Testing for Intelligence

In almost every state, you will find that students are being tested on their learning through standardized testing. While these tests do hold some validity in showing that a child has learned, they are not comprehensive. I was actually excited to see this topic this week, because my school has had us taking an 8 week course on this topic. From what I have learned from that course and our present course through Walden University is that teachers need to vary their instruction to meet the needs of all learners. Multiple Intelligence Assessments show that all people learn in a different way. According to TeacherVision.com, there is no single approach for teaching and assessment that can work for all of your students. In fact, standardized tests actually favor children who are mathematically and linguistically strong ("Using multiple intelligences," 2000-2011). To be an effective educator, one must first realize that the days of teaching to and assessing the whole class are gone. To holistically assess children, I believe that options should be given. For example, in my class, we read a book about the first Thanksgiving. The children had the option of writing a paragraph about what they learned, answering guided comprehension questions, drawing a picture or acting out the story to the class to show what they have learned. One girl in my class chose to draw a picture. She struggles greatly with her reading and writing skills. However, she is a wonderful artist. She excels spatially. In her picture, she drew an accurate depiction of a pilgrim girl, dressed as our story described, planting corn in a mound with a herring. Our story told about Squanto teaching the pilgrims that by planting the corn with a herring and mounding the dirt, they would get a better corn crop. She showed me, in the way that worked the best for her, that she learned as much as any other child in that room. With standard testing, she would more than likely not have been able to express those ideas on paper and she would have probably appeared to have not learned anything. By varying our assessments, and letting children choose how they are assessed, which in turn creates intrest for the child, we will have a more hollistic approach to understanding their intelligence.


I decided to research how Korea assesses their children.  I found that testing starts in kindergarten.  However, they look at aspects such as how they interact and play with others, attitude and other cognitive aspects rather than just academic achievement.  they use these assessments to begin intervention, if needed, right away.  All assessments are standard throughout Korea (Nah, 2011).




Reference:
Nah, K. (2011). Child assessment in early childhood education and care settings in south korea. Asian Social Science, 7(6), 66-78. doi: 10.5539/ass.v7n6p66
Using multiple intelligences in testing and assessments. (2000-2011). Retrieved from http://www.teachervision.fen.com/intelligence/resource/4933.html