Jan 22, 2019

Assessment for Programming // Week 2

Ancient World
Ancient Greece (400-335 BCE)
Philosophers thinking about intelligence
 Aristotle- heart as center of intelligence
 Hippocrates, Plato- brain as center of intelligence
Ancient China (206 BCE)
Competitive Examination set to recruit civil servants

Beginning- England, 1510:

 Fitzherbert
o Jurist
o Suggests that a test of “mentality” be created, to test if person was capable of
going to trial; rather than just throwing the person in jail.
o Counting 20 pence, tell one’s age & identify their own father – if they meet these
criteria, they are eligible to go to trial.
o Orphans may not know their fathers, their age, or how to count 20 pence. Random
things, and learned activities, no one is born with these abilities: counting, their
fathers.
Spain, 1575
 Dr. Huarte (medical doctor)
o Gives us a definition of intelligence:
o “A docility of learning from a master, understanding and independence of
judgement, inspiration without extravagance”
o Docility- obeying someone
o Understanding & independence of judgement: makes decisions on their own, to
decide what is wrong or right
Back to England, 1611:
 Swineburne
o Lawyer
o Would like to see anyone held on criminal chargers be assessed on the ability to:
“measure a yard of cloth” & “name the days of the week”
Germany, 1692
 Thomasius
o Jurist and a philosopher
o Collected quantitative data, to see numbers of people with psychological
variables. Ex: this person can do this, this person knows all the days of the week.
o Created first “rating scale” in relation to standardized testing.
o Introduces mathematics
France, 1786 (almost 100 years later)
 Laplace
o Mathematician and astronomer
o Developed the theory of probability (to predict the likeliness of something happening)
France, 1799
 Itard
o Medical doctor
o Works with Wild Boy of Aveyron
o Discussion of “normal” vs “abnormal” cognitive abilities
Germany, 1800
 Gall
o Medical Doctor
o Phrenology: the idea that bumps and grooves on the top of one’s head are a good
measure of “brain functions.”
o Was taught as a science in universities
Belgium. 1835
 Quetelet
o Statistician
o Designed the normal probability curve to measure human characteristics.
o Note: applications of probability curve developed by Gauss in 1809) aka “Bell
Curve”
o Had a huge impact on math, science and standardized assessment
England, 1869
 Galton (Darwin’s first cousin)
o Scientist
o Founder of “individual psychology”
o Writes: Classification of Men According to Their Natural Gifts
o Intelligence understood as something natural and in born, rather than learned.
The IQ Test
 Binet, France, 1905: Binet-Simon Scale for measuring the intelligence of school children
 Terman, USA, 1916: Publishes the Stanford Revision and Extension of the Binet-Simon
Intelligence Scale- used to categorize children.
 Terman & Merrill, 1937: Create the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. (still in use, today)

Development of Standardized Assessment

What is a standardized test?

 Any type of assessment that is administered, scored, interpreted
 In exactly the same way for all students no matter where and when the test is taken
 Administered: delivered, scored: graded, interpreted: to attach meaning to.
Specifically
Conditions are uniform and consistent : exactly the same way.
How tests are made
 Up to 4 years to create
 Bunch of questions created by experts: PHD’s in psychology & math
 Write down extremely detailed instructions on how to deliver test to students
Testing
 Gather a random sample, who hopefully represent the general population
 Administer the test to these people, following exact instructions
Revision
 Gather results, look at the questions and answers, and start cutting questions, and take
questions everyone got wrong, and right, and eliminate them because either questions
were too easy or too hard.
 Normal probability curve
 Rewrite the questions, and administer the test to a NEW group of people, 3 or 4
times.
Sample Characteristics
 As large a sample size as possible – thousands
 Geographically diverse area as possible
 Proportional representation of population, regarding: gender, ethnicity, parental level of
education
Brigance
 Sample of almost 2,000 people
Facts about Standardized tests
 Not created by teachers
 Are commercially available
 Measure student performance under uniform/consistent conditions
 E.g. IQ test
What an IQ test really is
1. An achievement test (measures what you’ve learned)
2. Limited Sampling (small portion of population)
3. Subjectivity
4. Prediction of school performance
What else underpins standardized test?
 Objectivity
 Integrity
 Accountability
 Independence

IQ TESTS
1. The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (Fifth Edition)
2. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Fifth Edition)
Stanford Binet
 Developed in France by Alfred Binet
 First IQ test developed in France in 1905
 Revised at Stanford University in 1916
 Measures general thinking/problem solving ability
 Pre-school children, delays across the board, cognitive development
 “Global” intelligence scale
 Test children on things they don’t have much experience in, ex: vocabulary
 Properties:
 Statistically Sound: Reliability, Validity, Mean= 100, SD= 16
 Measures: Judgement, comprehension, abstract reasoning. “Graded Tasks”- Get
Harder & Harder
  Results in: one score (IQ quotient), mental age is determined (MA), divided by
chronological age (CA)
 MA/CAX100= IQ
 Criticized for: emphasis on rote memory and verbal ability, doesn’t give a
breakdown of child’s strengths and weaknesses
WISC – Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
 Verbal Comprehension Index: Similarities, vocabulary, comprehension, information,
word reasoning
 Working Memory Index: Digit Span, letter-number, sequencing, arithmetic
 Processing Speed: coding, symbol search, cancellation
 Perceptual Reasoning Index: Block design, picture concepts, matrix reasoning
Strengths of WISC
 Comparisons by age groups
 Examines personality traits, attention level, reaction times