Measuring intelligence of minority children in Canadian multicultural contexts

Tamaoka Katsuo

松山大学論集

Canadianization for the items of WISC and WISC-R would not guarantee the proper difficulty level for the substituted items. Failure of adjusting the questioning items of Information subtest indicate an American cultural bias with respect to a main-stream Canadian population. For Native children, cultural content bias against Native children is indicated in the question items of the WISC-R Information subtest. The degree of acculturation seems to influence, to a certain degree, IQ tests' results of Native children. Cultural fair tests to remove cultural effects on IQ scores did not indicate a strong predictive power for academic achievement. The attempt at computing an Estimated Learning Potential (ELP) also failed to predict a child's academic success. A simple re-calculation of WISC-R scores based on family size, family structure, socio-economic status and urban acculturation does not indicate ELP. The two attempts at cultural free tests and ELP scores also failed to assess intelligence of minority groups as a predictor of child's school achievement. Though a compromise, but the most careful and sensitive approach to assess intelligence of Canadian minority children have to be a multiple assessment approach using already established tests as a part of the information used to assess a child's learning abilities in order to facilitate adequate education and counselling.

Education [ 370 ]

eng

[ISSN] 0916-3298