SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— L. 403 



Mr. B. C. Wallis. — The Position of the School Inspector. 



1. Four parties are primarily concerned with external school examinations — 

 the examinees, the teachers, the examiners, and the examining authority. The school 

 inspector represents the teachers and the authority. 



2. Theoretically the examiner and the inspector are antagonistic. 



3. Bad examination traditions : (a) Examinations require preparation ; (b) Ex- 

 aminations should tend to improve teaching. The examiner postulates complete 

 freedom in setting his tests; the inspector limits his activities in the interests of the 

 schools, i.e. of the non-examinees. 



4. The examiner regards each examination as a unique phenomenon ; the in- 

 spector considers it as part of a series, part of the machinery of inspecting the schools. 



5. The inspector regards the examiner as a potent factor in education and holds 

 that the examiner should say how the examinees have been taught. The examiner 

 replies (a) that similar groups of candidates at an identical examination in London 

 and Birmingham would perform differently ; (b) that boys and girls always perform 

 differently, and (c) that he has no grounds for the judgment that either London children 

 or boys are relatively well or badly taught. 



6. (i) The good teacher is not necessarily a good examiner ; (ii) the specialist 

 teacher is probably a bad examiner; (in) the inspector deals with averages, the 

 examiner with departures from the average; (iv) examiners should be free from the 

 constraint now imposed by teachers and inspectors; (t>) examiners should be 

 specialists hi examining, with sure appointments over long periods in order to have 

 time for the necessary research into the conditions and consequences of their labours. 



Mr. J. H. Arnold. — First School Examinations in Secondary Schools. 



A. General Function : To test results of courses of general education (teaching) 

 in a particular class of schools forming part of a national system of education. 



B. Specific Functions : Legitimate — to test actual knowledge, ability to marshal 

 facts, and ability to apply facts, by simple processes of induction and deduction, 

 to the solution of ordinary problems — to act as an incentive in secondary school 

 work — to furnish schools with an independent estimate of the results of that work. 

 Illegitimate — unnecessarily to limit curricula and subject syllabuses — to attempt to 

 guide, or to criticise, the work of the schools. 



C. Standard (pass) — such as may be fairly expected of pupils of reasonable industry 

 and ordinary intelligence — complication through intrusion of University Entrance 

 standards (credits). 



D. Equality of Standard— necessary because of a national system of education 

 (A above) ; complications through multiplicity of examining bodies. 



E. Two methods of Equalisation — (1) reliance upon (a) attempted standardisation 

 of difficulty of papers set, and (b) impressionism by examiners ; (2) assumption that 

 average standard of large number of candidates does not vary greatly from year to 

 year. Second method far preferable — not based wholly on theory of probabilities — 

 gives a relative, not a merely arbitrary, standard by connecting credits with numbers 

 of candidates — not absolutely accurate but fairer than ' impressionism ' which results 

 in anomalies and injustice. The ' don't cheapen the examination ' bogey. 



F. Curricula : Examining bodies' duty to examine on curricula followed by 

 schools and approved by Board of Education — no limitation to subjects that can be 

 taught only ' academically ' — via media — ' a reasonable demand.' 



G. Syllabuses : Attempts to ' lead ' schools or encourage particular teaching 

 methods are unwarrantable interference — need to minimise so far as possible the 

 unavoidable effects of working to ' outside ' syllabuses — handicap on new, and 

 ■experimental, teaching methods. 



H. Papers : Easy questions and strict marking — stem discouragement of ' cram ' 

 questions — phrasing ; that of the ' adolescent,' not that of the ' cultured adult.' 



J. Publicity : Pubhcation of general methods of marking and, in particular, of 

 percentages of' credits ' in individual subjects essential — fears of trivial and carping 

 ■criticisms groundless — secrecy breeds suspicion. 



K. Co-operation : Examining bodies must know what the schools are doing ; 

 ■otherwise examination not a fair test — appreciation by schools of real co-operation — ■ 

 no attempt to ' run ' examinations. 



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