Professions, Trades, and the Obligation to Inform

ABSTRACT The concept of a 'professional', as distinguished from that of a 'tradesman', encompasses both white collar workers and those who produce excellent work in any occupation. These divergent meanings have a common philosophical source in the way workers justify their work. A worker becomes a professonal by professing reasons for doing his work in a certain way. A worker is a tradesman if the value of his work in trade is the sole justification for the way it is done. Workers can be both professionals and tradesmen, unless what the consumer will buy and what is proper are different, placing 'reason value'and 'trade value'into conflict. Value conflicts are most likely in occupations involving a high level of theoretical knowledge, where the consumer has trouble judging what is proper. Thus, we say that professional persons work in white collar occupations, but that is misleading, for 'professional'is a way of handling value conflicts, not a kind of work. In value conflicts the worker has an obligation to inform the consumer—to profess reasons—about what is proper work.     

METHODOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOMETRIC ISSUES IN SETTING CUTOFF SCORES USING THE ANGOFF METHOD

The present study examined several psychometric issues relevant to the use of a favored technique (the Angoff method) used to set standards in criterion referenced testing. The research was conducted within a setting which allowed (a) confident identification of expert and non-expert judges, and (b) estimation of "true" scores for items judged so that accuracy of judgments in addition to reliability could be examined. Results suggested that expertise of judges does make a difference in producing more accurate and reliable data, underscoring the importance of using true subject matter experts (SMEs) in the judgment process. A rater analysis technique (rater-total correlations) was illustrated, which might prove useful in improving the quality of data obtained using the Angoff method, particularly when there is some question regarding the internal consistency of ratings and expertise of some of the raters. Finally, a rater accuracy adjustment/calibration technique was examined and proved to be a potentially useful method to maximize accuracy of a standard derived using the Angoff method in settings where archival normative test data can be obtained. Other methods that could potentially be used to improve Angoff data were discussed.