Immediately after receiving my PhD in Psychology in 1971, I went to Professor Bloom at the University of Chicago to learn formative assessment, mastery learning, and taxonomy of educational goals.In particular, the taxonomy was a good study on the content of thinking ability and problem-solving ability and the measurement method.Nowadays, PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) type academic ability has become an issue, and various discussions have been held on this aspect, but at that time, people doing such research in Japan I think there were few.On the other hand, in the United States and Europe, it has become commonplace to divide human abilities into various ways based on concepts such as competency (* XNUMX) and evaluate them from various aspects. The SAT descriptive formula was also in response to such a trend.

　In 1979, the common primary examination using the mark sheet method began, and in 1990, the successor National Center Test for University Admissions started.But soon, new problems came up.

　In the first place, both the common primary exam and the National Center Test for University Admissions measure the basic knowledge of each subject required to study at the university, and each university conducts a secondary exam individually and adds it to the basic knowledge and seeks it. I was supposed to select students by knowing whether they had the qualifications and abilities.Therefore, I will do my best to ask questions every year.Also, at a university that wants to take students with creativity, there are cases where difficult or strange questions are asked.

　However, the introduction of the common primary examination was also aimed at reducing the weight of the university's own examination, so in the end, the ingenuity and efforts of each university became insufficient, and all universities became dependent on the common primary examination. I did.For this reason, it became a place of fierce competition for one point under a single scale, which was one of the factors for this abolition.

　The High School System Reform Conference at the end of last year was shaken by the introduction of the descriptive formula in the university entrance examination applicant test (tentative name), but to me, the experience of 40 years ago seemed to be a double copy.The scheme that the media incites eccentric claims made by non-experts remains the same.