Intelligence Testing

            I believe a child’s abilities and emotional intelligence should first be measured in order to determine what a child is able to do and learn, and how their emotions could affect their learning style. Once these are determined, the information they learn can be further assessed using other intelligence tests. Sternberg has taken a more direct approach to changing the practice of testing. His Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test (STAT) is a battery of multiple-choice questions that tap into the three independent aspects of intelligence–analytic, practical and creative–proposed in his triarchic theory. Sternberg and his collaborators found that triarchic measures predicted a significant portion of the variance in college grade point average (GPA), even after SAT scores and high school GPA had been accounted for. The test also produced smaller differences between ethnic groups than did the SAT. In the next phase of the project, the researchers will fine-tune the test and administer it to a much larger sample of students, with the ultimate goal of producing a test that could serve as a supplement to the SAT.

            If more professionals focus on an individual’s abilities, they will be better able to assist them during aptitude or other intelligence tests. They will also be able to determine if the individual would be able to take the test or if it would need to be modified to meet their needs (Kellaghan & Greaney, 2003). In Africa, the use of assessments is to improve the quality of education in African education systems. National assessment activity spread through the whole of Africa during the 1990s. Although information derived from national assessments is obtained from individual students, data are aggregated to provide an assessment of the education system. The primary purpose of such an assessment is to describe how well students are learning. International assessments, which share many procedural features with national assessments, provide comparative data on achievement in more than one country (Kellaghan & Greaney, 2003). Few African countries have participated in them. However, some of the national assessments that have been carried out allow international comparisons. Although classroom assessment has attracted the least attention in proposals to use assessment to improve the quality of education, it is likely to have a greater impact on student learning than any other form of assessment. Advantages and disadvantages of school-based assessment in contributing to grades in public examinations are considered.

Reference:

Kellaghan, T. & Greaney, V. (2003). Monitoring Performance: Assessment and Examinations in Africa. Association for the Development of Education in Africa, 7-9.