Measurability & Educational Concerns 8/28/09 10:51 AM

An earlier version of this article appeared in Educational Theory 24 (Winter 1974) pp. 52-60

Measurability and Educational Concerns

by Edward G. Rozycki

RETURN
edited 1/24/09

Contents
Non-Partitionables
Introduction: squaring the circle
Voluntary Behavior is not Measurable
Criteria of Measurability
To Conclude
Behavior
Footnotes
One Cannot Write Behavioral Objectives
Review & Discussion Questions

Introduction: Squaring the Circle

District's failure to write a measurable written language goal was not a

fatal procedural error and did not constitute a denial of FAPE -- I.P. and
Centennial, DP 00-115 [1a]

The measurability of goals and outcomes has continued over the last half century to be a vexing problem for
educators at all levels of the enterprise. But it is not necessarily lack of technical skill that impedes their
efforts. Measuring some kinds of educational outcomes is very much like the effort to square the circle with
a straightedge and compass: its failure derives from conceptual rather than technical issues.

Thus, this essay is about what can and cannot be measured. It is intended to bear on problems of evaluation.
By a measurement procedure I will mean a procedure the outcomes of which -- called data -- can be
quantified.[1b] What will be said about measurability will bear on those evaluation procedures in which
measurement plays an important role. Our conclusions will be relevant to problems of curriculum and goal
evaluation; but they will also be shown to be important in answering the more general questions as to what
shall be taught and how. This is because certain curricular options derive from mistaken notions about the
nature of human behavior and of educational concern.

To indicate the directions we will take, let us consider a statement from Robert E. Stakes' "The Countenance
of Educational Evaluation":

. . . the responsibility for describing curricular objectives is (that)... of the (curriculum)

evaluator. . . it is his responsibility to transform the behavior of a teacher and the responses of a
student into data. . . (Also) it is his responsibility to transform the intentions and expectations of
an educator into "data."[2]

Note that Stake distinguishes the "data" of intentions and expectations from the data -- one can almost hear
"hard data"-- of teacher-pupil behavior. This is a futile distinction. If by "data" is meant "the outcomes of a
measurement procedure, then educationally relevant teacher-pupil behavior does not provide any firmer data
than intentions and expectations.

According to Paul Whitmore,

http://www.newfoundations.com/EGR/Measurability.html Page 1 of 12
Measurability & Educational Concerns 8/28/09 10:51 AM

The statement of objectives of a training program must denote measurable attributes observable
in the graduate of the program, or otherwise it is impossible to determine whether or not the
program is meeting the objectives. [3]

Unhappily, this statement is not merely false; it is preposterous. These introductory remarks are based on the
assumption that the quoted authors, when speaking of data and measurement, mean what we have set them
out to be above. Only this "hard Science" usage can invest their claims with an interest commensurate with
the self-assuredness with which they have been advanced. It will be our endeavor to demonstrate that such
claims are founded on grand-scale confusion.

Criteria of Measurability

Our criteria will be simple, in accord with our common sense, but -- where possible -- technically accurate.
Roughly stated, our first criterion is this one must be able to unambiguously classify and tally the simple
outcomes of an alleged measurement procedure. We can state criterion #1 more formally as

#1. The Criterion of Partitionability: Simple outcomes must he classifiable into categories --
sometimes called "elementary events" -- which are both mutually exclusive and exhaustive of
all possible kinds of outcome. [4]

For example, if we know that an outcome is of type A, we must know that consequently it is of no other
type that contrasts with type A. (It could belong to a sub-type X which is completely contained in A.) Also,
all outcomes must be classifiable.

Let us consider two examples of alleged measurement procedure, one of which meets criterion #1. For the
first, someone is using a yardstick to assign lengths to different tables. The outcomes of his procedure are
classified as, say, x-inches, y-inches, etc. Every outcome is some number of inches. No outcome is both x
and y inches. Criterion #1 has been met. [5]

The second alleged measurement instrument is the procedure for using the Amidon-Flanders Categories of
Interaction Analysis.[6] All teacher verbal behavior in the classroom is categorized into one of eight types:

1, accepts feeling; 2, praises or encourages; 3, accepts or uses ideas of student; 4, asks

questions; 5, lectures; 6, gives directions; 7, criticizes or justifies authority; 10, silence or
confusion.

But if a teacher says to a student, "Are you always so jumpy?" this, treated as an outcome, may be
classified either as 7, or 4, or even 1. Thus, the interaction analysis categories cannot found a measure. (The
reader who is familiar with the Amidon-Flanders system may be able to raise some objections here, making
reference to certain procedures that are used to resolve this problem. We will re-examine this system later
and show that in fact the problem is not resolved).

Criterion #2 -- again, roughly put -- will be that the identity of the object measured must not be destroyed
by performance of the alleged measurement procedure, e.g. no identity criterion for the object measured can
be incompatible with criterion #1.

#2. The Criterion of Construct Validity: Given an alleged measurement procedure, the identity
of the (possibly hypothetical) object to be measured must remain invariant through (repeated)

http://www.newfoundations.com/EGR/Measurability.html Page 2 of 12
Measurability & Educational Concerns 8/28/09 10:51 AM

performance of the procedure.[7]

Obviously, measuring the length of a table with a yardstick does not change the table. The way we identify
the table in the first place --although informal (Could it be otherwise?) -- is independent of the procedure
for measuring its length. The way we identify teacher-behavior in the Amidon-Flanders system may obscure
the identity of what is being measured, for depending on whether "Are you always so jumpy?" is classified
syntactically, in terms of teacher intent or in terms of student-uptake, we may get different classifications.
What loses its identity here is what the teacher did; that he "category-7-ed" may not tell us. (This is not the
discussion promised above; we are not yet finished with Amidon and Flanders)

Criterion #2 must not be taken to mean that the object to be measured must remain intact physically
throughout the measurement procedure; only that it identity -- which is not a "physical" thing -- remain so.
The identity is preserved if the proper historical relationship between the outcomes and the object is
preserved. The pieces of ash being weighed on the scale must be known to have come from pieces of the
specimen to he so measured.[8]

Suppose we wanted to use some form of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills to measure scholastic achievement
for the population of a certain school. However, we devise the following procedure: We give out answer
blanks to every student entering the lunchroom telling him that if he hands in a filled-in form at the
cafeteria counter, he will receive a free lunch. What is to be measured is the individual pupil's achievement
in certain basic skills. Suppose further that we receive back a filled-in answer sheet from each student
which in fact correlates well with his grade-point average; repeating the procedure we establish the
reliability of the measure. We are nonetheless still disinclined to say we are measuring individual scholastic
achievement -- especially if not every student need fill in his own answer sheet. We might with justification
say we were measuring something, but it would certainly not be individual scholastic achievement.

Problems of construct validity only arise where we have a tradition of identification that is independent of a
particular measurement procedure. We needn't worry about it for, say, the Stanford-Binet if all that such
testing were being used for were its predictive validity, e.g. to indicate the probability of future academic
success. What Stanford-Binet measures does not seem to be identifiable independent of the test. And for
purposes of prediction it does not matter. But, as concerns types of human behavior, we do have ways of
identifying them independently of procedures that purport to measure them. And our educational and moral
concerns derive entirely from these traditional ways of classifying human behavior.[9]

As educators, we are interested in voluntary rather than reflex behavior. We are concerned with
responsibility, self-control and intention. We can identify behavior which exhibits these qualities with fairly
high reliability. If certain measurement procedures cannot, this still gives us no cause to disavow our
interests. [10] To sum up: if for some object, criterion and criterion #2 cannot both be met, then it is in
principle not measurable. Identity conditions must be compatible with partitionability requirements.

Behavior

There are few concepts more confused -- and confusing -- than behavior. Robert F. Mager. for example,
defines it as "overt action" but gives no criterion for overtness.[11] B. F. Skinner insists that behavior "must
be described in physical terms," [12] but problems arise exactly at that point where one tries to determine
what the word "physical" restricts one to. D. O. Hebb offers perhaps the clearest definition in this tradition:
"Behavior is the publicly observable activity of muscles or glands of secretion as manifested in movements
of parts of the body or in the appearance of tears, sweat, saliva and so forth."[13] Behavior by this

http://www.newfoundations.com/EGR/Measurability.html Page 3 of 12
Measurability & Educational Concerns 8/28/09 10:51 AM

definition meets criterion #1; the instruments used to assign numbers to quantities of sweat, motion, etc., do
work with partitionable outcomes. But it can set out distinctions we as educators find relevant, e.g.
attempting and feigning an attempt? Can criterion #2 be met?

Mager suggests[14] that it is not merely motion or secretion per se but motion or secretion in certain
conditions which defines behavior. But if we want to be able to speak of response generalization we must
clearly set out which are the conditions definitive of a type of behavior and which constitute the "new"
circumstances to which the behavior has been generalized. And educationally relevant classifications of
behavior are determined by considerations other than he movement of the person whose behavior is being
classified.

A clear example can be given as follows: suppose we have two persons standing together at normal
speaking distance, facing each other. Call them Harry and John. Some noise issues from Harry. Consider the
following possible descriptions of Harry's behavior:

a. Harry emitted the sound-sequence: / 2 aym+ gow ing +3 hówm1 /.[15]

b. Harry said, "I'm going home."

c. Harry told John he was going home.

d. Harry informed John that he was going home.

e. Harry surprised John with the statement that he was going home.

We can easily imagine a situation where all of these descriptions are true of what Harry is doing. But given
a -- which is the "physical" description of Harry's behavior in b, c, d and e -- neither b nor c nor d nor e
need be true. If Harry is a babbling idiot, a might be true and none of the rest. If Harry is reciting aloud a
line from a script, a and b might be true and none of the rest. If John already knew that Harry was going
home, a, b, and c might be true but none of the rest. If John is never surprised by anything Harry does, but
did not already know he was going home, a, b, c, and d but not e might be true. The behavior categories --
verbs to the uninitiated -- which correspond to a, b, c, d and e, respectively, are utter, say, tell (assert),
inform and surprise. These are obviously not mutually exclusive categories.

We can distinguish between saying and telling in terms of the intent of the actor to communicate. Informing
and surprising depend on hearer-uptake, saying and telling do not. But saying and telling can be
distinguished from merely uttering in terms of speaker intent. We have thus three rough classes of
categories: motion which includes utter; speaker-intent -- which contains say and tell; and hearer-uptake -
which contains inform and surprise.[16] Furthermore, inform depends upon a prior state of hearer
ignorance.

Let us focus on the distinction between speaker-intent and hearer-uptake. (In another medium of
communication these become writer-intent and reader-uptake.) Note that the subject of the verb remains the
same for both classes e.g. Harry informs John as well as Harry tells John. If we indiscriminately mix
categories from the two classes we cannot get a partition, i.e. a set of mutually exclusive, classificationally
exhaustive categories. We would therefore -- by criterion #1-- not have a measure.

On this count Amidon and Flanders fail again. In their system we have overlapping categories. If by

http://www.newfoundations.com/EGR/Measurability.html Page 4 of 12
Measurability & Educational Concerns 8/28/09 10:51 AM

redefinition of the concepts an attempt is made to achieve mutual exclusivity, the system cannot meet
criterion #2. One who would use their system faces a double problem: if the conclusion is reached that fifty-
per-cent of the teacher's behavior in a given period of time was classified as "5", one cannot still say that in
fact the teacher lectured half of the time. Furthermore, what could the teacher know to do if we were to
direct him not to "lecture," i.e. "emit category-5-type behavior," so much?[17]

One Cannot Write Behavioral Objectives

In much a similar manner, a simplistic, naive notion of behavior provides the foundation for the confusion
that goes by the name of Performance-Based, or Behavioral, Objectives. A careful examination of Robert F.
Mager's book, Preparing instructional Objectives, leads one to the seemingly paradoxical conclusion that by
Mager's own criteria, one cannot write behavioral objectives. One has written a behavioral objective,
according to Mager,[18] when one has specified what the learner will be doing when he is demonstrating
his newly acquired competence. I, as a student of Mager, will be demonstrating that I have learned to write
behavioral objectives by writing behavioral objectives.

But I am writing behavioral objectives only if I in writing statements that "communicate . , .[my] . . .
intent"[19] as a writer of the statement of objective. This confuses entirely the distinction between writer-
intent and reader-uptake. I cannot per se write statements that communicate my intent because written
statements do not per se communicate intent. It is I, the writer, who might communicate my intent through
my written statements to a reader. In the absence of a reader, I can only hope that the future communication
will in fact take place. "Writing statements that communicate intent" is thus not a description of present
writer behavior, but rather an obliquely stated hypothesis about the future effects of present writing
behavior.

Communicate is a verb much like inform; it contrasts with tell and write in that it presumes reader (hearer)
uptake. To put it again in Mager's terms[20], there is no terminal behavior describable as communicating,
therefore there is no terminal behavior describable as writing communicatively. Thus no one can write
behavioral objectives as terminal behavior.

We can go on to formulate a general objection to the whole program. Let us restrict the term terminal
behavior to that characterized using verbs like say, tell, utter, etc. where the truth of the statement John did
such-and-such is not dependent upon other persons or external conditions in the way the truth of John
informed Harry ... or John communicated to Harry ... is. Thus, if saying or telling is terminal, informing and
communicating is post-terminal.

We may look on the relationship of terminal to post-terminal behavior as roughly that of an attempt to a
success. Telling is, under normal circumstances, trying to inform -- or, at least, to communicate. Under
normal conditions the attempts succeeds. But testing constitutes a special set of conditions. A test provides a
"normalized" environment so that only certain attempts can achieve success. It is only this success,
described post-terminally, which can be an educational objective.

We expect the behavior of the student, the attempt, to adjust itself as it needs to the special conditions of the
moment. An indeterminable variety of terminal behavior may be a propos of achieving an educational
objective. There is no point in describing our objectives in terms of terminal behavior, for this terminal
behavior must always be related to some post-terminal behavior in a manner depends on the recognition of
special circumstance. For this recognition we usually rely on the perspicacity and intelligence of the learner.

http://www.newfoundations.com/EGR/Measurability.html Page 5 of 12
Measurability & Educational Concerns 8/28/09 10:51 AM

If we provide her with post-terminally described objectives and practice under varying conditions we can
normally expect her to make the adjustment. But if we insist on specifying objectives in terms of terminal
behavior, it would seem incumbent on us to teach the learner to identify the general circumstances in which
that behavior is appropriate -- unless, of course, we are only teaching her to take tests. But now we are faced
with a fantastic burden, if not an impossible one.

Non-Partitionables

The theories of Mager and Amidon and Flanders are but minor variations on a more general theme the most
influential proponent of which is B. F. Skinner. We have identified and examined the inconsistencies in
Mager and Amidon and FIanders caused by their naive, unexamined notion of behavior. We will now argue
that Skinner's entire program founders on the same confusion.

There is an interesting conceptual relationship between the notion of reinforcement and that of
measurement. Briefly put, it is that some behavior can be conditioned only if it is measurable. Behavior that
is, in principle, not measurable, cannot be conditioned. The general outline of our argument is as follows:
Behavior of a given type, B, can be conditioned only if it can be reinforced. It can be reinforced only if the
probability of its occurrence can be increased or decreased. But the probability of an event is a special kind
of measure of that event; it requires that criterion #1 be met -- B must belong to a partition, or be a complex
of partitionable events. Any categories which cannot meet criterion #1 -- by virtue, say, of special identity
conditions which hold for them -- cannot be conditioned.

But if we try to restrict ourselves to categories which meet criterion #1, we cannot identify educationally
important behavior and so criterion #2 is not met. Thus, it will be shown that educationally important
behavior cannot be conditioned.[21]

We will begin by trying to construct a system of behavior categories-in the manner of Amidon and Flanders
-- which meet our two criteria. Recalling the discussion of the differences between uttering, saying, telling.
informing and surprising, we can set up a few rules of thumb which might help us in the construction of our
category-system. If we are successful we will have constructed a behavior-partition (hereafter, BP) We will
have a set of "simple acts," as it were, of which the following is true: if someone is X-ing, he is therefore
not Y-ing, if X and Y are in the BP and X is not Y; also, no matter what someone is doing, some category
in our BP will serve to categorize it (or some combination of categories will).

The following will serve as initial rules:

a. If a person -- call him John -- can be said to be X-ing and in so doing also Y-ing, then not
both X and Y can belong to the BP. For example, John can be said to be asserting that he is
rich in saying,"I am rich," therefore not both assert and say can be in the BP.

b. If John can be said to be X-ing by Y-ing, then not both X and V are in the BP. John could be
said to be frightening Harry by grimacing, thus not both frighten and grimace can be in the BP.

However, we are not interested in just any behavior, but behavior of a particular kind called "voluntary
behavior." It is on1y this which can manifest self-control, purpose and intent. Reflex and habit formation
may be of some interest but they must stand relegated to a minor role in comparison to voluntary behavior
and its treatment.

http://www.newfoundations.com/EGR/Measurability.html Page 6 of 12
Measurability & Educational Concerns 8/28/09 10:51 AM

There are two conditions which must be met for some behavior, B, to be voluntary:

1) If John's behavior, B, is voluntary, then he must be able to refrain from it.

If John cannot help but B, this ipso facto removes it from the realm of voluntary behavior. Vis-à-vis our BP
this means that for any X in the BP, X is voluntary only if R(X) -- read:"refrain from X" -- is in the BP
also.

2) If John's behavior, B, is voluntary, then John must also be trying to B.

If John is actually B-ing then "trying to B" means "sustaining his B-ing." If John is not actually B-ing, then
"trying to B" indicates that the goal of John's present activity is to achieve B-ing. (There is a sense of "try'
wherein we can say of someone that he is B-ing without trying and we mean that he is B-ing effortlessly.
We are not dealing with this sense.) What this second condition means vis-à-vis the BP is that for any X in
the BP, X is voluntary only if there is a 'category, T(X) -- "trying to X" -- in the B also. Notice that these
conditions do not specify the criteria in terms of which we might identify trying and refraining behavior.
They merely set out minimal conceptual requirements for identifying voluntary behavior. (Note that trying
and refraining are per se voluntary; there is no conceivable description such as involuntarily trying or
involuntarily refraining.) .

The criteria by which we might identify John's trying and refraining behavior are our knowledge about John
and about what he believes and knows; for example, if we know that John cannot whistle, there is nothing
John could do that would count as his refraining from whistling. On the other hand, if we know that he
believes that crossing his fingers wards off colds, this may warrant our saying on certain occasions of his
crossing his fingers that he is trying to ward off a cold. One can only refrain from what is, in fact, possible.
But one can try -- albeit futilely -- to do whatsoever one believes is possible.

Voluntary Behavior is Not Measurable

We can now argue conclusively that no system of categories containing categories of voluntary behavior can
be a BP and thus meet criterion #1 for measurability.

First: if X is voluntary and in the BP, so is T(X), trying to X. But these can never be mutually
exclusive -- for John to be X-ing voluntarily he must also be trying to X. But X and T(X) are
not merely two ways of describing the same behavior since one can try to X without actually X-
ing. Thus X and T(X) overlap.

Second: depending upon John's beliefs, any given act may he both trying to X and trying to Y -
- killing two birds with one stone, as it is said. Thus we have other possibilities of category
overlap.

The unavoidable conclusion to be reached is that voluntary behavior is not measurable. It makes no sense to
talk about the frequency of occurrence of a particular voluntary act. Thus there is no mathematical validity
in talking about the probability of its happening. A voluntary act is not a mathematically stable category to
which a probability can be assigned. Thus no voluntary act can be either positively or negatively reinforced,
i.e. have the probability of its occurrence increased or decreased. One cannot condition voluntary
behavior.[22]

http://www.newfoundations.com/EGR/Measurability.html Page 7 of 12
Measurability & Educational Concerns 8/28/09 10:51 AM

I believe that the above is a conclusive demonstration that concepts dealing with responsible, self-controlled
behavior -- the kind which is our main concern as educators -- cannot be accommodated to those of
measurement. The reader might point out that the criteria I have used to identify voluntary behavior and
trying and refraining behavior, in particular, would not be acceptable to a behaviorist --and many a non-
behaviorist -- psychologist. That is so; but they are the only relevant criteria. No characteristic of voluntary
behavior is going to be discovered empirically which can replace the conceptual ones I have mentioned
above. To think that could be possible is to misunderstand the relationship between conceptual and
empirical criteria.

To explain: suppose it were discovered that -- over a long period of experimental trials -- whenever John X-
ed voluntarily, a particular instrument reacted in a uniform way. Suppose further that when John X-ed
involuntarily the instrument did not register. We might decide to "redefine" -- as it were -- voluntary
behavior as "behavior which caused this certain instrument to register" -- call it R-behavior. This would in
no way affect the argument I have presented above, because if by "voluntary behavior" were meant "R -
behavior,"' we would be talking about something something which would still require proof (not
presumption) that it was behavior which one could both try to do and refrain from. (This proof would be
particularly important in cases of liability or criminality.) If we did not wish to re-define, then even if we
knew that John were R-behaving, it would still make good sense to ask if he were acting voluntarily. Again,
the argument above is not affected.

To Conclude

Reinforcement theory has no general applicability; its criteria, its phenomena are not ours. [23] The gulf is a
conceptual one and cannot be bridged. Our rewards and punishments are not meant to be -- nor need they
be -- reinforcers,[24] for only involuntary behavior can be reinforced and punishing or rewarding such is
either pointless or immoral. [25]

We do not present stimuli, we attempt to communicate. We do not seek to elicit responses; but rather, acts.
One might object that this is a highly philosophical, heavily value-laden language. It is; but it is the only
coherent one we have. The promise of the behavioral laboratories is a sham. Education has gone whoring
after Pseudo-Science and ended up anything but pregnant.[26]

Just as there can be no educationally important behavior-modification lacking measurability -- and thus
Reinforcement Theory -- so also are we denied that "data' into which Stake would have transformed the
behavior and the responses of students and which was to have provided the foundation for evaluation of the
educational enterprise.

It is too much to expect that the language of educational evaluation might be purged of references to "data"
and "measures"; there is a large component of ritualism which leavens the discourse of educators, which
firms up the "objectivity" of their judgment against the raging of the Heathen. We need not forego talk of
"data" and "measure" so long as we are aware of what we are not saying and so long as we do not let it
confound our theorizing. When it comes to theory, this "ritual leavening" is gas, and no more.

_________________________________________________________________________

Footnotes

1a. Dispute name: I.P. and Centennial, DP 00-115 Hearing Officer: W. Mize. Date of Order: 12/13/00.

http://www.newfoundations.com/EGR/Measurability.html Page 8 of 12
Measurability & Educational Concerns 8/28/09 10:51 AM

http://www.ode.state.or.us/services/disputeresolution/dueprocess/searchable/iepmeasurgoals.aspx

1b. The outcomes can be quantified if and only if a measure function can be defined on them. Thus the word
"quantified" could be dispensed with: it was introduced for its familiarity and to avoid using unnecessarily
technical vocabulary early in the article..

2. Robert E. Stake, "The Countenance of Educational Evaluation," Chapter 13 in P. A. Taylor and D. M.

Cowley, eds., Readings In Curriculum Evaluation (Dubuque, Iowa: 1972).

3. Dr. Paul Whitrnore, quoted in Robert F. Mager Preparing Instructional Objectives (Palo Alto, California;
Fearon Publishes, 1962), p. 3.

4. Cf. Sterling F. Berberian, Measure and Integration (New York: Macmillan, 1965), p. 9: definition of a
measure. A measure is a function defined on a set having at least the properties that it is closed for
intersection and finite union. This can be the case only if it is partitionable, i.e. our criterion #1 is met. See,
also, E. G. Rozycki, "Partitioning and Measurability," http://home.comcast.net/~erozycki/Measurability.html

5. It is necessary that criterion #1 he met for a procedure to be a measurement procedure. This is not
sufficient, however, to insure, for example, reliability.

6. Given in E. J. Amidon and N. A. Flanders, The Role of the Teacher in the Classroom (Minneapolis:
Association for Productive Teaching, 1967). See, Three Interaction Analysis Systems at
http://home.comcast.net/~erozycki/IASystems.html

7. Jum C. Nunnaly, Psychometric Theory (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967). On p. 3 he makes an important
distinction, "Strictly speaking, one does not measure objects -- one measures their attributes." This object-
attribute distinction is left unexplored by Nunnaly. We can forestall philosophical difficulties with it by
remembering that a measure is a function defined on a set. What we designate an object is arbitrary. But an
attribute of the object is a predicate by which we assign to a common class some of the outcomes of our
measurement procedure. We then define our measure on this class.

8. Nunnaly (op. cit., p. 97) belittles the notion that constructs in psychology are attempts to get at a "real"
variable in the world. Constructs are merely "symbols for collections of observables." By "observable" he
seems to mean "visually (or otherwise palpably) discernible" (page 21) However, it will be shown that what
concerns us as educators (and moralists and lawmakers) are not constructs in this sense. The psychologist
must face up to the decision to broaden his notion of construct, or to stop misleading us by misnaming his
otherwise irrelevant phenomena "learning," "belief," etc.

9. And the relevance of psychology to education derives entirely from the fact that psychology purports to
deal with such behavior.

10. That we ought to disavow such interests has been suggested by B. F. Skinner in Beyond Freedom and
Dignity (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971).

11. Op.cit. p.13.

12. B. F. Skinner, Science and Human Behavior (New York: Macmillan, 1953).

13. D. O. Hebb A Textbook in Psychology (Philadelphia: Saunders, 1958), p. 2, quoted in M. L Bigge and
http://www.newfoundations.com/EGR/Measurability.html Page 9 of 12
Measurability & Educational Concerns 8/28/09 10:51 AM

M. P. Hunt, Psychological Foundations of Education (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), p. 300.

14. Op. cit., facing p. 27

15. Cf. H. A. Gleason, An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
1955).

16. The reader will recognize strong resemblances to J. L. Austin's locutionary-illocutionary- perlocutionary
distinction. Cf. J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962), pp. 98-
102. '

17. The so-designated Ground Rules for the system are not concerned to maintain construct validity but to
increase inter-observer reliability. But lacking the hypothesis that there is a linear relationship between the
phenomena observed and observer behavior -- which would indeed be difficult to establish -- it is not even
plausible to suggest that observer regularity implies regularity in the phenomena observed. One could be
trained, I suppose, to see gremlins.

18. Op. cit. , p. 13.

19. Ibid., p.10.

20. Ibid. p. 13

21. I have stated a less developed form of this argument in E. C. Rozycki, "Rewards, Reinforcers and
Voluntary Behavior" Ethics (University of Chicago; July 1974).

22. In certain philosophical traditions, "voluntary act" is a pleonasm. I have tried to maintain the usage in
which "act" means "voluntary behavior;" however, in common usage this is not so clear cut and rather than
treat "behavior" as a count noun, thus obtaining the -- to my taste objectionable "behaviors"" or "a
behavior" -- I have shifted into using "act" here to mean "particular instance of behavior" with no
voluntariness intended in the implication.

23. Ellis B. Page in "How We All Failed At Performance Contracting," Phi Delta Kappan (October, 1972),
p. 117, mourns that the behavioral skills of the applied psychologist do not prove to provide the "immediate
solution" to our problems in education.

24. The language of reinforcement theory is conceptually unrelated to the language of reward and
punishment. Cf. Rozycki, op.cit.

25. No behavior is ethical or unethical unless it is also voluntary. This places ethics education beyond the
reach of reinforcement theory, also. Still, there is a lot that can be measured in the strict sense so long as one
does not try to get too global. See footnote 7 above. Behavior that is broadly unmeasurable may have
specific characteristics that are measurable.

26. The social sciences are not pseudo-science. However, for many a social scientist, Education is an
Enchanted Field, wherein the otherwise careful researcher becomes a prophet and/or side-show barker. But
invoking a theory is not the same as using it. See "Using Theory: developing a theory-user-theory."
http://www.newfoundations.com/EGR/UseTheory.html.

http://www.newfoundations.com/EGR/Measurability.html Page 10 of 12
Measurability & Educational Concerns 8/28/09 10:51 AM

TO TOP

_________________________________________________________________________

Review & Discussion Questions

"Measurability and Educational Concerns"

Edward G. Rozycki, Educational Theory
Winter 1974, v. 24, pp. 52 - 60

I. Introduction

1. What is the paper about?

2. What is a measurement procedure?

3. Why will the conclusions bear on the more general questions as to what shall be taught and how?

II. Criteria of Measurability

4. What does the criterion of partitionability require of the simple outcomes of a purported measurement
procedure?

5. Why can't the Amidon-Flanders Interaction-Analysis Categories found a measure?

6. What is required by the criterion of construct validity?

7. When need we be concerned with the identity of what we are measuring?

8. When is something not measurable in principle?

III. Behavior

9. What educationally important distinctions cannot be made using Hebb's definition of behavior?

10. Why won't it do to assume that English verbs are names for categories of measurable behavior?

11. Into what three rough categories can behavior be classified?

12. What happens if we mix verbs from these different categories?

13. Why can't one write behavioral objectives using Mager's criterion?

14. What is terminal behavior? Example? Post-terminal? Example?

15. If behavioral objectives must use terminal-behavioral categories, what can we say about the possibility
of expressing educational goals as behavioral objectives?

IV. Non-partitionables

http://www.newfoundations.com/EGR/Measurability.html Page 11 of 12
Measurability & Educational Concerns 8/28/09 10:51 AM

16. What is the relationship between some behavior's being able to be measured and its being able to be
conditioned?

17. What is voluntary behavior?

18. Why can't voluntary behavior be conditioned?

GENERAL QUESTIONS

1. Could you comment briefly on the following quote of Edward L. Thorndike: "Whatever exists at all exists
in some amount. To know it thoroughly involves knowing its quantity as well as its quality." [See Geraldine
M Joncich (ed.) Psychology and the Science of Education: Selected writings of Edward L. Thorndike. New
York: Teacher's College Press, Columbia, 1962. p.151]

2. What conclusions are indicated as concerns the possibility of global laws about human behavior?

3. How does the paper relate to the issues of human freedom of action?

TO TOP

http://www.newfoundations.com/EGR/Measurability.html Page 12 of 12