Socio-ecological, contextual effects in Raven’s Colour Progressive Matrices scores: Developing an index for guiding test selection and interpretation
- Authors: August, Justin Oswin
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Ecological Systems Theory
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/46401 , vital:39563
- Description: With the changing landscape in South Africa to a full democracy, increased research has been undertaken in the psychometric field on local and national normative studies regarding various assessment measures. Given that the Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM)is purported to be culture-free and not heavily dependent on verbal and language skills;it has been extensively normed throughout the world for various population groups. While norms for normal populations of children have been developed in South Africa, these studies were based on race and gender predominantly and without taking into consideration the effects of socio-ecological factors on test performance. The research study aimed to understand the influence of socio-ecological factors on the expression of cognitive scores amongst a geographically diverse sample of South African learners. Through this study, research on the interplay between context and cognition was to be located within the Ecological Systems model of Bronfenbrenner. A secondary aim of the study was to develop an index that will guide test selection and interpretation of assessment results, taking into account the influence of socio-ecological factors and providing a conceptual framework for future test development. The study employed a quantitative methodology on a South African sample consisting of primary school children aged between the ages of 6 years to 11 years. The sample was drawn from schools in the Port Elizabeth areain South Africa that wereclassified into low, medium and high opportunity, based on context. The results indicated that the type of school had a significant impact on test performance, suggesting that contextual factors were influential in this process.The item analysisconductedfurther indicated that learners from a low opportunity school performed significantly lower than the other two schoolsin the sample. The index development provides a foundation for further research that would enhance the interpretation of test results. In the South African context, this is considered important, given our political history and our diversity wherea“one size fits all” approach is not possible.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Socio-ecological, contextual effects in Raven’s Colour Progressive Matrices scores: developing an index for guiding test selection and interpretation
- Authors: August, Justin Oswin
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Psychological testing
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/50214 , vital:42071
- Description: With the changing landscape in South Africa to full democracy, increased research has been undertaken in the psychometric field on local and national normative studies regarding various assessment measures. Given that the Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM) is purported to be culture-free and not heavily dependent on verbal and language skills; it has been extensively normed throughout the world for various population groups. While norms for normal populations of children have been developed in South Africa, these studies were based on race and gender predominantly and without taking into consideration the effects of socio-ecological factors on test performance. The research study aimed to understand the influence of socio-ecological factors on the expression of cognitive scores amongst a geographically diverse sample of South African learners. Through this study, research on the interplay between context and cognition was to be located within the Ecological Systems model of Bronfenbrenner. A secondary aim of the study was to develop an index that will guide test selection and interpretation of assessment results, taking into account the influence of socio-ecological factors and providing a conceptual framework for future test development. The study employed a quantitative methodology on a South African sample consisting of primary school children aged between the ages of 6 years to 11 years. The sample was drawn from schools in the Port Elizabeth area in South Africa that were classified into low, medium, and high opportunity, based on context. The results indicated that the type of school had a significant impact on test performance, suggesting that contextual factors were influential in this process. The item analysis conducted further indicated that learners from a low opportunity school performed significantly lower than the other two schools in the sample. The index development provides a foundation for further research that would enhance the interpretation of test results. In the South African context, this is considered important, given our political history and our diversity where a “one size fits all” approach is not possible.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
A normative study of the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices for South African children with cognitive barriers to learning
- Authors: August, Justin Oswin
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Children -- Intelligence testing -- South Africa , Inclusive education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/19419 , vital:28869
- Description: With the changing landscape in South Africa to a full democracy, increased research has been undertaken in the psychometric field on local and national normative studies regarding various assessment measures. The Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM) is one of the measures that have already been extensively normed throughout the world for various population groups. In South Africa, local norms for normal populations of children have been developed by groups of researchers in the Grahamstown (Eastern Cape) as well as the Bloemfontein (Free State) areas. With a South African school educational system that focuses on Inclusive Education, there is a growing need for mainstream schools to identify learners who are at risk for learning disabilities in order to develop appropriate supportive intervention plans. The research aimed to establish psychometric normative screening data based on the Raven’s CPM, and to compare these with the established and published international and local Raven’s CPM norms. In addition, the researcher developed pilot classification scores for the early screening and detection of at risk learners in order to encourage the potential role and use of the Raven’s CPM in the identification of cognitive learning barriers. The sample consisted of 388 primary school learners identified as having cognitive barriers to learning. Archival data was used that was gathered from a Psychological clinic that provided screening services to schools in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan area. The results of the study indicated that there was a proportional relationship between age and test performance. Gender differences were found where the males in this study outperformed the females. There was a significant difference in the Raven’s CPM test performance with respect to the grade levels of the learners. The study developed a special set of norms with cognitive classification scores that will aid in the early identification of learning disabilities.
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- Date Issued: 2017