LEE JOSEPH

CRONBACH

Lee Joseph Cronbach was an American educational

psychologist who made significant contributions to

psychological testing and measurement. He was born on April

2nd 1916 in Fresno, California. At the age of five he started

elementary; he was enrolled in the upper second grade and he

graduated from Fresno high school at the age of fourteen. Later

went to Fresno State College where he got a master degree in

chemistry and mathematics when he was nineteen years old.

Lee Joseph Cronbach

Because of his job, is considerate to be ‘‘ One of the

Most Prominent and Influential Educational

Psychologist of all the Time’’

CRONBACH’S CONTRIBUTIONS

Cronbach’s contributions were notable into three

areas:

a) Measurement theory

b) Program Evaluation

C) Instruction

MEASUREMENT THEORY

“The Cronbach Alpha”: Cronbach developed the most

frequently used measure of the reliability of

psychological education, known as “The Cronbach

Alpha”. Cronbach's alpha is a coefficient of reliability. It

is commonly used as a measure of the internal

consistency or reliability of a psychometric test score

for a sample of examinees.

“Generalizability theory”: The G Theory is a statistical

framework for conceptualizing, investigating, and designing

reliable observations.

It is used to determine the reliability of measurements

under specific conditions.

This Theory is a technique for estimating the relative

magnitudes of various components of error variation and for

indicating the most efficient strategy for achieving desired

measurement precision.

PROGRAM EVALUATION

Cronbach quested for a better explanation of learning in respond to

instruction; making countless contributions to educational psychology.

In the fifties, Cronbach challenged the field to find "for each

individual the treatment to which he can most easily adapt.

He suggested that consideration of cognitive treatments and individual

together would determine the best payoff because we can expect some

attributes of person to have strong interactions with treatment variables.

The evidence continued to show that the learning outcomes

were better when the instructor's presentation adapted to the

student's aptitude and personality.

Anxious or conforming students tend to learn better in

highly structured instructional environments; non-anxious or

independent students tend to prefer low structure.

This includes several issues such as:

The Nature of the Teaching-learning Process.

The Measurement of Variables Describing

Instructional Interaction.

The Evaluation of Educational Programs.

Educational Psychology’s aspiration as an emerging

social science discipline.

Cronbach’s contributions included: Improvements to the Technology of Psychometric Modeling. Reformulations which went beyond the mathematics. A better explanation of Learning in response to instruction. Sharpened the sensitivity of Educational Research.

Emphasized that the rol of Context is just as essential as improved interpretations. Cronbach developed a framework for Evaluation Design, Implementation and Analysis.Proved that Research is indeed Valuable.

CRONBACH’S ACHIEVEMENTS

Notable Essay: The Two Disciplines of Scientific Psychology.

The paper Construct validity in Psychological Tests.

Cronbach was the president of the American Psychological

Association, president of the American Educational Research

Association, professor of education at Stanford University and

a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences.

Lee Joseph Cronbach was President of the

American Psychological Association 1957.

President of the American Educational Research

Association 1964-1965

He died of congestive heart failure at his home on

October 1st, 2001 at the age of eighty five.

THANKS FOR YOUR

ATTENTION!!!!