Chapter 15 Blog

I think that Chapter 15 highlights so many useful issues in dealing with assessment issues and diverse populations. This is a topic that is very near to my heart as my brother-in-law is from Columbia South America. I know he has encountered many situations where he has run into various instruments where his actual ability is not clearly seen due to issues in translation etc. Now, these issues have gotten fewer and further between as his English has become all but that of a native speaker, but even sometimes now I will hear he and my sister discussion something that translates differently in English than in Spanish and she is explaining why. 

My sister and her husband have been married for almost 6 years. I was not really aware of these types of assessment issues or really thought much about what it would be like to take a test in an unfamiliar format. The closest example I could relate to was that when my sister transitioned back from home-schooling to public school, our district made her take the finals in all of the 9^th grade classes even though she was not a student in those classes all year long. My family tried to fight this and was outraged but it did no use. Having Carlos in our family I was able to see many themes that over the years I have heard him discuss while I was reading chapter 15.  The test taker factors (for more obvious reasons) stuck out to me the most in this chapter, also the brief paragraph about acculturation. I remember during my School Psychology days we were discussing this issue in assessment during an introductory course. The professor, who is of Spanish heritage, explained that on this assessment prompt, respondents were asked to describe what was happening in the picture. In one experience of her administering this test to an ESL middle school student the young lady was unable to explain the picture. As a class we were wholly confused as the picture clearly displayed a burning house and a fire truck that had arrived for assistance.  My professor further detailed that in this young ladies country this is not how fires are put out therefore creating a gap in her ability to explain the situation. Initially the professor (while administering this) was confused as this student had a good working knowledge of English- but when the student explained afterwards she immediately understood where the confusion had taken place. 

 

As learners from different cultures there are hidden assumptions that are specific to each culture that we as natives would not even be aware of where these assumptions may lie. For example, my family took a trip to Amsterdam a number of years ago and one grocery shopping trip we spent at least 20 minutes searching for yogurt because we assumed we would find it in a container in the diary section. What we could not have realized is that in the Netherlands they do not add thickener their yogurt to make it a semi solid, it is eaten in its natural, more liquid form. We finally discovered it in paper cartons like you would find milk.  The parallel being, when administering assessments it is imperative as counselors that we be as aware as possible to the clientele that will be receiving our instruction. This way, should culture gaps become evident we can build knowledge bridges where possible to enhance their ability to be successful on our normative assessment standards.