Study On The Measurement Movement During The Republic Of China

The Measurement Movement is a series of theoretical studies and practical activities organized and led by China Education Improving Institute and subsequently China Association of Testing during the Republic of China,advocated by experts like Liao Sze-Chen,Chen Heqin,Zhang Yaoxiang,Yu Ziyi,Ai Joseph Wei and Hsiao Hsiao-Hung and actively practiced by teachers,students and people across a wide swath of Chinese society.This movement,based on featuring positivism and experimental science,covered a wide range of topics such as publicity of measurement,compilation of measurement,implementation of measurement,and application of measurement,trying to promote the development of Chinese education with scientific research methods.From 1915,when the first scientific measurement was introduced,to 1949,when People’s Republic of China was founded,the Measurement Movement had undergone several phases,namely,the emergence stage,the development stage,the stagnation stage,the rejuvenation stage and the declination stage.Throughout this period,it experienced several ups and downs,evolving from individual studies to organized studies and once again separated studies and then professionally organized studies,with each phrase demonstrating different characteristics.In the emergence stage,the Movement concentrated on introducing and imitating the measurements methods abroad;In the development stage,most of the studies were about compiling standardized measurements;In the stagnation stage,the studies were only applied on a small scale;in the rejuvenation stage,it was more concerned with theoretical studies thanks to professional organization;in the declination stage,measurements were increasingly applied in military fields in response to the calls from wars.Although the Measurement Movement was finally abandoned as a result of successive wars and regime changes,the Movement on the whole was a process of continuous improvement.Although it failed to achieve the ultimate goal of transforming the society,it after all provided scientific tools and objective and accurate statistics for various education reforms during the Republic of China,helping the reform to develop on the right track.Also,alongside the Movement were the changed attitudes toward education as well as the changed research methods,which,to some extent,contributed to the shift from traditional education to modern education.In light of Social Movement Theory and by means of literature review,comparison,quantitative statistics and case studies,this paper studies,in a chronological order,the different stages of the Measurement Movement in terms of historical background,significant events,group as well as individual organizers and journals and magazines etc.in an attempt to picturing a comprehensive map of its emergence,development and evolution.It is hoped that the study can reveal certain patterns and problems of the movement so that it can shed some light on our current educational studies.