Week 6 - Testing Children's Intelligence
There are many structured tests that are administered to
children, used to measure their minds. Some of the popular ones are; aptitude,
IQ and achievement test, which measure different aspects of one child abilities
and capabilities. I believe in the whole child evaluation, I do not believe
that standardized test do justice to any child. It does not look at all the
strengths of the child and therefore is not a true assessment of a child’s
abilities. Every child is different and therefore have different strengths and
weaknesses and should be tested to discover such. A child’s ability has
multiple dimensions and they should be assessed with that in mind.
Testing may vary according to culture and ethnicity, based
on practices and beliefs. There is a scenario cited by Berger (2012, p.335)
where the professor, as a child, missed school for a week, when a new concept
was introduced, and he had a hard time catching up. His mom was convinced that
it was because of heredity that he would not do well at math. Berger (2012)
continued to say that Nisbett gathered evidence that a child’s IQ can be raised
substantially by a collaboration of parents, school and cultures. I believe
that the same can also remain dormant by the same elements, based on beliefs
and practices.
The use of unstructured tests such as interviews,
observations and interactions with the child will better able show the true potential
of some children. In this way their true needs will be revealed and then they
will be able to receive the help that they need. There are professional
therapists, psychologists or learning specialists with a background in
educational environments, who are trained to perform these kind of assessments.
These can then be evaluated by individual professionals, who interprets and
makes recommendations, according to the nature of the observations.
Jamaica’s children and testing:
Children in Jamaica are faced with four different test at the primary level, this takes place over a period of six years. These four major tests are held at the first, third, fourth and sixth grades. All schools are directed by the Ministry of Education to administer the Grade One Individual Learning Profile (GOILP), the Grade Three Diagnostic Test, the Grade Four Literacy Test and the Grade Six Achievement test GSAT). Parents are sometimes concerned with the volume of tests and compares it with earlier times when the common entrance test was the only one at that level,it was an achievement text. Back then,this was the test that tells if you would enter a traditional high school (THS) or a new secondary school. The THS was where the "bright" children went, the "others" went to secondary school. The trend now is the comparison and therefore competitiveness of the schools, taking away the usual team spirit of communities.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/top-schools
