ASSIGNMENT: MEASUREMENT IN THE PHYSICAL SCIENCE IS A DIRECT PROCESS WHICH IN EDUCATION IT IS AN INDIRECT PROCESS. DISCUSS

In physical science which is a direct measurement are ones you actually take with gauges or Instruments or by counting. You could use a rain Gauge and record rain fall or you could measure the amount of carbon dioxide in air while in education measurement are indirect measurements are taken of something other than the actual thing of interest. For example, the rings of a tree might indicate that ten or twenty years ago there was less rain because the rings are narrower. The amount of carbon dioxide trapped in polar ice-caps might be used to estimate the concentration of CO₂ in the air.

A direct measurement would be counting the number of people who walk through a stadium gate and an indirect measurement of this would be counting the number of tickets sold or counting the money from the sale of tickets. The two indirect measurements could be wrong because not everyone who buys a ticket uses it or the handling of the money was inappropriate.

There are many ways to collect evidence of student learning. To simplify the options, somewhat, assessment efforts are categorized as direct and indirect measures. Direct measures are probably more familiar to teaching faculty. A direct measure is based on a sample of actual student work, including reports, exams, demonstrations, performances, and completed works. The strength of direct measurement is that faculty members are capturing a sample of what students can do, which can be very strong evidence of student learning. A possible weakness of direct measurement is that not everything can be demonstrated in a direct way, such as values, perceptions, feelings, and attitudes.

Examples of direct and indirect assessment methods are given in the table below.

Direct Measurement	Indirect Measurement
(1) Essay test question (2) Term paper (3) Oral presentation (4) Multiple-choice test question (5) Performance piece (e.g., musical recital) (6)  Case analysis (7)  Standardized test (8)  Class project (individual or group)     (9) Poster presentation	(1) Classroom Assessment Techniques          such as “muddiest point” (2) Survey of current students (3) Survey of faculty members (4) Survey of internship supervisors (5) Survey of graduates (6) Survey of employers (6) Survey of transfer institutions