Testing for
Intelligence
Early experiences are
built into our bodies for better or worse. Chronic stressors or
"toxic" stressors where children are consistently exposed to harmful
environments such as abuse, violence, malnutrition, and neglect have a negative
impact on the body and brain. It can lead to health problems like diabetes,
high blood pressure and cardiac issues. Unfortunately, these stressors can also
contribute to learning disabilities as well. Therefore, it is imperative for
parents and caregivers to provide children with an environment free from toxic stressors
so they can grow and develop the way their brains and bodies were meant to.
With regards to
assessments, I believe, just as children learn differently, they test
differently as well. It is important as educators to look at the "whole"
child including their culture, family and social lives. Assessments should be
diverse and vary in content as well as structure. Not all children test well in
standardized pencil and paper tests. Does that mean that they are not
intelligent and don't know the information or should be ranked lower than their
peers? Educators should strive to integrate tests that give a true picture of
the child's knowledge. This can be, for example, in the form of an oral test,
because isn't what they know and comprehend what's important? Also, I believe assessments
should be worded in ways that children from various cultures are able to
understand. For example, if a child who lives in the inner city were asked to
name another term for "street," they have probably never heard the
word "route" before but a child who lives in Kansas may. For this
reason I feel the current assessments used to measure intelligence, promote and
graduate students from one grade to the next are unfair. Our society has become
so diverse and is acclimating to the many different cultures yet we are still using
the same testing techniques that, in my opinion, weren't fair to begin with.
Australia has many of the
same assessment criteria as the US but in their curriculum, they include
"capabilities" that students need to master as well. An example is
cultural where student are taught and encouraged to explore and learn about
other cultures in order to gain insight and tolerance for those who are
different from them.
When it comes to assessing
our children, I feel that multiple assessments are necessary in order to obtain
a true picture of what a child truly knows and those assessments should be
administered in a variety of settings that are advantageous to the child. This
idea holds true when also assessing a child for special needs services. One
assessment can't possible give a therapist a true picture of that child's
needs. For example, if a child had a bad night and came in for an assessment and
was frustrated, angry, and uncooperative, the therapist may not only diagnose
that child with lower academic and ability scores but may also diagnose them
with behavior problems even though that is not the case. They then waste
valuable time placing a child in services that is not addressing their true needs.
How are we to help them reach their fullest potential if we don't have a clear
picture of what their needs truly are? This leads to many misplacements and
misdiagnosis which does not benefit our children and results in larger numbers
of students being retained, don’t graduate high school and become less
productive adults.
References:
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/generalcapabilities/personal-and-social-capability/introduction/introduction
Center
on the Developing Child–Harvard University. (n.d.). InBrief: The
science of neglect. [Video file]. http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/multimedia/videos/inbrief_series/inbrief_neglect/
