Practical psychologists face many problems in their work. The most relevant of them is the underachievement of schoolchildren. There are enough reasons for this. These are pedagogical neglect, and a low degree of mental development, and gaps in knowledge, and an elementary inability to learn, as well as many others.
It is the school psychologist who is responsible for solving this tangle of problems, identifying their dominant causes, and developing a corrective program that would help optimize the educational process. And here the STU method will be of invaluable help. It will allow a specialist to master data on the features and originality of mental development not only of an individual student, but of the entire class.
The author of the STU method, or the “School test of mental development”, is K. M. Gurevich, as well as the laboratory team working under his leadershippsychodiagnostics, which is part of the staff of the Research Institute of General and Pedagogical Psychology of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR. It included G. P. Loginova, V. T. Kozlova, V. G. Zarkhin, E. M. Borisova and M. K. Akimova. Before offering a specific selection of tasks, the authors of the methodology carried out a psychological analysis of textbooks and school programs. In the process of doing their work, the scientific team of the laboratory relied on the information that was obtained in the course of conversations with teachers.
Methodological principles
The School Intelligence Test (SIT) is designed to provide a diagnostic tool to measure the mental development of students from adolescence to adolescence. These are children in grades 6-8.
The authors made the selection of basic concepts guided by the following principles:
- they should be general, allowing to determine the level of mastering a particular subject and underlying the understanding of a particular school discipline;
- the concepts included in each of the tasks form the basis of knowledge that every person needs, regardless of the direction of their education;
- they should be in accordance with the life experience that a child of this age has.
Features of the method
School test of mental development (SIT) is designed to study the level of formation of certain concepts in a child, as well as the logical actions performed by the student with them. It contains such tasks and methods for analyzing the results that significantly distinguish this development fromtraditionally used smart texts.
The description of the STU method indicates that it is, first of all, built on the material that must be mastered by the student. For children, this is nothing but their school programs. It is through them that in a given historical period the demands made by society to each of its members are subject to implementation. What, in this case, can be said about the features of the AShtur? The content of these tests is entirely determined by the requirements of society or socio-psychological attitudes towards the mental development of children.
Among the features of the STD method, or the school test of mental development, one can single out an analysis of diagnostic results that is different from most similar methods. It is not based on statistical norms at all. To assess group and individual results, socio-psychological standards are taken. In other words, the identified indicator of the development of the child's intellect is the degree of proximity of the results obtained to a certain criterion, which is the tasks contained in the test. At the same time, the result is determined not by quantitative, but by qualitative and quantitative characteristics.
Diagnostic item
The STUR method (school mental development test) is used to identify the general awareness of the student, the adequacy of his use of scientific concepts and terms, as well as the ability to establish logical classifications, generalizations, analogies, buildnumber line. This method is used to analyze the success of a child's development as he moves from one class to another.
Method capabilities
School test of mental development of the child (SIT) has a special content. It is built on the materials of school programs. Due to this, the application of the methodology will allow assessing not only the level of development of various operations among students, but also their preferences in working with social and humanitarian, natural science or physical and mathematical subjects.
Such a qualitative analysis allows us to solve many problems. Among them are career guidance, advisory and psychoprophylactic. After completing the control of learning, using the test data, the psychologist develops general and individual recommendations aimed at correcting the mental development of the student.
Currently, there is a second, slightly modified version of the STU method. It corrected the content of some tasks and added two subjects that allow students to diagnose spatial thinking. This is due to the fact that the second version of the ASTM methodology was created in completely different social conditions, in which some concepts of the initial work of scientists turned out to be outdated.
Pros of the technique
The developed diagnostic test is in full compliance with the high statistical criteria that any of these tasks must adhere to. The technique has a high degree of suitability and validity. This was determined through its successful application, as well as through comparisons withAmthauer Intelligence Test.
Cons
Conducting a school intelligence test requires a high level of professionalism of a psychologist. This specialist must have a skill that allows him to carry out deep and systematic processing of the received data.
Description of the technique
The School Intelligence Test consists of six sets of tasks, or subtests, as follows:
- "awareness" (two tasks);
- "analogies";
- "generalization";
- "classification";
- "number series".
Besides, two equivalent forms, “A” and “B”, are included in the STU method.
In order for the testing to be carried out correctly, it is necessary to strictly follow the instructions, as well as control the time of the task, which is carried out using a stopwatch. In addition, during the test, the specialist should not help the test subjects.
Instructions for the SHTU method provide for the following task completion time:
- The first subtest - "awareness" - contains 20 items. The time to complete them is 8 minutes.
- The second subtest is also "awareness". It includes 20 tasks that students must complete in 4 minutes.
- The third subtest is “analogues”. These are 25 tasks that must be completed in 10 minutes.
- The fourth subtest is "classifications". It provides for the completion of 20 tasks within 7 minutes.
- The fifth subtest is "generalizations". It includes 19 tasks, which take 8 minutes to complete.
- Sixth subtest -"number lines". Here the student has to consider 15 tasks in 7 minutes.
Sequence of research
When using the methodology of the school test of mental development, the experimenter first of all explains the goal to the children. By doing this, he creates an appropriate mood for them. The following words help to do this: “Now I will offer you certain tasks. With their help, your ability to compare phenomena and objects of the surrounding world, the ability to see in them different and common, and also to reason can be revealed. Each of the proposed tasks is somewhat different from those that you performed in the lessons. Now we will give you forms for the SHTR technique. In this case, each of you will be offered a set of tasks. Before proceeding with their implementation, descriptions of the tasks will be given and the way to solve them will be explained using specific examples. It is necessary to hand over the forms after a strictly defined time. The beginning and end of work on each set of tasks will be determined by the command we give. Everything that is in the forms for carrying out the SHTR technique must be solved in order. Do not stay long on one task. Try to do everything quickly and without making mistakes.”
After such briefing, the experimenter needs to distribute the test forms to the schoolchildren, in which he must ask the children to fill in the columns with information about their names and the date of the experiment. You must also indicate the school and class in which testing is organized.
Nextthe experimenter should check the correctness of the spelling of the information. After that, according to the instructions for conducting a school test using the STUR method, he should ask the children to put their pens aside and listen carefully to his instructions. Next, the experimenter needs to read the instructions to the children and analyze the examples from the first subtest. After that, he should ask the students if they have any questions. If schoolchildren ask them, then the experimenter needs to give an answer by reading the appropriate text from the test. This will create the same conditions for any research.
Next, the specialist instructs the children to turn the page and start completing tasks. At the same time, he needs to quietly turn on the stopwatch. By fixing the attention of the subjects on this, the specialist can cause them a feeling of tension. After some time has passed, which is allotted for completing the tasks of the first subtest, the experimenter must immediately interrupt the work of the children. At the same time, he should invite them to put aside their pens.
Next, the experimenter proceeds to read the instructions for the next set of tasks. When conducting the test, the specialist needs to control whether the children correctly fulfill the requirements voiced by him.
Processing results
All answers given by students during the test must be analyzed by the experimenter. The data obtained will allow the specialist to assess the mental development of both a group of students and an individual student from various angles. In this case, the main goal of the SHTR methodology will be achieved. BUTnamely, based on the identified shortcomings of the child's intellectual development, the possibility of determining ways to eliminate them is revealed.
Evaluation of the results according to the method of STUR is carried out with quantitative and qualitative data processing. Let's take a closer look at these components of the analysis.
Quantitative processing
How is this method of obtaining the results of the STUR test carried out? During quantitative processing, the experimenter reveals:
- Individual indicators. They are determined for each subtest (with the exception of the fifth). At the same time, a certain score is displayed for the test and subtest. It is determined by counting the number of correctly completed tasks. For example, if a child in the 3rd subtest gave the correct answers to 13 tasks, then he is given 13 points.
- The quality of generalization. Depending on it, the results of the 5th subtest are evaluated. In this case, the student is given 2, 1 or 0 points. When processing the results according to the STU method, in this case, tables are used with approximate answers entered in them, which are given to tasks for generalization. What is capable of receiving a score of two points is described quite fully. In this case, the experimenter can consider not only direct answers, but also their interpretation. The school mental development test STUR can be estimated at 1 point. The list of such answers is given in the proposed tables less fully. In this case, the subjects have more opportunities to make a choice. 1 point is scored for answers given by the student correctly, but at the same timerather narrowly, as well as those that have categorical generalizations. The experimenter can also put 0. This number of points is given for incorrect answers. When completing the 5th subtest, children can get a maximum of 38 points.
- Individual indicators. In general, they represent the sum of the scores obtained by adding the results of completing tasks for all subtests. As conceived by the authors of the methodology, a test performed 100% is considered the standard of mental development. It is with this indicator that the tasks that were performed correctly by the student should subsequently be compared. You can also find out the percentage of correct answers in the instructions for the described technique for adolescents (ShtUR). This is precisely what determines the quantitative side of the work of the subjects.
- Comparative indicators of group responses. If the experimenter united students in one way or another and analyzes their total score, then in this case he needs to take the arithmetic mean of all scores. According to the test results, students can be divided into 5 subgroups. The first of them will include the most successful, the second - those who are close to them in terms of completing tasks, the third - the middle peasants, the fourth - the least successful, and the fifth - the least successful. After calculating the average score for each of these subgroups, the experimenter builds a coordinate system. At the same time, on the abscissa axis, he marks the numbers of “success” of children, and along the ordinate axis, the percentage of tasks they solved. Having applied the corresponding points, the specialist draws a graph. It will indicate the proximity of each of the marked subgroups to the existing ones.socio-psychological standards. A similar type of processing of results is also carried out based on the consideration of the entire test as a whole. The graphs obtained in this way make it possible to draw a conclusion on the method of STUR in the context of students of both the same and different classes.
- The mental gap that takes place between the best and worst students in the class. The researchers found that this phenomenon becomes even more pronounced by the 6-8th grade. The best students, growing up, are increasingly approaching the existing socio-psychological standards. The same children who give many wrong answers on the school IQ test continue to remain at the same level. To even out the results, the specialist gives recommendations on conducting more intensive classes with lagging students.
- Comparison with the group. When analyzing test results, the specialist considers the global assessments of an individual student. At the same time, the level of its development is indicated by such terms as “worse” and “better”, “lower” and “higher”. Also, the specialist puts the total points. At the same time, it should be understood that if they are less than 30 for a child attending the sixth grade, less than 40 for the seventh grade, and did not reach 45 for the eighth and ninth graders, then such results may indicate a child's low mental intelligence. And what are the good indicators of the test of the methodology for adolescents STUR? This is more than 75 points for a sixth grader, 90 for a seventh grader, 100 for achild from the 8th grade.
Quantitative indicators of mental development must be combined withquality. This will allow us to give a psychological interpretation of the unfulfilled and completed tasks according to the SHTR method.
Quality processing
This analysis of the results of tests, both group and individual, allows you to determine the most complex logical connections in terms of their type. At the same time, high-quality processing is carried out by a specialist in the following areas:
- For the set of tasks of the 3rd subtest, the easiest (worked out), as well as the most complex types of logical connections are revealed. Among them are genus-species, cause-effect, whole-part, functional relationships and opposites. The experimenter also highlights typical mistakes that children make. The most and least assimilated areas of biology, physics, mathematics, history, literature and such cycles of school disciplines as physics and mathematics, natural sciences and the humanities are considered.
- For a set of tasks number 4, the specialist must determine which of them the child performed better and which worse. He will also have to analyze the answers to questions regarding abstract and concrete concepts, and which of them cause great difficulties for the student.
- Analyzing the tasks of the 5th set, the experimenter will have to identify the nature of the generalizations, breaking them down by categorical, specific and specific characteristics. It is also expected to study the nature of typical errors. In what concepts do they occur most frequently (concrete or abstract)?
Consider the test offered to childrenmaterial on the example of form A.
Description of subtest 1
The tasks included in this set include interrogative sentences. Each of them is incomplete. All sentences are missing one word. Children have to study the five words below and underline the one that fits into the phrase.
For example, children need to find the opposite of the word "negative". The test gives answers such as controversial and unsuccessful, random, important, and also positive. The last of these words is the correct answer. It should be emphasized to the child.
Description of subtest 2
When moving to this task, the child will have to choose from four answers the one that best suits the word on the left side of the form issued for the test. The correct answer should be a synonym for the proposed concept. For example, the following variants are given to the word "century": "event" and "history", "progress" and "century". The last one is the correct answer and should be underlined.
Description of subtest 3
The subject was offered three words. The first and second of them have a certain relationship with each other. The student needs to consider the third of them. After that, he must find a similar connection from the five words on the form.
Let's consider one of the examples of such tasks. The test gives words such as a song and a composer, as well as an airplane. For the last of them, you need to choose a word from the following: "flight" and"airport", "fighter", "constructor" and "fuel". The correct answer is constructor.
Description of subtest 4
The student is offered five words. Four of them have a common feature. The fifth word from this chain drops out. It is to be found by the subject and emphasized. It should be borne in mind that only one of all words is superfluous. Consider an example. The words "teapot", "pot", "table", "cup" and "plate" are given. The table will become superfluous of them. After all, it means furniture, and all other words mean dishes.
Description of subtest 5
Pupils are offered two words. In the task, you need to determine what is common between them. In each of the cases, the specialist suggests looking for the most significant features that are common to these words. In this case, the child must write his answer.
Let's consider an example. A couple of words "pine" and "spruce" are coniferous trees.
Description of subtest 6
When completing this task, children are invited to consider rows of numbers that are arranged according to a certain rule. Multiplication, division, etc. can be used here. The task of the subjects is to determine the number that would be a continuation of the proposed series.
Let's consider an example. The numbers 2 and 4, 6 and 8 are given. If we consider the proposed series, it becomes obvious that each subsequent number is two more than the previous one. Therefore, complete the row correctly with the number 10.
Correction work
After conducting diagnostic studies and obtaining concrete results, the question arises as to whowill subsequently conduct classes with children who are lagging behind in their mental development. After all, if insufficiently high results are revealed and no measures are taken, then the study itself loses all meaning.
Teachers under the guidance of a psychologist, as well as parents (provided that their education allows them to do this) can do correction.
TURMS method
The level of mental development and its specificity, which will develop in elementary school, will certainly become the basis for the child's further education. That is why the diagnosis of such an indicator during the period when children attend elementary grades, as well as the ongoing correction in case of existing deviations from the norm, is of particular importance.
School psychologists actively use the TURMS method. This abbreviation stands for "mental development test of a younger student." It was compiled on the basis of programs studied by children and school textbooks. When creating this technique, concepts taken from natural history and the Russian language, as well as mathematics are used. Such a focus of the test makes it possible to identify the program material assimilated and not assimilated by the child and the degree of mastery of various logical-functional connections.
When developing TURMS, its authors adhered to the point of view on the importance of the role of education in the development of children, which is expressed by most domestic psychologists.
School resultstests of mental development of younger schoolchildren help specialists to identify gaps in the knowledge of students, which allows developing the necessary psycho-corrective measures. The TURMS method does not at all separate the norm from the pathology. Its main purpose is to determine the originality and characteristics of the mental development of the child. The tests conducted with schoolchildren are designed to find out the advantages and disadvantages of the programs used in educational institutions, as well as to compare a wide variety of approaches and teaching systems, while tracing the dynamics of the intellectual development of children.
An analogue of the STS method for younger students provides for the use of group and individual tests. Such studies also consist of subtests, which are arranged in order of increasing complexity. Such systematization allows the specialist to identify the so-called zone of proximal development.
TURMSh is oriented not to statistical, but to socio-psychological norms. Based on the proximity to them, the specialist analyzes the tests offered to the children.
The set of tasks as a whole is accepted as the standard for mental age development. At the same time, the specialists who developed this methodology took into account the fact that visual-figurative thinking is predominant in children of primary school age with simultaneous active development of verbal-logical thinking. That is why the tasks of this technique are identical and equal in complexity, being divided into two blocks, one of which is verbal, and the second is non-verbal. Such features of the methodology allow psychologists to conduct a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the intellectual development of children.
Among the main advantages of TURMSh, experts note the possibility of a comprehensive assessment of the mental development of both a single student and a group of students. With existing shortcomings, the specialist is able to develop a scheme for the necessary corrective work that would eliminate the existing problem.
Among the disadvantages of TURMSh is the moment when in the process of interpreting the levels there is some underestimation of the normative indicators, which the author of the test designated as the number of points. Sometimes this takes place in cases where students from schools in both large and small cities took part in the experiments.
The survey of TURMS is built according to the scheme of working with a punched card. Each question sheet has cut-out boxes that allow the child to mark the correct answer on the answer sheet.
The first, verbal block includes subtests that reveal the features of the child's verbal and logical thinking. This includes tasks "awareness" and "classification", "generalization" and "analogy". It has this block and two subtests of a mathematical orientation.
The second block contains tasks that allow you to identify the features of non-verbal thinking of a younger student. This includes the following subtests: "generalizations", "analogies", "classification", "geometric analogues" and "sequential pictures".
The tasks of the first and second blocks are cards that depict geometricfigures and animals, plants, natural phenomena, etc.
The tasks of the school mental development test (SIT) and the answers were reviewed by us in detail.
