Assessment & Cultural Diversity
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Transcript of Assessment & Cultural Diversity
Authentic Assessment
And
Cultural Diversity
Anne Murray
Educational Psychologist
CEC Conference
St Johns,
Newfoundland
1999
Moving to a New Country
• Phases of Acculturation
– Pre contact
– Contact
– Conflict
– Crisis
– Adaptation
Factors in Acculturation
• Role of schools
• English as a second language
• Non verbal communication
• Awareness of refugees and stress
Key factors
• Prior knowledge of host culture
• Prior intercultural encounters
• Prior motives and attitudes
• Education
• Employment status
• Age/gender/marital status
• Current contact experiences
• Identity confusion/consolidation
• Attitudes to modes of acculturation
• Acquisition of knowledge and skills
• Congruity between expectations and actualities
Socio-cultural Characteristics of
Acculturating Group
• Settlement patterns
• Opportunity for status mobility
• Size of Groups
• Rapidity of Change
• Social Support and Networks
• Group Acceptability
Wish to maintain cultural identity and
characteristics
YES NO
Wish to maintain
Relationships with
other groups
YES
____
NO
Integration assimilation
Separation marginalization
Model of Acculturation (Berry)
Intervention process• Primary
Policy and training
• Secondary
Identify pupils at risk
Provide services
ISSP
• Tertiary
Multi professional response
Common Problems
• Perceived as a behavioural problem
OR
• Diagnosed as slow learner
OR
• All difficulties attributed to oral language skills
OR
• Exceptionality not considered
Potential Barriers to Assessment
• Cultural experience of pupil
• Perception of ‘Assessment’
• Oral language skills
• Literacy skills
• Lack of awareness of the causes of
learning difficulties
Authentic Assessment
• Valid: What are you testing?
• Reliable: How does the pupil usually
perform?
• Comprehensive: Do you have a complete
picture of the person’s strengths and
needs?
• Consistent: Do the results make sense?
Pre- Referral
• Purpose: To determine if appropriate and
sufficient approaches have been attempted to
help the child:
-Direct observation
-Ecological assessment
-Learning Style
-Teaching style
-Previous educational and cultural experiences
Pre- Referral
Ongoing Teaching and Assessment
• Daily/weekly- reporting periods
• Multiple sources of information
• Direct instruction language skills
• 4-5 years teaching and immersion needed
for language proficiency
Good Teaching Strategies
• Multicultural awareness and advocacy
• Use pupils’ experiences
• Cooperative and multi sensory learning
activities
• Range of teaching and evaluation
strategies
• Clear expectations and standards
• Specific focused feedback
School and Family
Open communication/sensitivity
• Stress factors: socio-economic status/
previous experiences
• Beliefs about exceptionality ( blame)
• Response to authority/school
• Expectations of child ( gender)
• Language and literacy skills
Common Literacy Difficulties
• First language/no written code
• Very little educational experience
• Interrupted school experiences
• Non Roman alphabet
Factors Linked to
Learning Difficulties
• Lack of educational experience
• Health/Vision/Hearing/Motor problems
• Social/emotional problems
• Traumatic events
• Developmental delay
• Learning disability
Culturally Diverse Groups
• Immigrants/Refugees/Ethnic Groups/
Aboriginal People/Sojourners
Cultural Identity/Relationships
• Assimilate/integrate/separate marginalise
Literacy levels in first language
• Pre-literate (oral culture)
• Non- literate (never needed to read or
write)
• Semi-literate (did not finish school)
• Functionally literate in first language
-Non Roman alphabet
- Roman Alphabet
Supports
• English as another language
• Literacy (reading, writing, mathematics)
• Technology
• Awareness of Exceptionalities
• Educational expectations
• Alternate courses
Accommodations
IEP
• Frequent re-location/needs written in an
educational plan
• Extra time to process language in class
and during tests
• Use of technology
• Books on tape
• Clear verbal instructions
• Visual cues
Interpreting Results
• Evidence Based (3 sources/ Triangulation)
• Consistent over time
• Patterns of Strengths and Needs
• Is a diagnosis indicated?
Behavioural Assessment
Problem Behaviour
• Awareness of problem, ability to control self,
environments contributing to and maintaining
problem
Adaptive Behaviour
• Personal independence and social responsibility
appropriate for age and cultural norms
Emotional and Social development
• Intrapersonal and interpersonal factors
What can the pupil do?
Pre- Reading Skills: decoding print
• Visual analysis (use visual features)
• Contextual analysis (looking for clues in
surrounding print)
• Phonological analysis (using information
about the sounds in words)
• Structural analysis (recognising and giving
meaning to parts of words)
What can the pupil do?
Reading and Understanding Texts
• Reading aloud/silently
• Verbal comprehension
• Re-telling stories
• Fill in missing words
• Provide synonyms
• Identify correct answer
• Generate correct answer
What can the pupil do?
• Written language
• Spelling (recognition and recall)
• Handwriting (legibility, spacing and speed)
• Content (describing/reporting/expression)
• Craft (organise/sequence/vocabulary/
punctuation/capitalisation)
What can the pupil do?
• Mathematics (calculation and reasoning)
• Problem solving (language)
• Computational skills (+/-/-:-/x#)
• Place value/memory
• Predict/estimate/evaluate
• Measuring concepts
• Interpret graphs and charts/geometry
• Computer knowledge
How does the pupil process
information?
• Cognition (low result may be unreliable)
• Oral Language (receptive and expressive)
• Attention and Memory
• Perceptual Processing
- Auditory/Visual/Perceptual/Motor
• Consistent with Academic Achievement ?
Referral Criteria
• If the pupil has received appropriate and direct
educational interventions for a sustained period
AND:
• The following areas have been assessed as not
significantly contributing to the learning
difficulties
- Language skills/Health/Vision/Hearing/social/
- emotional/cultural factors then…..
Comprehensive Assessment
Components
• Multi-disciplinary/flexible
• Multiple sources of information- formal and
informal
• Results consistent with historical evidence
• Criterion referenced tests (measured
against task not against others)
• Oral proficiency in English