I had conducted a study three years back on what influenced students to choose their career options (published in the Hindu). What motivated them to become what they wanted to become- was the central idea of the study.

One significant finding of the study was that 70% (300 students were surveyed) of the students surveyed had indicated that schools that they study/studied in did not prepare them sufficiently to choose their career. From an educationist and psychologist point of view, this is disturbing.

Schools- the key player

One of the main roles of the schools is to guide directly or indirectly in career decisions. What else can be the purpose of education?

What else can education provide, other than sowing the seed of a career interest and watering it to a mature passion/plan in the minds of the student?

We have looked up to other countries and admired at how their educational system is different from ours. Our own educationists have observed how our educational system is far behind in encouraging creativity.

There are workable solutions that could build an effective educational system and answer the purpose of education. And the happy news is that many of the educational institutions have begun to put these solutions into work.

First of all, all educational leaders, teachers and students need to understand that career decision making is a process that begins when the child begins his/her primary classes. Schools and colleges need to develop a more structured system to handle career development. Setting up of career cells, constituting of career counsellors, who not only guide students but also meet outside parties such as business owners, parents and teachers, has become indispensable today. With this it becomes evident that the decision of making a career choice will be influenced by the method of teaching, to what extent creativity is encouraged in the class, how much knowledge the school/college is willing to dispose to students etc. Of course these are some changes that need to take place at the macro level.

Responsibility of Students

What role does a student have in the realm of career choices? After all, he /she is the one who is going to follow the decision taken. I feel students need to play a much more active role in deciding. They must realize that the world is fast changing like it has always been. Right now, there are various other opportunities apart from the single most sort after field - IT. They need to look beyond. The student’s personality is the key factor in transforming him/her into a success. Students (9th std onwards) must begin asking for career guidance in school. This is something they need to put as top priority. They must approach their teachers or counsellors to guide them in making career choices or put them into touch with career professionals. Once a field of interest is chosen, studies in it are the next logical step. But this is not the only gateway to a successful job opportunity. Employability is the next big dimension students (and institutions) must work on.

How employable am I? This is the key question students must ask right in the beginning. This will lead them to acquire adequate training, increasing knowledge in the field, and developing the right skills required for performing the job.

Educational leadership, a field that has immense potential in a country like ours, has a huge role to play in current issues. It has the potential to change and transform many a problem our education system is facing today. It is sad that not many graduates look at education and/teaching as a profession. But once, more and more students begin to make education as their career choice, as more and more young educational leaders begin to make a mark, the situation will turn around.

The author can be contacted at Lavanyaraj@education.monash.edu.au

Lavanya Raj
Psychologist and educator

Throughout my years of teaching undergraduate courses, and to some extent, graduate courses, I was continuously reminded each semester that many of my students who had taken the requisite course in "educational tests and measurements" or a course with a similar title as part of their professional preparation, often had confusing ideas about fundamental differences in terms such as measurement, assessment and evaluation as they are used in education. When I asked the question, "what is the difference between assessment and evaluation," I usually got a lot of blank stares. Yet, it seems that understanding the differences between measurement, assessment, and evaluation is fundamental to the knowledge base of effective teaching, and certainly to the processes employed in the education of future teachers…

Measurement refers to the process by which the attributes or dimensions of some physical object are determined. One exception seems to be in the use of the word measure in determining the IQ of a person. The phrase, "this test measures IQ" is commonly used. Measuring such things as attitudes or preferences also applies. However, when we measure, we generally use some standard instrument to determine how big, tall, heavy, voluminous, hot, cold, fast, or straight something actually is. Standard instruments refer to instruments such as rulers, scales, thermometers, pressure gauges, etc. We measure to obtain information about what is. Such information may or may not be useful, depending on the accuracy of the instruments we use, and our skill at using them. There are few such instruments in the social sciences that approach the validity and reliability of say a 12" ruler. We measure how big a classroom is in terms of square feet, we measure the temperature of the room by using a thermometer, and we use Ohm meters to determine the voltage, amperage, and resistance in a circuit. In all of these examples, we are not assessing anything; we are simply collecting information relative to some established rule or standard. Assessment is therefore quite different from measurement, and has uses that suggest very different purposes. When used in a learning objective, the definition provided on the ADPRIMA for the behavioral verb measure is: To apply a standard scale or measuring device to an object, series of objects, events, or conditions, according to practices accepted by those who are skilled in the use of the device or scale.

Assessment is a process by which information is obtained relative to some known objective or goal. Assessment is a broad term that includes testing. A test is a special form of assessment. Tests are assessments made under contrived circumstances especially so that they may be administered. In other words, all tests are assessments, but not all assessments are tests. We test at the end of a lesson or unit. We assess progress at the end of a school year through testing, and we assess verbal and quantitative skills through such instruments as the SAT and GRE. Whether implicit or explicit, assessment is most usefully connected to some goal or objective for which the assessment is designed. A test or assessment yields information relative to an objective or goal. In that sense, we test or assess to determine whether or not an objective or goal has been obtained. Assessment of skill attainment is rather straightforward. Either the skill exists at some acceptable level or it doesn’t. Skills are readily demonstrable. Assessment of understanding is much more difficult and complex. Skills can be practiced; understandings cannot. We can assess a person’s knowledge in a variety of ways, but there is always a leap, an inference that we make about what a person does in relation to what it signifies about what he knows. In the section on this site on behavioral verbs, to assess means To stipulate the conditions by which the behavior specified in an objective may be ascertained. Such stipulations are usually in the form of written descriptions.

Evaluation is perhaps the most complex and least understood of the terms. Inherent in the idea of evaluation is "value." When we evaluate, what we are doing is engaging in some process that is designed to provide information that will help us make a judgment about a given situation. Generally, any evaluation process requires information about the situation in question. A situation is an umbrella term that takes into account such ideas as objectives, goals, standards, procedures, and so on. When we evaluate, we are saying that the process will yield information regarding the worthiness, appropriateness, goodness, validity, legality, etc., of something for which a reliable measurement or assessment has been made. For example, I often ask my students if they wanted to determine the temperature of the classroom they would need to get a thermometer and take several readings at different spots, and perhaps average the readings. That is simple measuring. The average temperature tells us nothing about whether or not it is appropriate for learning. In order to do that, students would have to be polled in some reliable and valid way. That polling process is what evaluation is all about. A classroom average temperature of 75 degrees is simply information. It is the context of the temperature for a particular purpose that provides the criteria for evaluation. A temperature of 75 degrees may not be very good for some students, while for others, it is ideal for learning. We evaluate every day. Teachers, in particular, are constantly evaluating students, and such evaluations are usually done in the context of comparisons between what was intended (learning, progress, behavior) and what was obtained. When used in a learning objective, the definition provided on the ADPRIMA site for the behavioral verb evaluate is: To classify objects, situations, people, conditions, etc., according to defined criteria of quality. Indication of quality must be given in the defined criteria of each class category. Evaluation differs from general classification only in this respect.

To sum up, we measure distance, we assess learning, and we evaluate results in terms of some set of criteria. These three terms are certainly connected, but it is useful to think of them as separate but connected ideas and processes.

"Excerpts from the article Measurement, Assessment, and Evaluation in Education originally published in ADPRIMA website...Used with the permission of Dr. R. J. Kizlik, developer of adprima.com, a website for new and future teachers."

Read the entire article at http://adprima.com/measurement.htm