Measurement and Educational Psychology

Abstract

Insofar as educational psychology was to make a contribution to the use of scientific principles and methods in education, it was early realized that it was necessary to develop the theory and practice of educational measurement. The most notable statement of this idea was written by Edward L. Thorn-dike, the founder of scientific educational psychology in America:Whatever exists at all exists in some amount. To know it thoroughly involves knowing its quantity as well as its quality. Education is concerned with changes in human beings; a change is a difference between two conditions; each of these conditions is known to us only by the products produced by it—things made, words spoken, acts performed and the like. To measure any of these products means to define its amount in some way so that competent persons will know how large it is, better than they would without measurement.... This is the general Credo of those who, in the last decade, have been busy trying to extend and improve measurements of educational products.