The Testing of Achievemnts and Creativity

Psychological Tests and Measurements

The issue of cultural bias in the various mental tests has been followed by controversies over many decades and to the present time still elicits debates across the academic spectrum. The controversy or conflict is not just limited to the cognitive ability tests alone but spreads wide to the IQ test. The IQ test in particular has elicited myriad of debates, has seen court cases filed and received its fair share of criticism. However, in as much as these IQ tests and other standardized tests have been widely criticized, they still remain to be the best tools that America has for gauging both aptitude and achievement. There are several reasons why these tests can be considered unfair to culture or not sensitive to culture, one of the reasons is that the content of these tests are geared towards the majority experiences and the values common among the majority. This means that the correct responses are based on the material that is not common or accessible to the minority. It can also be said that the standardized IQ test have inappropriate standardization samples in that the population of the minority in the norming sample could be proportionate but not significant to influence the test development process. The tests have also been seen to result in inequitable social consequences since once the minority fails the tests, they are labeled as such and stereotype develops hence get to be denied jobs on the basis of the exams hence the education leads to an end in its own self. It is also argued that since the IQ test is based on the white culture (widely so) it ends up not measuring the intelligence and achievement as presumed but measuring different constructs which render the members of minority groups ineligible for the groups prescribed (directly or implicitly) by these tests (Reynolds C.R. & Suzuki L.A., 2015).

Measurement of creativity

Creativity and how to measure it has been a challenge to many over the years it is a big challenge to tell what qualities make one child more creative than the other. Agreement on the strict creativity parameters has been vague with hardly any group placing a finger on what considerations need to be taken. However, there are tests that have been developed and refined over the years which come in the form of divergent thinking tests, artistic assessment tests and self-assessment tests among others. These tests measure four significant aspects; how creative the person is, how creative a work is, how creative a work against program is and the social value of a creative work. The approach I would prefer for measuring creativity is measuring how creative the person is since this way one can see how adjustable the person is and his creativity depending on the situation he is handling. The use of the other three parameters seems stagnant in the creative process since it confines itself to the given work done or a procedure outlined. Looking at how a person handles different situations differently without forethought of what the results are expected to be gives the best approach to measuring creativity.

Achievement tests