Assessing intellectual potential in rural Tanzanian school children

Sternberg, Robert J.; Grigorenko, Elena L.; Ngorosho, Damaris; Tantufuye, Erasto; Mbise, A.; Nokes, Catherine; Jukes, Matthew; Bundy, Donald

doi:10.1016/s0160-2896(01)00091-5

Cited by 101 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Similar to results reported by Sternberg et al (2002), correlations between pretest and posttest (total narrative score) were higher for children in the control group (r = .759) than children in the MLE group (r = .483). For children who received MLE, the pretest score predicted posttest scores only fairly well.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…The posttest measures of narration that occurred after two mediation sessions were much more accurate and stable. Narrative analysis appears to be a better assessment tool after intervention than it is before intervention.Similar to results reported by Sternberg et al (2002), correlations between pretest and posttest (total narrative score) were higher for children in the control group (r = .759) than children in the MLE group (r = .483). For children who received MLE, the pretest score predicted posttest scores only fairly well.…”

supporting

confidence: 84%

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Dynamic Assessment of School-Age Children’s Narrative Ability: An Experimental Investigation of Classification Accuracy

Peña

Gillam

Malek

et al. 2006

J Speech Lang Hear Res

142

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Two experiments examined reliability and classification accuracy of a narration-based dynamic assessment task.Purpose-The first experiment evaluated whether parallel results were obtained from stories created in response to 2 different wordless picture books. If so, the tasks and measures would be appropriate for assessing pretest and posttest change within a dynamic assessment format. The second experiment evaluated the extent to which children with language impairments performed differently than typically developing controls on dynamic assessment of narrative language.Method-In the first experiment, 58 1st-and 2nd-grade children told 2 stories about wordless picture books. Stories were rated on macrostructural and microstructural aspects of language form and content, and the ratings were subjected to reliability analyses. In the second experiment, 71 children participated in dynamic assessment. There were 3 phases: a pretest phase, in which children created a story that corresponded to 1 of the wordless picture books from Experiment 1; a teaching phase, in which children attended 2 short mediation sessions that focused on storytelling ability; and a posttest phase, in which children created a story that corresponded to a second wordless picture book from Experiment 1. Analyses compared the pretest and posttest stories that were told by 2 groups of children who received mediated learning (typical and language impaired groups) and a no-treatment control group of typically developing children from Experiment 1.Results-The results of the first experiment indicated that the narrative measures applied to stories about 2 different wordless picture books had good internal consistency. In Experiment 2, typically developing children who received mediated learning demonstrated a greater amount of pretest to posttest change than children in the language impaired and control groups. Classification analysis indicated better specificity and sensitivity values for measures of response to intervention (modifiability) and posttest storytelling than for measures of pretest storytelling. Observation of modifiability was the single best indicator of language impairment. Posttest measures and modifiability together yielded no misclassifications. Conclusion-The first experiment supported the use of 2 wordless picture books as stimulus materials for collecting narratives before and after mediation within a dynamic assessment paradigm. The second experiment supported the use of dynamic assessment for accurately identifying language impairments in school-age children. Traditionally, speech-language pathologists diagnose children with language impairments (LI) by comparing their performance on standardized tests with the performance of their same-age peers (Tomblin, Records, & Zhang, 1996). There is growing dissatisfaction with single-time assessment because of the potential for measurement error (Bracken, 1988;McCauley & Swisher, 1984a, 1984bPlante & Vance, 1994) as well as the interfering effects of potential cultural bias (De...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

supporting

confidence: 84%

Dynamic Assessment of School-Age Children’s Narrative Ability: An Experimental Investigation of Classification Accuracy

Peña

Gillam

Malek

et al. 2006

J Speech Lang Hear Res

142

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“…He reasoned that performance only reflects one's actual level of development and thus only the development that is already completed. Working in rural Tanzania, Sternberg and colleagues examined the utility of dynamic testing of school-attending children (Sternberg et al, 2002). They familiarized children with the skills and strategies that are thought to contribute to success on tests of cognitive ability.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in Raven's Progressive Matrices scores across time and place

Brouwers

Vijver

Hemert

2009

Learning and Individual Differences

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This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues.Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. The paper describes a cross-cultural and historical meta-analysis of Raven's Progressive Matrices. Data were analyzed of 798 samples from 45 countries (N = 244,316), which were published between 1944 and 2003. Country-level indicators of educational permeation (which involves a broad set of interrelated educational input and output factors that are strongly related to economic development), the samples' educational age, and publication year were all independently related to performance on Raven's matrices. Our data suggest that the Flynn effect can be found in high as well as low GNP countries, although its size is moderated by education-related sample and country characteristics and seems to be smaller in developed than in emerging countries.© 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Raven's Progressive Matrices are a series of multiple-choice items of abstract reasoning. Each item depicts an abstract pattern in a two by two or three by three matrix; all cells contain a figure except for the cell in the right lower corner. Participants are asked to identify the missing segment that would best complement the pattern constituted by the other cells among a set of alternatives that are positioned beneath the matrix. John C. Raven published the first version of the test in 1938 and a revised version in 1956; the three versions of the test (Advanced, Colored, and Standard Progressive Matrices) have since been among the most widely-used intelligence tests. Its intuitively appealing question format and the use of figure stimuli have made the test attractive for cross-cultural comparisons. A meta-analysis of crosscultural intelligence test scores showed that the Raven is the second most used test after the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children (Van de Vijver, 1997). This widespread usage makes the test an interesting instrument for a cross-cultural meta-analysis. Moreover, the period in which the Raven has been used in various countries is long enough for enabling a study of the temporal patterning of scores. In the present paper, we report a meta-analysis of Raven performance of children and adults from 45 countries across a time span of 60 years.Cross-cultural comparisons with the Raven tests are often conducted from the premise that the instrument measures crosscultural differences in intelligence that are not confounded by other cultural or national differences, such as education and affluence (Raven, 2000;Rushton, Skuy, & Bons, 2004). 'Culture-free ' (Cattell, 1940), 'culture-fair ' (Cattell & Cattell, 1963), and 'culture-reduced ' (Jensen, 1980) are all terms that have been proposed to describe the Raven or similar t...

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“…230 -231). Other studies also indicate that mediated learning interventions were effective in raising the measured indicators of cognitive ability for Black children (see Fagan & Holland, 2002;Sternberg et al, 2002). Rushton and Jensen (2005) also report findings indicating the relatively high intelligence of Asians in comparison with other racial/ethnic groups.…”

Section: Effects Of Mediated Learning Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 90%

The cultural malleability of intelligence and its impact on the racial/ethnic hierarchy.

Suzuki¹,

Aronson²

2005

Psychology, Public Policy, and Law

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This commentary highlights previous literature focusing on cultural and environmental explanations for the racial/ethnic group hierarchy of intelligence. Assumptions underlying definitions of intelligence, heritability/genetics, culture, and race are noted. Historical, contextual, and testing issues are clarified. Specific attention is given to studies supporting stereotype threat, effects of mediated learning experiences, and relative functionalism. Current test development practices are critiqued with respect to methods of validation and item development. Implications of the genetic vs. culture-only arguments are discussed with respect to the malleability of IQ.Rushton and Jensen (2005) review decades of literature to support a genetic basis for the racial/ethnic group hierarchy in intelligence, a position they have held unwaveringly for over 30 years. Their report gives little mention to findings that point to the impact of environment and race (i.e., race as a social construction) on intellectual development or performance-what they term the culture-only perspective. We are not among the culture-only adherents as characterized by Rushton and Jensen. While acknowledging the impact of biological factors on intelligence test performance, we have examined the impact of cultural/environmental factors that affect performance on aptitude and achievement measures. Our work, and that of others (e.g., Aronson, 2002;Sternberg, 1996), show us that intellectual performance is much more fragile and malleable than what is often noted in the current literature. The goals of our commentary are to highlight, briefly, assumptions underlying definitions (i.e., intelligence, heritability, genetics, culture, race) and clarify historical, contextual, and testing issues that were only briefly mentioned by Rushton and Jensen. Finally, we comment on the heuristic value and on policy implications of the research. Problematic Assumptions Underlying DefinitionsRushton and Jensen's (2005) argument rests on particular definitions of intelligence, genetics (i.e., heritability), culture, and race. It is, in part, differences in definitional assumptions that have allowed researchers to claim support for distinctly different perspectives (i.e., environment vs. genetics) based on the same data (Hayman, 1998).

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Assessing intellectual potential in rural Tanzanian school children

Cited by 101 publications

References 23 publications

Dynamic Assessment of School-Age Children’s Narrative Ability: An Experimental Investigation of Classification Accuracy

Dynamic Assessment of School-Age Children’s Narrative Ability: An Experimental Investigation of Classification Accuracy

Variation in Raven's Progressive Matrices scores across time and place

The cultural malleability of intelligence and its impact on the racial/ethnic hierarchy.

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