Paul L. Dressel

Some Modifications of the Multiple-Choice Item:

concept so that the student has an articulated and meaningtul task to perform. Generally a test writer can refine or improve an item by incorporating better ideas into the item or by changing the diction in the statement of the ideas. In doing this he may exercise considerable ingenuity in the development of keys and directions in order that higher mental processes rather than mere memoriter learnings may be tested. For example, the key-true, probably true, insufficient data, probably false, false-may require a rather high level of judgment. In some cases the complaint has been registered, with reason, that understanding of the directions is more difficult than working the test items. Such variations and refinements, however, have produced genuinely better items and have extended the scope of the educational outcomes measurable by such items; nevertheless, such items have basic limitations which make it desirable to extend our exploration of item types. Multiple-choice items may be divided roughly into two classes: first, those in which the stem states a problem which involves recall of an answer or one which involves a reasoning process which, correctly employed, leads directly to the an-

The Effect of Client Participation in Test Interpretation

The Problem THE role of tests in the counseling process is as varied as the viewpoints about counseling. At the present time, test administration and interpretation practices generally suggest a rather directive, authoritarian type of counseling. The counselor, in effect, says, “If you will unquestioningly fill out the forms and take all the tests I prescribe, I will be able to tell you what to do.” The inability of counselors to break away from this concept of tests is probably one basic reason for the disinterest in tests commonly exhibited by the Rogerian adherents. At the verbal level, a t least, few will quarrel with the idea that counseling should seek for the development of the client’s self--t i izde~~tff~~~ing, self-acceptance, and self-sufficiency, always with due regard for his social responsibility. Acceptance of this viewpoint involves the obligation of determining whether, and how, tests contribute to this development. Our attention then iocuses more on the client’s impressions and reactions than on the test data.

Some remarks on the kuder-richardson reliability coefficient

The Kuder-Richardson reliability coefficient is derived in a manner independent of that originally given. Various alternative forms applicable to special situations are exhibited with the purpose of making them available to others interested in using this formula. A simplification in computation is suggested for use with a calculating machine.

Mission, Organization, and Leadership.

In writing about administration in institutions of higher education, much has been made of a distinction between administration and management. A minister may be defined as one who ministers to or waits upon another. In diplomacy, a minister (rating below an ambassador) represents a government but has no authority. Like a minister, an administrator presumably conducts affairs for the benefit of others and under policies determined by others. His or her attention is directed to communication and negotiation. A manager is one who controls, directs, or conducts business or household affairs with efficiency and frugality. This implies purposes or objectives that are to be reached by actions and decisions made by the manager. Related to menage, management also has overtones of training (of horses) and of maintaining a collection of wild animals (menagerie). No doubt, the cages or confinement areas correspond to departments. Faculty members viewing the university from departments and colleges (where, as they see it, all significant educational decisions must be made and effected), prefer that the central nonacademic functions be administered so that they expedite college and departmental programs. In this view, it is the administrators responsibility to find the needed resources, assist in allocating and expediting their use, and otherwise refrain from intrusion into academic matters.

The shaping of institutional research and planning

This paper reviews the origins of institutional research and its more recent association with a separately identifiable planning function. It examines in depth the issues involved in institutional research and planning and particularly emphasizes the role of values, politics, and social pressures in regard to the planning function. Planning by single institutions is likely to be more directed to attaining administrative and faculty aspirations than to meeting educational and social needs. As a result, there is considerable doubt that the institutional research and the planning function can be successfully conjoined. To prevent one dominating the other, the best resolution is that of interacting but independent units whose analyses and recommendations are brought into accord with reality (both needs and resources) by the administrations and boards in which responsibility for institutional operations is vested.The paper also points up some of the problems generated for institutional researchers by the poor quality and unjustified claims and recommendations of much of what purports to be scholarly writing or research on higher education.

The Effect of Writing Frequency upon Essay-Type Writing Proficiency at the College Level

FACULTY OF American colleges continually raise questions about methods for improving the written expression of college students. At Michigan State College, considerable evidence in the form of corres pondence, term papers, book reports, and other essay type composit ion indicated that students had not acquired the proficiency in the writ ing skills expected of them. This study was initiated as one of several to provide further information on the problem. Required training in writing skills by Michigan State College studen ts consists of one three -hour course in communication skills for three quarters. Not more than one-third of that time is devoted to written expression ? or the equivalent of one quarters work. It may be that this amount of training is not sufficient to produce the desired improv ement in all students deficient in writing abilities. That more writing experiences are at least a partial answer to this problem, is supported by the experience at Purdue University where the amount of writing in a composition class was doubled. (The normal amount was about equ al to the amount done by Michigan State College students during the three quarters of their course. ) Doubling the amount of writing done

Interests-Stable or Unstable

MUCH VOCATIONAL and academic counseling is based heavily on the use of tests which purport to select with more-or-less reliabil ity the vocation, groups of vocations, or areas which appear most prom ising from the viewpoint of the interests of the individual. It is appar ent that counseling based on such interest indicators assumes some sta bility in the interest pattern of individuals. On the other hand, educa tion at the college level is usually expected to develop broader as well as more intensive interests. Certainly, a frequently stated purpose of general education programs is that of providing an over-view of the ma jor fields of knowledge which will help the student to enrich his own living and perhaps also to select that particular area in which he pro poses to work. Such educational objectives quite apparently assume that interests are developable and modifiable. The two points of view involve either an actual or seeming contradiction which deserves fur ther examination.

The Relationship Between Experience and Interest as Measured by the Kuder Preference Record

of an individual student responding to such an inventory as the Kuder Preference Record. Extensive individual counseling with students who have taken an interest test reveals the following recurrent patterns: i A student with limited and not entirely pleasurable experiences may react by indicating interest in items almost entirely outside his experience. 2. A timid individual may tend to check only items in some way related to his experience. 3. An individual of an adventurous turn of mind may tend to select items outside of his experience, indicating his desire for new thrills. For economy of time it seemed desirable to have some easy and quick way to check on the experience pattern on a basis

Models for Evaluating Individual Achievement.

I have been both impressed and chagrined by the experience. I am enthused with the intent, but I am somewhat disillusioned by the practice. However, this paper is not intended as a denunciation of nontraditional efforts; rather, it is an attempt to provide some models that may serve to clarify thinking about the issues involved and aid in bridging the chasm that now seems to separate traditional institutions and faculties from those who propose alternatives unfortunately labeled as nontraditional. As a long-time evaluator, I tend to emphasize the need for review and improvement of evaluation procedures, and I shall pay special attention to them in this paper. Evaluation is essential in both traditional and nontraditional programs. If the two are to be merged and accepted as alternative modes of acquiring an education, evaluation practices acceptable to both groups will be the coalescing agent. Many present day attempts to evaluate nontraditional educational achievement remind me of the tale of the preschool lad observed by an adult to have run around the block twice, the second time barely plodding along. When the adult asked the lad why he was running around the

Evaluation of Instruction

T HE phrase evaluation of instruction contains two words of broad and uncertain meaning. Evaluation suggests the placing of a value upon an object or process which presumably must be of concern, else indifference rather than appraisal would be the behavior manifested. Evaluation may connote an ultimate appraisal, but only if both the entity appraised is itself static and the standards applied are valid. The judgments of human beings-both individually and collectively-change, so that evaluation, even of a static, unchanging object or function, might be different at one time than another. It is this doubt about the reliability of an evaluation of instruction, or, conversely put, the distrust of its subjectivity which causes some individuals to display lack of interest or antagonism toward it.