MEASURING OUTCOMES OF THE COURSE IN OCCUPATIONS

Intelligent action in any field calls for knowledge of the limitations of the instruments used and for evaluation of results. The engineer, the physician, and the educator, all recognize this need and have their various ways of checking up on the effectiveness of what they do—before the building falls, or the patient dies, or the pupil leaves school. Of major significance to the guidance movement is the increasing attention given to evaluation. Miss Lincoln confirms the widespread opinion of her leadership by being one of the first working counselors to measure objectively the effectiveness of her own work in the teaching of occupations. Tests of vocational and educational information were given to experimental groups of ninth-grade pupils before and after a semester course in occupations. The same tests were given at the same time to a control group. While the latter group made some gain in occupational information during the period, it was not so large as that of the instructed groups, and the results indicate further, to quote Miss Lincoln, that achievement in occupations classes “tends to increase with the amount of instruction in such classes.”