Mapping out the Hexagon Measurement Framework as a Blueprint Underlying Measurement in the Human Sciences

Abstract

Recently the “Hexagon Measurement Framework” has been proposed as a unifying interpretation of measurement across the physical and human sciences. While the steps for using this Framework to understand and to perform a measurement are extensively described and discussed in previous publications of ours, what is discussed only briefly there is how the Framework can also be exploited as a blueprint to help underpin the process of framing a concept of the property to be measured and then developing a measurement for it: this is the object of the present article.

First, we outline how the Hexagon Framework allows us to interpret the development of physical measurement, taking Chang's account of the historical advancements of temperature measurement as an illustration. Second, we show how the Framework is mirrored in a contemporary measurement development approach used in the human sciences: the BEAR Assessment System (BAS). We describe how the BAS is overlaid on the Hexagon Framework as the measurement development proceeds and may well iterate several times in that process. Third, we use this underlay of the Framework to illustrate and exemplify how the BAS has been used to design and develop a measuring instrument in the human sciences, specifically to measure an educational achievement construct intended for use in schools: Scientific Argumentation. Finally, we make comparisons of the above account with the so-called “norm-referenced” approach to measurement and also discuss some caveats and limitations of the account here.