| Thinking Lateral |
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| Need new thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com |
It's like the WA Institute of Sport, except for thinkers. The West (10 March, page 17) provides a sample of the aptitude test. So far so good, no problems there. It's interesting to see more than just a bare announcement. There's a quote from an academic: "It's important that the test selects kids on ability, not just their social background." That's fair, that's good. Finally, the essential statement from the office of the Education Minister: "A spokesman ... said that the tests would be weighted to make sure rural children were not disadvantaged." Oh dear! "Weighted"?! Weighting of the tests implies bias. What happened to kids being selected on their ability? Are rural kids more stupid that city kids, that they need a bias -- weighting in their favour -- in the aptitude tests? No... Rural students may have a different background to city students. Aptitude tests must be "culturally neutral" in order to test for raw ability rather than for experience in a particular environment. You try to ask questions which require ability rather than specific knowledge of (for example) middle-class professional family city life. Please, go back to the ministerial spokesman. Did he mean, culturally neutral? Or did he really mean to say, weighted.
This is a joke, I think
The school inspector was visiting the small country school. "How smart are these country kids?" she thought. "I'll start with a very simple test." The inspector put up a picture of a sheep. "Now children," she said, in her best speaking-to-little-children voice, "What is this a picture of?" There was silence. "Oh no!" thinks the school inspector, "None of these stupid country children can even recognise a sheep!" "Come on now dearies, don't be shy. Can any of you tell me what this is?" Finally little Johhny puts up his hand. "Yes dear?" "I think..." Little Johhny hesitates. "Well, I'd really have to see its ears.. But I think it may be a Romney-Dorset cross, perhaps bred back with a merino..." The rest of the class nodded agreement. The school inspector returned to the city.And that, I believe is where examiners learnt the need to ask test questions that are culturally neutral -- questions that do not imply, nor expect, nor create, responses that depend on the background of the student.
| Independent Thinking |
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| Independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com |
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