Testing for Intelligence

Children are always given assessments to determine where they are in their own cognitive development, social development, physical development, and emotional development, but from a cognitive perspective, this is typically done through standardized testing.  The flaw with standardized testing is that it does not accurately measure a child’s intelligence because it is an affirmation of how well he or she can regurgitate information.  Maybe a suggestion would be to assess children from a creative perspective.  For example, for emotional assessment, maybe a child can draw and/or paint his or her emotions, and the clearer the picture, the more likely the child is able to articulate his or her thoughts.  This possible assessment would enable a child to express his or her feelings as nonverbal communication, and the child is able to draw from his or her imagination.  This could be beneficial for children because creativity is normal for them.  Also, a way to assess cognitive development could be to have a teacher show a child a picture of a building or a picture of cooking to determine whether the child understands the concept of what needs to be done to create the objects.  Blocks could be used to make a building, and a toy frying pan could be used to represent cooking.  This will enable the child to think cognitively by teaching him or her to utilize problem-solving skills.  The aforementioned assessments can provide insight on a child’s thinking process and his or her cognitive and emotional development.  Although these suggestions could be deemed as unconventional in relation to assessing children, some places around the world may not allow such flexibility to occur.
In other parts of the world, exams are a standard way of assessment, and it probably will not change in the future.  For instance, in China, children are taking long exams to assess their abilities in many subjects.  According to InterNations (n. d.), “This nine-hour exam is very difficult and only 40% of students pass it in the first place. The exam tests the students’ skills and knowledge in Chinese, math, a foreign language, and a few other optional subjects” (p. 1).  This means that in China, students are being assessed based upon how well they can perform on an elongated test, and if they receive low test scores, then they are not considered to be intelligent.  Unfortunately for the children, if a test is the only way to determine how smart they are, then they are placed in pressurized conditions that could potentially stagnate other areas of their development; a test may force children to feel uneasy and nervous as their emotional development is disrupted, and they may become antisocial if they receive low test scores, disrupting their social development because they feel isolated for performing lower than expected.
            Furthermore, the teacher should be able to ensure a coherent, important, inviting, and thoughtful curriculum and test-taking environment.  Every student deserves work that is focused on the essential knowledge, understanding, and skills targeted for the assessment.   Young students should be comfortable when they are being assessed so they do not feel pressured to succeed, for it should not ever be a competition.  Maybe it could also be better to assess young children from a group perspective so that they are naturally performing the task together as opposed to individually assessing them.  This way, the teacher can examine the children’s social development, cognitive development, and emotional development without stressing the children out.
                                                References
InterNations. (n. d.). China Expats Guide. Retrieved from
 https://www.internations.org/china-expats/guide




Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 13, 2017 at 9:02 AM

    Hi Teresa,
    I like how you gave many different choices. It is important to test our children in different ways. At early age we examine our children's emotions and cognitive development, it allows us to learn about them and help them learn about themselves at the same time. I like observing and doing different assessments in my class, because it allows me to learn about my students and help their families as well when they have questions.

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  2. AnonymousAugust 13, 2017 at 4:07 PM

    Hi Teresa,
    Great post! I think you gave excellent examples of assessing children. I really like when you talked about creative assessment. Some children are nonverbal and perform better through creativity. I feel that when you have a child like this, it is better to be a little patient, and give that child more time to come out of their shell. I think this is what is means to assess the whole child....looking at different avenues of development and growth.

    Mary Cox

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  3. AnonymousAugust 13, 2017 at 11:49 PM

    Hi Teresa,
    I thought you made excellent points in your post. I too enjoyed how you talked about assessment from a creative perspective. Children should be assessed in a way that shows them individually. I love to create portfolios each year for my students. I let the students chose what should go into it and then write up an assessment at the end of the year. It is fun and creative while still showing what they have learned.

    Nina

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  4. UnknownAugust 14, 2017 at 4:48 AM

    Hey Teresa,
    I agree that standardized testing does not provide an adequate assessment. I agree that young children should feel comfortable with their assessment and not feel pressure. I felt a lot of pressure as a student so I think that you had great ideas about that. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

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