ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the authors suggest sources of information about the techniques and the results they have yielded. Educational measurement involves assigning numerals to objects and events in accordance with specified rulers. The authors examine a catalogue of published tests, designed for use in schools, they find a wide variety of ostensibly different kinds: as well as tests of achievement, there are tests purporting to measure intelligence, abilities, aptitudes, interests, attitudes and many other attributes. Attitudes are akin to interests in that they refer to tendencies or dispositions to react in a particular way towards certain phenomena or aspects of the environment. The authors explain the rationale of the methods employed to determine the structure of human abilities. In classifying performances into abilities the authors emphasise the kinship of the performances themselves, in classifying them into attainments they place the stress on the objects or phenomena with which the performances are concerned.