Psychological Testing and Assessment of Adolescents Paper



Psychological Testing and Assessment of Adolescents Paper

What is the role of assessment in education?

Psychological Assessment and Testing offer students with a solid grounding in the world of psychometrics and testing (Cohen et al, 2013). Significant changes have been witnessed in practices of educational assessment in the last decade. These changes have occurred in individual classroom assessment as well as standardized tests of large-scale. The Center for Assessment and Research Studies has defined assessment as a systematic method to determine educational objectives, and to gather, use, and analyze information regarding learning outcomes of students to decide about students' performance and accountability (Moseley, 1991).

Assessment is a vital part of the educational process as it is the way to determine whether or not the educational goals are being met. It affects the decisions regarding placement, grades, instructional needs, curriculum, and educational advancement. Kellough and Kelbough (1999) state following roles of assessment:

To help student education

TO identify the strengths and weaknesses of student

To evaluate an instructional strategy's effectiveness

To evaluate and improve the curriculum programs

To present data for decision making

To communicate and involve parents in the students' learning process

What is the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children?

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, by David Wechsler, is an intelligence test, which is individually administered for children of 6 to 16 years of age. It is administered individually and can be done without writing or reading. The test takes 65 to 80 minutes to generate an IQ score. This IQ score shows the general cognitive ability of a child. WISC is one of the most commonly used instruments by psychologists. The test includes subject scores and composite scores which show the intellectual capability in a certain cognitive domain as well as the general cognitive ability. The WISC-IV needs a psychologist to take 4 to 8 hours to develop and finalize the report. The four specific cognitive domains tested through this test are Perceptual Reasoning, Verbal Comprehension, Working Memory and Processing Speed (Sydney Child Testing, n. d).

What are Raven's Progressive Matrices?

Raven's Progressive Matrices, commonly referred as RPM, is a type of nonverbal test used in the educational domain. Generally, it is used in a group of people ranging from 5 years of age and onwards. The test includes 60 multiple choice questions. The test is designed to assess the reasoning ability of meaning-making ability of the ...