Testing for Intelligence

In St. Lucia, teachers and children are under tremendous pressure to ensure that children perform well on standardized test which mainly focus on reading, writing and mathematics competencies. Hence, the children’s social and emotional development are not considered.  These tests are administered at the second grade, sixth grade and ninth grade.  Although, the tests for the second and ninth grades are said to be diagnostic in nature, the majority of the time the results are used to compare students, schools and districts.  The policy makers fail to realize that all children vary in the way they learn and as a result their method of testing should match their preferred learning style.  Additionally, children may perform poorly on these tests not because they do not know the content but as a result of test anxiety.  The test administered in the sixth grade is for placement purposes.

According to Katz (1997) assessment can serve many purposes.  Among them are:

·         To determine progress on significant developmental achievements

·         To make placement or promotion decisions

·         To diagnose learning and teaching problems

·         To help in instruction and curriculum decisions

·         To serve as a basis for reporting to parents

·         To assist a child with assessing his/her own progress (p.2)

Considering Katz’s suggestions, one could conclude that assessment has some valid purposes.  However, if we are to consider the child holistically then our testing methods and techniques should encompass the four educational goals of knowledge, skills, dispositions and feelings (Katz, 1997). Notwithstanding, our assessment methods and techniques should be varied so as to cater for all learning styles and preferences.  Likewise, we should not only use formal test, but we need to also assess children during informal activities and play as according to Katz (1997) this informal assessment will minimize the potential errors of various assessment strategies.

In assessments in China, there is a concentration on language development and as such assessment is based on children’s cognitive abilities and their use of the language in meaningful ways.  This is done through the use of classroom assessments and external assessments.  The classroom assessments take the form of performance based assessment tasks, self assessment, teacher observations, portfolios, quizzes and tests whereas the external assessments makes use of techniques which focus on children’s self assessments and reflections.  These testing instruments also allow the authorities to compare children nationally and internationally.

To sum up, I believe that assessments do play a vital role in students’ development.  Therefore, it is essential that we as educators cater to the holistic child by using varied assessment techniques that would not only test how much children learn and develop but would also allow children to reflect on the metacognition.

Katz, L. G. (1997) A developmental approach to assessment of young children. ERIC Digest. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED407172.pdf

Asia Society: Assessment (n.d.) Retrieved from http://asiasociety.org/education/chinese-language-initiatives/assessment