Reliability and validity Essay Example for Free

Reliability and validity Essay Normally when a survey and research is carried out the results should be tested to prove whether they are valid and reliable. Therefore I have come out with the following responses to judge the following students wrong or right. Student number one has no concrete ideas on what validity and reliability means. In the first place validity is not judgmental but objective. For the response to be valid the results should be seen to be working and practical. Reliability according to student one is a little bit applicable and I can therefore accept it. He/she argues out correctly that comparing the responses of groups’ pools and relating the accuracy of the out comers can achieve reliability. However one thing that has been ignored is that for the response of this student to be reliable then it should be done repeatedly is when comparisons on the accuracy can be done. Student one has not got the exact meaning of validity since a data is only valid when it has been tested and the results or outcome is accepted. This is always done at some levels of confidence interval. One cannot just pass a judgment that given information is valid before testing the results. For the second student reliability is properly defined and explained. For a data to be reliable automatically the test result should be consistent. Student two also has a bright idea on validity. A good test it said to reliable and valid if it is consistent and measures exactly what it tends to measure. I believe that the results that the students will get from the use of the healthy eating index as a tool on the changing quality of nutrient intake for 9th grade female athletes at the love joy high school will be accepted. The third student is a bright statistician as he/she uses a lot of statistics to express his mind. Results of a test will be reliable when they are consistent. Consistency is achieved after several repetitions of the test are done. His/her reaction on validity is also okay. The research measurement tool should only measure what it purports to measure. The different types of validity are also discussed clearly by this student. Student 4 is completely mixed up on differentiating the term validity and reliability. Basically validity is not whether or not the research explains or measures what he/she said he would be measuring. The validity should be based on the fact that the test should measure exactly what it is to measure. Again for results to be reliable they should be consistent after several experiments performed. You can use an instrument that gives accurate results but this doesn’t mean that the results will be reliable. His findings on the course curriculum may be misleading or not trusted in the long run. The fifth student is also wrong on the way he responds to validity and reliability. His argument is subjective in nature. Reliability doe not mean ability to be able to rely on the research instrument but it means the consistency of the results produced by the research instrument. The sixth student is judged right on how he defines the term validity and reliability. However he does not know how validity and reliability is achieved. It is not a matter of relying on the test tool and how it is administered but the tool should be able to test the exact thing it is suppose to test. Therefore relying on the test tool can create results that are not valid and reliable. The seventh student has not properly brought out the exact meaning of the two terms. Reliability has to do with the consistency of the test results. Therefore some measuring tool should be used. Success of any study cannot be generalized unless it is tested and found to be consisted and accurate. This is when we can rely on the results. The eighth student summarizes the discussion on the two terms very smartly. To be simple and to avoid confusion a test is valid if it measures what is says to measure. Then very smartly he defines reliability as the consistency of measurements. All the information collected from the survey he wanted to carry will be reliable if they are consistence. Otherwise I have no objection with his argument when he says that validity reliability assure that tests and results are done and performed in the most accurate manner. Reference: Louis, C. (2003). Research Methods in Education New York: Routledge Publishers.