The purpose of this article is to make an inquiry into the history of the educational evaluation in social studies from the viewpoint of the rise in objectivity, which came into existence in the Report of the Commission on the Social Studies of the American Historical Association.
The studies on the objectification of the educational evaluation started in the early part of twentieth century. At that time, also in the field of teaching social sciences, the studies on the measurement of the outcomes of learning are made. Externally, the measurement movement in the teaching of social sciences is concerned with the improvement of the form of the tests in order to remove the vagueness inherent in the traditional examination. But the measurement movement changed not only mere the technique of constructing the test. The measurement in the teaching of social sciences aimed at the removal of empirical and speculative thinking from the educational research on social studies. The measurement in the teaching of social sciences was one aspect of the introduction of Scientific Determinism into the educational research on social studies.
The scientific nature which prescribes the substance of the measurement in the teaching of social sciences has four aspects. That is to (a) specify the object of measurement by dividing the goal of teaching social sciences, (b) raise the content validity by analyzing the textbooks in history and the social sciences, (c) adopt the type of test question which obtain the same result at any time by anyone, (d) rationally interpret the result of measurement by making the criterion based on statistical managements.
The measurement in the teaching of social sciences has two distinctive features. First, it regards the person as the gathering of elements, and measures the person elementary like the physical phenomena. It is the peculiar conception, opposite to wholism. Second, it is based on the theory that the children are the center of interest, so the criterion is made by the competition in the certain group of children who learn the social sciences. These have something to do with the social conditions in the early part of twentieth century in the United States. That is, the coming into existence and development of the capitalism and the request for the rationality.