Psychometrics in Educational Planning

Shawn Gilroy
Curriculum Development
Dr. Dugan
4/19/09

Psychometrics in Education

In the field of psychology, the technology for measuring and understanding personal characteristics has evolved significantly over the past century. With the rise of statistical and normative assessments, psychometrics has been developing from a current and reactive focus to a proactive and future oriented focus.
In the study of psychometrics, the educational and psychological science of measurement, human skills, abilities and personality traits are assessed to serve a variety of purposes. Aside from cognitive and intellectual assessment commonly found in schools, psychometrics can also be applied to determining future areas of study or careers.
Two of the commonly available assessments are the Myers-Brigg’s Type Indicator and the Motivation Appraisal of Personal Potential. This aim of this discussion is not the discuss the statistical method by which personality traits and abilities are derived, but both of these assessments operate on the assumption that if personality traits and abilities can be correlated with specific occupations and areas of study, the assessment can lead the client towards careers and studies that are most suited for their individual abilities.
The possibility of identifying areas of future study and career possibilities is a practice that is suited to guiding students and graduates who have to make big decisions about their future. For example, students who are on their way to college may not have any idea which area of study appeals to them. Most students at this age have not yet had the life experiences to feel confident in making that choice. These assessments are likely to help guide students by identifying areas of interest and characteristics of their personality and correlating those with areas of study.
Similarly, these assessments can help recent or nearing graduates who are undecided about which field or career area to begin. With bachelor degrees that can apply to various types of careers and applications, students may not be able to discern which areas are right for them. These assessments are useful because personality traits and abilities are correlated with areas of occupation. If a student can report their characteristics and abilities, the occupations indicated may be a better fit with the student than an arbitrarily chosen occupation.
As with all assessments in psychology, the way we measure and compare factors is by correlation. Correlations do not offer a direct a cause and effect relationships, and thus, these assessments provide information that may or may not be valid. For example, a very successful businessman may have personality traits that would make him a good counselor but he did not choose that career path. His personality characteristics may have made him a better businessman even though his personality traits are correlated higher with a counseling occupation. In addition, the statistics behind these tests is often a debate. These tests have different ways of determining suggested occupations. There is no single method to derive those answers and do not follow the typical bell-curve methodology.
Overall, these assessments provide suggestions and correlations, but they should be treated as such. These assessments can offer some direction to clients who are unsure of how to proceed with their career, but I would not use these assessments as the sole determinant of someone’s career.

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm
free Myers-Briggs

http://myassessment.com/TakeMAPP/default.asp?dest=TakeMAPP
free Motivational Assessment of Personal Potential

http://www.wowi.com
World of Work Inventory