The second kind of scale described in the foregoing paragraph may be
designated as "scales for the _quality_ of products," while the other
variety may be called "scales for _magnitude_ of achievement." In the
one case, the child makes the best production he can and measures its
quality by comparing it with similar products of known quality on the
scale. Composition, handwriting, and drawing scales are good examples of
scales for quality of products. In the other case, the scales are placed
in the hands of the child at the very beginning, and the magnitude of
his achievement is measured by the difficulty or number of tasks
accomplished successfully in a given time. Spelling, arithmetic,
reading, language, geography, and history tests are examples of scales
for quantity of achievement.
Scores tend to be more accurate on the scales for magnitude of
achievement, because the judgment of the examiner is likely to be more
accurate in deciding whether a response is correct or incorrect than it
is in deciding how much quality a given product contains. This does not
furnish an excuse for failing to employ the quality-of-products scales,
however, for the qualities they measure are not measurable in terms of
the magnitude of tasks performed. The fact appears, however, that the
method of employing the quality-of-products scales is "by comparison"
(of child's production with samples reproduced on the scale), while the
method of employing the magnitude-of-achievement scales is "by
performance" (of child on tasks of known difficulty).
In this connection it may be well to take one of the scales for quality
of products and outline the steps to be followed in assigning scores,
making tabulations, and finding the medians of distributions of scores.
When the Hillegas scale is employed in measuring the quality of English
composition, it will be advisable to assign to each composition the
score of that sample on the scale to which it is nearest in merit or
quality. While some individuals may feel able to assign values
intermediate to those appearing on the Hillegas scale, the majority of
those persons who use this scale will not thereby obtain a more accurate
result, and the assignment of such intermediate values will make it
extremely difficult for any other person to make accurate use of the
results. To be exactly comparable, values should be assigned in exactly
the same manner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account