Hadow (1931)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Analysis, Preface, Introduction
Chapter 1 The history of the development of the conception of primary education
Chapter 2 The physical development of children between the ages of 7 and 11
Chapter 3 The mental development of children between the ages of 7 and 11
Chapter 4 The age limits for the upper stage of primary education
Chapter 5 The internal organisation of primary schools
Chapter 6 Retarded children in the primary school
Chapter 7 The curriculum of the primary school
Chapter 8 The staffing of primary schools and the training of teachers
Chapter 9 The premises and equipment of primary schools
Chapter 10 Examinations in primary schools
Chapter 11 Summary of principal conclusions and recommendations
Chapter 12 Suggestions on the curriculum of primary schools
Appendix I List of witnesses
Appendix II Physical development of 7-11 year olds (Harris)
Appendix III Mental development of 7-11 year olds (Burt)
Index

London: HM Stationery Office

Chapter 10 Examinations in primary schools
[pages 123 - 132]

102. We have already expressed the view in Chapter 4 that children ought to be transferred from the infant department to the upper department of the primary school at some time between the ages of seven and eight. At this early age tests of attainment in formal subjects may be an inadequate guide to a child's true capacity. Age of entrance, home training, absence from school, and many other factors, prevent children from having equal opportunities during the infant stage. Accordingly this is one of the stages at which the teachers may usefully apply intelligence tests. These need not be technical tests from a recognised scale; they may be simple problems modelled after those in the Binet-Simon Series, and might usefully be supplemented by standardised scholastic tests in reading and the easier processes of arithmetic. (1) Unless the capacity of the more intelligent child is recognised from the start, there is a danger that he may be promoted at the ordinary pace, and that then, when he is discovered to be below his true level, he may be hurried through the higher classes. In classifying pupils leaving the infant school full use should also be made of the school record and of consultation between the teachers concerned, It is, in our view, highly desirable that the classification of these young children should be regarded as merely provisional, and should be subject to frequent revision. (2) This applies especially to children of varying degrees of retardation.

103. In Chapter 7 of the Report on the Education of the Adolescent (1926) we have discussed at some length the question of free place examinations and examinations for admission to selective modern schools. (3) In that chapter the problem was considered primarily from the point of view of secondary education. Since then, the general subject of these examinations has been discussed in the Memorandum on Examinations for Scholarships and Free Places in Secondary Schools published by the Board of Education in 1928; in the Memorandum on Entrance Tests for Admission to Secondary Schools issued by the Welsh Department of the Board of Education (1930); and in the Report on Examinations in Public Elementary Schools published in 1930 by the Joint Advisory Committee of the Association of Education Committees and the National Union of Teachers. As most of the ground has thus been explored, we do not propose to consider here in detail the conduct of free place examinations; we are principally concerned with them in their bearing on the work of the primary school.

As the provision of various types of secondary education is extended in the manner proposed in our Report on the Education of the Adolescent, the necessity for selecting by competition the children who will pass on to grammar schools and to selective modern schools will be diminished. It seems certain, however, that some qualifying examination or test will always be required for the purpose of classifying pupils.

104. During the last few years general examinations of children in public elementary schools at the age of about eleven have been increasingly used, not only for the award of free places, but for the admission of fee paying pupils to grammar schools and of entrants to modern schools. In more than half of the 75 administrative areas included in the inquiry which is summarised in the Board's Memorandum on Free Place Examinations (1928), the examination was compulsory, i.e. all children in public elementary schools eligible under the conditions prescribed in each case were expected to take it.

When the examination is voluntary there is a very considerable risk of passing over candidates who are really suitable. It would appear also that compulsory examinations are the most practical means of coordinating grammar school awards with admissions to selective modern schools. It is clear that difficulties must inevitably arise when an authority whose powers are limited to elementary education conducts a separate entrance examination for its own selective modern schools. In the interests of the children it is important that these difficulties should be surmounted, and that the number of such examinations should be reduced by agreement between neighbouring authorities.

105. In Sections 146-7 of the Report on the Education of the Adolescent, we described at some length the practice which prevails among many authorities where there are a large number of candidates, of holding the examination in two stages: (4) (a) the preliminary examination in English and arithmetic, which is often held in the local schools, and (b) the second or free place examination proper, held at some convenient centre or centres in the area.

We recognise that where the number of candidates is large it may frequently be found necessary to organise the examination in two stages. (5) In areas where this arrangement is adopted, we consider it most important that the first or eliminative stage should not be regarded as a qualifying test, but should be designed to reject only those candidates whom it is clearly not worth while to examine further. To this end, the eliminative examination should be carefully standardised in the individual schools. We would accordingly urge that in cases where the examination is divided into two parts, the rejections at the first (or eliminative) stage of the examination should not be too numerous, so that candidates with as wide a range of capacity and attainment as possible may be included among those tested in the second (or selective) part of the examination. (6) Furthermore, it is essential that any parent who desires may present his child for the second examination whatever the child's performance in the preliminary (eliminative) examination may have been.

In the light of our evidence, we agree with the view expressed in the Board's Memorandum on Free Place Examinations, that there is generally less risk of overlooking suitable candidates if the examination is held in one stage only. In cases, however, where the examination is held in two stages, the first, or internal, stage should be general and compulsory.

106. The obligatory written papers of the free place examination are confined to English and arithmetic. The inquiry by the Board's Inspectors, summarised in the Memorandum on Free Place Examinations (1928) shows that some authorities included a substantial test in history and geography, either as part of a general paper, or in a separate history and geography paper. Dictation formed part of the English test in some areas; spelling was tested separately in one area; questions on nature study occurred in a few examinations; and in one instance there were optional questions on domestic subjects. The virtual limitation of the examination to English and arithmetic was criticised by a large number of our witnesses on two grounds: (a) that concentration of attention on these two subjects tended to disturb the balance of the course: further that there are sometimes children of mediocre capacity who can be successfully coached in arithmetic, so that achievement in a written examination often affords no satisfactory indication of their actual ability; (b) several groups of witnesses, including the County Councils Association, pointed out that there were artistic, practical, and other types of ability (7) which were not expressed in English or arithmetic. The County Councils Association, therefore, thought that, in order to encourage the all-round development which should characterise the primary school, care should be exercised not wholly to ignore in examinations aspects of the curriculum other than English and arithmetic (8)

On the evidence before us, we consider that carefully devised papers on English and arithmetic (9) should be sufficient as a basic test of capacity and attainment for children at the age of eleven. We think, however, that the object of a final selective examination should be primarily to assess capacity, though the importance of a certain measure of attainment must not be ignored.

107. Since the primary purpose of the examination should be to test general capacity and ability to profit by continued education in a grammar school or a selective modern school, it is clearly important that attempts should be made to gauge these qualities apart from general attainment in English and arithmetic. The evidence shows that in recent years much trouble has been taken in many areas to include a certain number of questions designed primarily to discover and assess intelligence. In addition to this incidental method of discovering intelligence, some authorities have added a group intelligence test. In our opinion carefully devised group intelligence tests may be a useful factor in selection, but it would be inadvisable to rely on such tests alone. In this context, we would reiterate the opinion that we have already expressed in the Report on Psychological Tests of Educable Capacity (1924) (10) that these new psychological tests may probably exercise an important influence on examinations of the ordinary type. On the other hand, if questions in external examinations for children at the age of eleven were always set with due regard to the peculiarities of the child mind, both in the form and matter of the questions and in their arrangement on the written papers, and if the same scientific methods were employed as in intelligence tests and standardised scholastic tests, such examinations would prove a more effective means of discovering ability in young children than those now in use.

108. The evidence shows that the use made of oral tests varies greatly. Sometimes they constitute an integral part of the examination for all candidates, or for all who attain a certain level in the written papers, while in other cases they are employed only for discriminating between candidates near the borderline of success or failure. Again, in some areas arrangements are made for controlling and standardising the work of the panel of oral examiners, while in other areas the final award is settled by oral tests conducted independently by the grammar schools. There is also great variation in the influence of oral tests on the final results. Many of the difficulties inherent in oral examinations might be avoided if individual psychological tests were applied as supplementary to the ordinary oral examination. In connection with the possible use of individual tests of intelligence at oral examinations, we desire to emphasise our opinion that more attention should be devoted by teachers and psychologists to a clear definition of the precise aims, functions and limitations of oral examinations generally and to the proper development of their technique. (11)

There is evidence in the experience of some authorities that close study of the technique of the interview and of the means for standardising the procedure of oral examiners may produce reliable results. In one particular case, the visiting boards consist of practising teachers drawn from primary schools and secondary schools of various types, and these boards are responsible, in collaboration with the head teachers concerned, for the final classification of candidates. The data at their disposal are the marks awarded in a written examination, the marks (separately recorded) of a group intelligence test, the standardised tests used at the interview, the school record, and the head teacher's estimate. Even in this case, however, experience has shown the necessity of referring to a single referee, usually the examiner-in-chief, a few borderline candidates in regard to whom there is not complete agreement with the opinion of the head teacher. These remaining candidates are again visited in their schools, and a further consultation between the head teacher and the chief examiner is held before the final classification is made.

In general, we think that in examinations which set out primarily to discover ability, weight should be attached to the results of a properly conducted oral test. (12)

109. In many free place examinations, and always in areas where an interview forms part of the selective examination, weight is given to school records. Nothing is more reliable than the personal judgement of observant and impartial teachers who have been in contact with their pupils over a period of years; even though, in a comparative estimate of pupils drawn from a large number of schools, this personal judgement, as we have already implied, must be related to some general standard of ability and attainment. We accordingly urge that some form of continuous record of each child's progress should be kept in primary schools. We consider that further inquiry is desirable, in order to determine the most convenient form in which the necessary information may be concisely presented.

110. The evidence indicates that methods of discovering and assessing special aptitudes, as distinct from that 'general intelligence' which is gauged in some degree by intelligence tests, (13) have not yet been developed to any great extent. It is doubtful too whether permanent aptitudes and interests of a specialised kind have, as a rule, emerged sufficiently by the age of eleven to justify taking them into account in a selective examination. (14) The assessment of special abilities will, however, become more important as secondary schools of varied type are more fully developed. The teacher's prediction will prove to be the most valuable guide. This again emphasises the need for carefully kept school records.

111. In order to enlist the interest of parents in the progress of their children a terminal or annual report should be sent to them. This report should contain the essential information which a parent is entitled to receive, and should be based largely on the school record. (15) It is especially important that the parents' interest in the progress of their children should be secured at the stage when they are presented for the general examination at the age of eleven. Parents should be enabled to understand in broad outline the salient features of the education offered in grammar schools and in modern schools, whether selective or non-selective, and the range of occupations open to pupils from these various types of secondary school. To this end, authorities might issue (as some do) for circulation to parents short statements setting out in clear and simple language the facilities for secondary education that are available in the area concerned.

112. The 'free place' examination was established primarily to discover those pupils who appeared to be qualified to proceed at about the age of eleven to grammar schools. Under some education authorities it still bears marks of its origin, in that its class lists contain a large division of 'qualified' candidates, and a more select division of 'free place' or 'scholarship' candidates. It was thought (and, as experience has shown, it was rightly thought) that a parent would be more encouraged to send his child to a grammar school after he had received evidence of the child's ability. Accordingly, the examination was made general and within certain limits compulsory. As education of a secondary type was more fully developed, the necessity for a classification of primary school pupils became more pronounced, both for the award of scholarships in grammar schools and for admission to modern schools. We hesitate to predict the ultimate development of the system or to conjecture what features of it may prove to have the most lasting value; the varied practice of education authorities, and the changes that have been introduced from year to year in the conduct of the examination by those authorities which have given special thought and care to it, are evidence that the stage of experiment is not yet past.

Criticism of the system in its experimental stage turns often upon characteristics which are present in some forms of examination but not in all, or is evoked by a prejudice against examinations of any kind. Nevertheless, there is evidence to show that unremitting attention should be given to improvement in the technique of the examination. Teacher witnesses have stated that free place examinations have been largely responsible for the continuance of faulty perspective in the general plan of primary education. It is true that undue concentration on arithmetic may be traced as far back as the Code of 1862, but it is equally true that this is being continued in many schools owing to the indirect pressure of the examination, and to the types of question which are still frequently used. The conception of the primary school and its curriculum must not be falsified or distorted by any form of school test whether external or internal; the technique of examination must accordingly be so developed that it keeps abreast of that steady process of humanising and broadening the course of study in the primary school which is the theme of this Report. Not only so, but the written part of the examination, both in its scholastic tests and its tests of general intelligence, must find its justification mainly in the setting up of some general standard of ability and attainment to which the teacher's own estimate of a pupil may be related. One direction in which the right kind of examination will clearly develop, is in the increasing importance that it will attach to the school record and the teacher's estimate in the final classification of pupils, provided that this is related to some general standard of ability and attainment. The course of development will ensure against the warping of the curriculum, special preparation, and undue pressure in the upper range of primary education; and so remove many of the causes of dissatisfaction that have been mentioned by our witnesses. In the meantime, authorities should be firm and consistent in their discouragement of special preparation of any kind, while by their own practice in the gradual development of the examination they will seek to prevent it. There remains, however, one grave cause of dissatisfaction which inheres to any external method of classifying pupils that may be adopted. It arises from an exaggerated faith in examinations as a criterion of the efficiency of a school. No examination, by itself, can appraise all the activities of a school; no adequate estimate of these can be formed except by inspection; and any testing of pupils which may be used as ancillary to inspection must be different in character from that which we are now considering. We cannot too strongly deprecate the tendency to base a comparative estimate of the efficiency of schools upon the class lists of a selective 'free place' examination.

Footnotes

(1) See Recommendation No. 19 (page 140) of the Consultative Committee's Report on Psychological Tests of Educable Capacity (1924).

(2) See also Chapter 5, Section 66.

(3) Cf. also Recommendation No. 20 [Section 220 in the online version] of the Consultative Committee's Report on the Education of the Adolescent (1926).

(4) It should be mentioned that in a few areas an oral examination or an oral test imposed independently by the grammar schools operates in effect as a third stage of the free place examination.

(5) The County Councils Association informed us that, in a large proportion of the 37 county authorities which had replied to their questionnaire issued in 1929, a general examination was usually held, and that in most cases the children in the age groups of 10-11 and 11-12 were examined. This examination was rarely that on which the award of free places was made, but was frequently used as a preliminary examination to select candidates for the free place examination proper.

(6) It should be mentioned that in the areas of some authorities, numbers of children are not regarded as eligible for presentation at the free place examination, if they have not reached a certain minimum of attainment. For instance, in London children who have not reached a stage corresponding to standard IV by the minimum age fixed by the Authority are not presented for the preliminary examination.

(7) See also Chapter 11, Section 110.

(8) In framing the examination the special characteristics also of other types of primary education, e.g. private preparatory schools, may have in some areas to be taken into account.

(9) As regards the type of question which should be avoided in arithmetic papers, see Chapter 12, Arithmetic and simple geometry.

(10) See Consultative Committee's Report on Psychological Tests of Educable Capacity (1924) Recommendations Nos. 20 and 12.

(11) Cf. the Consultative Committee's Report on Psychological Tests of Educable Capacity (1924) Section 78(c), where it is pointed out that individual psychological tests should only be set in those cases where a qualified person is available.

(12) Cf. Recommendation No. 22 of the Consultative Committee's Report on Psychological Tests of Educable Capacity (1924).

(13) Cf. Consultative Committee's Report on Psychological Tests of Educable Capacity (1924), Sections 53-56.

(14) See also this chapter, Section 106,

(15) See also Chapter 12, Curriculum and methods of teaching for retarded children in the primary school.