Testing for Intelligence

     This week's lessons have focused on assessing school aged children and how that effects the children and family who have then been labeled by their disability. It is often times funny to me how topics that I am discussing for school seem to pop up in my professional life as well. 

     This week at a training for my new position we were discussing how assessing children does not include some of the most important aspects of a child's personality. Like, how do you test for creativity, curiosity, compassion, bravery, tolerance, empathy, honesty, friendship, or courage? As educators, we should hope that we are instilling these traits in the children we work with (no matter what age), but is there any way to test that they have these skills, and does the assessment that we currently use take any of these traits into account? The answer that we came up with at my training was no, the assessment we currently use bases most information on academics and specific behaviors. Most tests focus solely on academic ability, at that is what either moves a child forward, or holds them back. 

     In my personal opinion I think that information on all aspects of a child should be taken into account. It's possible that Suzie is a little behind on her math skills, but at 7 she is a very compassionate person, and deeply cares for her fellow students. Some assessments, such as the PIC-2 reflect more information about a child's personality, but again, does not measure some of the basic traits that we hope to instill in our children. 

     

     In other countries, assessment, and child growth is looked at a little differently, or more aspects are taken into account. "When rural parents in Africa talk about the intelligence of children, they prefer not to separate the cognitive speed aspect of intelligence from the social responsibility aspect" (Benson, 2003). In Africa research has shown that in different areas there are different thoughts about intelligence. They have found there are four concepts, rieko, luoro, paro and winjo. Rieko corresponds with the Western idea of academic intelligence; luoro deals with social qualities; paro is practical thinking; and winjo is comprehension (Benson, 2013). Western learning focuses so much on the academic training of children, or rieko, when in reality there are so many more parts of a child's personality, and many of their parts can be attributed to their success in life, not just that of academic success. 

    Overall, I believe that assessing children in one way, shape, or form is helpful. Those that need extra attention, whether it be academically or behaviorally can have access to more help after they have been assessed. I think it's important for parents to have a knowledge of how their child compares to others academically. With that said, I do not think that academic assessment is the only way to determine if a child is successful in school or not. 

Reference

Benson, E. (2003). Intelligence across cultures. American Psychological Association, 34(2), 56. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/feb03/intelligence.aspx