Measurement in Educational Research
نویسنده
چکیده
Without measurement, forward progress would not be possible in educational or other research contexts. Measurement, the process by which a variable is operationalized for the purpose of describing that variable in a quantitative manner (Hills, 1981; Kane, 2001), serves as the link between questions and answers. While the process of measurement bridges the gap between research objectives/questions and the data that is collected, measurement techniques (i.e., analytical approaches) bridge the gap between data and conclusions. Sound research is founded on three underlying concepts which serve as pillars to its structure: theoretical relevance, a sound process of measurement, and appropriate analytic methods. Theoretical relevance is important in that it ties new research to existing research and should guide the development of research questions and hypotheses. However, theoretical relevance is only a part of measurement insofar as it leads to the identification of key variables to be considered; theoretical relevance not be addressed in this paper. The importance of the measurement process and analytic methods cannot be emphasized strongly enough. Without a sound process, there is no confidence in the data it yields (Krebs, 1987); without sound analyses, there is no confidence in the results, interpretations, or conclusions. The purposes of this paper are to present an overview of what the measurement process should look like from the perspective of measurement theory, highlight the consequences of practices that are not consistent with this approach, discuss traditional approaches to analytic methods, and outline the changes made possible by modern techniques. Measurement is the driving force behind the design and implementation of data collection. For example, suppose a researcher wishes to investigate sex differences in reading
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