Assessment for Learning MOOC’s Updates

Peer-graded assignment 1: Wechsler Intelligence Test

1. The difference between testing for intelligence and testing for knowledge is that one - testing for intelligence - tests for innate reasoning abilities and the other - testing for knowledge - tests for information learned and knowledge gained. Testing for intelligence could be appropriate when learning a skill or how to solve a particular problem. Testing for knowledge would be appropriate after a course on learning about a particular subject-matter or topic. Testing for knowledge is testing for information acquired.

2.The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children(WISC) is an intelligence intended for children aged six years to 16 years and 11 months. Children’s scores are measured against others of the same age. The WISC measures intelligence in the form of verbal and non-verbal abilities. The test’s creator, David Wechsler, believed that intelligence should be considered within the context of one’s personality. (http://www.minddisorders.com/Py-Z/Wechsler-Intelligence-Scale-for-Children.html)

Based on my reading of this intelligence test, the strong areas of the test appear to be that the test is based on Wechsler's belief that human intelligence is complex and involves many skills. “Tasks on the WISC include questions of general knowledge, traditional arithmetic problems, English vocabulary, completion of mazes, and arrangements of blocks and pictures.” (http://www.minddisorders.com/Py-Z/Wechsler-Intelligence-Scale-for-Children.html)This means that questions on the test activate different areas of the brain, testing intelligence on different levels. For the verbal IQ portion, a total score comes from scores on different subtests: information, digit span, vocabulary, arithmetic, comprehension, and similarities. For the performance portion, the scores come from picture completion, picture arrangement, block design, object assembly, coding, mazes, and symbol search. (http://www.minddisorders.com/Py-Z/Wechsler-Intelligence-Scale-for-Children.html)In contrast with Binet’s original IQ test, which was primarily a cloze test in which the test-taker filled in missing information, this test has a wide variety of questions, testing different reasoning abilities.

That said, the test also tests knowledge, for example, explaining the meaning of proverbs. Many proverbs are written through a specific cultural, social, and time-bound lense and require understanding of these elements to be explained. This, therefore, many lead to inaccurate measures of intelligence, as a test-taker would need to know the cultural undertones of a given proverb in order to explain it, and this is a measure of knowledge, not intelligence.

Overall, I believe standardized tests can be flawed, not taking into account the conditions of the environment in which the test-taker is in, the level of test anxiety a person may have, and neuroplasticity of the brain. A 10-year old child taking the test 20 years ago may have scored lower than a child taking the test now simply because a 10-year old child now is expose to more technology and more problems to solve using technology. Their brain is wired differently because from the start of their life, they are exposed to solving problems in different ways. This echoes the notion in one of our course videos in which it is stated that “children are getting smarter.”
 

  • Gulshan Ara