Author: Sumaya Laher

Chapter 18: The NEO-PI-R in South Africa

AUTHOR: S. Laher

ABSTRACT: The NEO-PI-R is a widely used test both in assessment and research locally and internationally. Aside from being used in research and practice to assess personality, it is also amongst the most commonly used instruments to operationalise the FFM of personality. Thus this chapter intends providing a brief history of the development of the NEO-PI-R, followed by a brief description of the NEO-PI-R domain and facet scales. Following this research using the NEO-PI-R in the South African context will be presented. Finally the chapter will conclude with some discussion on the use of the NEO-PI-R in the SA context.

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Chapter 6: Assessing young children in South Africa

AUTHORS: Z. Amod, D. Heafield

ABSTRACT: This chapter explores the complexities, purpose and relevance of school-readiness assessment within the South African context as well as the existing research in this field.  The concept of school-readiness assessment is a contentious issue in this country. This is firstly due to the historical misuse of assessment instruments for the purpose of exclusionary practices and the perpetuation of an inequitable education system.  Secondly children in this country exist within extremely diverse socio-cultural and economic structures and this contributes towards significant emotional and developmental differences between young children. A linear, maturational model of school-readiness assessment (as espoused by Kagan, 1992, 1994 and Damarest, Reisner, Humphrey & Stein, 1993) therefore seems immensely inadequate, and denying a child the right to begin school at the appropriate age based on this model could be considered both discriminatory and unfair. It is partly for this reason that the government has imposed an informal moratorium on school readiness assessment within government schools. The objective of this chapter is therefore to propose a more holistic and eco-systemic view of school readiness assessment, based on a critique (which includes strengths and limitations) of existing approaches.  The move towards an inclusive education and training system which has been outlined in Education White Paper 6 (2001) places the responsibility on schools, and the education system as a whole, to provide adequate support structures to accommodate a diverse range of children with a variety of barriers to learning. The emphasis on learners being ready for school has therefore shifted to schools being ready for all learners.   This interactional / bi-directional concept of school readiness is supported in the literature (Meisels, 1996) and in a recent South African study (Goldblatt, 2004).  Although there is still a place for the assessment of individual learners to determine the types of support structures that may be needed,  government expenditure on education is more suitably spent on upgrading facilities, reducing class sizes and improving teacher training. This will provide all learners with a better chance of reaching their full potential.

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Chapter 5: Assessing school readiness in children using the JSAIS

AUTHORS: L. Theron

ABSTRACT: Drawing on personal professional experience as a practicing educational psychologist from 2000-present (which includes weekly use of the JSAIS as part of a school readiness assessment for a private boys school), I provide a brief introduction to the JSAIS. The introduction summarizes the structure, broad aims and general modus operandi of the JSAIS. I emphasize that the JSAIS should be used to provide a profile of weaknesses and strengths that will allow intervention towards optimal school readiness. The focus of the chapter, however, is a critical examination of the JSAIS in our multicultural, 21st century South African context with its multiple challenges and chronic violence. As part of this critique, I look at items which favour acculturated knowledge and have the potential to trigger previous traumas in order to guide students towards fairer assessment practices. I also provide extensive guidelines, based on my extensive observation and reflection, on using the JSAIS diagnostically with regard to emotional readiness for school, concentration difficulties, language barriers and motor difficulties. In essence, the chapter encourages students not to limit the JSAIS to a measure of intelligence, but to use it as a tool to comment qualitatively (rather than just quantitatively) on children’s readiness for formal learning.

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Chapter 4: South African Individual Scales Revised

AUTHOR/S: K. Cockcroft

ABSTRACT: This chapter will provide a brief introduction to the SSAIS-R. The introduction will summarize the purpose and development of the SSAIS-R including its historical links to other traditional psychometric measures of intelligence. Details will be provided regarding administration, scoring, demographic effects, as well as normative data and the standardized sample for this intelligence test. Psychometric properties such as reliability and validity will be commented upon. There will be some discussion on how the SSAIS-R can be used to provide a profile of weaknesses and strengths that will allow for appropriate intervention decisions to be made. Available studies that have used the SSAIS-R in a range of diagnostic and educational settings will be presented and critically evaluated.

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Chapter 3: WISC-IV test performance in a South African context: A collation of cross-cultural norms

AUTHOR/S: A. Edwards

ABSTRACT: This objective of this paper is to present a brief review of cross-cultural research in respect of the WISC-IV, followed by documentation of cross-cultural normative indications in respect of this test within the South African arena. Combined research data are presented in respect of Grade 7 white English, black Xhosa, white Afrikaans and coloured Afrikaans speaking children tested with the WISC-IV (van der Merwe, 2008; van Tonder 2007). In all studies there was additional stratification within language/ ethnic groups for quality of education, viz. relatively advantaged education within the historically white private and/or former Model C educational institutions, versus relatively disadvantaged education within the formerly designated black and coloured township educational institutions. In robust fashion, this outcome in respect of the WISC-IV serves to confirm the indications from earlier WAIS-III cross-cultural research for Grade 12s and Graduates (Shuttleworth-Edwards et al., 2004), of significant lowering of IQ test performance of around 20 IQ points in association with relatively disadvantaged education.  Whereas language and ethnic variables reveal subtle effects on IQ test performance, quality of education has the most significant effect.

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Chapter 2: WAIS-III test performance in a SA context: Extension of an existing cross-cultural normative database

AUTHOR/S: A. Edwards, Gaylard, S. Radloff

ABSTRACT: The aim of this chapter is to present new research data, preceded by a brief review of the application of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale in South Africa, including the SAWAIS (1969), the HSRC standardization of the WAIS-III (Claassen, Holzhauzen, & Mathe, 2001), and prior cross-cultural normative indications (Shuttleworth-Edwards et al., 2004). The latter study provided preliminary normative data for the WAIS-III on a Southern African population, that was stratified for race and first language (‘Black African’ versus ‘White English’), level of education (‘Grade 12’ versus ‘Graduate’) and quality of education (‘Advantaged Education’ via schooling completed within the historically white private and/or former Model C educational institutions, versus ‘Disadvantaged Education’ via schooling completed within the formerly designated black township Department of Education and Training educational institutions). A limitation of the research was the lack of control for language within the black participants that were drawn from the Eastern Cape, South Africa as well as from Zimbabwe.  In order to rectify the lack of homogeneity of language, all non- Xhosa first language participants were excluded from the black sample and sixteen additional Xhosa first language participants were tested on the WAIS-III.  Data analyses found no significant differences between the original and new groups, except in the comparison between mixed African language Private/Model C graduates and the Xhosa first language Private/Model C graduates, where there was a lowering of WAIS-III subtest, index and IQ scores in the latter group.  This lowering is explained in that the pure Xhosa first language group was less educationally advantaged than the original mixed African first language group.  Overall, these results demonstrate an incremental increase in WAIS-III test performance for sample groups on a continuum of quality of education from least to most advantaged education, with quality of education being a more potent variable than race and first language.  This was true for both verbal and non-verbal subtests.

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