: All students need to be advised to help them solve their own personal problems, whether academic or emotional. So evaluation is needed in this direction.

6. Evaluation to assess the effectiveness of teaching: If the teacher does not in some way assess the students’ knowledge and skills, she/he will not be able to evaluate the success of her/his teaching. For example, a high failure rate in a subject is more often due to poor teaching than to the lack of intelligence of the students.

7. Evaluation for employment purpose: Not all students who pass grade nine and twelve examinations, for instance, will proceed to Universities and Colleges. Some students may decide to join a company or business. Employers normally require information on potential employees with reference to academic ability, attitude to work, moral character, personality and so on.

8. Evaluation for University and College entrance: University and Colleges often require evaluation reports from schools upon receiving applications.

Evaluation components

For the organised teacher who has been teaching for a number of years and has worked well with planned lessons and clearly stated behavioural objectives, the question of obtaining data in the case of what to evaluate is not too difficult to answer. However, from experience even such teachers have problems.

The national objectives of Zambia clearly stated in the Educating our Future, the national policy on education (1996) maintain that attitudes, values, physical skills and abilities and cognitive skills are important for students. The teacher should take all areas of students’ progress into account.

Evaluation techniques

The different methods of evaluating students can be classified under three main areas:

1. Teacher made tests and exercises

2. Other evaluation devices

3. Continuous evaluation or assessment

One way of obtaining data in the case of pupils is to use tests and examinations. Such measurements permit comparison of the performance of children and groups in terms of numerical scores. Tests and examinations also indicate the degree to which an education programme is succeeding.