A Study of Correlation between Criterion-Referenced Evaluation and Norm-Referenced Evaluation in a Lower Secondary School's Science Curriculum

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to clarify the relationship between Criterion-referenced evaluation and Norm-referenced evaluation in a lower secondary school science curriculum. The data was collected from cumulative guidance records of 1073 students in a lower secondary school in 1993. The main results were as follows: (1)Eighty-percent of the students achieved the criterion in Interest and Attitude, Knowledge and Understanding, and Skills and Expression in Observation and Experiment, but only 65% of the students achieved the criterion in Scientific Thinking. (2) The norm-referenced evaluation showed highest correlation to the criterion-referenced evaluation for each grade in the factor of Knowledge and Understanding. The correlation values ranged from .80 to .84. This is a very high positive correlation. Teachers want to evaluate many facets of students' ability. However, these results show that norm-referenced evaluation still depends upon one criteria, Knowledge and Understanding. We must change our traditional way of evaluation to measure the many facets of students' abilities.