Quantification is Neither Necessary Nor Sufficient for Measurement

2013 Joint IMEKO (International Measurement Confederation) TC1-TC7-TC13 Symposium: Measurement Across Physical and Behavioural Sciences

Mari, Luca^1 ; Maul, Andrew^2 ; Irribarra, David Torres^3 ; Wilson, Mark^3

School of Engineering, Università Cattaneo-LIUC, Castellanza (VA), Italy^1

School of Education, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States^2

Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, CA, United States^3

关键词: Quantitative evaluation;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/459/1/012007/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/459/1/012007

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Being an infrastructural, widespread activity, measurement is laden with stereotypes. Some of these concern the role of measurement in the relation between quality and quantity. In particular, it is sometimes argued or assumed that quantification is necessary for measurement; it is also sometimes argued or assumed that quantification is sufficient for or synonymous with measurement. To assess the validity of these positions the concepts of measurement and quantitative evaluation should be independently defined and their relationship analyzed. We contend that the defining characteristic of measurement should be the structure of the process, not a feature of its results. Under this perspective, quantitative evaluation is neither sufficient nor necessary for measurement.