Use of Ratings in the Evaluation of Exhibits

Abstract

THE evaluation of exhibits in health education becomes increasingly essential as public health workers make more frequent use of that medium. At almost all state or county fairs, conventions, or other large gatherings there will be found one or more health exhibits, many of which are complicated and expensive. Despite increased interest in using exhibits, there is little objective evidence concerning their effectiveness. Generally the sole evaluation of an exhibit before it is put on display is the judgment of the exhibitor and his associates. Are such ratings dependable, and can large expenditures for exhibits be justified on subjective opinions? That the validity of ratings may be open to some doubt is suggested by previous studies of ratings on the quality of drawings, English compositions, and handwriting. As early as 1910 Thorndike asked 30 judges to rate 37 specimens of handwriting for quality.' In rating one of the specimens, one judge stated that the writing was of the highest quality; 5 stated it was of the poorest; and the ratings by the other 24 judges were distributed throughout the range between best and poorest. Later, Thorndike,2 Cohen,3 and others showed similar variations in ratings of drawings, and Hillegas 4 demonstrated that ratings are unreliable measures of quality in English composition. Although as a result of such, studies those in educational measurement no longer use ratings as a means of evaluating educational materials or products, constructors of health exhibits haye seldom utilized any other measure of effectiveness. For that reason it has seemed advisable to investigate exhibit ratings to ascertain whether such evaluations are reliable; and the New York World's Fair presented an excellent opportunity for that investigation. Grouped in the Medicine and Public Health Building were many exhibits prepared by many health workers, with extremely diverse ideas as to effective exhibit technic, including all sorts of combinations of movement, color, and arrangement. Twenty-six major ones were selected for study. In evaluating, two questions were posed: Could professional workers agree on the most effective exhibits in the group? Could they also agree in selecting the least effective displays?