A critical study of various methods used to identify intellectually gifted Malay children

In chapter 1, the discussion is focussed on the underlying reason for the introduction of the education programme for the gifted in Malaysia and the need to undertake this study. The review of literature on the concept of giftedness, procedures and the measures used to identify intellectually gifted is presented in chapter 2.Almost all measures used to identify intellectually gifted have been developed in the USA and the UK, so,they have had to be translated to Malay and pretested. Thus, in chapter 3, the stability and to some extend the validity of the Malay version of these measures are presented. The Malay version measures are found to have similar ability as the original version.Since the criterion of intellectual giftedness is high IQ, an individual intelligence test has to be administered and this will limit the number and the representativeness of the sample. The possibility of screening the  respondents and the procedure used to collect the data is detailed in chapter 4. The descriptive statistics that served as a basis for further analyses are presented in chapter 5.The effectiveness of the current or conventional procedure of using a grade from a public achievement test and categorization of test score is evaluated in chapter 6. Having found that the conventional procedure is not effective, multiple regression and discriminant function analyses are conducted to find the predictor(s) of giftedness and its the effectiveness especially in term of reducing false positives and false negatives. On the basis of these findings, presented in Chapter 7, a multi-stage procedure of identifying intellectually gifted Malay children can be developed by education authorities in Malaysia.In chapter 8, the main findings of the study is summarized and the establishment of longitudinal validation study is proposed

The Effects of Acculturation Level on Boston Naming Test and Controlled Oral Word Association Test in a Sample ofHisparrics ofMexican-American Extraction

This research investigated in the relationship between acculturation and performance on verbal fluency tasks in a sample of 57 Hispanics of Mexican-American extraction. It was hypothesized that as acculturation to Anglo-American culture approaches assimilation, facilitation of word fluency on the Boston Naming Test (BNT) and the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWA) will increase. As the independent variable, acculturation was examined on three levels: Mexican·oriented, balanced, and Anglo-oriented using Scale One of the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans· Second Edition (ARSMA·II). The dependent variables were verbal fluency scores on the BNT and COWA. A 3 x 2 (acculturation group X raw test scores) multiple analysis of variance (MANOV A) was performed to assess differences between mean scores for subjects in the three acculturation groups on the BNT and COWA (A=.408,

The Association between Dynamic Assessment of Grammar and Fluid Intelligence: A Case of Undergraduate EFL Students

The present study examined the association between static assessment, dynamic assessment and fluid intelligence. A pool of 109 students majoring in English Language Teaching and Translation Studies took part in the study. Two major instruments of the study included Computerized Dynamic Grammar Test and Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices. The results of the study confirmed that the relation between static assessment of grammar and fluid intelligence as well as the relation between dynamic assessment of grammar and fluid intelligence were statistically significant. However, the relation between dynamic assessment of grammar and fluid intelligence was large. Finally, the results from the interviews revealed that ZPD and IQ are complementary and not contradictory. A practical implication for the students is that practicing fluid intelligence can improve their logical thinking by focusing on metacognitive strategies. Likewise, C-DA is a helpful source to develop effective learning strategies like directed attention, self-evaluation, and self-discovery strategies

Screening for Chinese children with dyslexia in Hong Kong: The use of the teachers' behaviour checklist

Primary school teachers rated the frequency of occurrence of 65 reading-related behavioural characteristics in a sample of 251 Grade 1 to Grade 6 Chinese school children in Hong Kong. These behavioural characteristics were in the areas of general performance, reading, dictation, writing, mathematics, language, memory, concentration, sequential ability, motor co-ordination, spatial orientation, and social/emotional adjustment. Of these 12 areas, 10 yielded scale scores that could distinguish children with dyslexia from those without dyslexia, identified on the basis of their performance in five domains of literacy and cognitive skills. Using a summary score derived from the 10 relevant scales, an optimal cut-off score was suggested to arrive at a balance between high sensitivity and an acceptable rate of false positives in screening for children with dyslexia. The need for cross-replication in screening children with dyslexia using the behaviour checklist with different samples of school students is emphasised.published_or_final_versio

Detection of Malingering on Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices and the Booklet Category Test

The capacity of Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) and the Booklet Category Test (BCT) to discriminate between groups of brain-injured, simulated malingering, and normal participants was investigated in this study. Exploratory analyses were also conducted to examine the differences between groups categorized as sophisticated and naive fakers. Clinical decision rules and discriminant function analyses were utilized to identify malingerers. Clinical decision rules ranged in hit rates from 41% to 78%, in sensitivity from 2% to 100%, and in specificity from 86% to 100%. Discriminant functions ranged in hit rates from 81% to 86%, in sensitivity from 68% to 73% and in specificity from 82% to 87%. Overall, the least helpful detection method examined was below chance responding on either measure, while the most efficient was gross errors for SPM

Differential diagnosis of psycholinguistic disabilities of poor readers and some remedial procedures

The aims of the study were (a) to investigate the use of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities in the diagnosis of psycholinguistic deficit in first year junior schoolchildren having reading difficulties, and (b) to examine the effects of three educational programmes on the modification of the children's psycholinguistic abilities and reading attainments. From a population of over 1,000 children considered to be at educational risk because of poor reading attainment, a sample of 60 children was identified from four junior schools (i. e. 15 children in each school), selected at random from those schools having a high incidence of poor readers. The 60 children were tested on the ITPA, after which their scores were subjected to a profile analysis. This revealed marked deficits in the areas of Auditory Closure and Visual Sequential Memory. Three intervention programmes were constructed. The first was designed to ameliorate the specific disabilities in the two areas specified above. The second was a diffuse approach to language development which stressed the general training of oral language and verbal intelligence rather than specific training in psycholinguistic processes. A third group of children acting as a control group received a number programme. The children were retested on the ITPA and on various measures of reading attainment at the end of a twelve week treatment period and again ten months later. At the end of the experiment both groups receiving language training obtained higher composite psycholinguistic ages on the ITPA than the control group, but the pattern of psycholinguistic deficits was modified only in the group receiving specific training. Both language groups scored significantly higher than the control group on the tests of reading attainment. The results are interpreted as giving qualified support for the use of the ITPA as a test of differential diagnosis and in providing suggestions for remedial programmes