BRIGHT OR SLOW

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 138, 6 March 1936, Page 12

BRIGHT OR SLOW

Intelligence Tests Of Children NATION-WIDE SURVEY Scheme Involves 30,000 Pupils Tests I'm - an intelligence survey which is being conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research will be carried out during the fourth week in March among children attending typical schools in Australia and New Zealand, states a cablegram from Sydney yesterday. _ •_ Details of the survey as it will operate in New Zealand are contained in an article by Dr. C. E. Beeby, executive officer of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, in _ the March issue of “National Education.” Dr. Beeby’s article, in part, is as follows: —

“The intelligence lest, after a quarter of a century of suspicion, has at last achieved a measure of intellectual respectability in the educational world. The essence of the intelligence test lies in its standardisation, but, as far as I know, no successful attempt has been made to standardise a test over a wide range of primary school ages throughout New Zealand, although a few standardisations of a smaller'character have been completed. In actual school practice English and American tests have generally been used on the rather ill-founded assumption that they were ‘near enough.’ It is to remedy this defect that the New Zealand Council for Educational Research proposes to standardise tests „n some 30.000 New Zealand,children during Hie last week in March. The Australian Council for Educational Research is co-operating and will apply the same tests at tlie same time throughout all the Australian States. Nature of the Tests. “Two tests will be used, one an American test of verbal character. It would have been in some ways more satisfactory to' devise a test of cur own, but we should thereby have lost the very definite advantage of being able to compare the New Zealand results with those of other countries. An additional advantage of the particular test chosen is that it,is already standardised abroad in some four or five alternative forms. All of these will become available for use in New Zealand if we thoroughly standardise one form, thus to a large extent eliminating the possibility of special coaching when the test comes into general practical use. “The other test, which has been specially constructed by the Australian Council for Educational Research, is of a non-verbal character, and involves thinking in terms of pictures and diagrams. This test will be particularly useful in tlie case of those children who do poorly on the verbal test, not as a result of low intelligence but because their minds do not deal easily with one special instrument of thought, the spoken or written word. Maori and foreign-born children, as well as those from illiterate homes, will probably be found to bulk largely in this group, although. as every teacher knows, there is also an appreciable proportion of children who, for no obvious environmental reason, find difficulty in doing themselves justice on problems of a verbal nature. “Both tests are very simply administered and can be given to any number of children at once. The time taken to Rive each test to a class is roughly 35 minutes. Representative Sample. “Approximately one child in five between the ages of 10 and 13 inclusive will be tested. This is a much fuller sampling than is usually taken in such investigations, but it does not absolve one from the difficult task of ensuring that one’s sample is representative of the country as a whole. The majority of the children between the ages of 16 and 13 are in the public primary schools, but the brighter 12- and 13-year-olds are already in the postprimary schools and must be tested if the age-norms are to be accurate. Another considerable group have been traced to the private schools, both primary and secondary, and a few of the 13-year-olds have already left school and so have slipped irrevocably through our lingers.

“Having determined the number of children to be tested in -each type of school, we proceeded to distribute the public primary school children through the nine education districts in proportion to their school populations. Within each education district the children had to be distributed through the various grades of school, in such a way as to secure a proper balance of urban and rural children. The final task was the selection of the individual schools. These were scattered as widely as possible, special care being .taken, in the case of city schools, to choose from districts of varying social and economic status. The fact that any particular school was chosen in preference to others means only that it fitted most perfectly into the intricate pattern of our distribution. “Tn the primary schools, all children in Standard 111 to Form IT inclusive will be tested, whatever their ages, in c-der to get class-norms as well as age-norms. Children between 10 and 13 will be tested even if they are below Standard ITT. Tn the post-primary 'schools the tests will be given only to those between the ages of 10 and 13. although later in the year another test may be given to older high school pupils.

Children will not be asked to put their names on the test sheets, so that no individual’s score will be known. While it would lie useful in many ways to know the names, it was felt that certain parents and teachers might co-operate more readily if the results were completely anonymous.

“Teachers will be asked 1.0 administer the tests and return them- completed, all marking and computation being done in the council’s office. The actual giving of the tests is quite simple, although care must be taken in timing. Difficulty is always found in impressing upon some teachers the need for the absolute rigid following of instructions. The very nature of the teacher’s craft makes unnatural the adoption of the Impersonal and objective attitude of mind which is essential in psychological testing. “One point above all others needs emphasising. Intelligence tests are emcerned only with the native ability of tlie children, and are affected little if at all by the quality of the teaching. They are, therefore, in no sense what-

ever tests of the teacher, who has nothing to gain or lose by the results of bis class. Even so, the average scores for any particular class or school, will be regarded as confidential, and M-ill be divulged only with the express consent of the head teacher. Questions to be Answered. “In effect we shall be making a survey of the distribution of intelligence in New Zealand, "which will enable us to answer, tentatively, at least, such questions as the following: (1) How does the intelligence of New Zealand children compare with that of children in Australia, the United States of America, and Great Britain? Without an answer to this question, the comparison of standards of attainment in school subjects in New Zealand and abroad is meaningless. Of the whole, however, one would not anticipate great difference in the levels of intelligence of different Western peoples. (2) What ‘spread’ of intelligence occurs within each school standard? That is, what different levels of intellect does each class teacher have to cater for? If, for instance, the range of mental ages in Form I is from ‘J years to 16 years, school organisation and teaching methods must necessarily be different from what they would be if the range were from, say, 11 to 13 years. Experienced teachers at the present time can make shrewd guesses, but they cannot prove their point without standardised tests.

(3) What differences of intelligence are there between town and country children? Are we justified in expecting the same standard of work from a rural school as we expect from a town one? Is the difference (if any) between town and country children due mainly to the country child’s relative isolation from books, or does it appear equally in the non-verbal test? Is it possible that the average country child thinks just as well as the average town child but in a different medium? (4) Are there, as some authorities have suspected, certain 'pockets’ of population of a general low level of intelligence in New Zealand? (5) Is there any relation between the intelligence of a child and the occupation of his father? Is this difference (if any) innate, or does it come from the superior home advantages of children of the higher economic classes? Is the difference (if any) less noticeable in the test not involving verbal situations?

(G) What percentage of th e school population could be classed as feebleminded on the standards adopted overseas? How many of these children are found in the ordinary school classes? “Admittedly other factors besides pure intelligence help to determine academic success and failure, and no on e .knowing anything about the subject would determine a child’s future career on the basis; of any test alone. At the same time, a teacher in either a primary or a secondary school would find himself in an immeasurably stronger position 'in giving advice Io a parent if he could say ‘of all the children in the past who have had intelligence and school record equivalent to your son’s, only 5 per cent, have ever passed the university entrance examination. Knowing that, take your own choice of post-primary course.’

“The Education Department and the education boards have offered their fullest co-operation in connection with the survey. No pressure whatever was brought to bear on teachers, but, of some "00 schools approached, so far, only one public school and four private schools have found themselves, for one reason or another, unable to administer the tests ”