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Non-verbal Measures of Ability Within the Context of Ability Assessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2016

Helga A. H. Rowe
Helga A. H. Rowe*
Affiliation:
Australian Council for Educational Research
*
Australian Council for Educational Research, P.O. Box 210, Hawthorn, Victoria, 3122
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Extract

To provide a framework for our discussion of the use of non-verbal ability tests, I would like to precede my paper by a few general remarks concerning ability testing in the 1980s. Everything I am going to say does, in fact, apply to non-verbal tests, the same as it applies to other types of tests; and it certainly applies to the battery of non-verbal ability tests, the NAT, which the ACER will publish during the next 12 months.

We cannot ignore the controversy which is going on around us. No one operates in a vacuum. No matter what our present personal attitude to the use of tests in assessment might be, nothing we do can be perceived in isolation from present, and for that matter past, debate in the field.

We are finding ourselves at a point in time where there is widespread concern and often fierce debate about the use of standardized tests for the assessment of individual differences and the evaluation of programs.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Educational and Developmental Psychologist , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , November 1984 , pp. 53 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Australian Psychological Society 1984

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