ABSTRACT
Our discussion so far has centred on the process of learning; we now turn to a consideration of the ways in which the teacher can measure the extent to which children have learned. If we consider some of the techniques involved in programming we shall have some idea of the approach to the assessment of learning. Programme writing starts from the position where the programmer defines what he hopes will be the terminal behaviour of his students. This he terms his behavioural objectives. These objectives will specify what he expects the students to be able to do at the end of his programme. He may expect them to have acquired certain skills or to be able to answer a number of questions which they were unable to answer before the programme. The programmer will attempt to assess to what extent he has achieved his objectives by using a test to assess the students' terminal behaviour. Such a test could be a practical one involving the knowledge of techniques, or it could be a verbal one. In the main, tests in education are of the verbal type. This is the situation in ordinary teaching. The teacher rarely specifies his objectives so precisely as the programmer, but when he administers a test he is doing essentially the same thing. That is, he is attempting to assess the degree to which the terminal behaviour of his students differs from their initial behaviour. Traditionally he uses a test to do this, although in some subjects this may be augmented by practical exercises.
