Administration routines to counter copying, distraction and teacher coaching in primary-grade group testing¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 4 claims (4 for) · 1 study (1 design), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article describes concrete devices for administering group tests to young children: having children place hands in their laps at the 'Stop' signal, covering finished work, laying pencils down during dictation until told to write, speaking to a copying child by name, changing seats, and winning children's confidence before testing. The examiner should also explain to the teacher "at the outset" that the purpose is to see what each child can do alone, after an incident where a teacher's rhyming hints ruined a test.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• The examiner must explain the testing's purpose to the teacher beforehand and win shy children's confidence before distributing booklets

Constraints¶

• Nervous children may be inhibited by competition, novelty and time limits, and an only child unused to group settings may score below average though testing above normal individually

Target Learners¶

• Primary-grade children, including shy, nervous, and only children

Target Learning Goals¶

• Obtaining valid group-test performance uncontaminated by copying or adult help

Claims¶

• Wording of test directions changed children's performance, with 'largest' failing and 'biggest' succeeding for primary-grade children [+W]
• Children with the same chronological age and mental age pass more group tests in higher grades, an increase the author attributes to additional school experience [+W]
• A smaller percentage of young children pass at age on the group tests than on Kuhlmann's individual tests, with 60 percent versus 78 percent passing at age six [+W]
• Several of the group tests (Discriminating Colors, Mutilated Pictures, Tying Bowknot) showed little discriminative capacity as group tests and are slated for substitution [+W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Lowell, Frances. (1917). A Preliminary Report of Some Group Tests of General Intelligence. The Journal of Educational Psychology. https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/edu