Tests to verify the high skills of students
RAVEN TEST
RAVEN Progressive Matrices Test
J. Raven, J. C. Raven, J. H. Court
OVERVIEW
Raven tests are tests that measure intelligence and are used for more than 60 years. During this time they have been continuously revised.
The initial Standard Progressive Matrices test was published for the first time in 1938 and in 1947 was followed by Progressive Matrices Test Color.
Raven tests can be described as "evidence of noticing and clear thinking". Each test question is "the source" of a way of thinking, and the order they are presented provides a training problems along the way, hence the name Progressive Matrices test.
The first form built, Standard Progressive Matrices, covered the whole range of skills from the low scores of children and those of old people to high scores of adults. To disperse scores and lower scores for ease of analysis, the Advanced Color Matrices and the Great Progressive Matrices were developed.
Color Test Progressive Matrices (CPM) consists of 36 items organized in 3 sets, each containing 12 items - A, Ab, B. This test was built to test children and the elderly.
It can be successfully used in testing people who have various mental disorders, aphasia, cerebral palsy, deafness or in assessing people with limited intellect and in evaluating individuals with above average intellect.
The three series that make up the 12-test problems of the test CPM are arranged in a way that allow the assessment of cognitive processes of children under 11 years. The three series give to the tested person three ways of developing a theme for thought, and the test as a whole with the 36 problems was built to assess more precisely the intellectual development. CPM test items are so ordered that allow the evaluation of mental development until the person is able to carry enough reasoning by analogy and adopt this line of reasoning as consistent method of inference.
Young children rarely achieved reasoning by analogy as well as adults, and the context of the problem has a major importance. Taking into account all these things ,it is necessary to reconsider the "principles of cognition" made up by Spearman from the theory of Gestalt and solving the problems of the type used in the series Ab , in which the abstract figures can be seen as part of a "whole" organized or as individuals, properly targeted in the perceptive observer's field.
From the experimental data that made up the basis for building CPM the test and the examination of issues that have a weak correlation with the test can be distinguished at least five quality levels in the development of intellectual capacity:
- children are able to distinguish for the first time the identical figures from the different ones identical and then, the similar ones from those which are not similar;
- after a certain period they are able to determine the orientation of the figure to himself or to other objects in the perceptual field;
- later, they can compare the similar changes occurred in the perceived characteristics and adopt them as a logical method of reasoning;
- then they are able to analyze the whole based on its component parts or "characteristics" defining and can distinguish between what is given and what they added;
- finally they are able to see two or more abstract figures as making up a whole or as an organized individual entity .
The Standard Progressive Matrices test consists of 12 items, each of five series (series A, B, C, D, E). Each series begins with one simple and clear problem as it develops a theme and during which new issues become progressively more difficult.
This procedure gives to the assessed person five opportunities to become familiar with the way of thinking and the required solving problem solving .
The cyclic format provides the chance to assess the consistency of the intellectual activity of the assessed person over five ways of thinking. The test was made up to be long enough to measure the maximum coherence and the perceptual reasoning without overworking or making uncomfortable the person who is evaluated.
It is known that the term "intelligence" as it is used by psychologists, involves a series of aspects of heredity and changes. JC Raven and his research aim to capture the environmental influences and genetic origins of mental deficiencies, offering a range of publications, arguments against defining intelligence based on the assumption of innate ability. His first task that he has proposed in this regard was to build some tests to have a good theoretical basis, be easy to interpret, and the scores be very less dependent on the differences in education or from the Western experience. The second task was to use these tests particularly with people from similar socio-economic backgrounds and the same family trying to separate genetic and environmental influences of the differences in scores. Essentially, the intelligence is a characteristic of groups, cultures and not individuals. For a better understanding of the essence of intelligence, an intra-disciplinary approach is needed.
The different people who will be evaluated using the Raven Progressive Matrices will be strongly motivated to carry out tasks and their success will involve other components of education skills and competence.
The information given above are described in the textbooks Raven Test. The Standardization of the Progressive Matrices Test Color Parallel form on the people from Romania was conducted by a research group at the Babes Bolyai University in Cluj Napoca, from the departments of Sociology and Psychology, the study being closely supervised by Dr. John Raven.
In the project Gifted (for) you on the e-learning platform there are the standardized tests on the people from Romania that can be used to identify the high abilities of children enrolled in the following age categories: 3-5 years, 6-8 years, 9-12 years, 13-17 years and children with hearing impairment, vision and Asperger syndrome.
WESCHLER INTELLIGENCE SCALE FOR CHILDREN - FOURTH EDITION (WISC - IV)
Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fourth Edition (WISC - IV) is a clinical tool, individually managed, which assesses the cognitive ability of children aged between 6 years and 0 months to 16 years and 11 months. This is a better version of the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children - Third Edition (Weschler III Weschler, 1992), which offers scores that represent the intellectual working in specific cognitive areas and a summative score that describes the general intellectual ability - the total IQ.
The content and the description of the tests
The scale WISC-IV is made up of 15 tests: 10 tests from WISC-III scale tests and 5new tests. The new tests are the graphic concepts, the sequences of letters and numbers, the Matrices, the crossing and the Verbal Reasoning.
| The test | The description |
| The cubes | While the child notices a built model or a drawing of the Book with items, he uses white and red cubes to build the model, with a deadline. |
| The similarities | The child has two words that represent objects or common concepts and this describes in what way they are similar. |
| The saving numbers | For storing numbers in the presented order , the child repeats the numbers in the order they were presented aloud by the examiner. For storing the numbers in opposite order, the child repeats in opposite order the numbers submitted by the examiner. |
| The graphic concepts | The child has two or three rows of pictures and he chooses one of each row to form a group with common characteristics. |
| The coding | The child copies the symbols that form pair with simple geometric shapes or with numbers. Using a key, the child draws each symbol in the appropriate form, in a given deadline. |
| The vocabulary | For the items with images, the child names the images presented in the book with items. For the verbal items, the child gives definitions. |
| The sequences of letters and numbers | The child reads a sequence of letters and numbers, and he will have to remember the numbers in ascending order and the letters in alphabetical order. |
| The matrices | The child is noticing an incomplete matrix and he selects the missing part from 5 response options. |
| The understanding | The child answers the questions, based on how he understands the general principles and the social situations. |
| The searching of the symbols | The child is studying a group of symbols and whether the target -symbol/ the target symbols match or no with those from the group of symbols of the group presented in a certain deadline. |
| The filling in of the images | The child sees an image, then show or tell the important part that is missing in a certain deadline. |
| The crossing | The child is studying a random imaging arrangement, then structured and the target images mark a deadline. |
| The details | The child answers the questions that address to a broad range of general knowledge. |
| The arithmetic | The child solves in his mind a number of problems orally presented , in a deadline. |
| The verbal reasoning | The child identifies the common concept described by a series of clues. |
After applying the scale WISC-IV we could notice a total IQ (CIT), which reflects the child's general cognitive ability. 4 scores can be derived representing the child in the areas of deeper cognitive function and these are: the verbal understanding index, the reasoning perceptive index, the index of working memory, the processing speed index.
As a psyho-educational tool the Scale WISC - IV can be used to obtain a comprehensive assessment on cognitive functioning. It can be used as part of the evaluation process, in order to identify the giftedness, the learning difficulties and the various aspects of cognitive functioning. Like other Weschler scales, WISC - IV is made up of tests that facilitate the measurements of cognitive skills to the people with special educational needs, including the children with hearing impairment, the visual impairment (amblyopia), the Asperger Syndrome.
SELF – DIRECTED SERCH (SDS)
Self – Directed Serch (SDS) is well-known as „Holland Test”. SDS is an evaluation questionnaire of vocational interests, being used for career counseling. This test has been starting to be used in Romania since 1994, it started to be translated and applied by Horia Pitariu and Anca Costin, together with a small group of collaborators from Information Services Society. Beginning with 2008, the test has been retranslated, some of the issues have been rephrased and others replaced. The actual version has been approved by the author of the test and standardized on Romanian people.
The evaluation and occupational classification which form SDS are direct products of the theory as regards the types of personality and the environment models described within the work ”Vocational choices: A theory as regards vocational personalities and work environments” (Holland, 1992).
The essential premises that Holland typology is based on are:
- Most people may be included in one of the six types of personality named as following: Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Entrepreneurship (E) or Conventional (C).
- There are six types of environments: Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Entrepreneurship (E) or Conventional (C).
- People look for those environments which allow them to express better their skills and abilities, to express their attitudes and values and to assume themselves proper issues and roles.
- The behavior of a person depends on the interaction between his type of personality and the characteristics of the environment.
- The grade of the suitability between a person and his environment may be estimated with the help of the hexagonal model.
- The grade of the consistency of a person or of an environment is defined by reporting it to the hexagonal model.
- The grade of making a difference on a person or on an environment modifies the predictions which may be extracted out of the SDS profile, out of an occupational code or between the interactions of the two above.
SDS has a vast aplicability. The test is used in gymnasiums, high schools, colleges, adult centres, corectional centres, centres for women and in recruiting offices for professional education, vocational counseling and placement. In business field and in industry it is used for selection, placement and educational development of the staff.
The SDS test is structured by many fields which are:
- Activities (6 scales, each scale consists of 11 issues);
- Competencies (6 scales, each scale consists of 11 issues);
- Ocupations (6 scales, each scale consists of 14 issues);
- Self-evaluations (2 sets, each of 6 evaluations).
Each of the RIASEC types is measured within each section.
This test may be applied to children starting with the age of 13. Within ”Activities (what I would like to do)” section, students must tick true (T) for those activities which they like, or false (F) for the activities which they dislike or may be at no importance for them.
In order to identify compentencies, students tick true (A) for activities which they know to do in a proper way, or false (F) for the activities which they have never done or they do not know to do well, within ”Competences (what I know to do)” section.
On the developing of this test the students have the possibility to express their feelings and their attitudes as regards many types of occupations. Within ”Occupation” section, they tick the occupations they are interested in or they may be attractive for them, respectivelly the occupations which they dislike, which they find uninteresting for them. In the last part of the test, persons which fill it in have the opportunity to a self-evaluation of their abilities, in comparision with other persons of the same age; they can appreciate themselves, as correct as they can, the way in which they are perceived by themselves.
The test may be applied/scored both by hand or on-line.
By using SDS test the group of subjects included within Gifted for You project has the opportunity to know better, to identify / to be aware of their skills they have and which they would like to develop with the view of a professional and schoolar future orientation.
The test is also of a real use for these students” parents, as well as of teachers who work with these students for helping them with the view of an adequate socio-professional insertion.
Once identified the skills of the students, the jobs they strive for, these may access that existing curriculum on the project platform which comes to uphold the personal needs for developing their abilities.
Bibliogaphy: SDS SELF – DIRECTED SEARCH – technical book/ John L. Holland, Barbara Fritzsche, Amy B. Powel, translated and adapted by Horia Pitariu, Daniela Vercellino, Dragoș Iliescu. București :O.S. România 2009
www.testcentral.roCREATIVE THINKING TORRANCE TESTS (TTCT)
Creative Thinking Torrance Tests (TTCT) are the most known instruments used at international level for measuring creativity. The author is E.Torrance - named ”The parent of Creativity” because of more of the 60 years of researching in the educational psihology field. He expanded the methods of measuring of the creativity concept and he offered for a long time a new base of starting researches in this field. The tests he created helped in proving the fact that the levels of the creativity can be evaluated and improved by practice.
Between 2007-2008 TTCT was translated and standardized on Romanian people by a team lead by Dragoș Iliescu, Margareta Dincă and Ioana Panc.
Cultural adaptation in Romania.
Torrance tests have two forms:
- Verbal form – a form which in the reactions at stimuli are gathered by persons evaluated verbally;
- Figurative form – a form which in the reactions are gathered as figurative form, in drawings.
For each of these forms two forms of alternatives are offered: A Form and B Form. In other words, TTCT are found in four forms: Figurative A and B, Verbal A and B. The diferences between the forms consist of the specificity of the activities contained.
Verbal form – contains 6 activities:
Activities 1-3. Ask and guess. (The child looks at a specific drawing.)
- Asking (the child ask questions with regard the drawing).
- Guessing the causes (the child must say what it happened before it can be seen in the drawing).
- Guessing the consequences (the child must say what could happen after...).
- Improving the product (a toy is presented and some solutions must be given with the purpose of that becoming more funny).
- Unusual usages (of some objects which are usually thrown in the bin).
- It was not included by the test”s author in the last form of testing as a way of protecting the users.
- Just making predictions (a situation of the type what it might happen if...)
Figurative form
Activity 1. Images constructions (the image which it will be drawn must contain the print image and it must have a title).
Acitvity 2. Images completing (making a draft of some unusual objects which follow the rule from Activity 1, for 10 different cases).
Activity 3. Lines or circles (such 30 issues, which must obey the rules in Activity 1).
TTCT identifies the level of creative thinking. Torrance argues that a high level of improving of these abilities enhances the chances that the subject might behave in a creative way.
The tasks from TTCT:
- Are generated based on an analogy with realistic requests, from day-to-day life, which activate the creative thinking and make possible the situations recognized as creative ”lightning” in generally;
- Are more complex and therefore they need complex scoring procedures, for identifying the abilities used in generating the answers at these tasks;
- Are special thought for generating a specified type of motivation;
- The author tried to transmit in instructions an invitation for playing and to increase the enthusiasm of the participants at testing.
- TTCT may be applied to children starting preschooling, the procedures and the testing conditions adopted by TTCT been optimal.
Bibliography:
Creative Thinking Torrance Tests – Technical and normative book / Paul E. Torrance, adaptation: Dragoș Iliescu, Ioana Panc. Editura Sinapsis, 2008
www.testcentral.ro