Testing for intelligence

Testing children's intelligence is the only tools that it used almost in many countries to measure children’s intelligence. In this test, children are not measure accurately due to the fact that this assessment does not include all the domains of development, it is only include specific areas and exclude many aspect that might show more about child’s intelligence. Besides, it is not fair to determine child’ intelligence based only on this test because many children are doing great in the class and having highest scores but just hearing test or assessment that would be enough to panic them and put them under pressure. And what also important, is that Testing usually has a limit time, and most children cannot finish the assessment in time, that of course does not indicate that this child is not intelligence or his ability to learn is limited. Hence, I hope that in testing or assessment should take into consideration that every child is unique and his ability to internalize, and recall material is different from another.

In my country, which is Iraq, we assess children based on two types of test. The first one is done in the middle of the school year, and the second one at the end of the school. In both test, children are measure in different areas such as math, science, language and other aspects. During the test, children are given  two weeks or more depending on their grade, and every child is  responsible for memorizing everything he learned from the cover to cover. This form a challenge for every child since it is very hard to recall the whole material. I remember when I was in middle school; my mom was used to come with me because she knows that I will throw and get sick. Just remember these days make my feel sick. Truly, I believe this test does not give accurate information about children intelligence. This topic make me remember my friend when we were in the last year of high school, she used to be the top in the class from the elementary till almost the last year. During the test, she was very scared and under pressure, the result, she did not take a good score that might qualify her to be a doctor, which was her dream at that time.  Everyone in Iraq, consider the last year of the high school is the most important period in student’s life since it will determine his/her future later. Therefore, we believe that the person who is lucky in his life will pass the test and get the highest mark, and the one who is not lucky even if he was very intelligent, will not perform good at this test. Actually, we consider assessment is just like luck.

In conclusion, I wish that when we measure children’s intelligence, we do not need to focus on this test only; we need to take into consideration other aspect of child’s development such as emotional or social skills. I hope that every teacher should educate children that when are not doing well in the test, that does not mean they are not intelligence. Many children get frustrated when they know that their scores are very low and that may affect their performance later. I would love to make every child feel with comfort when hearing assessment or testing.

http://faculty.ccp.edu/dept/viewpoints/f03v4n1/suskie.html