FOREWORD

__________________________________

Teaching is based on a tripod made of biology, sociology and

psychology. To teach you must know the physiologically functioning of
the learner. It is also important to control the environment in its various
data and other variables to understand its cognitive, socio-emotional
and affective behaviour. This knowledge facilitates adapting teaching
style to the characteristics of the learner. In fact, it is established that all
the above-mentioned variables significantly influence the performance
of the learner. In a pedagogical approach focused on the learner, the
diagnosis of learning difficulties or apprenticeship and research
solutions, to be effective and efficient, should integrate the different
dimensions that we have listed. In the current state of our institutions,
the school guidance counsellor or school psychologist has the skill set to
explore the psychological and sociological variables that affect academic
success of the student.

The prevention of learning disabilities and learning difficulties is

one of the essential components of guidance counselling. The first level
of prevention aims is to avoid known risks by educating students on
issues likely to affect academic success. This proactive activity,
organized systematically by level of education, includes educational talk
sessions, information or Courses of education choices. Proactive
priorities include self-knowledge or self-awareness, the development of
social skills, understanding the factors that come into play in academic
success, learning techniques, information on study programs and
occupations. The second level of prevention is to provide early
intervention and support to students whose difficulties can escalate and
affect academic success. We can call it psychological counselling or
"pastoral care".

In general, guidance counselling or school psychology, as part of

prevention of school or learning difficulties, uses a set of tools, including
psychometric tests to systematically identify needs and potential
student’s problems. It is comparable to the teacher that uses a series of
tools, delivery of tests to determine the learning of students in his class
1
levels. Psychometric evaluation shows key facts about the student,
providing the counsellor, the teacher and the school administration of
the factors that can alter the content of certain decisions. It also helps to
raise the personal student information, which should be analysed with
him to help him better, understand. From this awareness, the student is
able to make decisions himself.

It appears that this book has a real interest for all actors in an
educational situation. It enlightens, in fact, the process of psychometric
assessment and the importance of this type of evaluation really focused
on formative assessment and provides tangible evidence (if we still
needed) on the contribution of guidance counselling in improving
pedagogy.

Emilie MEDJO MINTOM

Former Head of Unit of the School Orientation

Ministry of Secondary Education-Yaoundé Cameroon-

2
 PREFACE
___________________________________________________

The complexity of educational assessment, notably formative

assessment requires multidisciplinary skills to be conducted efficiently
and effectively. The educational assessment has two components which
are necessarily complementary, namely: internal evaluation and
external evaluation. The first is performed by teachers while the second
are the responsibility, among other skills, of school psychologists or
guidance counsellors.

The school psychologist or guidance counsellor among other

roles contribute with his expertise in psychology as part of a necessary
collaboration with teachers in the prevention of school difficulties, the
conception and implementation of individual or collective testing for
students in difficulty and assessment. To do this, he/she must use a
type of assessment that may enable him to target the strengths and
limitations of the student and the actions needed to help namely the
psychometric assessment.

The author enlightens teachers on the contribution of

psychometric assessment in educational assessment. The test, more
objective tool can, if used judiciously, leads to a harmonious integration
of the internal assessment and external assessment and allow the
teacher to play his/her role efficiently. This means changes in his
teaching style. Pedagogy is primarily a science and like all sciences,
some scientific truths or certain approaches which showed their ability
in the time must be regularly experienced to make sure what are still,
nowadays, relevant.

There is evidence that teachers are jealous of their teaching styles

from where their resistance to adopt new educational approach that
could endanger their teaching styles even when they are not able to
experimentally prove the causal link between their teaching styles and
learning outcomes. This attitude leads teachers to sink into an
educational dogmatism.

3
They must break with this obscurantist attitude to align their teaching
styles to experimental pedagogy which obviously is the real vector of
pedagogy based on proximity between the teacher and the student. We
are convinced that this vision of perfection and efficiency inevitably will
lead to a healthy and productive collaboration between teachers and
school psychologists or guidance counsellors.

Psychometric assessment uses tests such as measuring

instruments. The test, like all metrology tool can be reliable and valid
only if it is used under well defined conditions. Psychometric testing, by
its nature, is standardized and developed in an experimental situation;
therefore, execution, correction and interpretation of a test are also an
experimental situation that absolutely must be well controlled in order
to control all intermediate or extraneous variables that could invalidate
the results. This is the “sine qua non” for diagnosis of learning
difficulties or an efficient academic success prognosis or prediction

This book presents a wide range of methods, practices and good

well-tested recipes, indicated to administer a psychological test in strict
compliance with the standards of this art. It will allow psychologists,
guidance counsellors or teachers to solve the thorny problems that they
experience in the transition from theory to practice, particularly in the
field of psychometric assessment.

Professor George FONKENG EPAH, Lecturer, Department of

Psychology, FALSH, University of Yaoundé 1

4
 INTRODUCTION
___________________________________________________

Competence is the first and absolute criterion in psychometric

assessment. The complexity of this assessment requires the mastery of a
set of heterogeneous skills. Psychometric assessment takes shape; when
we intend to control this skill set and its application.

How many pupils were catalogued for the life or how many
doubtful orientations were made by not perceptive practitioners on the
evidence of one or some tests badly administered and briefly
interpreted?

Increasingly, we notice in our schools of numerous drifts with

psychological characters and a wild and excessive use of badly mastered
psychological concepts. The amateurism in the execution of the
psychological tests entailed a sceptical attitude towards the tests in our
establishments.

Competence and compliance with duties and obligations with

regard to students in all stages of the assessment process, contribute to
the achievement of the following three requirements: provide relevant
information, provide accurate information (as possible), and respect the
rights of individuals evaluated in strict observance of the ethics code of
the psychologist. It must be raised also the rigour that must mark any
evaluation procedure from the choice of the methods up to the
interpretation of the results.

If these ideal conditions can easily be combined in an individual

examination, including material and psychological conditions; this is
not the case in a collective psychometric assessment. The difficulties
inherent to the collective testing, namely, the inconveniences connected
to the number, particularly in the school environment, are of triple
nature: material, educational and psychological. The material difficulties
can be resolved by the common sense and by the certain arrangement of
the school organization.

5
 The educational difficulties are among those that any teacher
meets in particular are the beginners: know how to be listened and
understood, mobilized the attention, interest the public, and obtained a
granted effort. They are increased because a psychometric evaluation
should not have imperfections. Every child has to be concerned and
conform strictly to the given indications. We can say that the counsellor
should straightaway obtain what certain students never give in class,
even to the most experienced teachers.

As for the difficulties with psychological character, the first one,

of emotional order, relates to the fact that there is resemblance with the
school situation. The students who usually consider themselves as
weak, «delayed ", or "indisciplined" cannot be handicapped. The second
difficulty is bound to the emotional interaction between the students.
The feeling of competition or attraction and aversion that is always
quick to develop, can galvanize some and discourage others. The
sharing of the same bench with a merry companion can incite to laugh,
on the other hand, the enemy presence can create the repulsive
phenomenon whose mental concentration suffer. The mutual aid with
the neighbour can lead not to know how to work alone, hence cheating.

The third psychological difficulty arises from the fact that the
group psychometric evaluation does not allow individual affective
(emotional) adjustment between the psychologist-guidance counsellor
and the student. Such student needs that we calm down his anxiety,
another one that we make him understand or that we do not consider
his weakness in a test as a tare (Athane, 1979).

Indeed, the student is not the same on his school bench and on
the chair in front of the counsellor -psychologist in an individual
consultation. That is why in this context, the relationship “student-
guidance counsellor which is often marked by a mutual confidence
(trust), is modified. It is established that the good relationship between
the guidance counsellor-psychologist and the student determines the
dynamism that the student invests in the test. The counsellor must
strive to collectively establish a good relationship with the class, even if
it is true that it only masking or transforming individual reactions. To
achieve this, the counsellor should be both a good psychologist and a
good "group leader" (Athané 1979).

6
 With regard to all these difficulties, the collective testing seems
clearly less satisfying than the individual testing. From the individual
examination to the collective examination, it thus seems that there is not
only change of dimension but also change of nature. The collective
testing entails grave risks, which touch the foundations of the
psychological intervention. It obliges in particular to cut several
dilemmas: conciliate the adaptation to the individual and the necessities
of the testing; conciliate the dynamic climate of confidence and security)
with the educational efficiency to be understood and be obeyed.

One of the major intentions which motivated this work, it is to

help the guidance counsellor-psychologist to drive his practice of
collective testing in a way that it limits, as much as possible, the
students' doubtful, negative or hostile attitude which would be likely to
distort the exam. To do it, he must be competent regarding choice of the
tests and be capable of estimating the situation of the students, to
determine then which one or several tests are to be administered. He is
going to say to himself that he has to, inevitably, possess the skills
indicated to administer the tests and communicate the results to the
students according to the rules of the art. It is the better awareness of
these requirements and a better knowledge of the ways suited to apply
them that we want to foster.

It is not a theoretical development on the psychometric

assessment, but a set of methods or practical guidance which, although
based on psychological theories, is no substitute for depth psychology
knowledge and particularly psychometric knowledge.

This book has three parts consisting of seven chapters: the first
defines the concept of assessment in a teaching situation and determines
the functions of the psychometric assessment in schools. The second
chapter presents the general qualities of psychometric tests, including
their specificities, their characteristics and classifications. As for the
third, it suggests some collective administration of technical tests. The
fourth chapter identifies the key variables that may influence the
performance of the test subject in a collective testing. The fifth succinctly
describes the procedures for handling test scores, the sixth chapter
offers some methods of interpretation and communication of results,
particularly in the school, academic and professional guidance

7
counselling, finally the seven chapter advices on the production of the
report or statement of psychological examination

8
 ____________________________________________________

CHAPTER 1:
THE EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT
___________________________________________________

Any educational activity is based on four fundamental pillars:

planning, learning, observation and assessment. According to Richard
(2004), planning is the preparation, the implementation of the necessary
resources and the mobilization of actors involved in the activity. In fact,
planning allows primarily, to know the material and the teaching
context; secondly, to predict outcomes, activities, and learning tasks,
and evaluation tasks presented to students; Finally, organize the
sequence and combination of learning outcomes presented to the
students, that is to say, organize the presentation of activities and
learning tasks and learning assessment to ensure coherence and
congruence with the learning outcomes pursued.

Regarding learning and observation, the first refers to all the

activities with didactic, experimental, productive purpose or the
training which determine the object, the strategy and the level of the
learnings. Whereas, the second relates to the activity that concomitantly
to the learning, allows the teacher to appreciate the progress, to verify
the good execution of the works and to detect the possible difficulties
met by students

Finally, the fourth pillar which is evaluation is the activity in

which the effects of learning are found, or in which the needs of learners
are diagnosed (Martel et al. 2010). In the teaching-learning process,
evaluation therefore plays a vital role. Teaching consists in setting goals,
by taking into account the situation of departure of the learners, then to
implement appropriate didactic strategies suited to strategies to achieve
those objectives. It is obvious that this action can have a sense only if we
have a feedback, as well throughout the process of the didactic action as
at the end of this action, to estimate to what extent and to what extent
the assigned objectives were reached by the taught (Séné, 2003).

9
 We cannot discuss the psychometric assessment without having
identified the concept of educational assessment, then its objectives in
the educational process and finally the different types of evaluation.

Any educational activity is based on four fundamental pillars: the

planning, the apprenticeship, the observation, and the assessment.

GENERALITIES ON EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT

Teaching is a profession of "decision maker" because the teacher

must constantly make decisions. He has, therefore, the assessment to
know what to decide, because the assessment allows, in the classroom,
to interpret what is happening, what is being played, to know what we
will do next (Lejeune, 2010). Basically, it is the assessment that feeds the
teacher's decisions.

Educational assessment concepts

To evaluate is to estimate the value of a person or thing by

comparing a data with a reference value. Assessment is the process of
gathering data. More specifically, assessment is the ways instructors
gather data about their teaching and their students’ learning (Hanna &
Dettmer, 2004). The data provide a picture of a range of activities using
different forms of assessment. Once these data are gathered, you can
then evaluate the student’s performance. Evaluation, therefore, draws
on one’s judgment to determine the overall value of an outcome based
on the assessment data. It is in the decision-making process then, where
we design ways to improve the recognized weaknesses, gaps, or
deficiencies.

To assess, it is necessary to have the tests, measurable indicators

and appropriate measurement techniques. According to Groulund
quoted by Sene (2003), educational assessment “is the estimation by a
mark a modality or a considered criterion in behaviour or a product.
The notion of evaluation thus has an acceptance wider than that of the
measure - this one is indeed a simple quantitative description - while
the evaluation contains at the same time the qualitative description, but
also value judgments concerning their desirability " This notion of
evaluation requires to be explicit a brief analysis. For Ketele (1993), the

10
evaluation could be equated neither to a judgment, nor to a control even
a measure.

Indeed, the evaluation is not a finding in the field of public

opinion. It is a process that not only relies on the judgement (especially
value) that reflects nothing other than teacher representations on the
student. The evaluation is inevitably directed to a decision-making. It is
supposed to base judgement which does not imply a decision;
judgement is only an observation (De Ketele 1993).

The evaluation is very often confused with control. While it is

true that the two concepts have a relationship in terms of the used tools
and in terms of their common purpose, namely, the production of the
student, it is important to note that the control intervenes in the term of
something. He ends and sanctions without confide real possibilities of
discussing and of returning on the results, or on the ways used in the
realization of the task. It is the verdict which does not let expect new
departures.

In contrast, the evaluation joins in a more flexible process which,

made that the action undertaken instead of being brutally stopped, can
evolve and develop by taking into account information received and
analyzed during its progress. Control has a static nature. The
assessment would be more dynamic aspect, insofar as it is linked to the
decision making action. (De Ketele 1993).

The assessment cannot be limited simply to measure, note or

mark. According to Therer (1985) measure consists to associate a
number and the items that can be objects, stimuli, response protocols,
etc. Strictly speaking, the measurement is always quantitative, contrary
to educational assessment, the numbers do not have the actual value;
they are mere landmarks. Mark is allocated, according to a scale, a
synthetic appreciation for a performance or behaviour. Example: (A - B -
C - D - E).

Similarly, to mark is “give a number, a numerical score”. This

concept is more restrictive than notation. As a general principle, mark is
more objective as it passes by counting correct answers in a test.
However, this does not guarantee the objectivity of the examination on
the whole. The measure, note or mark are quantitative, and have a much

11
smaller meaning than the evaluation which rather, reflects both the
qualitative and quantitative description of behaviour because they
"prefer the penalty, expressed by an illusory figure, to the detriment of
diagnosis. What about a doctor who would simply inform the patient
that his health is "12/20" "(Therer 1985).

In conclusion, we can say with Stufelbeam quoted by Sene (2003)

that "the assessment is the process of describing, collect and provide
useful information to deal a decisive judgement (decision) based on
various opportunities." In other words, the evaluation has four main
goals: improving decisions on individual student learning; inform the
child and his parents on his progress, improve the quality of education
in general and award the certificates necessary for the student and the
society.

The forms of assessment

We distinguish normative assessment of criterion-referenced

assessment.

The normative assessment

An evaluation is normative when it implies a comparison to a referent.

In this shape, we note the pupils in a given subject by classifying them
each compared with the distribution of notes (marks) obtained by the
group. In other words, by referring the result of the pupil to a standard,
we proceed by standardized or normative evaluation. It is based on the
statistical theory and essentially in two parameters: the average and the
standard deviation. The average is a parameter of central position and
the standard deviation a parameter of dispersal of notes (marks) around
the average. The learning of a pupil is estimated by comparing his note
(mark) with the average of the class or with the average note (mark) of
all the school district or the entire region after the same test or the same
examination. This type of interpretation does not inform us about the
quality of the apprenticeship but allows us to determine whether the
individual achieved at a level above, below or equal to the average
performance.

12
The criterion-referenced assessment or criteria-based evaluation

The criterion of evaluation refers to the variable that we want to

evaluate or task that the student should be able to achieve. Each
student’s achievement is judged against specific criteria. In principle no
account is taken of how other students have performed. In practice,
normative thinking can affect judgements of whether or not a specific
criterion has been met. Reliability and validity should be assured
through processes such as moderation, trial marking, and the collation
of examples. The criterion comprises two aspects:

- A qualitative aspect, insofar as the teacher examines whether the

behaviour demonstrated by the student is the one expected.

- A quantitative aspect because the standard specifies the

performance that the student must achieve to cross a threshold or
level.

This method, based on specific criteria, to know stage by stage,

the level of the pupil put in connection with the behaviour that we wish
to see settling down (De Ketele 1993).

An interpretation is called criterion-referenced when evaluation

results are compared to a criterion of success or achievement resulting
from one or more learning outcomes. The evaluation criteria are no
longer the group's performance or the rank of the student in the group,
but the performance of the student in relation to the outcome. The
criterion-referenced interpretation can be centred either on the product
performance from success criteria or on the process of the performance
from criteria of realization. It can be also centred on both (Richard,
2009).

Psychometric evaluation takes on both forms of assessment

because the raw scores are interpreted only by reference to an
interpretive standard (calibration) and each psychometric test is
designed to measure a specific variable (criterion) or capacity to perform
a specific mental operation which we appreciate(estimate) qualitatively
and quantitatively.

13
The objectives and general functions of the evaluation

The objectives of the evaluation

According to Sene (2003), the teaching-learning process can be

characterized by three components: educational objectives, educational
strategies and evaluation. The objectives are behavioural changes that
education seeks from the student and strategies relate to ways and
didactic means used to achieve the defined objectives. Evaluation is the
systematic process to determine how the educational objectives are
achieved. The evaluation in the educational process has two
components: assessment and learner assessment on the very process of
educational action.

The evaluation of the learner has as function to estimate to what

extent the objectives assigned in the program or by the teacher during a
sequence of teaching was realized

On the other hand the evaluation on the process of educational

action is a critical assessment of the value of educational objectives,
adequacy of educational strategies to the objectives and the initial
situation of pupils or even the relevance of teaching materials. The basic
idea is that school results are not due only to students, but often to the
education provided in the program, the teaching methods, working
conditions, etc. This component of the evaluation is not the object of our
reflection.

The types of evaluation according to their functions

Teachers assess students frequently. He can involve an implicit

evaluation which consists in showing by remarks or by mimes an
appreciation on the ways of being or the production of the pupils. He
can also involve a perfectly explicit evaluation which takes the shape of
a mark. We shall approach the functions filled by the notation and the
psychological functioning which underlies it. We distinguish due to
their functions four major types of the evaluation.

We can assess students to predict their adaptation to particular

forms of education (prognostic assessment) or to analyse the situation of
pupils with learning difficulties (diagnostic assessment), to collect

14
information that will allow some regulation of the training process
(formative evaluation) and to assign grades to students in order to
certify that they have reached a certain level of education (summative or
certification evaluation).

Prognostic evaluation

The prognostic evaluation aims to estimate the chances of success

of a learner to an apprenticeship to come when located at the beginning
of the school year. Before a course, you can, for example, control the
prerequisites (knowledge and skills), the strengths and weaknesses of
the students in order to optimize your didactic approach. Of course,
such assessment is not inevitably quoted). (Therer, 1999)

When placed at the end of a cycle. It examines whether the

student has the skills to undertake specific training (study program) in
the subsequent cycle. The ability refers only to the potential of the
individual, that is a set of capacities or general or specific predispositions,
susceptible to generate new acquisitions, or allow the achievements, if
favourable conditions occur. It founded the selection decisions or
guidance, based on presumed ability to follow this new learning.

This assessment is generally administered by guidance

counsellors-psychologists, using psychometric tests and related
academic performance. However, in an orientation level the teacher
who, from marks attributed to the pupils, expresses an opinion of
orientation to advice or to dissuade them such or such sector or study,
and also practices prognostic evaluation.

Diagnostic Evaluation

Diagnostic assessments assess strengths, weakness, and prior

knowledge. Understanding how much a student already knows about a
topic is vital for effective differentiation in the classroom. Some students
may already be experts in a given topic, while others may be missing
foundational skills that are key to mastery. Many teachers use the same
diagnostic assessment as a formative or summative assessment later
into the unit to compare a student’s score at the beginning, middle, and
end of instruction. Diagnostic assessment lets teachers pinpoint a
student’s preconceptions of a topic, helping teacher’s anchor further

15
instruction on what students have already mastered. Additionally, this
kind of assessment helps teachers provide instruction to skills that need
more work.

The diagnostic evaluation can also be made to detect non-

pedagogical problems. It intends to determine the characteristics
susceptible to influence the quality of the learnings to come. Example,
the motivation of a pupil at a sometime of the school year (Richard, on
2004).

A student can fail in one or several subjects for very diverse

reasons. For example, to better identify the nature of the difficulties of
learning in mathematics the guidance counsellor-psychologist and the
teacher should regularly monitor the academic performance of the
student staggered throughout the school year. According to Liègeois
(2006), it may be interesting to see whether the lower grades of the
mathematics subject sanctioned:

- Lack of academic motivation;

- Lack of interest in this matter;
- Poor working method;
- The execution of basic operations (addition, subtraction), very
sensitive to attentional or memory deficit or weakness sequential
processes;
- Learning more complex operations (loans, multiplications,
divisions, operations on fractions), very sensitive to a deficit of
visual-spatial representations;
- Solving arithmetic problems, depending on reasoning skills and
concurrent mental imagery process;
- The application of algebraic rules, based on attention and
memory and the ability to work methodically;
- The interpretation of the geometry problems that requires a good
perception of visual-spatial relationships and a good capacity for
integration of corresponding vocabulary, etc.

Formative assessment

Formative assessments are an incredibly important part of the

teaching process. Formative assessment consists of the methods through
which a teacher monitors and checks student understanding on a

16
continual basis. Formative assessment is different than summative
assessment, or evaluations of knowledge at the end of units to check
total understanding, in that it is often done several times during a lesson
or unit and doesn't always need to be graded.

Formative assessments are ongoing assessments that help

teachers understand students' progress and their levels of
understanding during a unit of instruction. In contrast to a test given at
the end of a chapter or unit (known as assessment OF learning), formative
assessment is known as assessment FOR learning, because this
information can help teachers adjust instruction during the unit to help
students experience success.

There are many benefits of incorporating formative assessment

into instruction. Some of these benefits are that:
a) Teachers can modify instruction based on the learning of their
students

b) Teachers can identify student errors early and provide re-

teaching when needed

c) Students receive feedback about their learning in order to

identify strengths and weaknesses

d) Students are given the opportunities to set learning goals and ask
questions for clarification

e) Students are challenged to think deeply about what and how

they have learned

Formative assessment takes a central place in the teaching process.

It facilitates project management training and the suitability of the aims
and strategies. This is why it is also qualified educational assessment.

Summative assessment

Summative assessment is evaluation by which an inventory of

skills acquired, or balance sheet, after a training sequence with duration
shorter or longer." The summative evaluation focuses on performance
(the realized productions) assessed against the criteria for success. It

17
notes further that the control regulation, without ruling out, the
assessment.

This evaluation is obtained by the sum of several results,

obtained through different matters or different forms of test. The term is
more often used in a broad sense, to talk about the overall final
assessment.

Summative assessment demonstrates the extent of a learner's

success in meeting the assessment criteria used to gauge the intended
learning outcomes of a module or programme, and which contributes to
the final mark given for the module. It is normally, though not always,
used at the end of a unit of teaching. Summative assessment is used to
quantify achievement, to reward achievement, to provide data for
selection (to the next stage in education or to employment). For all these
reasons the validity and reliability of summative assessment are of the
greatest importance. Summative assessment can provide information
that has formative/diagnostic values.

Certification assessment

Summative assessment takes the form of a general assessment in

the case of the examinations of the end of cycle as the GCE”O Level” or
the GCE”A Level”. It is essential in the education system since it allows,
from an examination to certify that the level of the student meets the
requirements for the intended title.

The means of evaluation

From the perspective of the functions of the examiner De

Landsheere (1982) distinguishes an internal assessment by teachers of
an external evaluation performed by school psychologists and guidance
counsellors-psychologists. The nature of tests varies with the
characteristics of these two types of evaluation.

The student assessment means may be divided into two broad

categories: the psychometric tests for external evaluation and
performance tests for internal assessment (Sene, 2003). Our reflection
being dedicated to psychometric assessment, the definition of the

18
characteristics of psychometric instruments is the object of a whole
chapter. That is why we limit our analyses to the performance tests.

The functions and the characteristics of performances tests

The functions of the performances tests

The test are built and marked by the teachers who taught and
underwent by the pupils who received these teachings within the
framework of the class. They have for objective to verify through
determined tasks, if the skills installed during the process of education
(teaching – learning) are anchored well to the pupil's. It supposes that
the teacher assigned general and operational objectives by referring to
an explicit taxonomy (Sène, in 2003).

The assessment tests developed by teachers are generally in the

form of questions. . They are constituted by triggers and developers.
Triggers are tasks or situations created by the teachers to request a
number of activities on behalf of the pupils whereas developers are
specific questions which direct the activities of the learners to the skills
submitted to the evaluation.

The characteristics of performances tests

The quality triggers and the teacher developed revealing depends

on a set of characteristics required in any assessment test worthy of the
name (Sene, 2003), namely:

- Clarity in the formulation of the questions so that they do not suffer

any ambiguity.

- The validity of the test and its contents which guarantees that the test
estimates what it is supposed to estimate. Furthermore, questions asked
must be able to request a wide range of knowledge and skills taught
during the course. If the test limits to explore some very particular
aspects, it is not enough representation of the course any more.

- The level of difficulty of the test must match the skills that have been
built in the teaching-learning process. Some teachers prefer
comprehension questions based on critical thinking, to the detriment of

19
restitution issues that appeal to memory, while they have never formed
their students in the critical analysis.

- The formal aspect of the tests which can take on the shape of the
questions with multiple choices or that of the questions with open
answers, etc.

The specificities of the educational evaluation in Cameroon

The Education in Cameroon is organized according to French or

Anglo-Saxon models. That is why the Cameroonian regulations
regarding evaluation are organized around three bodies: OFFICE DU
BACCALAURÉAT (OBC) under French-speaking sub-system,
Cameroon GCE Board under Anglo-Saxon sub-system and the
Examinations, Competitive examinations and Certification Department
of the Ministry of Secondary Education.

The parameters of the process of evaluation can diverge

according to both sub-systems. According to Amatama Ngoulouk
(2005), a process of evaluation is underline by certain mechanisms such
as the organization of the examinations, the conception of the tests, the
methods of correction and the mode of processing of notes. These
mechanisms can determine the success or the failure of the pupils in the
various evaluations. The above-named bodies, being reference
structures regarding evaluation, exercise a real influence on the
practices of the evaluation, in particular, the summative evaluations
which are current in our establishments, specifically, in the conception
of the tests of evaluation.

Amatama Ngoulouk (idem), from a comparative analysis of the

various tests administered in the certification examinations in both sub-
systems, observes that the official programs constitute the elements of
construction of the tests, but the approaches diverge. The differences
concern the nature of the questions, the mode of evaluation, and the
number of disciplines and tests.

The nature of the questions is characterized by the use of the

theoretical questions in both sub-systems, but the specificity of English-
speaking sub-system results from the fact that these theoretical
questions are spread over two or three tests for the same discipline. On

20
the other hand, of the French speaking sub-system, there is only one
theoretical test by discipline. Besides, the multiple-choice questions are
used, in the French-speaking sub-system, only in life and the earth
sciences while in the other disciplines as the mathematics, the physics or
the chemistry, they favour the structural typical questions as essay and
the questions with open answers. It penalizes the pupils whose key
point is the memorization or the reminder of the knowledge.

The modes of evaluation are also different. In the theoretical tests

are added the practical tests under English-speaking sub-system;
whereas, under French-speaking sub-system, in particular in the general
education, the practical tests are optional. The structuring of a test of
evaluation under English-speaking sub-system is designed on the
model of the Bloom taxonomy: 35 % granted to the evaluation of the
knowledge, 30 % in the comprehension, 25 % to the application and 10
% reserved for the analysis/evaluation (Amatama Ngoulouk, 2005), the
aim being to develop in each student the knowledge, life skills, know-
how and the ways of behaving.

The number of subjects in the francophone sub-system is

plethoric, increasing the workload or the dispersion of student’s energy,
especially in scientific school paths where the humanities occupy a
prominent place. If under the francophone sub-system the major
concern is to equip students with encyclopaedic knowledge through a
plethora of disciplines. That is not the goal in the Anglophone sub-
system which rather favours the mastering of the chosen disciplines, the
efficiency, even the specialization.

In the term of this comparative analysis, Amatama Ngoulouk

observes that appreciations of the performances in the certification
evaluation under French-speaking sub-system oscillate between
"Mediocre" and "Passable" mentions, and the mentions " good enough ",
"Good" and "Very good" are rather rare. These appreciations may
question the validity of the tests of evaluation in this sub-system. That is
not the case under English-speaking sub-system.

Armed with these observations, the author believes that the

assessment tests under the English-speaking sub-system, in general, are
more effective and efficient compared to those under the French-

21
speaking sub-system. It holds of the quality of the tests on the double
plan of the form and substance.

Correction techniques

Ngo and Mbangwana (2001) cited by Amatama Ngoulouk (2005)

count "four approaches: the analytic, holistic subtractive and additive"

- The analytical approach consists to examine each answer given

by the student by verifying if it is in accordance or not with the
expected answer. It has for advantage to solve the problems of
variability during the multiple corrections of the same sheet.

- The holistic approach takes into account the sheet as a whole and
not a part of it. It aims to assess or estimate if the student generally
has approached the main issue or main idea throughout his work.

- The subtractive approach consists in sanctioning all the wrong

answers given by the student by subtracting a point of total points for
each wrong answer.

- The additive approach, meanwhile, consists in granting a bonus

of one mark for each correct answer given by the student. This bonus
is added to the score for the student to make up the final score.

Problems related to the marking of performance tests

Problems related to the correction were highlighted by the

prescriptive and experimental docimology prescriptive and experimental
which has for object the study of the examinations to identify the
intermediate variables or the parasites influencing the notations called
“disruptive effects ". These effects are not all of the same order and do
not involve the same types of mechanisms. Here is presented some
problems connected to the correction of the assessments. To become
aware of it, it is to be able to act to avoid them or, at least, reduce them.

22
The subjective biases

A subjective bias is largely derived from the subjectivity inherent

in any human judgement. Indeed, although he recognized the
importance of objectivity in assessing the performance of students, the
teacher is not exempt from this reality appropriate to every human
being. The subjectivity in question here can be intrinsic to the teacher or
bound to the prejudices and social stereotypes which are current in his
environment.

Differences between the markers

This bias holds the evidence that teachers are all different in their
approach to the same copy and assign it a value. More rigorously, many
experiments have shown that a student classified as "poor" by an
examiner could be rated "excellent" by another and vice versa. Every
examiner has criteria, sometimes unconscious and will probably differ
from those of other examiners. It has been demonstrated the systematic
existence of strong scoring differences of a correction notation from an
examiner to the other, especially in the humanities compared to science
subjects (Kitabgi, 2009).

To avoid this bias, define sufficiently precise marking criteria and

communicate them to students, giving, where possible, examples of
responses considered correct or incorrect. In addition, a grid of
correction can be crafted when several markers are concerned (Oger,
2006), this grid can limit the influences of other developed through the
following.

The effect of halo

This effect identified by Thorndike (1920) relates to the influence

of the external characteristics in the note (mark). The teachers in their
notations tend to be influenced, without being aware of it, by the
favourable or unfavourable impressions that they can have on the
student and who send back to certain particular dimensions of his work
or his behaviour.

For example, the writing, the care, the presentation of the copy or
simply the attitude of the student in an oral examination (the physical

23
presentation). This effect occurs more in the case of examinations of
papers with open questions than in the case of questions with multiple
choices.

The effect of contamination

When the answer to the first or the second question is considered

"good" or "bad" by the teacher, he tends to approach the correction of
the third question with the same a priori. According Oger (2006), it is
about the mutual influence of the respective notes (marks) attributed
(awarded) to the various aspects of a work.

For example, in the marking of an essay, the teacher begins to

note the spelling. If the errors are many, or even prevent understanding,
the teacher is inclined to assign a negative note also to the syntax, for the
fund, etc. By cons, if the spelling is almost impeccable, he is in a "good
mood" for other aspects of this assessment. In any case, he will look for
confirmation of his first impression.

The effect of stereotypy

After a few months of classes, the teacher knows enough students

to get an idea of their current skills. The stereotype effect is the
systematization of appreciation established. Teachers tend to base their
judgements on students and not on the actual performance of the
moment. Students and catalogued, the teachers affix them "labels" of
which they have difficulty in getting rid.

The school level which showed the pupils during the previous
evaluations influences generally the teachers. So, the usual "top of the
class" can see crediting with a positive prejudice which will favour its
notes (marks) during all year and conversely for the «last one of the
class « (Caverni and al, 1975). This phenomenon of labelling has a fatal
influence on the repeaters and the school late students

The sociological biases

The sociological biases relate to socio-cultural discrimination and

gender discrimination. It is established that teachers tend, often despite
themselves to be influenced in their notations by social origin or
ethnicity, students as well as their gender (Kitabgi, 2009). Stereotypes
24
associated with social or ethnic origin can bring teachers to overvalue
the performance of students from privileged backgrounds (social status
of parents), but also, depending on the circumstances, be more lenient
(paternalism or nepotism) in relation to some students. As to gender
stereotypes, there are phenomena which, depending on the situation,
sometimes advantaging girls, sometimes boys (Pygmalion effect).

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) showed that teachers' expectations

with respect to the success of their students manifest themselves in
behaviours that influence the results of a significant manner. We will
return in more detail on this bias in variables within the characteristics
of the examiner may influence test performance of the evaluated subject.

Mechanical bias

The effect of order of correction and the said effect of

"Posthumus" are fundamental biases which give evidence of the
intrinsic lack of reliability of any system of quantified correction.

The order effect and contrast in the succession of scripts

Bonniol (1965) highlighted the rating differences taking the order

effects of the marking by showing that every teacher who marks a copy
is automatically influenced by the script or scripts previously marked.
For example, by effect of unconscious difference, an average or bad
copy will be severely estimated all the more as it comes after a script
which will have obtained very good scores and conversely. In the same
register, this author also demonstrated that the same script does not
obtain the same mark as it is at the beginning or at the end of the series
of scripts to be mark and as generally, the last scripts of a series are
more severely noted than the first ones.

The effect of Posthumus

According to the law of Posthumus, a teacher always tends to

mechanically adjust the distribution of scores for a set of notes and a set
of marks from the same class, following the Gaussian distribution law.
Thus, marks are distributed bell-shaped with numerous average scores
and some very good and very bad ratings (Kitabgi, 2009).

25
 This in effect implies that the general level of the class in which a
student turns out determining because everything depends on his
performances compared with those of his companions. For example, in
equal performance in mathematics, a student can be judged by his
teacher as part of the "good performers" in a class and admitted in
“Lower Sixth Science”, while he can be denied this series in another.

The school biases

School bias depend on the school context, that is to say, the type
of school in which teachers are required to evaluate their students.

The class-effect

Teachers tend to be more severe in their ratings in classes whose

level is "very good”. When a class has a good overall level, more
teachers rise without necessarily realizing it, the level of their demands,
as if they felt encouraged by the satisfaction of teaching (Kitabgi, 2009).
This bias is mostly psychological.

The establishment effect

Researchers, in particular Merle (1998 ), highlighted the incidence

of the policy of the establishment on the notation of the students by
showing that schools wishing to distance themself by adopting a "elitist"
policy, are more demanding in their expectations and more severe in
their notations with the aim of maintaining "academic excellence"
reputation.

It goes without saying that according to the institution in which

he is located, the same student, for equal performances in the same
subject, assigned ratings can vary by several points. These variations
can have significant consequences on the educational and career choices
of students when we know the importance of the average in school
guidance and counselling, as the importance that takes today the
academic record of a student for his guidance in the upper or in
recruiting in higher education institutions or schools (Kitabgi, 2009).

26
The professional’s bias

These biases highlighted by Félouzis (1997) relate to the

differences of severity existing between the teachers. The researcher
notices that the degree of severity of a teacher depends on the
conception that he has of his job and his evolution in time. Some
teachers are carried towards a desire of equality and promotion of the
weakest, whereas others are turned to the will to select elite. These
biases are also mentioned bias of leniency or severity "

Two types of teachers distinguish themselves by the relationship

that they maintain professionally with the school institution and the
mission which he assigns him: holders of teacher’s academic ritualism
and teachers who show an educational pragmatism (Felouzis 1997).

Holders of a teachers' academic ritualism

This type of teaching is characterized by a rather severe way of

assessing, in which the mark are used to reflect the level of students in a
relatively demanding concern for monitoring their performance and an
elite training. For him, «student answered correctly the question, by
giving all the elements seen in the course, he has 12/20. For most, he
must amaze me with his mastery of the subject. "

Kitabgi admits that many teachers mark with severity to make

the pupils progress as much as possible. This pedagogy of the
requirement, also shared by some parents eager to see their children
succeed, is based on the idea that if you ask students most, you will get
more of them. This "dogmatic" teaching does not always work for many
students, because it can lead to frustration.

Teachers demonstrating a "pedagogical pragmatism"

The second type of teacher joins in a vision of the school closer to

the reality of the pupils. It is centred on the pupils, more than provides
teaching and notations are more indulgent. It uses the school evaluation
as an educational tool which allows him to inform the pupils and to
encourage them to progress, not hesitating for it to reward them with
“boost mark”. For this teacher, «no pupil is weakest in the point to

27
obtain a zero. It is necessary to grant to him at least a half-for the sheet
and the ink".

As a matter of fact, the tests of performances developed by the

teachers and administered to the pupils can present biases susceptible to
falsify the results of the evaluations. The uncertain reliability of the
evaluations takes place in fact at several levels. There are still other
variables which do not raise characteristics of the teachers, in particular
variables bound to the pupil and the situation which we shall discover
later.

Conclusion

By listing these biases, our objective is especially to show in what

the notation of scripts does not allow to measure with certainty the
performance of the pupils, while scales are precise and that the
conscientiousness of the teachers is not to be questioned. According to
Kitabgi (2009), marks obtained during schooling reflect well enough the
school level of each of the pupils on the long term. Our goal is not to
question the achievements of pupils. Thus, a pupil who globally, always
obtained from good grades during his schooling is a pupil who de facto,
has a good school level.

Conversely, a pupil who, except any particular behavioural,

social or school problem, that obtained little mark above the average
during his schooling, is a pupil who did not obtain a sufficient school
level. But, the author is afraid that the problem of lack of certainty and
just the notation which settles certainly in a punctual way, has serious
consequences at a certain key-moments of the schooling of the pupil, in
particular in the main landings of orientation, even all the life in the
selections based on school records.

The contribution of psychometric tests in educational assessment

For some teachers, from the point of view of the function of

educational assessment, there are really only three types of assessment,
namely: the formative evaluation, summative evaluation and
certification evaluation. These three types of evaluation are not
opposed; they are complementary, each with its very specific and

28
precise function. As for prognostic and diagnostic assessments, they are
nothing other than components of a true formative assessment.

During the year, the assessment should be formative. At the end

of each sequence, the class council should assess each child and not
merely find gaps or progress, but to look for it and to analyze the causes
by inquiring about the factors which are at the origin of the difficulties
observed at the pupil, on the changes to be brought, if need be, in the
way he works, gets organized, to manages his time etc. This analysis
should uncork, also, in actions of relevant remediation up, educational
support, guidance, etc.), in other words, by the adoption of a corrective
educational attitude. By destination, the formative assessment is
personal, that is centred on the learner and not only on its results.

The notion of formative assessment remained, for the most part

of the teachers, very often confused with the notion of continuous
assessment. Furthermore, all the system is centred on summative and
certification evaluation at the expense of formative assessment.

Naturally, the essential function of the formative assessment

consists of improving apprenticeships. The reality in our school system
is also the learnings which must be attested in an official way to allow
the pupil to reach the upper level, etc. In this respect, if the evaluation
was exclusively terminal, its harmonization with the formative
assessment would be easy. On one side, we would have a practice of
continuous evaluation centred only on the regulation of the
apprenticeships (formative assessment) and on the other side, we would
have a collection of information realized at the end of a process or of a
long period to state learnings realized and mastered by each of the
pupils (summative evaluation). There would be no encroachment of a
type of evaluation on each other and any attempt to do so (Richard,
2004).

In everyday reality of a classroom, things are not so simple. In

many educational contexts, summative evaluation is a practice of
continuous assessment. Therefore, information taken for evaluation
tends to be made improperly. One of the principles of the correctness of
the assessment is that the summative assessment of learning needs to
happen at the right time, that is to say that the student had
opportunities to overcome their learning difficulties and sufficient
29
learning situations before we officially decide on their level of
knowledge / skills related to learning outcomes pursued.

However, the trend is easy to join the interventions of formative

assessment to the sequences of summative evaluation. In mind of
several, it is easier to kill two birds with one stone. Unfortunately, it is
often the summative evaluation that has priority (Richard, 2004).

Psychologists, guidance counsellors feel many difficulties to be

integrated into our schools because the teachers do not perceive clearly
a strategy of teaching/learning based on the formative assessment and
diagnostic assessment.

It goes without saying that in our context, teachers are not

responsible for school failures of their students. Responsibility rest with
the parents (often accused of being lax or resigned) and especially
students whom we consider simply soiled by "original sins". The need
for summative evaluation and certification evaluation is a compelling
need, certainly, but it's not especially because in some important
moments, rather limited by the school curriculum, we need it that by
feedback, it should invade the whole field.

For Allal (1991), where "a system's priority is aim at bringing all
children to master some learning objectives, it is necessary to implement
the evaluation procedures which enable the adaptation of education
function of individual differences in learning. ".

Techniques finalized by the experimental psychology and the

differential psychology which we tried to adapt to the specific needs for
the pedagogy (psychometric tests) were added to the means and
procedures of traditional exams. Thus, the psychometric assessment
came to support the means of traditional academic assessment to this
fact, to give the student a more accurate profile and pedagogical action a
more objective view (Sene, 2003).

The guidance-counselling or school psychology service, which

has as load the psychometric assessment in our institutions, should
contribute, in a significant way to the development of assessment
procedures that promote the adaptation of 'teaching to the individual
differences of learners, namely formative assessment.

30
 According to Peretti (2000), orientation consultant is linked to a
series of batch operations, multiple and non-terminal points (prognostic
or diagnostic assessment helps maintenance, etc.), led, in close
collaboration, by the teachers and the guidance counsellors-
psychologists.

It is a question, in times given, of reviewing, by mediation or

intervention and not by penalty, onto the route and the motives of a
pupil and of studying, with him and his circle of acquaintances, the
decisions of remediation, of changes of program, sectors, options and
ways which would enable him to achieve better results: long-term in the
terminal selection tests (summative or certification evaluation) but in the
short term, those in control (continuous assessment).

The actions of psychologist and guidance counsellor derive their

sense of linking psychological processes and learning abilities of
students. The guidance counsellor-psychologist brings within the
framework of teamwork the support of his skills for the prevention of
the school difficulties, for the elaboration of the educational project of
the school and its realization, as well as for the conception and the
implementation of the measures of individual or collective assistants to
the advantage of the underachieving students.

Psychometric evaluation in schools, following the example of the

other types of evaluation, thanks to the more and more refined and
proven techniques, puts at the disposal of teachers and educators the
information on the characteristics of materials they load to transform.

31
32
 CHAPTER 2:
PSYCHOMETRIC ASSESSMENT
___________________________________________________

Psychometrics is a field of study concerned with the theory and

technique of psychological measurement. One part of the field is
concerned with the objective measurement of skills and knowledge,
abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational achievement. For
example, some psychometric researchers have, thus far, concerned
themselves with the construction and validation of assessment
instruments such as questionnaires, tests, ratters’ judgments, and
personality tests. Another part of the field is concerned with statistical
research bearing on measurement theory.

In the case of behaviour, it seems more difficult to measure a

concept so abstract and perhaps subjective, hence the need to use
particularly refined instruments to ensure the objectivity and reliability
of measurements. Therefore, psychologists verify the existence of certain
metrological tests before use. We will review the main features and
characteristics of psychometric testing after making a brief historical
overview of psychometric assessment.

Historical background on the psychometric evaluation

Psychological testing has come from two streams of thought: the

first, from Darwin, Galton, and Cattell on the measurement of
individual differences, and the second, from Herbart, Weber, Fechner,
and Wundt and their psychophysical measurements of a similar
construct. The second set of individuals and their research is what has
led to the development of experimental psychology, and standardized
testing. (bbbb)

Charles Darwin was the inspiration behind Sir Francis Galton

who led to the creation of psychometrics. In 1859, Darwin published his
book "The Origin of Species", which pertained to individual differences
in animals. This book discussed how individual members in a species

33
differ and how they possess characteristics that are more adaptive and
successful or less adaptive and less successful. Those who are adaptive
and successful are the ones that survive and give way to the next
generation, who would be just as or more adaptive and successful.

This idea, studied previously in animals, led to Galton's interest

and study of human beings and how they differ one from another, and
more importantly, how to measure those differences. Galton often
referred to as "the father of psychometrics," devised and included
mental tests among his anthropometric measures.

James McKeen Cattell, who is considered a pioneer of

psychometrics went on to extend Galton's work. Cattell also coined the
term mental test, and is responsible for the research and knowledge
which ultimately led to the development of modern tests. (Kaplan &
Saccuzzo, 2010).

Herbart was also interested in "unlocking the mysteries of human

consciousness" through the scientific method. (Kaplan & Saccuzzo,
2010) Herbart was responsible for creating mathematical models of the
mind, which were influential in educational practices in years to come.
E.H. Weber built upon Herbart's work and tried to prove the existence
of a psychological threshold, saying that a minimum stimulus was
necessary to activate a sensory system.

After Weber, Fechner expanded upon the knowledge he gleaned

from Herbart and Weber, to devise the law that the strength of a
sensation grows as the logarithm of the stimulus intensity. A follower of
Weber and Fechner, Wilhelm Wundt is credited with founding the
science of psychology. It is Wundt's influence that paved the way for
others to develop psychological testing. (bbb)

In 1904, Charles Spearman resumed the work of Galton and by

factor analysis discovers the general factor he called general intelligence
(g factor).

In 1905, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon will be asked to build

a tool to help address underachievement. The function of this
instrument is to detect retarded children, to improve their monitoring

34
and / or referral to special education. Thus, they created the first
intelligence test, "Binet-Simon Scale Metric".

In 1912, Wilhelm Stern has the idea of the relationship between

the results obtained by Binet-Simon and the actual age, and coined the
term "intellectual Quotient, IQ". The problem is that IQ is only
applicable to children, and limited to adults with mental disabilities;

The psychometrician L. L. Thurstone, founder and first president

of the Psychometric Society in 1936, developed and applied a theoretical
approach to measurement referred to as the law of comparative
judgment, an approach that has close connections to the psychophysical
theory of Ernst Heinrich Weber and Gustav Fechner. In addition,
Spearman and Thurstone both made important contributions to the
theory and application of factor analysis, a statistical method developed
and used extensively in psychometrics.

Second World War confirmed the interest in intelligence and

aptitude tests and has been a powerful stimulus for personality tests.
The method of testing has also developed in medicine, where up to
1939, apart from the diagnosis of mental debility, it was little used
(Fernandez, 2001). Over the time, the evaluation of stable psychological
characteristics (personality traits skills, etc.) proves an unavoidable
necessity to base decisions and the decisions of the issue for people
evaluated, for societies, schools and other institutions organizations.

The psychometric testing

The psychometric testing is the systematic application of a

procedure for using a psychometric instrument, the "test". This
instrument consists of a set of tasks (called "items") to be performed by
the evaluated subject.

These tasks are selected and administered according to well

defined rules psychometric. They require the individual considered a
performance whose interpretation can measure, infer or predict certain
psychological or behavioural characteristics specific to this individual.

35
 The behaviour observed in the test are used for the purpose to:

• predict other behaviours,

• estimating a psychological dimension or characteristic of
an individual,
• clarify or verify a psychological theory.
These psychometric rules concern:

• The choice of forming test tasks (construction and item

analysis)

• The nature or the content of these tasks or items are based

on the attribute or characteristic you want to measure: intelligence,
interests, personality, psychopathology, knowledge of the individual,
etc.

• Their conditions of administration by the evaluator and

implementation by the individual examined (standardization, ethic or
ethics)

• The correction and interpretation of the performance

achieved (standardization, objectivity and standardization)

• The value (reliability, validity and sensitivity) of this

interpretation (that is to say, inference, measurement or prediction) of
the characteristics of the individual.

Psychometric tests are used to make various types of decisions in

various fields of human activity.

• Types of decision
o Screening and diagnosis: detection and identification of
individuals that may be some psychological characteristics:
 mental retardation
 psychological or emotional condition
 social deviance (delinquency, maladjustment)
 Language development
o Selection, placement and classification
o Prediction
• Environments or areas of application testing
o clinical
36
  Diagnosis
o industrial
o military environment
o counselling environment
 Educational and Vocational Counselling and Guidance
o School
 Skill Level
 school selection
 school placement
 Summative Evaluation of Educational Achievement
 Diagnosis of the causes of school failure and formative
evaluation (improve learning and teaching)
o Scientific Research
 differential psychology (study and measure differences
between individuals and groups of people)
 Epidemiology
 Evaluation of the effects of intervention programs
 experimental Psychology
 Estimation or measurement of the psychological effect of
various experimental conditions
 Verification and measurement of theoretical assumptions

The objectives of the psychometric evaluation in schools

Two goals are set in the psychometric assessment in schools:

orientation or student selection and diagnostic assessment to regulate
the conduct of learning (educational psychology monitoring, education
of children with mental or psychological disabilities) are the two key
dimensions of evaluation performed using psychometric instruments.

When recognition of the potential of the student is motivated for

reasons of orientation and selection, or diagnosis, the scope is very
broad. It requires the use of diverse techniques and tools: knowledge
tests, aptitude and development tests, interest, attitudes and personality
questionnaires are the forms of the most commonly used tools and
about which grew construction methodologies and validation
techniques solidly proven. The problem is not to gather evidence, but to
increase the predictive value of observations using tools as
differentiated as possible within evaluative trials batteries or integrated
approaches to be constructed by programming rigorous observations.
37
 Regarding the skills of examiner, if the verification of knowledge
and skills by school tests within the competence of teachers,
development of a guidance prognosis, selection or adaptation requires
control theoretical knowledge and techniques underlying the
construction and use of the relevant tests. This function is provided by
psychologists and counsellors with technical knowledge of
psychometrics and knowledge in areas such as statistics, differential
psychology, clinical psychology, occupational psychology, with, where
appropriate, the assistance of school doctors, etc.

The research of school orientation and professional selection

determinants

Personal or professional future of a student is neither

unpredictable nor totally predictable. One can generally be based on
some elements of the past or present to make projections into the future.
The orientation consists in looking for all the possible ways offered to
the individual and in which he (it) has chances, or most chances, to
realize his (its) projects or to come true. On the other hand, the selection
consists in looking for the individuals who best correspond to the
profiles of a sector of study or a profession, considering their
characteristics and constraints of the sector or the profession. In both
cases, it is a question of establishing a forecast of adaptation of the
pupil.

Psychometric evaluation in schools is based above all on the

research of the determinants of successful learning or professional
success. Three categories of determinants can be distinguished:

- Those who fall under the mastery of knowledge and skills

considered conditions of access to education or profession industry.
The identification of these determinants is the domain of school
evaluation, including of the summative evaluation.

- Those holding to psychological, physical or psycho-physiological

characteristics of the individual who will be solicited by the content
of the teachings or requirements of the profession. It is merely to seek
facts, but to grasp the developments, to anticipate the emergence of
new facts or new acquisitions. This anticipation notes of the bet. The
value of this assessment is to be able to improve success predictions

38
 based not on chance but on well-validated models. These models can
be of various nature. Some are the result of empirical findings: such
observable characteristic of the individual is associated with such a
category of facts (combination that can be quantified in terms of
probabilities). Other models involve theoretical constructs such
models on the organization skills, development or psychological
functioning.

- Those who fall under circumstances unrelated to content

teachings or requirements of the profession but may help or hinder
the adaptation of the individual. These factors are varied in nature.
They can be either external to the individual (physical and social
environment and living conditions, for example) or internal
(personality factors, motivations, interests, value systems, attitudes).

The diagnosis of learning difficulties as learning support

The most represented difficulties are of cognitive order: all which

concerned the knowledge, the activities of coding, storage, reminder
and processing of the information. It is about the expression and about
the oral and written understanding, about the rhythm of learning, about
the memorization, about the management of the complexity of the real
tasks, about the passage of the theory in the practical realization, about
the planning, about the vision in the space, about the representation
(school materials (subjects), try, etc.) Of the balance between the
approaches synthesis or analysis.

Then the difficulties of affectivo-motivational order come then (or

conative: all the processes which activate), direct and decide on the
ruling of the driving or cognitive behaviour): panic, discouragement,
blocking, impulsiveness, refusal of the theory, the indifference for the
contents of teachings. The difficulties of psychomotor order
(coordination of the sensory and driving processes) are very present in
certain trainings requiring the acquisition of postures and professional
gestures (movements) (industrial technical education). Finally, also exist
psychosocial difficulties (relative to the psychological factors
determining the interactions between the individuals): social constraints
of the learnings, the adaptation to the group work, the relational
problems.

39
 In the diagnostic of psychological type, the psychometric
evaluation of the handicapped pupils or in trouble adaptation or
learning(apprenticeship) aims at specifying the measures of support
which they need and to determine the ways(means) to set up to favour
their success at school, worth knowing(namely): adjust the
interventions, adapt the education(teaching) to improve the
learning(apprenticeship). The diagnostic of difficulties of learning
(apprenticeship) of psychological type can be, if possible, completed by
diagnostic of educational type of, remedial diagnostic, speech therapy,
medical diagnostic, social diagnostic, etc.

The psychometric test

According to Pichot, (1954) «We call mental test a standardized

experimental situation being of use as stimulus to behaviour. This
behaviour is estimated by a statistical comparison with other
individuals placed in the same situation, so allowing classifying the
examined subject, either quantitatively, or typologically.". Nowadays,
«mental test ", expression used by the psychologist James McKeen
Cattell in 1890 is replaced by "psychometrics".

This definition insists strongly on the standardization and also

introduces the essential comparison of the behaviour estimated with
that of the other individuals, comparison which aims to allow a
classification of the subject examined within the group of defined
subjects. This sends back to the second fundamental characteristic of the
tests.

Thus a test is, above all, a way of convenient location. It allows

the results obtained in certain determined tests, executed in also well
defined conditions, to place an individual with regard to a reference
population having been of use to the calibration of the test. The tasks
which contain the tests are chosen and administered according to rules
psychometric well defined. They require from the examined individual
a performance the interpretation of which allows to measure, to deduce
or to predict certain specific psychological or behavioural characteristics
to this individual, to make a decision (orientation in the sectors of
studies, school selection, school investment, evaluation summative of
the school yield, etc.) or to make a diagnosis (diagnosis of the causes of

40
the academic failures, the formative assessment, the mental retardation,
the psychological or emotional disorders, the social abnormalities, etc.)

Types of tests according to administration characteristics

There are various types of tests that can be grouped according to

certain administration characteristics (how items are presented to the
test-taker)

Individual tests

Individual tests require the presence of an examiner and an

examined with each individual examiner gives the instructions orally or
visually presents each item and records each response
Advantages:
 Allows oral or manipulative responses (manipulate objects as in
Seguin Form Board)
 Allows open or free answers
 Allows the timing of the response time
 Allows qualitative observation of the behaviour of the individual
examined, its particular way to respond and emotional reactions to the
situation and test items
 Allows a better adaptation to the unique characteristics of
examinee
 Used especially in clinical examination or counselling situations
or with special populations.

Disadvantages:

 Expensive and not very fast

 Requires a trained examiner
 any standardization of measurement
 Greater interaction Examiner examined

Group tests

Collective or group tests are tests that can be administered

simultaneously to several individuals by a single examiner. They consist
of a set of items organized according to their degree of difficulty and
printed in a booklet as providing instructions on the proper way to
respond. The responses of the examined are predefined (simple and
41
closed). In general, most collective tests are paper-pencil tests.
Individuals considered must respond in writing, on an answer sheet, to
items presented to them on a sheet or booklet specially constructed for
the test. The collective psychometric testing thus involves the
application of a procedure for using a psychometric instrument in a
group of subjects.

The grouping of the items of the group tests

Subtest:

Subtest of a test consists of a group of homogeneous items for

their content (measuring the same characteristic). A test can be formed
of several subtests, each measuring a characteristic or aspect or a
different level of difficulty. The reliability and validity are usually
measured separately for each subtest and for the entire test

Test Battery

Test Battery is a set of different tests and administered separately.

Each test measures a different characteristic and provides a specific
score for the characteristic that it measures. Up more sometimes allow a
single score, composite specific scores. The reliability and validity of the
battery are usually not calculated as such but depend on the validity
and accuracy of each test

The advantages and the inconveniences of the group tests

The collective tests have several advantages. They allow faster

examination of large groups of individuals, the correction of answer
sheets is faster. The testing time is generally shorter compared to some
individual tests. The required equipment is less expensive. It does not
require extensive training of staff responsible for the administration,
because there is a possibility of simplification and automation of the
roles of the examiner (Bélanger, 2005). They can also be employed in
individual examinations.

On the other hand, the inconveniences of the collective tests

result from the restricted variety of the possible answers, because the
answers are predefined and closed. Furthermore, the obtained score can

42
be influenced by the trend of the subject examined to guess the good
answers or respond randomly to give a response to more possible items.

In addition, the interpersonal relationship between the examiner

and the subject is lesser, it pulls a reduced control of the individual
factors of testing (in particular the fatigue, the anxiety, the bad
understanding of the instructions, etc.) which can bias the results of the
tests (Bélanger, 2005.) finally, we can also raise the absence of
observation of the examined subjects and the adaptation of the
conditions of signing of the test to the particular characteristics of every
examined subject.

Speed and power test

This distinction applies mainly to maximum performance testing,

performance speed is then considered as an element of the maximum
performance. The presence of a time limit in typical benchmark test is
rather a fact of temporal management of the award (which is the time
required for an individual to answer all the questions), management
necessary for planning sessions of testing.

Speed test involves a limited time to respond, so that nobody, or

almost, could respond to all items within the time limit. The items are
usually easy to succeed. The resulting score is a function of both the
speed (number of questions answered) and the accuracy of the answer.
The score can be influenced by a tendency of the subject to guess the
correct answers or respond randomly to give a response to the greatest
possible items.

Power test involve no time limit to respond to all items. The items
are of varying difficulty and often growing from one item to another, so
that no or almost no one can answer without error in all items even if he
has the time to consider all the items and to respond.

Verbal or situational test

In most tests, the items are presented verbally, written or oral, as

in the case of most school exams. However, in some tests, the individual
is placed in a "natural situation" where the behaviour is observed and
recorded. For example, we can ask him to find and fix a fault in an

43
automobile or appliance. The review Protect yourself submits
mechanics garages or repair technicians to such tests. When you pass
your practical test for your driving licence, you spend a situational test
compared to the test report written knowledge of the Highway Code.
The performance or behaviour of the individual examined (mechanic,
repairer or aspiring conductor) is then observed, recorded and listed.

Situational tests are often test "criterion-referenced" where the

measured performance is a sample of the performance "criterion"
predicted by the test results. These situational tests give a more
representative measure of actual performance of the individual as
"normative" tests or "analogue" tests such as tests "verbal" paper and
pencil.

Required characteristics of a test

Since objectivity is a key to using psychometric assessments, a good

psychometric test provides fair and accurate results each time it's given.
A test is an observation instrument that has specific properties
including: standardization of procedures (situation, instruction, and
evaluation of the conduct) objectivity, reliability, validity and
discriminative finesse or sensibility (Bélanger, 2002). Before using a test,
the examiner must ensure that the selected test has all these properties;
hence the need to adapt the tests that were built in a different cultural
sphere from ours.

To ensure this, the test must meet these three key criteria:

Standardization of procedures

By definition, a psychometric test is standardized. In fact, by

analogy, we may consider the testing, correction and interpretation of a
test as a well-controlled experimental situation in which the examined is
an independent variable, the measured behaviour as a dependent
variable (Pépin, 2007). Standardisation has the essential function to
eliminate bias due to the subjectivity of the examiner in the evaluation.
To highlight the individual differences and estimate their magnitude,
the subjects are placed in exactly the same situation. The diversity of
their behaviour can be explained by their own characters. Putting
people in exactly the same conditions means that we have precisely

44
defined the proposed task: questions answer formulated in an identical
manner for all and solve a concrete problem assuming an object
manipulation. The physical characteristics of these are well specified
and always identical from one topic to another.

The indications which we give to the subject (instructions) to

indicate him the purpose of its activity or to impose him a method of
work are also strictly identical from a subject to the other one. Finally,
the evaluation of the subject’s response excludes the personal
appreciation of the examiner.

The requirements of standardization are perfectly filled when we

apply collectively tests "paper-pencil" (Situation and printed
instructions are thus identical for all; the correction consists simply most
of the time in counting the good answers by means of a marking guide).
Thus the standardization involves the uniformity of the procedures in
the administration of the test and in the interpretation of the answers
and the scores.

On one hand, the procedures of administration must be

standardized:

- The materials used must be uniform for all examinees; (Test

booklets, answer sheets etc.);
- The duration of the tests must be the same for all
- The instructions or instructions given to examinees must be the
same for all;
- The type of behaviour of the examiner must impose specific ways
of acting during testing, correction, etc.

On the other hand, procedures for interpreting answers and score

or comprehensive income obtained test must be standardized according
to standards of interpretation ranging performance of each subject with
other individuals.

The objectivity

Objectivity is defined as the property of a procedure whose

outcome depends on the characteristics of the examined subject rather
than the characteristics of the examiner and, also, does not vary from

45
one examiner to another. This procedure must be explicit and
standardized so that different examiners using the same test with the
same subject arrive at the same result.

The reliability

The test must produce consistent results, and not be significantly

influenced by outside factors It implies the absence of variability and
instability; it refers to a notion of consistency with the image of a scale
that must provide the same successive indications of the same object.
Generally, a test is accurate or reliable if it gives similar scores when
applied twice consecutively in the same individual. The more a test is
reliable, the more the error of measure inherent to a score is weak. We
cannot grant sufficient confidence to the results if the reliability of a test
is mediocre (Fernandez, 2007). There are several types of reliability:

- Test-retest reliability is a measure of reliability obtained by

administering the same test twice over a period of time to a group of
individuals. The scores from Time 1 and Time 2 can then be correlated
in order to evaluate the test for stability over time. The correlation
between scores on the first test and the scores on the retest is used to
estimate the reliability of the test using the Pearson product-moment
correlation coefficient:

- Inter-rater reliability is a measure of reliability used to assess the

degree to which different judges or raters agree in their assessment
decisions. Inter-rater reliability is useful because human observers will
not necessarily interpret answers the same way; raters may disagree as
to how well certain responses or material demonstrate knowledge of the
construct or skill being assessed.

- Average inter-item correlation is a subtype of internal

consistency reliability. It is obtained by taking all of the items on a test
that probe the same construct (e.g., reading comprehension),
determining the correlation coefficient for each pair of items, and finally
taking the average of all of these correlation coefficients. This final step
yields the average inter-item correlation.

- Split-half reliability is another subtype of internal consistency

reliability. The process of obtaining split-half reliability is begun by

46
“splitting in half” all items of a test that are intended to probe the same
area of knowledge in order to form two “sets” of items. The entire test
is administered to a group of individuals, the total score for each “set” is
calculated, and finally the split-half reliability is obtained by
determining the correlation between the two totals “set” scores. The
correlation between these two split halves is used in estimating the
reliability of the test. This halves reliability estimate is then stepped up
to the full test length using the Spearman–Brown prediction formula.

- There are several ways of splitting a test to estimate reliability.

For example, a 40-item vocabulary test could be split into two subtests,
the first one made up of items 1 through 20 and the second made up of
items 21 through 40. However, the responses from the first half may be
systematically different from responses in the second half due to an
increase in item difficulty and fatigue.

- In splitting a test, the two halves would need to be as similar as

possible, both in terms of their content and in terms of the probable state
of the respondent. The simplest method is to adopt an odd-even split, in
which the odd-numbered items form one half of the test and the even-
numbered items form the other. This arrangement guarantees that each
half will contain an equal number of items from the beginning, middle,
and end of the original test.

- Internal consistency: assesses the consistency of results across

items within a test. The most common internal consistency measure is
Cronbach's alpha, which is usually interpreted as the mean of all
possible split-half coefficients. Cronbach's alpha is a generalization of an
earlier form of estimating internal consistency.

Internal consistency reliability

This refers to the reliability of the way in which the questions

within a test measure a particular characteristic or ability. Internal
consistency is usually measured according to Cronbach’s alpha
coefficient of reliability, which ranges from 0 (low reliability) to 1 (high
reliability). A high coefficient indicates that the questions in the test are
similar in content, or uniform. It is important to note that the number of
questions in a test can also affect its internal consistency and a very long
test can yield an inflated reliability coefficient.

47
The validity

It is an agreement/relationship between a test score and the

quality it is intended to measure. Validity refers to how well a test
measures what it is purported to measure. According to Baatram (1994)
quoted by Fernandez (2007) "the validity sends back to the relevance
and to the possibility of justifying the assertions which we can make
from the scores for a test, it also concerns the elements which we have to
justify the inferences which we can make from the scores of a test".

The validity is the most important criterion in the choice of a test.

It makes reference to the characteristics measured by the test and to the
accuracy with which it estimates these characteristics. The validity gives
meaning to the test scores. Various methods provide a variety of
evidence supporting or not the validity of a test (Fernandez, 2001).
Researchers refer to many different kinds of validity. However, all can
be classified into three broad categories:

Criterion-related validity

This is measured by examining the correlation between test

performance and an external criterion such as on-the-job performance.
In other words, we should expect individuals who get a high score in
the test to perform better on the job than individuals with a low test
score. If the external criterion (job performance) takes place at the same
time as the test, we call it concurrent validity. If the test takes place first
and the external criterion is examined later, we call it predictive validity.

Concurrent validity

Concurrent validity refers to the degree to which the

operationalization correlates with other measures of the same construct
that are measured at the same time. When the measure is compared to
another measure of the same type, they will be related (or correlated).

Concurrent validity is a type of evidence that can be gathered to

defend the use of a test for predicting other outcomes. It is a parameter
used in sociology, psychology, and other psychometric or behavioural
sciences. Concurrent validity is demonstrated when a test correlates
well with a measure that has previously been validated. The two

48
measures may be for the same construct, but more often used for
different, but presumably related, constructs.

Predictive validity

Predictive validity refers to the degree to which the

operationalization can predict (or correlate with) other measures of the
same construct that are measured at some time in the future. Again,
with the selection test example, this would mean that the tests are
administered to applicants, all applicants are hired, their performance is
reviewed at a later time, and then their scores on the two measures are
correlated.

This is also when measurement predicts a relationship between

what is measured and something else; predicting whether or not the
other thing will happen in the future. This type of validity is important
from a public view standpoint; is this going to look acceptable to the
public or not?

In psychometrics, predictive validity is the extent to which a

score on a scale or test predicts scores on some criterion measure.

Content-related validity

Content validity is a non-statistical type of validity that involves

"the systematic examination of the test content to determine whether it
covers a representative sample of the behaviour domain to be
measured" (Anastasi & Urbina, 1997). For example, does an IQ
questionnaire have items covering all areas of intelligence discussed in
the scientific literature?

Content validity evidence involves the degree to which the

content of the test matches a content domain associated with the
construct. For example, a test of the ability to add two numbers should
include a range of combinations of digits. A test with only one-digit
numbers, or only even numbers, would not have good coverage of the
content domain. Content related evidence typically involves subject
matter experts evaluating test items against the test specifications.

A test has content validity built into it by careful selection of

which items to include (Anastasi & Urbina, 1997). Items are chosen so
49
that they comply with the test specification which is drawn up through
a thorough examination of the subject domain by using a panel of
experts to review the test specifications and the selection of items the
content validity of a test can be improved. The experts will be able to
review the items and comment on whether the items cover a
representative sample of the behaviour domain.

Test content should also reflect the level of understanding of the

target population.

Construct-related validity

This requires a demonstration that the test measures the trait or

ability (construct) it claims to measure. For example, a test for a specific
professional aptitude must assess an individual’s flair for that
profession, and not their level of motivation.

Construct-related validity is generally assessed in two distinct

ways:

• By asking a panel of experts to assess how well the test

questions correlate with the particular ability or characteristic that the
test sets out to measure (face validity)

• By administering the test alongside established tests developed

to measure the same constructs, and examining the correlation between
them (convergent validity); or by administering the test alongside
established tests developed to measure converse constructs, and
examining their correlation (divergent validity)

Convergent and divergent validity are the two subtypes of

validity that make up construct validity. Convergent validity refers to
the degree to which two measures of constructs that theoretically should
be related are in fact related. In contrast divergent validity tests whether
concepts or measurements that are supposed to be unrelated are, in fact,
unrelated.

For example, construct of general happiness. If a measure of

general happiness had convergent validity, then constructs similar to
happiness (satisfaction, contentment, cheerfulness, etc.) should relate
closely to the measure of general happiness.
50
 If this measure has discriminate validity, then constructs that are
not supposed to be related to general happiness (sadness, depression,
despair, etc.) should not relate to the measure of general happiness.
Measures can have one of the subtypes of construct validity and not the
other. Using the example of general happiness, a researcher could create
an inventory where there is a very high correlation between general
happiness and contentment, but if there is also a significant correlation
between happiness and depression, then the measure's construct
validity is called into question. The test has convergent validity but not
discriminant validity.

Face Validity

Face Validity ascertains that the measure appears to be assessing

the intended construct under study. The stakeholders can easily assess
face validity. Although this is not a very “scientific” type of validity, it
may be an essential component in enlisting motivation of stakeholders.
If the stakeholders do not believe the measure is an accurate assessment
of the ability, they may become disengaged with the task.

Example: If a measure of art appreciation is created all of the items

should be related to the different components and types of art. If the
questions are regarding historical time periods, with no reference to any
artistic movement, stakeholders may not be motivated to give their best
effort or invest in this measure because they do not believe it is a true
assessment of art appreciation.

The types of validity are used in different circumstances to

support the validation of tests.

Relationship between Reliability & Validity:

It is useless to establish validity of a test if it is not reliable and it

is possible to have reliability without validity, but it is impossible to
demonstrate that an unreliable test is valid. Why?

Because, theoretically, a test should not correlate, more highly,

with any other test/variable than it correlates with itself.

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Discriminative finesse or sensitivity

The sensitivity of a test is defined as its more or less

discriminative finesse that is its ability to classify examined students in a
larger or smaller number of levels and to detect to measure real
differences the finest between the performances or the characteristics of
the same individual or between several individuals.

To sum up, a test is required to answer the following four

requirements: the same result, the same size at any intervals time; detect
one ability (or set of skills) throughout the test; mark many differences,
even small; well indicate the corresponding measure to the size which it
estimates.

Tests Classification from the point of view of the function

From the point of view of the function, we distinguish the tests of

efficiency and the personality tests.

Tests of efficiency

The tests of efficiency concern the evaluation of the individual

characteristics implied (involved) in the collection and the data
processing. Their main characteristic is that for every item, we can
determine a «good answer» or "a right answer". The performances of the
students are expressed generally in terms of efficiency (how many good
answers with regard to (compared with) the numbers of items). They
include two major categories: the tests relative to the cognitive sphere
and the peripheral tests.

Tests of cognitive sphere

Most of the cognitive tests are a matter of an empirical and

descriptive approach based on the factorial analysis. From various tests,
we try to release statistical factors reporting obtained performances and
to interpret them as demonstrations of certain forms or modalities of the
intelligence. Before classifying these tests, it is important to clarify two
key-concepts.

52
General notions of intelligence and ability

Notions of intelligence

The intelligence is an including concept. When we ask to define

what the intelligence is, as much the specialists with their formal
theories, as the layman in the street with its informal theories, they
derives from various behaviours which can be gathered as copies of this
entity. (Loranger and Pepin, 2010)

According to Sternberg and Salter (1982), quoted by Loranger

and Pépin (2010) the intelligence is «a set of adaptive behaviour directed
to a purpose. » They intelligent behaviour allowing the individual to
answer adequately the challenges of all kinds that he meets in his
reality, these challenges which can be a matter as well of internal or
external environments of the most varied and being able to differ from
one species to another one. That is why it remains impossible to develop
a list of all the intelligent behaviour. Then this behaviour is managed
towards a purpose. As for the behaviour, the purposes vary largely
according to the sorts, the individuals, to the situations, demands of the
environment, and the characteristics of the people. But generally, an
aimless driving is not considered as an intelligent driving.

In psychology, the concept of intelligence contains two meanings.

According to the first design stemming from tests of IQ (intelligence
quotient), the intelligence would be a kind of general capacity allowing
the individual to produce performances (school for example) of certain
level, as we relate to the average level of the individuals of the same age.
Thus this design allows to compare individuals on the same scale and to
forecast a success or a school difficulty. According to a second design,
embodied in particular by Piaget (Tricot, 2002), the intelligence is the
capacity to handle, to acquire and to reuse knowledge. The intelligence
is then synonymous of what we call today the cognition. The tests of
intelligence lean on various approaches of the intelligence: the factorial
approach, the global approach and the developmental approach.

Notions of ability

Ability and its use depend on the context: physical capacities,

psychomotor capacities, general or specific capacities, verbal, spatial,

53
digital, technical, artistic, social capacities, etc. The notion of capacity is
not an observable datum, but a constructed. She allows differentiating
individuals or human groups under the angle of the efficiency (capacity
to produce a positive effect).it can indicate as well elementary processes,
global functions, combinations of global functions concerning the
intellectual process, concerning the training of the personality or
concerning the expression of the affectivity (Rozencwajg, 2000).

The underlying goal of general ability tests is to assess students in

terms of their overall intellectual potential and build a profile of their
individual strengths and weaknesses. The main types of ability test used
in selection are:

-Tests of General or Global Ability (also called "g", intelligence, IQ)

-Tests of Specific Cognitive abilities (Abstract Reasoning, Verbal

Reasoning, Numerical Reasoning)

-Tests of Psychomotor abilities and specific aptitudes (vision, hearing,

motor dexterity, artistic ability, mechanical ability, management
potential, leadership potential etc.)

-Tests of general / global ability attempt to measure a person's ability

to solve problem, analyse, understand and adapt to new situations or
challenges. They usually produce an IQ score or measure of 'g'.

Tests of specific cognitive & psychomotor abilities attempt to

measure the depth and nature of particular strengths and weaknesses in
subject or job related areas. Typically these involve high level cognitive
processing, complex problem solving, analytical reasoning, verbal
reasoning, abstract reasoning and information checking. In some
instances tests may extend to visual acuity, motor dexterity, mechanical
reasoning and other psychomotor domains. The choice of test is largely
dependent upon the context and nature of the role.

For school psychologists, abilities are individual characteristics,

relatively stable, resulting from over-training or genetically determined.
The development of methods for measuring skills and the study of the
relationship between the results and the factors behind them have
identified a considerable number of specific skills. Aptitude tests are

54
therefore working to measure individual characteristics responsible for
the acquisition and processing of information and to define the future
performance of an individual in an area where he has not been formed.

Factorial tests

The aptitude tests

The English psychologist Charles Spearman proposed in 1904 a

theory that is based on a factor analysis of intelligence. According to
him, intelligence is one-dimensional, which means that it can be
measured with a single value. Furthermore, there is a correlation
between the powers of reasoning and sensory perception he called g
factor or general intelligence. To evaluate he passed a series of tests to
students and found that their average corresponded to the g factor. This
implies that, in theory, those who have a good '' g '' have a greater
likelihood of success in all events that those who have a '' g '' means.
Thurstone (1938) resumes the model of the factorial analysis on 56
aptitude tests and disputes the idea of a general factor. He highlights
eight independent factors (primary mental abilities) that each defines an
aspect of intelligence: spatial ability, perceptual speed, numeric ability,
verbal comprehension, memory, verbal fluency, and inductive
reasoning deductive reasoning.

Factor analysis is based on statistical analysis which aims to

highlight the structure of intelligence. Factorial tests are part of the
structural or pluralistic approach of factorial intelligence. In this
approach, intelligence is multidimensional and consists of a set of skills.
In this context, each is subject to evaluation and the individual is
defined by a profile which corresponds to the positioning of its
performance in each assessed ability. The tests corresponding to this
theoretical approach are often grouped together in batteries, to provide
a comprehensive skills profile. There are many types of factor tests. We
present here only the most common in the school context:

General intelligence tests (factor g)

Factor “g” is the capacity to handle the information that is it

represents the inductive and deductive reasoning as well as the
abstraction. It is not the quantity of knowledge accumulated by the

55
individual. In other words,” g” is not a measure of the knowledge or the
skills. It is rather the reflection of the individual differences in the data
processing, that is the capacity and the efficiency of the cognitive
processes by which the knowledge and the skills are acquired and used.
The intelligence quotient would thus be only a summary evaluation of
the factor “g”, because it is also defined by other factors (Rozencwajg,
2006).

For that purpose, «the general intelligence is the result of the

interaction of a large number of factors while the factor g is only one of
these, the doubtless most mattering, but not the only one " (Grégoire
2000, quoted in Rozencwajg, 2006). The factor g represents an excellent
predictor of the performance in the. The more the use is complex, the
more g turn out to be effective. This variable predicts better the
performance when it is measured in an objective way (for example with
a working sample) that when it is measured in a subjective way (for
example by supervisors) (Grégoire 2012). Finally, g predicts better the
technical dimensions than the interpersonal dimensions, and there is
one better predictor of the performance than the interests or the
personality (Grégoire, 2012). The factorial tests used in our schools: D
48, D 70, the Progressives Series (S P), PM38, MRX 23, etc. b) Concrete or
practical intelligence tests (factor F)

The tests of concrete or practical intelligence (factor F)

The practical intelligence indicates the ability to reason from

concrete evidence (facts, experiences) associated with a logical
organization and practical utility. It is based on a form of thinking that
underlies the interest in handling things, the taking of evidence by facts
and experience, the need to see to understand or imagine (Fernandez,
2001). The concrete or practical intelligence tests used to establish
prognoses for training or professions based on specific reasoning. (The
Meca of the Form V Battery is a concrete intelligence test).

Tests of verbal ability (factor V)

The verbal ability is a capacity to reason with the verbal material.

The verbal tests are generally constituted by the series of words
requesting the capacities to serialize and to classify and texts which it is
necessary to seize the meaning. The verbal tests indicate the level of

56
understanding of the language, the ideas and the sense of the sentences.
These tests allow good forecasts for trainings or occupations which
require arguing about speeches (verbal understanding) and for activities
where the verbal expression is essential. For example: the BV11, BV16
and PRC tests.

Numeric ability tests (factor N)

The digital aptitude reflects the ability to handle numbers with

speed, quickness without any logical development or practical
intelligence mobilized. The situations of the current life appeal in the
digital capacities are numerous and varied, for example, mathematics,
economy, finance, commercial negotiation, data analysis, mental
calculation, etc. For example: the KRX 23 and the RNB tests.

Tests of spatial ability (S factor)

These tests measure an ability to manipulate shapes in two

dimensions or to visualize three-dimensional objects presented as two-
dimensional pictures. Spatial ability questions often involve the visual
assembly and the disassembly of objects that have been rotated or which
are viewed from different angles or objects that have different markings
on their surfaces.

We can also define it as skills which allow the individuals to

represent a specific environment and relations between objects. It is
demonstrated that these skills are important for the learning, in
particular, of the geometry and the technical and artistic drawing (for
example S61). The spatial aptitude tests allow forecasts for trainings and
jobs which require an understanding of the mechanical or technical
systems. That is the reason why it is associated with a mechanical
capacity (Fernandez, 2001).

Synthetic or composite factorial base tools

These are scales of measures providing synthetic and overall

results on intelligence. This approach assumes that intelligence consists
essentially of one general process, implemented in a variety of
situations, and that led to the development of composite tests consist of
various situations or problems. This type of test allows the

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characterization of each individual by a global index: the intellectual
quotient or IQ. In many ways, the various tests being involved in this
approach are based on the scale of Binet-Simon.

The David Wechsler scales of intelligence (1896-1981) reflect a

comprehensive approach to intelligence considered a general processes
involved in various situations. The performance of the subject (which is
the sum of the performance in different tasks) is relativized, compared
to the performance of a given age group, and thus transformed in rows
in his age group. For Wechsler, IQ is equivalent to the g factor of
Spearman (Rozencwajg, 2000). This scale is the most used for the
evaluation of the global efficiency. Using a global view of intelligence, it
consists of six verbal tests (information, memory of figures, vocabulary,
arithmetic, understanding, similarities) and of five tests of performance
(complete and arrangement of images, cubes, assembly, codes). The
order of this test is predetermined, unchangeable, alternating verbal
tests and performance tests. The various tests to obtain a verbal IQ and
performance IQ used to establish the total IQ. Falls into this category of
tests: NEMI, the WISC, WAIS, etc.

Synthetic tools with theoretical base

These tools are designed to locate the pupil with respect to a

model of development and functioning. The tests stemming from this
approach are based on Jean Piaget's theory of development and to
assess the stages described by the Swiss psychologist in the early
months of every child. It should be noted that if these tests allow the
establishment of the more precise and finer diagnoses, the fact remains
that they present a good correlation with conventional tests (Sockeel
and Marro, 2007).

Peripheral tests

It is standardized tests intended to estimate performances in

connection with a school program. In the school circles, they serve
obviously, by verifying the knowledge, to direct the efforts of the
teachers. We distinguish the tests of knowledge strictly speaking, the
psycho-pedagogical tests, the tests relative to the processes, the driving
tests and the physiological tests. We present here only the papers-pencil
tests.

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Psycho educational tests

Psycho educational tests aim more at seizing the processes and

have for ambition to establish a diagnosis of the difficulties of
functioning of the pupil. They are used by the educational psychologists
and the counsellors of orientation. Very diverse, both from a formal
point of view at the level of subject content, many of these tests include:
the language ability (understanding and expression) or the
mathematics. For example, the test "Alouette" which is an analysis of the
reading test and dyslexia and Mathematics Analytical Test "TAM",
which analyses the problems (dyscalculia) and maths deficiencies.

The tests measuring specific process

This category trains a junk group which gathers the tests

measuring the cognitive processes which are not directly considered as
intellectual capacities, or as school knowledge (Sockeel and Marro, on
2007). It is in this group that we list generally the tests allowing to
estimate the perceptive capacities (P), attention (O), mnemonic, creative,
etc., indicated by the factorial designs of the intelligence (Fernandez, on
2001).

School Assessment and knowledge tests

The tests of knowledge or school tests send back to tests very

centred on the knowledge, the knowledges that a pupil of a given school
level has to possess and involves generally a definition of the objectives
of the evaluation leaving official programs and instructions. Their use is
not reserved for the psychologists and concerns, in fact, rather the
teachers. But the psychologists use them to confirm the information on
the objective level of success of the examined subjects. They serve to
predict the success in the precise domain where these knowledges are
necessary.

Achievement test and intelligence test

Achievement tests as those designed to assess students'

knowledge or skills in a content domain in which they have received
instruction. In contrast, intelligence tests are broader in scope than
achievement tests and are designed to measure the cognitive skills,
abilities, and knowledge that individuals have accumulated as a result
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of their overall life experiences coupled with skills in application of
these attributes to problem-solving.

In other words, while achievement tests are tied to a specific

program of instruction, intelligence tests reflect the cumulative impact
of life experiences as a whole in concert with an individual's underlying
or latent ability to use information. The general intelligence factor, g, is
the most reliable component present in any multifactorial view of
intelligence. In the Cattell-Horn model (Horn & Cattell, 1966) of
intelligence, g is the dominant factor in the hierarchy of multiple
abilities, with the next two dominant facets being crystallized and fluid
intelligence:

Crystallized intelligence tends to be related more closely to

verbal domains as a practical matter and is defined as the application of
knowledge to problem solving. (E.g. BV 11, MECA, KRX 23)

Fluid intelligence tends to be related more closely to nonverbal

domains as a practical matter and is defined more strictly as reasoning
and problem solving in the absence of any requirement for prior
knowledge. (D 48, D 70)

It turns out that people do not really know how to assess

reasoning and problem solving in the total absence of knowledge and so
most tests of fluid intelligence attempt to approximate this perfect state
to the extent possible by using principally nonverbal tasks that do not
require knowledge of language or language concepts (Reynolds &
Kamphaus, 2003).

The inclusion of crystallized intelligence measures as a

component of most intelligence tests has led many people to believe,
erroneously, that intelligence tests are simply measures of what people
have learned (Reynolds, Livingston, & Willson, 2006).

There is a clear and universally accepted distinction between

achievement and intelligence tests. However, in actual practice many
testing experts conceptualize both achievement and intelligence tests as
tests of developed cognitive abilities that can be ordered along a
continuum in terms of how closely linked the assessed abilities are to
specific learning experiences. The abilities measured by achievement

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tests are specifically linked to academic instruction or training. In
contrast, the knowledge and abilities measured by intelligence tests are
acquired through a broad-range of life experiences, including those at
school, home, work, and all other settings. . (Reynolds, Livingston, &
Willson, 2006).

Aptitude and intelligence tests in schools

The use of aptitude and intelligence tests in schools provides

alternative measures of cognitive abilities that reflect information not
captured by standard achievement tests or school grades, and also an
objective evaluations of ability that do not reflect the subjective
judgment of observers or others who may be influenced by irrelevant
factors,

It Help teachers tailor instruction to meet a student's unique

pattern of cognitive strengths and weaknesses,

Assessing how well students are prepared to profit from school

experiences,

Identifying students who are underachieving and may need

further assessment to rule-out learning disabilities or other cognitive
disorders, including mental retardation or intellectual disability,

Identifying students for gifted and talented programs,

Helping guide parents and students with educational and

vocational planning.

Personality Tests

Personality tests are used to explore the interests, character and

affectivity of an individual. They lead to a "profile" of the individual and
can highlight pathological aspects. Unlike the tests of efficiency, for
which the individual’s responses are assessed accurately and objectively
(there are good answers and wrong answers), interpretation of
personality tests based on empirical validation.

Although the psychometric personality tests are not the same as

those of efficiency tests, personality tests have a significant interest.

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Otherwise, they allow access to rich and inaccessible information. They
are classified into two main categories: Tests related to the conative
sphere and tests related to the affective sphere.

Tests related to the conative sphere

This group of tests is related to the trend, will, effort, self-

perception, opinions, in brief to the attitudes of the student. We estimate
with these tests the dimensions bound to the motivation, to the
propensity to take some pleasure and to be interested in such or such
domain, in the self-respect, in the causal attribution of the success or the
failure, etc. This is answer questionnaires that appeal to the knowledge
of oneself, to the way we work, of his tastes and preferences, etc.

We can also gauge interest in the various fields of activities such

as school work, social and professional values, the taste for effort and
tenacity, work methods, and some motivational components as the need
for success, the lack of fear of failure, etc. The tests of conative sphere
are e.g. the EMT (Examination of the student work method), the SPPA
of S. Harter, the Q.M.F.6 (questionnaire of motivation in situation of
training (formation)), etc.

Vocational interests

The assessment of vocational interests can be useful in the

coaching context by providing insights into the fields of employment
and the range of occupations that are attractive to the individual. Career
interest assessments ask people what they enjoy doing, not just at work
but also in other domains of their lives such as school, university and
leisure.

Generally speaking, vocational interest theories categorize jobs

and careers into those that involve working with people, those that
involve working with data and those that involve working with things
(Fine, 1955).

Occupational preferences are also closely linked to personality

style (Holland, 1997). To illustrate, while artists often describe
themselves as creative, expressive and independent, accountants tend to
describe themselves as stable, organized and dependable. By comparing

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an individual across a broad range of occupations and vocational fields,
interest inventories are particularly useful with those coaches who are
considering a career change. They can enable insights into occupational
areas that may not necessarily have been previously considered by the
coachee.

Motivational needs and values questionnaires

The assessment of motivational needs and values is possibly the

least defined aspect of the assessment, particularly in view of the
multitude of motivational theories upon which motivational assessment
tools are based.

Most questionnaires and tools that assess motivational needs and

values focus on one or a combination of four areas: sources of
motivation, how the person likes to be rewarded, the kind of
management style that brings out the best in the person, and the kind of
work environment that the person prefers.

The assessment of motivational needs and values may be of

benefit to coachees who are dissatisfied with their current role or work
environment and who want to be clear about the kinds of environments
and reinforcers that are particularly important to them. They can also be
useful with coachees who are weighing up some alternative job options.
In this instance, the coachees can evaluate each option in terms of the
extent to which their needs and values are likely to be satisfied, thereby
helping their decision making around employment options.

Tests related to the affective sphere

The domain of the affectivity was also the object of testing

approaches. We distinguish three types of tests: questionnaires or
personality's inventories, objective tests and projective tests of
personality.

Questionnaires or personality inventories

"The questionnaires are compounds tests by a higher or lower

number of questions presented in writing to the subject, and concerning
his opinions, his tastes, his behaviour in precise circumstances, his
feelings, his interests, etc. about, and on his opinions, his tastes, his
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behaviour in specific circumstances, feelings, interests, etc. "(Pichot,
1954). A questionnaire is a tool of survey (investigation); it contains a set
of questions which the subject has to answer. These questions called
item are simply proposals on which he has to express his opinion. The
subject answers the questions by choosing between two answers (yes or
no, most of the time) or an answer on the scale of Likert.

Questionnaires appeal to the self-assessment, what supposes that

the subject practices a kind of introspection. It is the evaluation of the
self-image. In a questionnaire, we count generally, at least, two scales.
The various scales and the various items are mixed at random louse to
avoid the effects of anchoring and transparency of items. An item
allowing too easily to understand what is expected of the subject or
what we want to evaluate may cause risk of fraud, hence the need to
divert the subject to respond sincerely. They are designed, generally,
under one of the following approaches: the typological approach, the
factorial approach and the empirical approach.

Questionnaires or personality's inventories based on the typological

approach

The typological conceptions defend the interest of the type of

element of a model of the personality which includes heterogeneous set
(group) individual characteristics and describes the behaviour in a
global way. Even if the typological approaches were developed from the
Antiquity, it is Kretschmer, at the beginning of the century, who
proposed morphotypes associating physical psychiatric and shady
configurations from interpretations pulled by the correlations obtained
between both studied variables.

The typological approaches are very appreciated by the

professionals of the evaluation. The defenders of these approaches
consider that when their hypotheses are experienced by the
psychometric methods, questionnaires can be useful to understand the
functioning of a whole person. The theory which embodies well the
success of the typological approach is the one of the American
psychologist J. Holland.

The model of Holland is a geometrical model postulating the

existence of six facets or typify-RIASEC-(realist, investigator, artist,

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social, enterprising conventional) being able to be represented on a
hexagon sending back to real psychological portraits. This model allows
characterizing the personality. For Holland, the choice of a job reflects
the personality: when an individual practices in an environment which
corresponds to his personality, her self-fulfilment and its stability is
greater there (Fernandez, 2001).

Questionnaires or personality's inventories based on the factorial

approach

These questionnaires rest on conceptions based on the traits

considered as stable in time. They measure traits determined by a
factorial analysis. They are based on declarative questionnaires which
have to highlight stable traits at the time and whatever are the
situations. Their reliability is more important than their relevance
because they analyze often only a specific sector of the personality, in
particular her cognitive aspects (Fernandez, 2001). The traits correspond
to independent components of the personality one of the other one and
characterizing the individual on a very precise aspect (anxiety,
sociability, etc.).

Every trait is characterized by a continuum: every individual can

be described by a level in the traits. Furthermore, we consider that there
is certain trans-situational level of coherence, the people showing
globally the same models of conduct (driving) from a situation to the
other one. To identify personality's traits, we use the factorial analysis
(Fernandez, 2001).

Questionnaires or personality inventories based on the empirical

approach

Empirically derived questionnaires are constructed by the

method of contrasting groups. The investigator begins, as in the factor-
analytic method, by assembling a large and heterogeneous group of
items. These items are then administered to two groups of people: one
of whom possesses the target attribute while the comparison group does
not.

For example, in the construction of a depression scale, the

criterion group might be composed of hospitalized psychiatric patients

65
carrying a diagnosis of depression; the comparison group might be non
hospitalized individuals drawn from the same community. The rate at
which individuals of both groups respond "yes" is calculated, and those
items with the largest significant differences in endorsement rate are
retained as scale items. Checks for internal consistency are also made,
and highly redundant items are eliminated in order to achieve economy.
Of course, some group differences are likely to occur merely by chance.

Accordingly, proper practice requires that the entire scale-

derivation procedure be repeated in a new sample - a technique called
cross-validation. Only items which show significant differences in both
samples go into the final version of the scale. Norms for the scales are
then calculated based on the responses of a representative sample of the
population. In an extension known as double cross-validation, the
subjects are split in halves, and items selected independently for each
group: only those items that significantly differentiate the two groups.

Examples of personality inventories constructed by the empirical

method include the Strong Vocational Interest Blank commonly
employed in career counselling; the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory employed in clinical settings.

Objective Tests

Objective tests represent the most familiar and widely used

approach to assessing personality. Objective tests involve administering
a standard set of items, each of which is answered using a limited set of
response options (e.g., true or false; strongly disagree, slightly disagree,
slightly agree, strongly agree). Responses to these items then are scored
in a standardized, predetermined way. For example, self-ratings on
items assessing talkativeness, assertiveness, sociability,
adventurousness, and energy can be summed up to create an overall
score on the personality trait of extraversion.

It must be emphasized that the term “objective” refers to the

method that is used to score a person’s responses, rather than to the
responses themselves. As noted by Meyer and Kurtz (2006) “What is
objective about such a procedure is that the psychologist administering
the test does not need to rely on judgment to classify or interpret the
test-takers response; the intended response is clearly indicated and

66
scored according to a pre-existing key.” In fact, as we will see, a
person’s test responses may be highly subjective and can be influenced
by a number of different rating biases.

Objective personality tests can be further subdivided into two

basic types. The first type—which easily is the most widely used in
modern personality research—asks people to describe themselves. This
approach offers two key advantages.

First, self-raters have access to an unparalleled wealth of

information: After all, who knows more about you than you yourself? In
particular, self-raters have direct access to their own thoughts, feelings,
and motives, which may not be readily available to others

Second, asking people to describe themselves is the simplest,

easiest, and most cost-effective approach to assessing personality.
Countless studies, for instance, have involved administering self-report
measures to college students, who are provided some relatively simple
incentive (e.g., extra course credit) to participate.

Another approach Informant ratings consists to ask someone who

knows a person well to describe his or her personality characteristics. In
the case of children or adolescents, the informant is most likely to be a
parent or teacher. In studies of older participants, informants may be
friends, roommates, dating partners, spouses, children, or bosses

Projective tests

Projective tests, such as the famous Rorschach inkblot test require

a person to give spontaneous answers that "project" their unique
personality onto an ambiguous stimulus.

As noted earlier, some approaches to personality assessment are

based on the belief that important thoughts, feelings, and motives
operate outside of conscious awareness. Projective tests represent
influential early examples of this approach. Projective tests originally
were based on the projective hypothesis: If a person is asked to describe
or interpret ambiguous stimuli—that is, things that can be understood
in a number of different ways—their responses will be influenced by

67
nonconscious needs, feelings, and experiences (note, however, that the
theoretical rationale underlying these measures has evolved over time).

Two prominent examples of projective tests are the Rorschach

Inkblot Test (Rorschach, 1921) and the Thematic Apperception Test
(TAT) (Morgan & Murray, 1935). The former asks respondents to
interpret symmetrical blots of ink, whereas the latter asks them to
generate stories about a series of pictures. In comparison to objective
tests, projective tests tend to be somewhat cumbersome and labour
intensive to administer. The biggest challenge, however, has been to
develop a reliable and valid scheme to score the extensive set of
responses generated by each respondent. The test of Koch Tree, often
used in our schools is a projective test.

The limitations of questionnaires or personality inventories

One problem with personality measures is that individuals have

a tendency to endorse vague generalizations. This is one reason why
horoscopes continue to be popular and trusted despite their lack of
reliability or validity.

Using introspection, the information they provide may be some

discrepancies with the actual conduct of the subject. Furthermore, some
subjects may tend to respond according to response style rather than
items content; which may bias the personality profile obtained. Five
types of confounding variables are well known and must be controlled:

- The trend towards acquiescence or inclination for positive

responses. Individuals tend to say yes rather than no. It is an
unconscious tendency to respond positively;

- The effect of transparency entails a risk of forgery which can infer a

bias of interpretation, because the subject can believe that we test
such or such aspect while in reality it is not completely it;

- Social desirability (which we will analyse in the next chapter);

- The bias of understanding: because the academic levels,

educational, of culture and the intellectual state are very variable and
can, therefore, be limited. Some subjects cannot understand the
questions;
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 - The risk of deliberate forgery of answers: because the subjects can
distort responses because of issues or difficult mental states to seem
better or worse.

However, the questionnaires experiencing widely as they can be

corrected easily and allow an objective rating.

Choosing a psychometric instrument

The test is not chosen at random. You must first know what you
want to measure. For example in the prognostic assessment you should
identify the prerequisites to successfully complete the various courses of
study taught in the school, in all the landings of orientation identifying
the requirements in terms of knowledge, skills, physical and intellectual,
and temperamental requirements to determine the profiles of these
courses of study. The Battery of tests to be used is determined by the
established profiles of studies. The choice of the test has to be made by
taking into account several criteria.

The criteria for choosing a test

Criterion 1: the dimensions which the test measures have to

answer the need for the evaluation (the established profile of the study
program).

Criterion 2: the test format (type of questions, passing condition,

used material, language, etc.). must be adapted to the subjects which are
going to submit themselves to it and in the context in which it is used,
and especially, action items to stop the risks of penalization of the
people presenting particular characteristics must be precise..

Criterion 3: research done on the test must ensure the reliability

and validity of this instrument.

Criterion 4: test standards (calibration, etc.) should have been

established on sufficiently representative samples of subjects to be
tested.

Criterion 5: the examiner must have the required competence for

the use of this test.

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 In sum, before choosing a test, it is necessary to read absolutely
its reference manual which should contain the following information:

- The name of the test;

- The author;
- The editor;
- The date of publication (if revisions have been published, indicate
different dates);
- Rational (what justifies the test);
- The test description;
- Parallel forms;
- The objectives for which the test seems appropriate;
- Test development, including items;
- Instructions for administration and correction;
- Correction (time and resources)
- Data concerning the reliability and validity;
- calibration, etc.);
- The explanation of the profiles and the interpretation of the results
of the test;
- The bibliography on the theories which base the test.

Psychometrics specialists insist that you should never base an important

decision on a single test result.

The profile of the tests user

The International Test Commission published in 2000 the

Recommendations on the use of tests in order to promote proper use of
tests and encourage best practices in the field of psychometric
assessment. From these recommendations, standards for the definition
of user skills and training were identified. These standards aim at two
main aspects of the skills of every candidate at a qualification as user of
tests, worth namely:

Competent test users should:

Act in a professional and ethical manner: Promote and maintain

professional and ethical standards.

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 Ensure they have the competence to use tests: Work within the
limits of scientific principle and substantiated experience.

Take responsibility for their use of tests: Only offer testing

services and only use tests for which they are qualified.

Ensure that test materials are kept securely and ensure secure
storage of and control access to test materials

Ensure that test results are treated confidentially; Specify who

will have access to results and define levels of confidentiality.

Follow good practice in the use of tests

Competent test users will:

Examine current information covering the range of potentially

relevant tests (e.g., from specimen sets, independent reviews, expert
advice), before selecting a test to use.

Give due consideration to issues of fairness in testing. When tests

are to be used with individuals from different groups (e.g., groups
differing in terms of gender, cultural background, education, ethnic
origin, or age), competent test users will make all reasonable efforts to
ensure that: The tests are unbiased and appropriate for the various
groups that will be tested.

Make necessary preparations for the testing session. The

competent test user will make all reasonable efforts to: Provide relevant
parties in a timely manner with clear information concerning the
purpose of testing, ways in which they might best prepare for the test
session, and the procedures to be followed.

Administer the tests properly

Competent test users will:

Establish rapport by welcoming test-takers and briefing them in a

positive fashion. Score and analyse test results accurately

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 Follow carefully the standardised procedures for scoring and
Interpret results appropriately

Have a good professional understanding of the test’s theoretical

or conceptual basis, technical documentation and guidance on the use
and interpretation of the scale scores and Communicate the results
clearly and accurately to relevant others

Identify appropriate parties who may legitimately receive test

results and Review the appropriateness of the test and its use

Monitor and periodically review changes over time in the

population of individuals being tested and any criterion measures being
used.

The test library

Tests conservation

The tests must be kept in a locking cupboard. The classification of

the test is generally flat. A floor can be booked for correct versions,
correction grids, calibration tables and instructions manuals.

We know by experience that the other staffs in service in the

school are curious to know how we use a psychometric test. If it is
useful to show and to explain (especially to the educational and
administrative persons in charge) the technique of the examinations, it is
also necessary to show that the psychotechnics suffered a lot from often
awkward popularizations. Several tests "dropouts" can be used to
explain the principle of the psychotechnical examination without
revealing the batteries of tests used in the school. The guidance
counsellors have to avoid lending their tests to whomever.

The testing equipment

The testing equipment consists of the answer sheets, stopwatches

or timers and small equipment.

The answer sheets can be photocopied or duplicated both sides.

The name, the first name, the date of birth of the candidate and the date
of the examination have to appear there. The usual format is 21 x 29, 7.

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They must be clear. No doubt about how to respond should touch the
mind

The chronometer or the timer serves to measure the time of

execution of a test. The timer has the advantage to ring. The examiner, if
he is occupied somewhere else, does not risk to exceed the compulsory
time. But, even with a timer, the chronometer remains essential. The test
library must also have sufficient quantities of pencils, cuts pencils, ball-
points.

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74
 CHAPTER 3:
ADMINISTRATION TECHNIQUES OF THE PSYCHOMETRIC
TESTS

The techniques we will present the result as a proofreading and

an adaptation of elements of a method for the realization of collective
psychological tests developed by Athané (1979), educational and
vocational guidance counsellor in Angers in France.

Testing environment and material conditions

Group size

About forty students constitute a maximum. Beyond that, the

best trained guidance counsellor cannot avoid the inattention and the
indiscipline of some students. In overstaffed classes, there is
irretrievable loss of a part of instructions for some students, and we can
no longer speak of a psychological atmosphere. If the class size exceeds
forty, split the class whatever the temptation to “make performance”
and do not consent to gather two classes in a large room (conference
room, etc.). Preferably a class must be evaluated on its own premises.

Student’s place

Strive for uniform distribution occupying all the usable space.

The ideal would be to have individual tables because the closeness of a
neighbour always presents inconveniences. But in our institutions, we
must be content with traditional tables for two, and you have to settle in
well. An orderly arrangement of tables and benches facilitates
monitoring, promotes discipline and seriousness in work. Also ensures
that there is easy access to each student or by a side corridor, or (in the
case of tables with three or four places) by an antero-posterior interval.
Finally, if it is not already made, think of placing forward those who see
or understand badly.

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 These preparatory steps will be presented to students as
necessary conditions for successful work (ex., “You'll be more at ease to
work”); so they do not feel them as evidence of mistrust, an implicit
accusation, or free exercise of authority. Otherwise, they will help break
the school atmosphere.

Light and ventilation

Have concern for optimum physical conditions. Light electric

lamp if the room is dark, and lower an awning if the sun is annoying.
Ventilate during breaks. All more we neglect some of details dictated by
common sense. Yet, it can have so much importance for a child as an
instruction badly understood or a bad digestion.

Testing Programming

Period

The choice of the appropriate period to schedule a testing in

schools depends on the context and on the objective assigned to this
evaluation. However, he is recommended, with regard to the
prescriptions of the texts which govern the orientation-council, to
schedule the testing from the beginning of the school year.

This has several advantages: in addition to counselling in

guidance levels, these results are a source of information that can
facilitate the psycho educational monitoring of students with learning
difficulties from the beginning of the school year. They can also be used
to develop the class profile and this profile may help teachers adapt
their teaching styles to the characteristics of each class.

Duration

Half day of four hours is a convenient unit. It can accommodate a

sufficiently varied battery. It is necessary that the fatigue of the subjects
stays so in reasonable and compatible limits with the preservation of the
interest.

To give a rest towards half-time is a physiological necessity. The

respect for the schedule and the form of the usual recreations is to be
recommended. He presents a triple advantage:

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 a) The surveillance of the pupils is assured by the usual staff
(discipline masters or teachers).

b) Outside, the noise which makes the other classes would damage
anyway the quality of the work.

c) While we are so comprehensive, he would be clumsy and

contradictory to frustrate the pupils of what they value most. We shall
take the same care of asking obviously at the beginning of examination,
time and duration of the recreation. We will announce that nothing will
be changed (See the presentation of the examination).

Plan always the time of installation: we can gather the class, or add
tables. It is also necessary to be able to make everything without haste.
Between the exercises, the collection and the distribution of tests booklet
and files constitute time-outs which you should not try to reduce too
much, because they allow a necessary relaxation so contributing to a
natural rhythm. So that, a test battery planned to last approximately
three hours represents a maximum duration (included instructions).

Hour

According to the general timetable, we clearly prefer the morning

to the afternoon. The mind is fresher, the attention better awake, the less
heavy digestion. We will avoid the holiday eves and days of return
(excitement, absence). We shall worry as well about the fact that the
session of examination does not deprive the pupils of a holiday or an
entertainment impatiently expected excursion, cinema, weekend, etc.)

Order of tests

From this perspective, intellectual examination can be compared

to an athletic competition. There must be a start-up, alternate and
progressive exercises, and a return to calm.

The instructions of the first test will have to be a simpler, so to

not as discourage anyone. Exercise itself will not offer too apparently
the difficulty exceeding grade level (avoid ex for secondary students,
test for higher levels). The alternation will be carried out by a succession
of not only different factorial tests (verbal, numerical, spatial) but whose
appearance; the structure will give students an impression of diversity.
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 Finally, it seems unwise to give at the end of examination when
fatigue is most disturbing (attention and mental potential) test whose
significance is greater, and the interpretation of which would weigh too
heavily in the global diagnosis.

Required equipment

Examiner’s Equipment

The guidance counsellor must provide a review plan (test list in

order of execution) the test booklets in sufficient number and in perfect
condition, answer sheets, the book of instructions (even if we know
them by heart, we can be obliged to consult them). A chronometer or
timer, (a backup device is not superfluous); if possible some pencils to
lend to needy students or who will break their own, a pencil sharpener,
a red and a blue chalk.

Student’s materials

It has to be the same for all (necessary identity of the working

conditions). No ball-point, if yes it will be used that to fill the headers of
the answer sheets of. The use of separate answer sheets (known as
“economic”) leads to fear any mark, sign or scheme focused on the test
booklets and experience proves that they are inevitable, it is thus
necessary to be able to erase them.

An eraser is needed? We would be able to do without, because it

is a source of waste of time. We shall tell students that it is better to
cross off with frankness. But this upsets many school habits, and goes
against the desire of care, as the desire not to leave traces of trial and
error. The eraser will be part of the standard equipment, with the pen,
but we shall ask that it serves as little as possible.

Presence of a third person

It would seem more practical to work with two guidance counsellors

for the discipline, the distributions of sheets and test booklets, the
student’s needs to go out unexpectedly, the incidents which oblige to go
out one minute or to give individual explanations. The presence of an
administrative officer of the establishment is it desirable?

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 Desirable or not, it is inevitable in some occasions, in particular, if
the guidance counsellor is incapable to master a very agitated class.

Exam presentation

The guidance counsellor is brought into the group of students to

be tested and is going to give them the first directives. A previous
question arises. How to announce the examination to the students? And
at first it is necessary to have prevented them?

If there is a choice, the opinions can be shared:

a) Prevent them: it is to act with courtesy and to show to the

students a confidence completely in compliance with the requirements
of a well included education. It is also to allow some to get ready
rationally: go to bed early the day before, the feed without excess, etc.
The oldest pupils will be particularly sensitive to this mark of
consideration. On the contrary the children can feel as a frustration and
an infringement on their dignity the fact that we hid them until the last
moment an event which touches them closely and what we plunge them
there by surprise. An individual psychological examination supposes
moreover always the preliminary consent of the subject. There is no
inconvenience in it. Why would it be differently here?

b) Do not prevent: Presents against by other benefits. Is reduced

and especially the anxiety of testing the reactions of emotion or hostility,
amplified by collective fermentation and by the length of time before the
event that apprehends.

Even if we suppose that it was announced with skill the exact

nature of the examination and the profit for which we can wait from it
(presentation on the introduction to the development of the school
project, for example), we cannot prevent certain pupils from going out
the day of the testing, this for more or less valid reasons, and more or
less aware. Thus, the school authority can be brought to speak about
“compulsory attendance”, what will only increase the hostility of the
possible opponents and will give to the examination a completely
regrettable administrative and disciplinary aspect.

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 In brief, if some educational principles incite being announced in
advance to students, the arguments are not lacking to refrain it.
Anyway, the guidance counsellor will have to know if he is or not
waited, and if so, which is the contents of the information given to the
pupils. He will take into account these elements in the presentation of
the tests.

Inventory of the purposes

It seems that the content and tone of the words that we say are
satisfactory only if one keeps in mind several requirements:

a) Mobilize attention: Making to listen. Ensure that students did

not want to pay attention to anything but what the examiner said. That
it soon becomes a natural inclination of the class, because everything he
says seems new, or interesting, or useful and even because obviously we
cannot do otherwise.

b) Put in confidence

- Break the ice, by being "nice." The students must feel at once that we
understand their needs, that we are simple, close to them, and all in all,
that we wish well to them; what is the major sign of the sincere
affection.

- To satisfy the curiosity, responding in advance the questions that

students are asking or will ask about this new situation. Do not leave
anything in the shadow of what matters: our guidance counsellors’ job,
the tests, their purpose, their interest for the orientation

c) Prevent type reactions

Warn the typical reactions

- Reassure anxiety, emotional, depressed («It's difficult, I'll fail").

- Soften the concept of test («it is a composition")

- Calm the excited and pretentious ("it is easy, that will go alone").

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- Conquering the sceptics ("this thing is stupid, at first to what that is of
use?").

- Tame the opponents, "overflowing and the aggressive"

- Arrange to let guess his power and its vigilance. (We are friendly,
comprehensive, but lucid). Avoid however any charge, any threat, what
would wake aggressiveness and senses of guilt. Blur the concept of
"obligation".

d) Encourage the work:

That a sincere effort appears to all as useful, interesting and also

really inevitable.

e) Group with logic and economy practical indications necessary for

the proper execution of exercises.

Verbal content

No question of a model text, if only because of the necessary

adaptation according to education levels and types of schools. And it is
good that each counsellor arranges it according to his temperament. But
we quote pins ideas to be presented at one time or another, in a clear
and simple style, and can be assembled in three groups.

General Indications

a) Purpose of the examination

I belong to the Orientation Services (such establishment or

division, etc.). My usual work consists in helping the pupils and
students performing poorly at school or subject to diverse difficulties of
adaptation to bring them to solve with happiness these problems; and
also to answer questions asked by the children and the parents
(relatives) about the school or some profession to be chosen for next
year. I speak with people, I try to understand the pupils, and I use tests
to know best. Yet (now), in your class (this at least for the class’s
landings of orientation) it will be necessary to you to choose at the end
of the year an orientation which suits you well. That is why, the
Headmaster asked me today to make you take the tests. As well as your

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teachers, he indeed wishes, to know you better, to help you to better
succeed in class, to make progress and then to direct you.

We shall notice that each of the expressed ideas is underlain by

one or several imperatives. In particular, the guidance counsellor
showed straight his connection with the school administration, and
indicates his competence. He thus imposes his moral presence. He is not
isolated, but he is nevertheless different. He is not any messenger of the
administration. He began by introducing himself. He wants «to help us
". His work cannot leave unmoved.

b) What are the tests?

Exercises of reasoning and observation which require attention

but which are not scholastic. So, no way of dictation, essay, grammar,
history or geography, English, Latin, mathematics. (Here we see looks
getting clearer, smiles come out, in variable proportion as the usual
school climate suffocates more or less the spontaneous demonstrations.
It gives a first idea of the expressive potential of the class). Moreover,
your teachers already know if you are good or poor in such or such
subject. They do not need me for this.

c) So you have all the equal opportunity to succeed, even if you

are not a very good students or if you have weak scores in this or that
subject.

d) It will be enough to be very careful in what I shall tell and to

work for your best.

e) And then there will be various sorts of exercises. If some seem

to you less easy, you can catch on the others. Some will please you
certainly.

f) It will last all morning. You will have your usual recreation.

g) The results will be communicated during an individual

interview which we shall have with every pupil or student of this class.
We shall also put them at the disposal of your teachers within the
framework of the staff meeting. Your parents can also have them if they
wish for it but they will not be published and will not give rise to a
classification (this last opinion depends obviously on the way are
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communicated and used the results. This is another problem, outside
our subject. But we cannot avoid it, because some pupils always request
it.

Practical indications

I am maybe going to ask now some of you to change places. Is

there any at the back of the class pupils who do not see or who hear
badly?

Operate here the recommended arrangements above: (the

students place).Separate yourself clearly to your neighbours. Occupy
the maximum space. You will be more at ease to work.

This last sentence is a good example of friendly and relaxing

explanation appropriate to defuse the apparently authoritarian or
making guilty orders which will have preceded him. We can repeat her,
hardly modified, every time we shall find necessary to isolate or to
make too agitated or disturbing students exchange places for their
neighbourhood.

You need to work, only with an ordinary pencil and an eraser.

You can tidy up all the rest: school bags, rules, pens, and drafts. I have
some spare pencils to lend you.

I am going to ask you to listen to me carefully and to do exactly

what I shall tell you and when I shall tell you. It is essential. When I
shall say begin! Or stop! It will be necessary to do so immediately (ask
older students to excuse this return to the practices of primary school).
What you will do is indeed new to you, and asks us to be sufficiently
accurate.

You can always raise the hand if you do not understand

anything, if you feel "lost" or if you are hampered (bothered) for any
reason. I am there to help out to you.

Technical indications

Do not weigh down the initial presentation; we can give the

technical indications only during the instruction of the first test.

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Moreover, they are implicitly included in the text of most instructions.
Well we will repeat them at least at the beginning of the first tests:

a) You will have limited time for each exercise. So do your best,
but without losing time. If you are precise, do not be slow. If you are
keen, do not be stunned. Try to work both quickly and well;

b) Maybe you will have no time to finish: do not worry about

that. . It is not as in classroom: in an exercise which is not finished, one
can have zero. Here, even if we made by hurrying a half of the test, it
may be a good result;

c) Do not worry about the care. Here again it is not like in

classroom, of course. The key is to find the most correct answers, and
either answered frankly. If you make a deletion, make it honestly.

d) If a question embarrasses you too much, pass to the following

one, always, because there is no time to lose.

Tone of voice

The teachers know that it is necessary to speak to a class very

clearly, without haste, with a beautifully resonant voice, neither too
acute nor too grave, and by sparing his breath. The guidance counsellor
will also put in his voice intonations, inflections appropriate to
strengthen the influence of the words which he pronounces. We know
how children are susceptible to this "irrational persuasion." It is
particularly in education the way of saying is worth as much as what we
say

The calm tone, so but net, and energizing, assured but friendly
and simple. It will leave reflected a kind of smiling requirement, an
imprint firmness of bonhomie. It will be mostly natural, and it will be to
the extent that the guidance counsellor will feel comfortable, will not
have to fear or hesitate. Careful preparation material and some training
here are their necessity. He will let show through a kind of smiling
requirement, a firmness marked with gentleness. He will especially be
natural, and he will be as far as the guidance counsellor will feel
comfortable, will not have to be afraid or of hesitating. A careful
material preparation and some training find here their necessity.

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 We will have to, finally, remember an essential educational rule:
do not tolerate speaking so much that all the pupils did not make silence
and for all this presentation, as long as they do not fix the eyes of
examiner. Do take from the beginning this good habit: it is exactly easy,
because we take advantage of the first one.

Stand in front of the pupils, so that we can see them all. If we

perceive some face which turns away, some nose in the air, to find a
way not making feel guilty to remind the absent-minded to the reality.
We can make him for example a sign, or approach him, or stop
speaking, looking at him and waiting for the silence. If he understands
immediately, we can thank him with a smile. Otherwise, we will say a
few words of a benevolent tone. If those behaviours recur too quickly,
we must make the first general invitation to the attention. For example,
"listen to me and look at me, it's important to understand what we will
do."

Calls for attention are so common in school life, so hackneyed in

various forms, which must be better without it if we can, or at least hide
them, translate them an attitude, a word more stimulating, lower tone of
voice, a break of rhythm. And this ammunition so quickly devalued,
should be kept for the maximum attention required phases by the
instructions themselves. And until then, if the class is normally used to
listen to the teacher, and if one spoke in a clear and attractive way, there
is no reason that we had to waste it.

Let us end this certainly incomplete part which will have been
able at least to give some idea of the importance and the complexity of
this "preparation", which is also a "handling", and which plays in sum,
in front of group, the same preparatory role as the preliminary
interview of the individual examination. But here is an interview with
one voice, and where the silent partner would be multiple.

The instructions

The mobilization of attention

The material preparations being ended (tests and answers

sheets), the examiner will make fill the header of the sheet of answers

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with ballpoint pen by listing the six essential informations: name (in
capitals) surname, birth date, date of the day, school and class.
He will have meanwhile to arrange from time to erase the
blackboard and prepare the first test pattern. Then he will ask to lay
down pencils. He will give the first instruction in the greatest silence
and the steadiest attention.

There will be inevitably moments of slackening, during the

explanation and monitoring of the examples. But it will always be
necessary to know how to make understand, rather fast, that we wish to
be listened and watched. The prescription to never tolerate speaking in
the noise will be any more justified. We shall also watch that nobody
begins the test before the end of the explanations and the signal.

Moreover, what has been said about the tone of the presentation
(pronunciation, voice, intonation, etc.) remains valid here and is also for
all that the examiner will tell during the examination, because the tone
is the dominant element in creating and maintaining the atmosphere.

If thus seems necessary, for the statement of the instructions, a

particularly good diction, a slow debit, a respectful speech of the
punctuation, we shall avoid however a dullness, a drought or a
solemnity which would risk letting believe to the pupils that we go
away from them and that we become oneself the slave of an automatic
process in which we are going to abandon them.

If it is good that they perceive the necessity of an attention

without failure, they will nevertheless have to feel that the guidance
counsellor does not leave so much his human, captivating and
stimulating attitude, that he participates in the interest which we can
feel (experience) for the exercise, which it has himself desire (envy) to
face the difficulties and to help to solve them. In the traditional notion of
"benevolent neutrality", it seems that we thus have advantage here to
substitute that of the "participation" and the "energization". To give an
instruction, it also is to teach something new. A good pedagogy owes be
alive. We do not teach in the indifference or in the coolness.

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The presentation of the instructions

The second educational principle which will guide us consists in

concreting, in showing directly to the pupils most possible elements of
the exercise, by handling in front of them sheets as they will have to
handle them themselves; indicate the locations where it is necessary to
write. Use widely the blackboard. Replicate as closely as possible the
physical layout of the party who will receive the answers to the first
examples.

Do not write or draw in an untidy way but reconstitute exactly

the printed sheet so that students will have no trouble so that the pupils
have any difficulty in referring there. Write large, with the field of chalk
wide and supported features. Always use a different colour chalk to
indicate responses, in contrast to the already printed elements. Many
instructions are now written on the test. We recommend reading them
at the same time as the pupils read them. All which precede lead us to
avoid this practice. Indeed, the pupils do not read all to the same speed;
in fact they outstrip most of the time the examiner. When they finished,
they believe to have understood and think of something else.

Yet it is rare that a text read in the noise is likened without

confusion and without oversight (forgetting). Especially, the examiner
has in this way only a very relative control of the attention which
students grant him and of the understanding of what he says. Much
safer are the direct mobilization of faces, and the transmission of a text
by both the audition and the expression of the speaker.

We can if we want, let read silently instructions (especially with

big students) but we will always take care to resume it then verbally by
concreting it. We would not have to discuss the text of the guidelines,
set by the author of each test and deemed untouchable as decisive for
the standard of the test execution. Unfortunately, it does not always
meet the requirements of the group work and it will sometimes happen
that, very carefully but without guilty conscience, we will have to
reshape it or complete it. This proposal is against good psychometric
practices and must be thus substantiated. We know that an instruction
must be short and complete (collect most easily for attention and
memory), clear and unambiguous; that its terms should be simple and

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not pay a comical or ridiculous interpretation. These conditions are
almost always fulfilling by serious authors.

But its syntax always has to remain elementary. For example,

successive independent proposals are better than one series of
subordinated proposals. It must also not likely to drag the attention, its
style has to be direct, has to varied, alive, it has to translate a natural
gait, progressive and logical mind; that allows the use of the blackboard,
that is even underlain by the search for the opportunity to show and to
draw. It can be stored in bulk, if necessary by a final summary of
important points (Because we are never sure that the attention of some
students did not yield at a moment or in the other one). It would have to
flow naturally when we say it in a loud voice, we do not have the
feeling that it flays the language, that we cannot find oneself material to
become muddled or to be confused, and that it is so clear as the most
limited listener is as forced in its cuttings and it is so clear that the
dullest listener found as forced into a corner and flooded by the
evidence.

It is inevitable that the author who makes up an instruction

without having given himself enough to children does not obtain a
satisfactory draft. Mutually an attentive and repeated experiment will
allow the necessary improvements. He will there have grounds in
particular for being sensitive to the expression of the subjects which
listen to, to watch for their reactions, to study the errors made in the
execution of the examples, and to think so quite simply of the errors of
interpretation that ourselves, adults, can make within a group (during a
conference, during a General assembly or during a commented visit).

Set standard plan

It will always be possible not to change the important terms of

the text, but it will sometimes be necessary to add them well chosen
synonyms which light them, for example by repeating the major
indications. We could almost propose a typical plan of instruction:

a) Description of the material, the invitation to observe carefully:

"you have in front of you."

b) General statement: "your work consists of … .."

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 c) Detailed description of the difficulty: "let us make together the
first example. You see that …"

d) Description of the way of answering: "Take your pencil and write

on the answer sheet and not on the test book»

e) Check if the answers to the examples which the pupils postponed

on their answer sheets

f) Repetition of the prescriptions c and d, with other examples.

g) "Make yourselves the following examples"

h) "Here are the answers." (Complementary Explanations if need be).

I) Repetition of the general statement (b)

j) General information common to most tests. (Limited time,

skipped questions, etc.) "Do no mark test booklets, no signs, write
only on the answer sheet"

k) Do you understand? (Wait a few seconds) Do not be afraid to

raise your hand. It is possible that we do not always understand the
first time. (Answer any questions)

l) Signal of the beginning: "let's go! Begin!"

In this plan, it is obvious that the sentences: a and b, i and j must

be deal with care and know by heart. The phrase c may already be a
little more flexible; we spot the essential terms there but by adding an
invitation to the more prosaic concrete, more adapted to the class (at its
level, at its humour). So understood, the formal modification of some
instructions will not change all the nature of the test, but will rule out
the annoying confusions, will decrease the percentage of initials
misadaptations and thus will favour a more just yield.

Finally, we saw (sentence -e-) that we must include in the

instructions the detailed verification of how students respond by
writing. We must, from the first example, go to each student, and
correct any incorrect answer or misplaced. It asks that we pass in rows
and look quickly the precise place where each student has answered.

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This operation will be afterward repeated (see invigilation /
monitoring) but it is never useful than at this moment, because it allows
the correction of the errors from their origin.

Invigilation / monitoring

Once the chronometer (or the timer) is activated, the guidance

counsellor will be tempted to take a little breath and consider with a
passive optimism further operations. No doubt he made the most
delicate part of his task. However, his activity, now more indirect will
not be less constant. From the strictly school point of view, the
invigilation of a class in an examination has a double purpose: control of
implementation and enforcement. Here, it will again be necessary to
think of the atmosphere, to observe the behaviour of the pupils, and to
assure some material works.

Control of the execution

We can design him as a direct continuation of the instructions. At

the beginning of a test, always, there is advantage to go in to the rows to
avoid:

- Poor layout of responses (error of page, column or line);

- Bad understanding of the mechanism of the answers (example: to

write a whole word instead of a cross, to make several crosses instead of
one), a "block" out. ("Blocking»)

The instructions seemed understood, but some students do not

respond. A small additional indication is often enough for making them
start. Even in the course of a test, a student can skip a page, or make any
unforeseen material error. We will thus have to pass several times with
each student.

We shall make it without eager, suspicious or ironic attitude, but

like an instructor which helps his troop and wants to prove that he
forgets nobody. We shall say here and there a word to compliment and
encourage. We shall straighten errors without hostility, as a technician
gets under way sensitive devices which operate close to his heart.

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 At the same time, we shall help every pupil who will raise the
hand and we shall answer him personally. We shall inform him without
impatience, even if he asks a simple-minded and groundless question. If
several questions converge, it is the sign of an insufficiency in the
instructions. It is then better to interrupt the collective work hanging a
few seconds and to give to all the indications which are lacking to them.
We can stop this activity towards the second half of the test; it happens
that the movements of the examiner become then more harmful than
useful. (See discipline). For the tests with economic shape we will
constantly have to watch the use of the test booklets to bring the
students avoid dirty them.

Material tasks

Monitoring the stopwatch (chronometer) or timer

The advantage of the timer is the warning by ringing which

precisely avoids monitor. It would be necessary to discuss thus the
merits of one another. The timer is certainly less accurate for short time
and ringing soon becomes an obsession for emotional issues. But it gives
such a security in the respect for limited times, and as well such a peace
of mind as many examiners will be satisfied, even doubling it with a
chronometer for short times, and to weakening the bell or to shortening
it. We can again avoid the bell, if we watch the needle: the
inconvenience of the chronometer is not eliminated but the security
persists in case of forgetting. That is to treat the timer as a stopwatch
that would sound when it is neglected.

Preparing the blackboard for the following tests

This work forced to turn his back to the students and not take
care of them for a minute or two must be rather run during the first half
of the test, between two controls, while the subjects are not stopped by
difficult questions yet and work without breaking off. If we have a
swivelling board we can use a dark side and show it only at the time of
the following instructions, what will avoid on the distractible students
to waste time to examine and to imagine which new difficulty we
prepare.

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Distributions and collections of answers sheets

We can distribute, during a test, the answers sheets of the

following test. We so gain some time especially if the class is
topographically badly arranged. But it must be made with discretion, by
asking not to take care of the sheet which we put. As we can only do
that by the end of the test, it can endanger monitoring. If the class is
small and if students are cooperating and enough matures, we also do
well to wait for the end of the test and distribute and pick overall by
row.

The tests booklets (economic formula) will never be distributed

beforehand. We have to distribute them while students fille the header
of the answers sheet. We so avoid that they are prematurely gone
through. We shall take care of counting exactly the test booklets
distributed and collected, so much to avoid the disclosure of the tests as
well as the loss of tests booklets.

Observation of the student’s behaviour

A student who writes externally reveals little about himself,

especially by comparison with what he would let guess by speaking or
by treating (manipulating). We can nevertheless notice quite a lot of
things: the typical expression of some faces (sadness or brilliance,
boredom or interest, embarrassment or assurance), etc.) the agitated, the
chatterboxes, the «wise children ", the tricksters whose eyes revolve
towards the neighbours.

We shall raise the names of the left-handed persons; we shall take

into account incidents, (a latecomer, a pupil who cries and a sick person
who has to go out).

We shall note all this as we can, either on the answers sheets after
collection, or according to a plan of the class what is better, but not
always practicable. Besides that it presents the advantage to complete
certain raw marks by differentiating elements, the concern to observe
the class in the work seems essential to the preservation of an adapted
discipline.

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Discipline

Let us use reluctantly this word which comes badly from the pen of
a psychology practitioner. But the children being what they are, it
would be foolish to forget that their instincts represent a certain strength
which the education has for mission to channel. In situation of
examination and within a group, this strength tends to show itself in
various ways:

- Desire to know what make the neighbours, out of curiosity, by

jealousy, or to feel reassured oneself;

- Desire to make a success by all means including that of fraud;

- Desire to show a merry vitality in reaction to the compulsory

tension, (with a half-consciousness), this exciting trend to test the
authority of the examiner by the turbulent,

Once the examination is presented, the first test explained, the effect
of surprise and the interest for the new become blurred: each is very
prosaically in front of a sheet to be filled and more it looks like a super-
short written test than all that the long-winded speech of the beginning
wanted to persuade. In brief, it is at this moment, that the pupil
supplying for the first time a personal effort and that the most school
habits are going to re-appear. The examiner having acquired previously
by his statements some authority, it is question that he maintains it. Yet
(now), everything is not allowed.

It would be clumsy for example that he threatens, that he promises

penalties, that he disgraces, that he throws some embittered
considerations on the pupils generally and this damned the class in
particular, that he says " keep silent ", "silence".

It is necessary to him to give the impression of the firmness and

to maintain order but without breaking the previously created
atmosphere and keeping a way of behaving which does not deny, in the
slightest detail, the past attitude. His calm, his equals humour, his
attention on each, his availability, his sense of humour, will remain thus
unchanged. Otherwise, he will sacrifice the "safety” side of the

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atmosphere, and the climate of cold war will disrupt (perturb) certainly
the emotional persons and the depressed.

The Best thus seem to pretend to ignore the latent conflicts. If a

pupil whispers two or three times with his neighbour or if he tries to
cheat, we can make him feel that we noticed it by asking him discreetly
to work alone, then by showing him a greater concern, by staying a little
near him, . If he persists we shall make him change the place ("you will
be more at ease to work ...").

This process can constitute the typical penalty to be used as soon

as you appear at zones of agitation. It always produces a profitable
effect not only on the offender but also on his equally willing comrades.
If the "uncalled-for" seems very affected by this measure (he dims the
ear or grumble), show him that he did not lose our respect (by a
laudable remark, an approval, a joke). This indication costs moreover in
every case where we had to "treat" a pupil separately (for an incident,
for a reminder of instruction for example). Finally, if such isolated
recidivist clearly wants to get noticed and may disrupt the examination,
if the personal threats in a low voice do not make effect, we shall resign
to expel him and will plan for him an individual examination.

If the whole class seems hardly entailed in the silent and personal
work, and if it is obvious that the slightest slackening of the attention of
the examiner will have as consequence an uncertainty for the paternity
of the good answers, we can between two tests risk a general
recommendation (" to work for you only, your orientation concerns only
you, the neighbour always makes errors ").

Call on (appeal) to the concepts of loyalty, honesty would be

easy, but would introduce a moral element which would wake senses of
guilt. Anyway, recommendations of this kind will make much more
effect as soon as we shall have the back turned. The course to follow is
thus strictly empirical and preventive. One of the most effective recipes
consists of being held:

- Up, so that the look overhangs and so that the examiner seems
more available;
- Motionless, because who walks stop watching the place where he
comes from;

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 - In front, to see faces;
- In a corner of the room, so that the angle swept (annihilated) by the
look is narrow;
- And near windows, to benefit from the maximum illumination. We
look at nobody in particular.

We do not take suspicious attitude. If a pupil wants to cheat he

verifies at first if the examiner looks at him and indeed, the examiner
has no trouble to watch him immediately, because the pupil so revealed
himself. From his position, the examiner may at any time by a simple
gesture or a friendly question («You want something ") make
understand that he quite holds and is not afraid of being overwhelmed.
This method is particularly useful towards the end of the tests and all
the more at the end of the examinations, when the fatigue, the
nervousness and the confusion spur the boldness and lower the
threshold of the moral sense. (it) stands out more often (is more often
imperative) as well as we think of it. Even in front of a class which
works wisely, the examiner does not have to forget that he is always a
little watched by the pupils. If he knows how to observe, he just has to
open a book to perceive (collect), here and there, knocks of furtive eye
which aim at him. We can thus say that his technique of monitoring)
will always have to be studied well.

Another problem will appear at the end of every test. The signal
to put down pencils given without brutality, but firmly, with
supporting some individual interventions (let us go, stop, it is finished!),
the pupils relax spontaneously while we collect sheets and exchange
around their impressions. Should we stop them?

In this moment, it seems that we have advantage to be very

flexible, indifferent to the noise (as long as it is not visibly and
deliberately excessive) and persuaded by the necessity of a relaxation
which contrasts with the phases of tension which precedent and which
follow.

In conclusion, the pupils deserve it well. And the return to a state

of calm will be made quite naturally by filling the header of the answers
sheet of the following test, after some polished orders (" please, I would
want us to listen again with attention "). It is there maybe that it will be

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the most important to know how to wait for the silence, and make feel
its necessity, before beginning no new explanation.

Naturally, all these difficulties hardly appear if the pupils are less
numerous and separated. There is any more «to make of discipline»
practically and the examiner, once the tests «launched", and the typical
behaviour noted, can almost spend reading or work of short duration.
He will avoid opening a newspaper or a magazine, and taking a too
much relaxed attitude

Adaptation of the attitude

The various school populations should be treated according to

the levels, gender, and age, the population of each institution and style
of teaching.

According to the levels, the gender and the ages

In the feminine classes, one can have the impression that

discipline seems easier to maintain. But there is no reason, on the
contrary, that we are less afraid of the inattention. Above all remember
that girls are on average, more emotional and more fearful. Therefore,
soften the tone, but do not relax at long monitoring.

For the children and the pre teenagers (in the 6th year of primary
school and in Form I or in 1st year of technical education speak more
slowly, repeat a lot, be very reassuring, very precise in the information
and, if necessary, decompose them more.

It is vis-a-vis adolescents (from Form II to Form V or 4th year of

technical education) that will show more firmness, because they have
the characteristic age of the assertion against the authority. They tried,
for the most part, diverse techniques of noise and secret communication.
Exercise accordingly a very attentive surveillance. Under a friendly
mask, suggest, by some well adapted interventions, that we are nothing
less than innocent. Take into account also the sense of the irony and the
"hoax" which is a part of the spirit schoolboy. Know how to joke, take
the hint. Even if we have to repeat and specify, never give the
impression that we are fools.

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 In the upper grades, we can argue more. The approach to the
vocational training allows to evoke the future which gets ready and to
appeal seriously, in the sense of the personal liability.

In upper sixth, arts or scientific or technical high school, present

the examination as much as a practical exercise of applied psychology as
a way of diagnosis towards which we shall straight away distance
him/herself. (Because it is true that at this level, the personality matters
more than the results of an intellectual examination). The "philosophers"
in particular will be satisfied by this "relativity", because nothing would
irritate them more than a claim "to measure" them in anything.
Comment a little on every test by presenting him to deepen the interest.
Do not believe as far as the surveillance can be released.

According to the populating of every institution and the style of the

education

We do not talk the same way to students of a graduation class in

an establishment of an urban populous district and those of a
graduation class in a reference classic establishment. Some expect a
direct and simple language, the other a choice of vocabulary they will
watch for inaccuracies. We shall also appreciate the peaceful, studious
and almost family atmosphere of the small secondary school and the
rural high schools, with regard to the rebellious and unstable climate of
some overstaffed classes in the urban high schools.

As regards the style of education, as long as we remind the

disparity between the methods of the primary education and those of
secondary education, it will be necessary to expect to find at their
pupil's the different habits.

We shall thus stimulate at primary schools, the initiative, and we

shall benefit of their obedience the well chewed indicators. To
secondary school (high schools) we shall go to the front of the critical
faculty and we shall apply more to limit the automatic and simplistic
aspect of all what is strictly imposed.

Sometimes the influence of a teacher can be sensitive in how

students respond. There are liberal or severe educators blossoming or

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frustrating. . It will be necessary to expect such nuances and to
compensate for them at the need.

In conclusion, we know enough that the individual

psychotechnics is a difficult art. It would be necessary to persuade us
that the collective psychotechnics is not a less delicate domain. Because
the number does not simplify the problems: it multiplies them.

If the collective examination is a necessary evil, one can reduce its

harmfulness by an enlightened application of this method.

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 CHAPTER 4:
VARIABLES THAT MAY
AFFECT THE TESTS TAKERS PERFORMANCES
___________________________________________________

The variables likely to influence the performance of the examined

subject or to generate the error of measurement can be intermediate
variables or parasitic variables. They generally result from the
multiform errors or the methodological problems in the administration
of the collective tests, from where need for controlling this
methodology. These variables also refer to the characteristics of the
examiner, of the evaluation situation, the examined subject, and with
the type of preparation to the test followed by the examined subject.

Measurement errors in a psychometric assessment

Notion of error of measure

The error of measure is defined as being any variance not

connected with the construct of the test and which has the effect of
damaging both the validity as the reliability of a test. Thus the error is
the difference between the true score and the observed score. We
distinguish two types of error: the random error and the systematic
error. The random, contingent or occasional error is an independent
error of measured construct. It can affect positively or negatively the
score of all the subjects. . It is for example: a momentary distraction of
the subject, to know the good answer and to notch the bad answer by
inadvertency, to obtain a good answer by chance, etc

On the other hand, the systematic error is generally associated

with the presence of one or more factors, undesirable compared to what
one wishes to measure, which will affect all the scores of the subjects
(Pépin, 2007). The systematic error, when it is present, becomes a source
of non relevant variance in comparison with measured construct,
consequently it is a source of disability of the test. For example: an
arithmetic test of reasoning in which one would find items written in

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too sophisticated English; in this case, this test could evaluate a
component of the reasoning which one wants to measure (digital
Reasoning) but also a component connected to the knowledge of
English (source of systematic variance of error). In addition, the validity
of a test is connected to the context of its use (contextual validity).
Systematic errors appear when the test is used in a context different
from that in which it was validated.

The classical test theory and measurement errors

The classical theory of the tests considers that the error of

measurement is generally random. In fact, the various sources of errors
are independent from/to each other, so that to a large number of
repeated measures, these errors are cancelled. The classical theory
stipulates in its first postulate that the score observed with a test is
composed of the true score plus a component of random error, and in
the third postulate that the correlation between the true scores and the
scores of random errors in the population of the subjects with which one
administers the test is equal to zero. There does not exist a mechanism
which would lead to increase or reduce the extent of the errors
according to the true competence of the subject. In other words, the
most qualified subjects do not see their score affected by an error larger
or smaller than that of the less qualified subjects (Pépin, 2007). Thus the
random error does not start the validity of a test.

In contrast, if the errors would not be random, but rather

systematic, the first postulate which we stated does not hold any more
(Pépin, 2007). Systematic errors can occur in various circumstances and
affect the validity of the results. For example, a test of skills in reading
developed and well validated in France, if this test is administered on
the subject whose French is not their mother tongue; it is extremely
probable that has a negative systematic impact likely to invalidate the
results.

The characteristics of the examiner

The personality and the interpersonal relationships with the

examined subjects, the perception of the functions and goals of the test
and expectations vis-a-vis the results to obtain have a real impact on the
performance of the examined subject (Bélanger, 2002). It is thus

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important with the examiner to adopt specific attitudes being able to
facilitate the control of the parasitic variables which rise from his
personal characteristics.

The personality and the physical presentation of the examiner

The personality is the whole of behaviours which constitutes the

individuality of a person. It gives an account of what qualifies the
individual or depicts a specific original character to each person. One
generally describes it in term of multiple features, for example:
intelligent, boasting, nice, empathic, antipathetic, cordial, sensitive,
affectionate, ambitious, severe, sizeable pace, etc

The specific original character to each examiner affects the

subjects examined in a collective testing, namely: its temperament, its
linguistic control, its pace, etc

It is recommended to the examiner to exert his authority with a

soft firmness. He must avoid a too authoritative style. For this purpose,
his tone must be neutral but benevolent, his orders nets and without
discussion, his looks respectable and decent physical presentation.

The physical presentation relates also to clothing. Thus hold

moreover, a choice place. The examiner should be neither a mannequin,
nor a clown. He must get dressed with the most normal possible
manner. For the man, one needs a sober but clean town suit which is
appropriate for the age and the kind of personality (to know) of the
guidance counsellor. The noisy accessories (jewellery, gadgets, etc) are
to be avoided. The haircut must be sober and the beard carefully
shaven. For the woman, the behaviour must be also without excess nor
eccentricity. Make-up, if it is present must be discrete. The perfumes
with too strong scent are to be avoided. As well for the men as for the
women, the shoed shoes are to be proscribed because of noises which
they produce in contact with the floor or of the ground.

Interpersonal relationships with the examined

The relationship "student-guidance counsellor" in a situation of

group testing, substitutes itself in a relationship «guidance counsellor-

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class group of students)." When a guidance counsellor plays the role of
examiner, the contact cannot be of the same nature.

Generally, the relation "student-guidance counsellor" «is a human

relation marked with confidence even of sympathy. On the other hand
in the case «guidance counsellor-class group of students." this relation
can be characterized by the confrontation, that of a group with his
organiser, phenomenon of social psychology whose incidences on the
examination situation can be very harmful (Athane, 1979). The attitude
of the counsellor may be modified. Sixty or even hundred students who
take the test represent many personalities with whom the guidance
counsellor will have to deal with. It is therefore necessary to master a
few principles that can help manage discipline in the classroom during
testing.

According to Archambault and Chouinard (1996), to promote

respect for discipline by the students, the examiner must:

a) Be sensitive to everything that happens in class by showing to the

pupils that the least possible of things escape him. It could incite the
pupils to respect disciplinary rules. For that purpose, it is recommended
to the examiner to sweep frequently and regularly the class with a
glance. To use the not verbal language (a sign of the head, the finger or
the hand, an expression of the face, an eye contact etc.) which allows
generally to make, to the pupil, understand that the examiner saw him
and that he asks him to end his disruptive behaviour

b) Avoid turning the back on the pupils and giving help (assistant)
too long to a pupil who did not understand the instructions to the
detriment of the others.

c) Manage a rhythm of adequate work. The examiner has to make

sure that the various scheduled (programmed) tests follow one another
harmoniously in a continuous way and according to a clear logic. It is
also necessary to spot the signs of boredom on behalf of the pupils.

d) React quickly to put an end to a disruptive behaviour, but

discreetly and intervene only when a pupil raises a problem. A public
remark risks to interrupt the activity of the other pupils, furthermore, a

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pupil reprimanded in front of his peers, as he focuses their attention,
can feel valued and his strengthened inappropriate behaviour.

e) Show tolerance. Avoid taking in the tragic possible problems

which will arise. Most of the problems that arise in daily class are
generally minor and do not carry consequences (whisper, move, to
laugh, etc.). It is difficult for a pupil to remain attentive a whole day
without moving. The examiner has advantage to show tolerance,
without allowing to pass of course quite.

f) Respect the pupils, it is showing that we agree with them and

making them feel that we grant them some value as people, even if we
ask them to change behaviour. It is also to make them understand that
we trust in them and in their capacity. Generally, the pupils appreciate
the teachers who uses humour. The examiner can use the humour to
create a relaxed atmosphere. However, it is necessary to distinguish
humour from the sarcastic remark or the mockery directed to students,
in particular.

It is tedious and very difficult to describe all types of problems

that can occur in the classroom. Archambault and Chouinard (1996)
identified some disruptive behaviour that appears recurrently in the
classroom, especially during group testing.

Disruptive behaviour which may cause the rejection of the test

occurs when:

- The student does not know what to do: the instructions given by the
examiner were not well understood. He requested an explanation
again;

- The pupil does not know how to do: the pupil believed that he has
understood the instructions but when the test is launched he
experiences difficulties applying them and he thus wants that we
show him how we apply the instructions concretely by resuming (by
taking back) the examples;

- The student does not know why he must do what we ask him:
Sometimes the explanation of the test purpose is not enough explicit

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 or does not obtain adhesion of the student, which leads not to grant
any importance to this activity;

- The pupil finds the test too difficult: a pupil who knows that he
cannot realize an activity becomes less motivated;

- The student believes that the test is too easy; too easy activity is
demotivating and loses value to the student's eyes;

- The student has nothing to do: the student may complete the test
before the others. We must tell him what to do next to escape the
idleness and boredom.

In sum, when a student does not understand the instructions,

perceives tests as very difficult trials and estimated that the testing is
not an interesting or important activity, he is unmotivated and rejects
the test. This lack of motivation can be manifested either by passive
disruptive behaviour as dozing during testing, answer items
unguardedly or by chance, soiling the test booklet, etc. Or by active
disruptive behaviour as chat, call his comrades, throwing things,
despise the examiner, etc.

The perception of the functions and the test purposes by the examiner

The perception of the function of the test, in itself, is not in the

centre of the activity of evaluation, but it is rather, what an examiner
will make within the framework of a detailed examination of a person
(Guédon, on 2004). That is why it is imperative, before proceeding to the
administration of a test to clarify with all the examined subjects the
pursued objectives and intended use of the test results. Within the
framework of an individual testing, this requirement is easy to respect.
On the other hand in the collective testing, it is sometimes more
complicated to comply.

Whatever the circumstances, the major stakes or the goals of the

psychometric evaluation remain the same ones. To provide to the
students tested relevant and exact information as far as possible, since
the choice of the methods until interpretation of the results and to
respect the rights of the students tested in particular to the plan of

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equity, the confidentiality, the access to information resulting from the
tests and the assent of the subjects having to pass the test.

Generally, for the vocational adviser, the psychometric tests are

instruments having as functions to evaluate intellectual, psychological
operation and the resources of the pupil, to measure his interests, his
aptitudes, his personality, his intellectual, cognitive and emotional
functions, in short to take into account the characteristics of the pupil
which will make sure that the school choices will prove or not adequate
and satisfactory.

The first objective is centred here on the performance and the

reduction of the school risk of failure. By supplying the maximum of
information on the characteristics of the pupil with the aim of a part, to
help him to make decisions or to make realistic school choice, and on
the other hand, to determine the strategies and the plans of intervention
and to assure the follow-up with the aim of developing his capacity to
turn and to realize his school, university and professional projects.
Besides, the collected information about the functioning of the pupil,
about his internal resources, about his difficulties as well as about the
presence or the absence of pathology can be very useful in the psycho-
pedagogical follow-up or in the resolution of some individual or
relational problems with which the pupil can be confronted.

When tests are administered to groups of individuals, we must

ensure that all participants know why they have to spend and what use
will be made of the results. According Guédon (2004), this precaution is
necessary not only to maintain the motivation of people, but also to
obtain informed consent from them. Furthermore, except in very
specific situations (selection, classification, training), test takers should
be warned of the kind of tests they will have to take, the time it will
take, how they can s 'prepare, etc. Such information may reduce anxiety
or help put people in the best frame to take the test, thereby inducing
more valid results.

The expectations of the examiner vis-a-vis the results to obtain (the

Pygmalion effect).

The Pygmalion effect indicates (appoints) the fact of creating at

the others it we expect from them. The expectations of the guidance

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counsellor with regard to the results to be obtained by some pupils can
influence the performances in the tests. According to the experiment
defining the Pygmalion effect realized by Rosenthal and Jacobson ( 1968
), it can arrive that the perception, that a guidance counsellor has of a
pupil in view of his school performances, leads expectations and more
or less positive attitudes towards him/her. It is established that the
positive attitudes towards certain pupils can engender preferential
relations between the examiner and the examined subjects. These
attitudes are translated by specific behaviour (particular attention for
certain pupils during the testing). He can follow itself the uneven
distribution of the information inside the class.

The Pygmalion effect is a famous shape of prediction auto-

director, as well regarding perception(collection) as regarding
realization. Indeed, if a guidance counsellor following the example of a
professor is particularly convinced to have good pupils (even if it turns
out false); on one hand, this confidence(trust) will make him(her) adopt
a positive attitude to these pupils with a particular supervision; on the
other hand, this confidence(trust) can motivate his pupils to better
performance. It is obvious that on the contrary, there is no positive
expectation to the pupils whom we perceive as «bad pupils ". Students
that evaluate the guidance counsellor at school are not always strangers.
These are students whom he follows as part of its activities within the
school. Furthermore, as a member of the class council, he knows the
academic performance of each student. This information can shape
expectations on the results to get the tests and in turn positively or
negatively influence the performance of the examined subjects.

The characteristics of the situation of the evaluation

The situation in which takes place the testing deserves to be taken

into account. The guidance counsellor has to know the various
components or the variables of this situation. The intermediate variables
or live as a parasite stemming from the physical environment and the
circumstances of the testing, and their effects must be checked or
neutralized before and during the psychometric assessment.

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The physical environment

The practical material conditions of collective testing namely: the

size of the group, instead of students, the lighting of the classroom, the
campus too noisy and equipment used by the students have some
influence on the performance of examinees. This is why it is
recommended not to administer the tests in overstaffed classrooms,
avoid putting more than two students per two seated table-benches and
using that identical material for all (answers sheets, tests booklets, etc.).
Besides, the duration of the testing should not exceed four hours of
clock and the testing cannot be scheduled in the afternoon.

The circumstances in which the guidance counsellor is required

to make take tests to students in schools are diverse. The test taking can
be imposed by others (such is the case of the testing which we make
systematically in the landings of orientation) or requested by students.
A request or indication of tests should never be made at random, but fit
into a whole context. Whatever the circumstances, the active and
voluntary collaboration of student is necessary and indispensable,
otherwise everything is false.

The consequences of the results, the motivational effect, and a

feedback

The influences exerted by the worry of the result to the

evaluation can destroy the spontaneousness and the independence of
mind necessary to the permanent adjustment requested from the pupils.
This worry can change and lead them to wonder what the guidance
counsellor will do with their results and by rebound to cause anxiety or
stress of evaluation taking into account their former experiments.

Feedback is defined as the effect of what is retroactive. It returns

to something, a measurement or a value judgment which has
consequences which flash back on facts intervening later on. Feedback is
more often defined like information given to a person in connection
with his actions, of his productions, his attitudes or his behaviours
(Fortune, 2008). Within the school framework, these value judgments
arise in the appreciations and other comments made on the copies of the
pupils: Very well, Well, Rather well or Fair, Forgeries, Worthless,
matched complementary indications and encouragement to be

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deepened. Feedback seems to affect the motivation of the pupils because
this one can better evaluate their progress, understand their
performance, maintain their efforts and receive encouragements.

The influences exercised by the subjectively analogue reminder of

experience can wake in a pupil's bad memory and determine
consequently negative attitudes a priori towards the evaluation.
According to Rodet (2009), the feedback is automatically started after a
disturbance to provoke a corrective action in opposite direction.

If pedagogically, feedback provides a guided correction expresses

a value judgement that must be reasoned and argued with the aim of
enabling student to deepen his knowledge and show him how to do it;
such is not always the case in a psychometric assessment. The reactions
of the student feedback are combined translation of different elements
as varied as the quality of his academic performance, perception of
himself, his practice of self-evaluation, the quality of the feedback
provided by assessor, his emotional situation, motivation, psychological
profile and situational factors. The feedback in a psychometric
assessment is different from a corrective feedback. Some students may
be relying on the comments and other assessments of the guidance
counsellor to previous tests to find arguments to challenge; or try to use
them in a positive way to improve their test scores.

The characteristics of the test taker

The characteristics of the subject that can influence test

performance resulting from its personality traits. It is not easy to
identify all these extraneous variables that could skew the performance
with psychometric evaluation. We will notice that the most recurrent
are: the perception of the functions and purposes of the test, the threat
to self-image and social desirability, resistance to stress, the threat of
Steele stereotype and anxiety of testing.

The perception of function and test purposes

Dessus (2001) following Crahay (1999) notes that during their

schooling, students will construct a representation of the school system,
standards, goals, ways to behave, etc. This representation is constructed
by multiple exchanges that they have with their parents, teachers,

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guidance counsellors, peers; moreover, this representation evolves over
time.

Dessus (2001) observes that the secondary school is perceived by

students as a place of evaluation and selection. Needless, to say that
their major concern is to avoid failure by passing their exams. Their
major concern is to avoid the failure while succeeding with their
examinations. It is established that the conception which the pupil has
of the goals of the school influences the risks which he is ready to take,
the level of success which he sets, the emotions which he feels as well as
the nature of his causal attributions. . If a student thinks that the school
is made to select and evaluate, he has no interest in revealing to the
teacher his gaps. Moreover, he will avoid any situation where the
teacher could make a negative judgment on him. Consequently, the
strategy of this pupil will be a strategy of defence and avoidance.

Similarly, if the student perceives the test as an assessment tool to

catalogue the good and bad students or for a directional orientation
counselling, he has no interest in revealing to the guidance counsellor
his shortcomings. Similarly, he will avoid any situation where the
guidance counsellor could make a negative judgement on him. The
general strategy of the student will consist to validate, with all his
energies, his existing skills (notes report, parent’s projects for the future,
etc.). This strategy can simply consist to denigrate the psychometric
tests.

In short, the perception of the function and goals by the test taker
can induce the feeling of oneself image threats which can involve
resistance or generate the phenomenon of social desirability.

The feeling of threat to oneself-image and social desirability can

be defined as the photograph of ourselves that we have in mind. It is
how one sees oneself, what he is believed to be, what he thinks that he
can do, how he believes that the others see him. And if self-image is
presented as something specific, almost visible in reality it is often
perceived by humans in the form of a set of emotions and subjective
impressions they can live or suffer in different ways according to their
nature and culture (Fisher, 1996).

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 Generally a pupil will be motivated by what values him, what
gives him a good image of oneself, the self-respect (the importance that
an individual agrees with regard to the others, thanks to whom he is
situated in the social order).

If the student has achieved good results with previous tests and
was congratulated and valued for this he will be motivated to undergo
all kinds of psychometric assessment. By cons if he had performed
badly and was catalogued as having very poor academic skills with
very little chance of achieving his school project, he will lose interest
completely and still experience a deep trouble to undergo testing. A
person with low self-esteem he will not be motivated to persevere with
a system which holds him in failure. So when weak students feel they
will fail, they seek to maintain a positive image of themselves by not
providing the necessary effort to succeed, to be able to say, in case of
failure, «If I had wanted, I could succeed "(Dessus, 2001). Indeed,
everyone tends to have self image more favourable even if it is false. As
social beings by nature, people are inclined to seek a degree of social
acceptance. The sense of threat to oneself-image also induces the
phenomenon of social desirability.

The social desirability indicates the tendency which has every

human being to be accepted socially by presenting the most favourable
oneself-image. It is a bias in the psychometric assessment corresponding
to the inclination of a person to respond in a way that will be seen as
favourable by others. Social desirability is one of the main biases in
personality tests. This bias is even more prominent in the school context.
Students are normally always tempted to respond so positively to
impress the guidance counsellor. This should be taken into account in
the test taking of academic motivation tests, questionnaires of interest,
the method of work, etc.

The threat of Steele stereotype

Generally, stereotypes are defined as sets of beliefs regarding the

attributes of such or such social group. There are positive or negative
stereotypes, and in all societies. But in any situation where a stereotype
could be applied to a person may be invoked to explain behaviour or
justify performance (good or bad), the person subject to this stereotype,
and who knows it, will feel pressure, will fear that his behaviour or
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performance only interpreted according to this stereotype, without
individual characteristics are taken into account, and will unconsciously
and unintentionally change his behaviour. It is in this situation that we
talk about stereotype threat.

Steele and Aronson (1995) demonstrated that being the target of a

negative stereotype and potentially be judged on that stereotype would
induce in the subject examined an additional psychological pressure in
addition to the anxiety of testing that would interfere with their
performance. This threat is characterized by the fear of the subject
examined to confirm, by his performances in the tests, the negative
stereotype of his race, his ethnic group, his social group or gender.

Studies on gender differences in pupils or students were made in

schools with interesting results (Toczek, 2005). Spencer, Steele & Quinn
(1999) administered to students at an American university a difficult
maths test. It was a series of exercises from a standardized test used by
all American universities. The participants in this experiment were
selected from their high level in mathematics. In the second
experimental condition, the evaluator added that this test had not
shown a difference in achievement between men and women. Then the
participants met the exercises in a limited time. Spencer and colleagues
found that the average score for women was lower than those of men
when the test was presented as a measure of their maths skills. This
result, not surprisingly, was only reflected the men / women usually
observed differences. By cons in the second experimental condition, the
one where the evaluator added that the test was not sensitive to gender,
women got there a higher score than the first condition, and equivalent
to that of men of the two conditions. The performance of the men,
however, did not change from one condition to another. The conclusion
to be drawn from this experience is that, on the same performance test, a
slight modification of the instructions to the participants was enough to
influence the scores.

According to Spencer and al (1999), when the examiner told

participants that the test measures their maths skills, this induces a
particular risk for women. They have a reputation not to be very gifted
in mathematics. Therefore, a failure in the task could be seen as a
confirmation of the validity of this stereotype. A risk which is faced by
men who participate in the task. And this additional evaluative
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pressure, as always, when it gets too much causes a drop in
performance of women. Hence, the stereotype is confirmed and the
cyclical phenomenon may continue. However, when the evaluator said
that the task has never shown any difference men / women, it reduces
the relevance of the negative reputation of women for such tasks. Their
social identity is not likely to be used to explain their performance. They
are on an equal footing with men: only personal characteristics come
into play. In sum, we conclude that the negative social reputations
which people are sometimes the target may lead to behaviour that
validates these reputations to everyone. This perverse mechanism
involved in maintaining social inequalities. It is therefore important to
identify situations that are favourable to it in order to avoid the effects
(Toczek, 2005).

The anxiety of testing

Many students perceive negatively real-life anxiety, anguish or

fear before an assessment, a knowledge test or examination and
prematurely conclude that they cannot succeed. When we speak of
exam panic, we talk about excessive stress, i.e. the anxiety exceeds the
threshold and drops in performance. Generally, an anxious person
becomes unable to perform the tasks he performed during his study. In
addition to the performance loss, the stress indices can be observed
physiologically and psychologically. Physiological indications
manifested by increased heart beat rate, moist hands, cold hands,
sweating, tremors, etc., while the psychological indices are characterized
by problems of concentration and attention, memory lapses and
thoughts which cause panic. These are the latter which cause the most
devastation. It is therefore necessary to develop operating strategies that
help students prevent the development of excessive anxiety before and
during testing.

Test preparation

The preparation has an effect on test performance. The nature of

this effect can be either limited to items or general performance criterion
(the variable for which we try to predict by means of this test): academic
achievement, success in a specific discipline, etc. (Bélanger, 2002). There
are many forms of test preparation: the tutoring, tests habituation and
learning of general and cognitive abilities relevant to the measured task.
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The tutoring

The tutoring is characterized by intensive and specific training in

order to perform better on a test. In a situation where the test is used as
a selection tool, given the stakes (orientation of the top students in a
degree program) or under the effect of social desirability (personality
test), some subjects may practice on a set of exercises similar to those of
the test or simply to train on the same test in order to control its content.
The training may improve test performance but has no effect on test
performance criteria.

For example: the PRC (Cameroon Proverbs) is a verbal

comprehension test, used to predict the success of a subject in any
activity that requires some ability in verbal reasoning. A student trained
on the items of this test will have very good results, but we cannot bank
without risks on his performances to predict his behaviour in a task
requiring the skill in the verbal reasoning. The effects resulting from the
learning (apprenticeship) of the PRC cannot be transferred to other tests
measuring the same phenomenon and either in their criteria.

In sum, mentoring can be likened to cheating, including

personality tests. Subjects who rely simulate other personalities, other
interests, skills and values that are not theirs. The tutoring diminishes
the validity of the test.

Habituation to testing

A subject which, on several occasions, had to take the same test

possesses some experience on the way of behaving in front of this test.
Furthermore, he masters the styles of question and answer. Familiarity
with test puts the subject in confidence and induces a good attitude to
the task and on the rebound, can improve the test performance. Like the
mentoring addiction a test has no effect on test performance criterion;
therefore, it reduces the validity of the test.

Apprenticeship of general cognitive skills

Educational games can help students develop cognitive skills

related to basic operations in logic, mathematics, observation, contacts,
classification and seriation. Researchers have also shown that certain

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 video games can help students develop essential skills for learning,
including spatial skills and visual attention. These two skills are
involved, for example, in learning geometry and reading. The learning
and development of adequate cognitive skills can have effects both on
the score of a test and performance criteria. These effects are likely to
transfer to other tests measuring the same phenomena.

Table 2: Effects of test preparation on performance (Bélanger, 2002).

Performance Transfert effets

Other tests Tests
Type of Criteria:
measuring the criteria of Exemples
preparation Test variable to
same the same
be predicted
phenomena nature
Learn
questions
Specific training Best No effects No No
style and
answers
Learn
questions
Familiarity Better No effects Yes No
style and
answers
Learn how
cognitive to
Better Better Yes Yes
Learning develop
ability

Other causes of various origins that can lead to poor test scores

Beyond the variables we identified, De Landsheere (1965)

identified some attitudes or predispositions that may also explain the
poor results in the tests. The causes of poor performance can result
from:

- Inattention, superficial reading of the data;

- Ignorance of terms or lack of knowledge necessary to understand
the nature of the test;
- Precipitation;
- The scrupulosity or exaggerated care;
- The general slowness of the subject;
- Stubbornness to resolve a problem causing loss of time;
- Emotional blockage;
- The default of methods:
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-lack of distinction ordered in the items statement
-lack of initiatives, the subject looks in his memory a ready-made
solution,
-lack of order in the working solutions.
- Lack of insurance or fear;
- The narrowness and rigidity of the mental field: the subject is
unable to have an overview of the problem;
- Associative proliferation: the subject engages in transactions that
have no direct relation to the problem and ends up losing it of view;
- The inability to correct a wrong assumption: the subject heading
down the wrong path;
- Amnesia or leak of ideas: the subject forgets as he read or imagine;
- The mental hyper tedious;
- The disharmonic development of intelligence: the subject is, for
example, able to solve the problems formulated concretely, but fails
as soon as the situation is presented in the abstract;
- The combination of several previous cases.

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116
 CHAPTER 5:
DATA PROCESSING

The correction

The most practical system is that of Assessment grid. By

thoroughly plating the marking grid on the answers sheet; according to
the case, the good or wrong answers show throughout. It remains to
marker to count and sum up the answers taking into consideration the
scale of grading. The marking grid for some tests is made by the
developer. For other tests, it is the corrector who makes it. To make a
grid of correction, it is simply necessary to:

a) Take a blank answer sheet from those used in the testing. If

possible, stick this answer sheet on a cardboard folder cut on the format
of the answer sheet;

b) With reference to the corrected test, check the answers given to the
test items;

c) Perforate carefully using a cutter or a sharp blade the checked

responses;

d) Check well that your grid of correction once more does not conceal
errors while referring to you with corrected test;

e) Report on your correction grid marking scheme according to the

guidelines of the corrected test.

The correction grid avoids correcting errors. It has the advantage

of being fast. Items collective tests being presented as multiple choices
questions, predefined and closed their correction should be no problem,
including issues related to the correction which teachers are struggling.
However, it is recommended to the corrector of the psychometric tests
to carry out the correction in a calm place being able to support the
concentration and always to stop correcting as soon as one feels signs of
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tiredness. In addition, the correction of the tests should not be made in
front of the examined subjects.

After the correction, the examiner has to carry over for every test,
the raw mark in the collective statement of notes in the column Nb.
(Confer appendix). This work done, he can, then, proceed to the
preparation of the psychological profiles of every examined subject by
using a standard of interpretation or a calibration.

The standard of interpretation of test results (standard or calibration)

A standard is a quantitative or qualitative criterion allowing

interpreting the value or the meaning of the performance given by an
examined subject and the score (global average of performance in the
test) he has obtained (Bélanger, 2009).

Psychological tests rarely offer an absolute measure which

possesses, in itself, a significant interpretation. This problem makes
impossible the comparisons intra and interpersonal, where from the
necessity of supplying a reference frame or a standard of interpretation
clearly defined to interpret the scores in a psychological test. «To
calibrate a test, it is to establish the scale which allows locating
comfortably the success of a subject in regard to the total group of
successes in a population. »(Palmade, 1983).

Generally, the standards of a psychometric test result from a

collection of data from a normal population. So the standards of a test
are drawn from data collected on this test on a representative sample of
the population at some point in time. More the sample is representative
of the population better still the reference point to place the
performance of a given pupil with regard to the population of the pupils
of which it is a part.

The standards of a test may be expressed or presented in various

ways: the percentile ranks, z scores, the Z scores, etc. These scores are
easier to interpret than the raw scores or the raw results to a test.

The quality or value of the standards of a test is however not

related to the type of scales used. Good standards are based on the

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inclusion of a large number of subjects representative of the general
population to which the test is intended (Loranger and Pepin, 2010).

The selection of random subjects usually ensures a good

representation when the number of subjects is large. The
standardization of a test is an important step in the development of a
test; it must be done very carefully because it provides essential data
that will be compared later to the student individual results to whom
the test will be administered.

A calibration is thus a scale which allows to place the result

obtained by a subject with regard to results which were before observed
in a reference population, a sort (species) of group standard, numerous
and homogeneous enough of subjects comparable to the subject which
was examined. The calibration allows as well the comparisons of the
performances between individuals for the same test as the comparisons
of the performances between various tests undergone by the same
individual.

The adaptation of the standards of interpretation to the cultural

sphere of the examined subjects

We generally work with instruments whose standards are

European or American. This practice can be justified to the extent that
the adaptation of the instrument concerned has been made according to
scientifically accepted methods, and / or it can be shown that the
measured dimension is relatively unaffected by the cultural differences
between Cameroonians and Europeans or Americans. But we must not
lose sight that it is likely that in many cases the use of such standards
increases the uncertainty in the interpretation of results. Therefore, the
interpretation should be made with caution. Similar problems
encountered with testing standards which begin dating.

In Cameroonian Schools, the choice of aptitude tests is very

limited. This shortage of tests is a major difficulty. Among its negative
impacts, it should be noted the repeated use of the same test to the same
people (Form V Battery and Upper Sixth Battery , in particular) for
different purposes, which certainly affects the value of assessments.

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 According to Brugoux (1982), the tests can only be
«consubstantial with a certain scientific and technical universe ", the
major difficulty in which the African psychologist is confronted is to
find tests which are applicable to all the individuals of the society.
Indeed, what is common between the child's world of an urban zone
and a rural area?

Between the child " pulled by strength towards the abstraction "
by the school that he has any ease to go and the one who will enter it
only in eight years and will take advantage of it only one, two or three
years?

Between the child of a Westernised family environment and the

farmer’s son of a small village in the hinterland?

The danger facing the African psychologist is not the

transposition of tests built for others. This danger has been sufficiently
denounced but it is the ignorance of the diversity of cultural situations
(Brugoux 1982). This diversity means that there is no single solution to
the problem. In this line of ideas, we can assume that some Western
tests which have undergone adaptation (especially in the conditions of
test taking and calibrations) can be used on the population of students
enrolled in an educational system which remains a copy of the
educational systems of the former colonizer countries.

But these tests are perfectly unsuitable for other populations. The
measurement of intellectual ability can only be done through observable
behaviours of man confronted with the familiar problems of his physical
or social environment. Look for example the items of behaviour which
on one hand, are elements of the psychological universe of the child of
such geographical or cultural environment and which presents a
classifying power. Here is the task which is to be realized if we want to
avoid the justifiable critics against the method of the tests.
(Brugoux,1982). Over time, the standards of a test can also become
obsolete. Let us imagine a Battery of tests which the calibration dates
several decades. It is more likely that these standards are not any more
suited today for diverse reasons: the level of schooling increased a lot,
some knowledge which were little spread in the time are diffused now
widely, etc. Hence, the need to update its calibration every two years.

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Types of calibration

The type of standard or calibration based on theoretical

postulates and involves theoretical as empirical consequences (Bélanger,
2009). Generally, a calibration can be presented in two categories
according to the nature of the tests: in terms of level of development
(developmental standards) or in terms of relative positions in a
reference group (intra-group standards).

Developmental standards

They are generally developed by the test designer (Binet-Simon

Scales, WISC, etc.). The developmental standards give a meaning to the
results by describing the stage reached by the subject inside a "normal"
sequence of development. It supposes that the measured characteristic
develops in the time and also the uniformity of the sequence at all the
individuals. The developmental standards are used in the interpretation
of the scores of:

- Intelligence tests: to measure mental age, that is to say "the mental

level of a child determined by its success in a test calibrated for this age
and failures in the higher age tests "(Piéron 1973).

- Tests of achievement: in describing the performance of a student as

equivalent to that of students in a particular class for a given subject.

- In specific functions: Here the standards appear in the form of an

ordinal scale to identify the stage reached by a child in the development
of the specific behavioural functions by giving a description of what
makes the child. In this type of test, the age is less important. We are
interested at first in the reached stage. The achievement of a stage
presupposes the control of behaviour associated to the previous stages.

Intra-group standards

Group norms are standard used in the majority of tests to

measure ambiguous psychological concepts that do not correspond to
simple or clear performance. They establish the value or meaning of the
individual's score by comparing the scores obtained by a group of
individuals who serves as a reference and thus placing that person in
relation to this group. Their goal is to differentiate the individuals in the
121
finest possible way. Calibrations group tests (paper and pencil) are
generally intra-group standards developed by the examiner from the
distribution of the scores of a representative group of students who took
the tests (standard sample), transforming these scores gross in related
measures.

Simplified calibration methods

Characteristics of a distribution

Distribution is characterized by central tendency indices, namely:

the mean, mode and median. The mean is a statistical measure
characterizing a set of elements of a set quantity. It expresses the
grandeur a member would have each at the same they were all identical
without changing the overall size of the assembly. The mode is the
variable modality for which the frequency of individuals is highest as
saying. The median is the modality of the variable that divides the
distribution into two equal parts (50% to about below 50% of subject
above this value). In a normal distribution, the mean, mode and median
are confused.

Variance and standard deviation are measures of dispersion.

There is continuity between the following three concepts:

- Variation: square of the sum of the deviations from the mean

- Variance: mean of the sum of squared deviations from the mean

- Standard deviation: square root of the average of the sum of squared

deviations from the mean.

Procedure of calibration

The calibration allows to obtain standard marks (marks obtained

by many subjects) which we order and classify. Thanks to this process,
we obtain a board of correspondence, between the mark in the test and
the observed psychological dimension. So, the test taken by a subject
gives a mark which we can compare to the reference group. The
individual will thus be classified (we shall know how many subjects
have a score lower than his, and conversely). For example, if we

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establish a test with 40 items (0 or 1 point each): the raw score in an
amplitude from 0 to 40. How to interpret a note of 32?

How shall we calibrate the test?

1. Phase of sampling: the experimenter makes take the test in a

representative sample of the population. To establish a representative
sample, several methods can be taken:

- Method of the quotas: the more the number of subject is big, the more
the calibration will be representative. We give ourselves a list of criteria
which define the population, and then we look for the proportion of
every criterion in the global population. We reproduce then these
proportions in the sample, which becomes then representative. The
main problem is that this sample is representative only for the chosen
criteria. Yet we must have missed the important criteria which interfere
with the results of the test (unchecked variable).

- Method of the random sampling. It is based on the principle that by

taking at random enough people in the population, we are going to
reproduce the small-scale proportions. The random sampling bases
itself on law of probability and general statistics allowing to define a
threshold of sample beyond which it is reasonable (with an interval of
possible error) to think that we have enough people to represent the
global population (or the population of the concerned group)

2. after the test administration: we establish a reference distribution

(histogram) giving by the results to the tests and the sub-tests (or in
items), representing the collection of results of the representative
sample.

3. Construction of the calibration: we cut the distribution in several

"classes" (for example, 5 categories) according to adequate criteria. The
gross scores obtained in the same class are considered as equivalents
(there is then loss of discriminatory sharpness, but we can know the
proportions of every class). We make the gross scores corresponding to
the number of classes, and we define the proportions and the limits of
these classes.

Step of Calculation:

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a) Count the number of marks (N)
b) Provide overview of classes (beginning with the lower class)
c) Indicate the frequency (f)
d) Calculate the cumulative frequency (fc): Each frequency is added to
the precedent one.

Example

Classes Cumulative
Frequencies
Frequencies
24-28 1 1
29-33 2 3
34-38 8 11
39-43 10 21
44-48 23 44
49-53 22 66
54-58 18 84
59-63 9 93
64-68 5 98
69-73 1 99
74-78 1 100
N = 100

Quantilage and calibration in normalized scales

The main characteristic of quantilages is the identical proportion of

subjects in every class. It is a question of defining the size of intervals of
the scores for which the same number of people have a score in this
interval that in the others. There are several types of quantilages
according to the chosen number of classes.

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The quartilage

To determine Q1, Q2 and Q3, we proceed as in the normalized

(standardized) scales.

Note Frequencies Cumulative

Frequencies
4 3 3
5 5 8
6 7 15
7 8 23
8 11 34
9 14 48
10 12 60
11 10 70
12 8 78
13 7 85
14 4 89
15 1 90

N=90
Cumulative number of individuals to include:
Q1= (90 x 25) / 100 = 22,5
Q2= (90 x 50) / 100 = 45
Q3= (90 x 75) / 100 = 67,5
First interquartile : 4 - 7
Second interquartile : 8 - 9
Third interquartile : 10 - 11
Fourth interquartile : 12 - 15

The quartilage is a scale constituted by the division of a distribution in

four subgroups of equal size.

Three called values Q1, Q2, Q3 quartiles fall under groups in

interquartiles.

Q1 is the value exceeded by 25 % of the observations

Q2 is the value overtaken by 50 % of the observations

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Q3 is the value exceeded by 75 % of the observations.

By definition, Q2 thus corresponds to the "median".

In certain manual (in particular the American manual) the meanings of

Q1 and Q3 are inverted.

The decilage

It is a scale constituted by the division of a distribution ordered in ten

subgroups or interdeciles.

The 1st decile D1 is the value exceeded (overtaken) by 10 % of subjects

The 2nd decile D2 is the value exceeded (overtaken) by 20 % of subjects

The 3rd decile D3 is the value exceeded (overtaken) by 30 % of subjects.

The same process has a practice that for the quartilage allows to obtain
the values D1, D2, D3, …

The centilage (n 100)

We call centiles 0, 1, 2, 100; the values of the variable such as 0 %, 1 %, 2

%, and 100 % of the observations are lower than them. 1st percentile is
the worst and the 100th, the lowest ranking.

Normalized scales

The sizes of the categories are defined from the theoretical

distribution of Laplace-gauss (or normal distribution). We cut the
population and establish the classes by using this distribution,
according to the average and according to the standard deviation.
Always do take the test in a large number of individuals, and then
calculate average and standard deviation, to classify according to it. The
interval is not arbitrarily chosen but according to the number wished by
the classes.

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Calibration in 5 classes

3
Category 1 2 medium 4 5
z- -1.5 -0.5 0.5 1.5
%- 6.7 24.2 38.2 24.2 6.7
Cumulative
%- 6.7 30.9 69.1 93.3 100

Calibration in 7 classes

Category 1 2 3 4 medium 5 6 7
z- -1.67 -1 -0.33 0.33 +1 1.67
%- -4.8 11.1 21.2 25.8 21.2 11.1 4.8
Cumulative % - 4.8 15.9 37.1 62.9 84.1 95.2 100

Calibration in 9 classes

Category 1 2 3 4 5 medium 6 7 8 9
Z- 1.5 1.25 0.75 0.25 0.25 1.75 1.25 1.75
%- 4.0 6.6 12.1 17.5 19.6 17.5 12.5 6.6 4.0
Cumul% 4.8 10.6 22.7 40.2 59.8 77.3 89.4 96.0 100

Scale in 11 classes

Category
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
- medium +
Z- 1.8 14 1.0 0.6 0.2 0.2 0.6 1.0 1.4 1.8
%- 3.6 4.5 7.7 11.6 16 16 14.6 11.6 7.7 4.5 3.6
Cumul% 3.6 8.1 15.8 27.4 42 58 72.6 84.2 91.9 96.4 100

This type of calibration is useful. It allows comparisons inter-

tasks; we can realize an individual profile by putting all the tests on the
same level of interpretation. For example, a student has scores 32 on 160
in a verbal test and 20 on 80 in a spatial test. In view of the calibration,
he obtains respectively the notes of 2/20 and 4/20: thus he is better in
the spatial test.

127
The skills profile

In the specific case of efficiency tests, it is not easy to broadly

interpret the results of a battery of tests from only calibrated notes. That
is why we must resort to a graphical representation of calibrated rating
(Binois 1980). The results are then in the form of psychological profile.
According to the” GRAND DICTIONNAIRE DE PSYCHOLOGIE”,
Psychological Profile ""is a set of measures of several variables, found in
the same subject, considered to form a structure characterizing an
individual. »The linear profile crafted starting from the ranks (in deciles,
percentiles, classes) is the most used type of profile in our institutions
(confer Table 3)

To establish the skills profile of a subject you must:

- Carry gross note (GN) and the calibrated rating (CR) of each test in the
corresponding columns.

- The calibrated rating (CR) symbolizing a class or category, a decile etc.,

represent the note by a point in the corresponding cell in the profile. The
classes or categories range from 0 to 10. For example, a calibrated note 4
obtained at D48, I materialized by a point in the corresponding cell in
column 4 (confer Table 3).

- All calibrated notes being materialized by points in the different

columns can then: draw using a rule a curve connecting all these points
in turn taking care to respect the order of tests such as printing on
Support profile the curve obtained shows overall the pace of the results
obtained in various tests of the battery. We can therefore with relative
ease, analyse and interpret the results as follows.

Table 3 : The ability profile

APTITUDE PROFILE OF
tests GN CR 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
D48 24 8
BV11 18 6
KR X 23 7
PRC 40 6
MECA 16 7

128
 CHAPTER 6:
INTERPRETATION
AND COMMUNICATION
OF RESULTS
___________________________________________________

The term "interpretation", in the case of tests results, has several

meanings and can indicate several operations, at various levels of
complexity, bound to the fact to identify the significance of scores on a
test.

In its simplest acceptance, interpretation consists in decoding the

meaning of the scores, by taking account of the whole of the elements
which contribute to it: the type of score used, the error of measurement
which is attached to it, the nature of measured dimensions,
characteristics of the normative group used, if it is necessary, as well as
the conditions under which the test took place. Here, we are especially
situated from the point of view of the description of the behaviour
reflected by the results of the test. This basic operation must be made
with the biggest rigor before going farther (Guédon, 2000).

At another level, in its most complete and the most complex

acceptance, the interpretation consists in extrapolating obtained results,
possibilities or hypotheses in connection with the objectives and the
context of the testing. In this stage, the descriptions which reflect the
scores is got in touch with other information resulting from other
sources, and must be if necessary, qualified and questioned sometimes
discussed with the concerned person, and uses to supply elements of
answer to the questions which provoked the recourse to the testing.

Here, we are situated in the plan of the inference. In this stage,

the data available on the precision and on the validity of the scores
supplied by the instrument should establish an essential reference. They
are indeed these data (and not the popular beliefs that we see
developing sometimes around certain tests!) Who allow justifying the
way the scores can be used, the conclusions which are formulated on the

129
basis of these scores and the nuances which are suited to it. Sometimes,
the required information about the validity of the scores is not directly
supplied in the textbook (manual worker) of the test, but can be
deducted from searches (researches) made with very similar
instruments, with similar subjects, in similar circumstances. The rigor,
once again, is essential. It is necessary to make sure that we can defend
the interpretation which is made by the results resting on elements of
scientifically acceptable proofs.

In short, the interpretation of results must include three phases:

decode the significance of the results; put their interpretation in the
context that takes into account the particularities of the student and the
situation; specify the interpretation by focusing on questions or needs of
the student (Guédon 2000). The methods of interpretation and
presentation of results differ according to the objectives or functions of
psychometric assessment carried out.

The different methods of restitution

Classical approach consists in opposing the idiosyncrasy methods

to the nomothetic methods. The first consist in making emerge the
specific characteristics to a particular person while being based on his
own system of values, needs and professional interests so that he
produces his own categorizations. The interview of restitution will be
used to extract from knowledge which the subject has on himself but
which is not directly available insofar as they are implicit at the
beginning.

The second, the nomothetic methods are represented by the

standardized methods and consist in locating the results of a student
compared to those obtained by groups of students. It then presents the
scores obtained according to a calibration (according to the sex, the age
group, the socioprofessional category, etc) which makes it possible to
categorize the student compared to a given group of individuals.
(Lyons-Poiraud 1980)

Indeed, the communication of the results of tests to the student

demands a preparation, a strategy and a very meticulous way of
introducing interview. The practice of the testing is very complex and

130
the professionals who devote themselves to it have to undertake a strict
step by adopting a critical attitude. (Guédon & Savard).

“A score of test is never a direct and precise measurement and

the information which results from this is thus partial, indefinite and
more or less temporary. Moreover, the results of tests as well as possible
provide indefinite and limited indications on the characteristics of a
person”. (Guédon, ). She advises to note with the student the inaccuracy
which always surrounds the results of tests and the limited character of
them.

An inventory of vocational interests, for example, could attribute

significant vocational interests to a student even if he does not have it.
To trust such artificial and factitious results would lead to a kind of
confusion of the student. In the same way, the technique of the forced
choice can push the student to register too many choice or preferences
which are not appropriate to him precisely so that the final profile will
inevitably tend to skew his reality.

The three phases of results interpretation

We are advised to distinguish three phases in this interpretation.

a) Initially, it is necessary to make a strict and objective results

interpretation, to trace a portrait of the interests or abilities of the
student such as the interpretation which one makes at this stage is a
description of the abilities, interests or preferences of the student, only
based on the data of the test or inventory used.

b) In the second place, in addition to put the portrait obtained in link

with the available data (marks, anamnesis, family background etc.) on
the student, in order to emphasize the elements confirmed by these
data, just as those which are added to the portrait already traced, and
even, sometimes, those which surprise or which seems in contradiction
with what one knows already. It is the occasion to formulate working
hypotheses which could be examined in the light of additional data. It is
also the moment, for the guiding counsellor, to identify his internal
subjective reactions caused by these results (judgement, agreement,
dissension, satisfaction or disappointment, for example) and being

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likely to influence his manner of interpreting the results with his
student.

c) Lastly, in the third place, interpretation is directed more specifically

according to the particular questions which motivated the
administration of tests to the student. This stage of the analysis also
makes possible to establish a set of priorities among the elements which
will be presented to the student and will be discussed with him.

This work of interpretation, preliminary to the interview with the

concerned student, thus passes by the three stages are: description,
extrapolation and the synthesis.

Interpretation of results as part of the Educational and Vocational

Guidance

If we have administered a test it first provides a mark or a set of

marks which allow classifying the individual, in a determined
distribution. However, notice that a student achieved a performance
which classifies him in such rank in the group authorizes only limited
conclusions on the student. For De Landsheere (1965), when a pupil was
tested, it is the result recorded not the individual himself who is
estimated.

The specifics of the prognostic evaluation

According to Frankard, cited by De Landsheere (1965), “the

conscientious experts who must establish prognostic at the beginning of
the tests are often confused by the inaccuracy of their instruments. As to
those who, having the faith, are use of psychotechnics tools to the way
the palmists use their tarots, it is necessary to say it, they are more to
pity than to blame. They are especially to be feared»

A Guidance counsellor cannot content himself with summary

and mechanical appreciations. What matters most is the reason of the
recorded performance and, as the possible means to remedy the
shortcomings observed. Unfortunately, many psychometric assessments
take the shape of competition where only the result counts to decide
sometimes on all the school and professional choices of the student.

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 After a psychometric evaluation, multiple questions arise, in
particular, those relative to the student examined: what is the
personality of the student examined? Did he fight against particular
problems at the time of the testing? Was he abnormally anxious? Was
his level of expectation not too high was he motivated?

In any case, the physical or mental condition impact is as

undeniable that it is not at all easy to define the impact. Anyway, if the
test result is unfavourable to the student (located below the group
average), the clinical analysis has to allow determining nature of the
process responsible for the bad efficiency. This analysis can, to a large
extent compensate for imperfections of the used instruments and their
administration (De Landsheere, 1965).

Finally, as the tests forecasts are, in fact, tests of intelligence or

capacities designed according to academic achievements, the guidance
counsellor will have to will have to take care not to relate, from the
results of these tests, a decision on all the intelligences or abilities of the
student.

He must have in mind that in some calibrations, the top marks

are provided by students who are especially successful in schools where
teaching is practised and where they teach the concepts on which the
tests are focused. This is what leads De Landsheere (1965) to say that
«we cannot (…) consider as symptomatic of any intelligence or all the
abilities results which have meaning only in special educational
conditions itself an expression of a philosophy of precise education”.

Moreover, the prognosis of success of a student in a study course

can be carried out only from the results of the rather recent tests.

Forms of the aptitude profile

Intelligence, defined as the ability to reason, plan, solve

problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, can be
verbal, numerical, logical, spatial and even emotional. Among all these
factors considered as constituting the intelligence besides the g factor
(general Intelligence), the psychologists agree on three other factors
which are the most predictive of the global intellectual functioning of an
individual, namely: the verbal intelligence (V), the digital intelligence

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(N), the spatial intelligence. The batteries of tests prescribed in our
schools are factorial tests selected to measure these four main factors.

The problem, not least, is posed by the form in which to present

the test results after statistical development (skills profile). It begs the
question of how to use the information provided by a battery of tests to
draw conclusions of a skills profile. We must first recognize that the
degree of connection between a battery and an external criterion we
used to test the validity of this battery. It is this validity that allows us to
believe, statistically speaking, and the predictive data that brings
together a profile. On the other hand, the internal structure of a matrix
of inter correlations also brings us a precious datum, because it bases us
to consider not the performance in these tests in particular, but a certain
structure, or combination which releases a profile of aptitudes.

These are thus certain standard configurations which must be

found in a profile. Though studies were not organized yet in Cameroon
on this subject, one can hold for credible certain conclusions drawn from
a study of Françoise Bacher (Brugoux, 1982).

She identified a set of standard combinations of aptitudes V, N

and S:

For every distribution of V, N and S, she determines for each

student, if he is in 1/3 superior or in 2/3 inferiors of the calibration. As
the case may be, the aptitude is noted with the capital letter that means
that the capacity is present in a very notable way; on the other hand, the
small letter means that the aptitude is average or low (weak). It
therefore emerges eight types of profile settings:

- V N S: the verbal intelligence, the digital intelligence and the spatial

intelligence are present in a notable way

- v N S: the digital intelligence and the spatial intelligence are present in

a notable way, but the verbal intelligence is present in a average or low
way

- V N s: the verbal intelligence and the digital intelligence are present in

a notable way; on the other hand, the spatial intelligence is present in a
average or low way

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- V n S: the verbal intelligence and the spatial intelligence are present in
a notable way; on the other hand, the digital intelligence is present in a
average or low way

- v N s: the digital intelligence is present in a notable way, but the verbal

intelligence and the spatial intelligence are present in a average or low
way

- v n S: the spatial intelligence is present in a notable way, but the verbal

intelligence and the digital intelligence are present in a average or low
way

- V n s: the verbal intelligence is present in a notable way, but the digital

intelligence and the spatial intelligence are present in a average or low
way

- v n s: the verbal intelligence, the digital intelligence and the spatial

intelligence are present in an average or low way.

In this study, Bacher draws the following conclusions: the

interactions observed in these profiles simply show the greatest
frequency. The differential role of skills is evident only when the choices
to be made between different immediate orientations are of the same
level (Brugoux 1982).

General education orientation

It is established that the paper-pencil tests correlate better with

the general education than the tests of manipulation. Also, factor g tests
correlate more strongly with the general education than specific tests
(factors: verbal, digital or spatial). We can draw the preliminary
conclusion that the success in factor g tests (logical intelligence)
predisposes to a certain extent, to the success in general education
secondary or high school. Generally, besides a good score in the g
factors tests, the success in the general education requires:

For scientific subjects: the ascendancy of the scores of the tests of

numeric intelligence and the spatial intelligence, with average scores in
the tests of verbal intelligence.

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 For the Art subjects: the ascendancy of the scores of the tests of
verbal intelligence and average scores in the tests of numeric
intelligence.

Technical and vocational education

According to Brugoux ( 1982 ) " It seems logical, that the tests of

technical intelligence and the tests involving the manipulation of objects
or the operation of mechanisms are the best predictors of the success in
the professional training with industrial character ". Even there the
paper-pencil tests of technical intelligence have a forecast better than the
tests of manipulation made according to the model of the tasks to be
later realized.

This observation is understandable in a very simple way: the

manipulation psychomotor tests explore so much restricted fields and
so specific know-how that it seems a priori impossible to find a subject
which presents straight away such abilities before having been
trained(formed) in the corresponding job (business). It is what explains
the fact that the controls of validation made in the process of technical
training are better as the pupils assert themselves in their job(business).
On the other hand, the tests paper-pencil of technical intelligence
express the general framework in which take place many technical jobs;
they look like what we could accept as preliminary psychological
predispositions in the exercise of such or such job. «Psychotechnicians
assimilates the notion of technical intelligence to some factors more or
less bound (connected) between them, and seen as the abilities to
manipulate spatial images " (Brugoux, 1982):

This is the representation factors (S) of Thurstone, spatial,

mechanical understanding (K) of Price and El Koussy, mechanical
intelligence (M) of Cox and concrete intelligence or performance (F) of
Alexander.

This technical intelligence complex appears closely linked to the g

factor; which showed a good level of g factor associated with good
performance factors for S, K, M or F gives a good prognosis in the
success in the high-level technical education and average. Success in
technical drawing seems linked in most research to good performance

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in S, K, M and F. However, even in this restricted field of technical
drawing, the g factor leads to a better prognosis.

The works in the workshop, the tests of manual dexterity and the
psychomotor tests generally seem to be insufficient to forecast a success.
However the combination of such tests with tests of g factor or S gives
better forecasts.

The weight of other factors than ability

We understand by variables other than ability the conative,

emotional components and the school performances which have a real
impact on the school and professional choices. They are: personality
traits motivation, interests, tastes, school attitudes, self-esteem deal with
educational and occupational choices, school notes, family or cultural
environment, etc. These variables can reinforce or negate the skills.
Indeed, the behaviour of any individual depends on his personality and
his environment. No reliable prognosis or diagnosis can be made from
only the results of aptitude tests; because the results of evaluations and
tests must be analysed in relation to other relevant factors. It is
recommended to administer personality tests simultaneously to also
observe the conative and emotional spheres of students.

School performance

Success in a given area involves a minimum of knowledge

prerequisites, and regardless of any other factor. In general, researchers
established that the marks in academic subjects are the highest positive
correlation with future success than any other variable.

The interest and self-esteem

The interest and self-esteem have an undisputed importance in

the field of school counselling. The tendency to act is based on the
attraction force that is to say the interest in the goal, and the prospect of
an effective result of the effort to achieve it. St. Louis Vigneault (1984)
following Super (1964) argues that interest and intensity influence the
educational and career choices more powerful way than intelligence,
ability and social situations.

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 Interests constituting an attraction force to a goal or motivation,
the fact of thinking that we lack interest, we do not yet know well or
those that manifest such interests are not recognized as stable can cause
indecision or even jamming to his orientation. We can consider that
interests determine the direction of the effort and activity of skills while
playing a larger role in determining the level of success (St. Louis
Vigneault, 1984).

Self-esteem is manifested by attitudes of approval or disapproval

of himself by the satisfaction or dissatisfaction, with feelings of
competence or incompetence. These attitudes inhibit or stimulate the
action according to their positive or negative. Perceptions of oneself are
important to consider because, “the doubts about oneself and the
feelings of inferiority render the decisions about a career choice
extremely difficult” (Breton, 1972 cited by St-Louis and Vigneault). The
self-esteem and the interest granted to an activity are factors of
motivation.

Academic motivation

According to the pedagogue Viau (1997), "Motivation is a

dynamic concept that has its origins in the perception that a student has
of himself and his environment and the incentive to choose an activity,
to engage in it and persevere in his fulfilment to achieve a goal. » From
this definition, it emerges that motivation is a phenomenon that is
constantly changing, which is influenced by perceptions of the student
(his behaviour, environment), which implies the achievement of a goal.
Thus, motivation is not only depending on the subject taught in class as
we sometimes think, but also the conditions in which the student learns
and perceptions he has of these conditions.

Success in everything we do depends a lot on our motivation. In

the specific case of students, the motivation is regularly mentioned in
the explanation of success and failure in school. Both the students and
teachers perceive motivation as fundamental to academic success. No
method or learning technique can be effective without a real desire to
learn and the willingness to learn depends on the degree of learner
motivation, because it is established that learning is a function of
motivation and habit. :

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Practical problems of interpretation of test results in the context of
school choice

The interpretation of test results is an arduous undertaking that

involves guidance counsellors depth knowledge of the instrument and
variables influencing academic or professional success. Evil is that many
of these variables is not controlled by the psychologist. This is why we
can say that the orientation is further characterized by uncertainty. It
should not be inferred that any forecast is not possible in orientation, it
is necessary for the orientation to be credible, to know the degree of
connection between the various relevant variables, and know the
margin of error that affects the calculated parameters.

The adequacy between the interpretation of the results and the

landing of orientation

Guidance counsellors intervene in two landings of orientation

(Form V and Upper sixth). At these two levels, the risk which they take
by formulating an advice of orientation is not the same; the upper sixth
students are already practically pre-oriented since Form V. The range of
possibilities available to them is not very large because they are already
at the end of secondary education. Having followed successfully a
chosen course, no major problem arises, and we can give a weight to the
interests and the motivation for the choice of a branch of the compatible
higher education with the sector of the high school.

The adequacy or not of the profile with the school performances

The current state of research on the components of intelligence

bases us to assert that the psychological substrata implemented by
solving the tests on one hand and the other school activity is more or
less coincided, without that we can cleanly establish an exact
correspondence between the two types of activities. . However we are
entitled to say that the success in the tests is a good indication of the
presence of real intellectual potentialities. The opposite is not still true
unfortunately. Moreover, success in tests does not necessarily lead to
success in school and vice versa (Brugoux 1990). The psychologist
guidance counsellor is then in front of particular cases where only his
theoretical luggage in psychology and his work experience as
practitioner of the orientation-counsel can give him some lights.

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The main dimensions to be considered in the orientation process

Exploring the skills and personality of the student is the first

dimension of the orientation process. St. Louis Vigneault (1984)
identified four dimensions to be considered in the guidance process,
they are:

- The perception of the student with regard to his future

- The perception of the social environment: family and group of

friends

- The perception of the job opening or employment

- The perception of the school environment

The actions and interventions to be undertaken by the guidance

counsellor

St. Louis and Vigneault underline the importance of two goals in

the functions and operations of the guidance counsellor:

- Trying to increase the student’s understanding and knowledge he has

of himself and his environment, this with the aim of actions more and
more deliberated from him/her;

- Help the student to recognize and change misconceptions that he may

maintain with regard to himself or the environment in regards to his
educational and vocational guidance process.

To achieve this, the authors suggest some lines of action:

- Inform the student of the development character of the process of

orientation so as to place him in better position to understand its
evolution and exercise more influence on it;

- Explain to the students the role of the false ideas in orientation by

showing him how our ideas influence our actions and by demonstrating
to him that a false idea in orientation can hurt him to interpret the
events and to make him act in an inadequate way;

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- Allow the pupil to recognize his false ideas and to see the impact of
these on his development by favouring the cognitive examination by
reflection, the discussion, or the administration of the inventories and
the questionnaires;

- Show the student that it is possible to modify his false ideas in favour
of more rational ideas: it is a question of showing to him that the false
ideas were suggested to him and that it is possible to adopt it as others
which would serve him better and would help him to be more active in
his process of orientation;

- Provide the student of the advice(councils), instructions or situations

of learning(apprenticeship) allowing him(her) to modify his false ideas
in orientation;

- Get the student to engage in an action plan, showing him that it is

almost always possible to do something about his life situation, even if
it seems very difficult.

Analysis and interpretation of test results in the diagnosis of learning

difficulties

The psychological examination is a polymorphic method to know

and understand the personality of an individual, who allows obtaining
lighting on the nature and the origins of his difficulties and which
makes it possible to suggest solutions. The goal is not only intellectual
(to understand) but need for an answer. The psychological examination
will depend on four types of difficulties:

1. Difficulties of an intellectual nature (backwardness, professional

school difficulties or, neuropsychological aspect…)

2. Difficulties of an emotional nature (behavioural problem, personality,

anxiety, depression…)

3. Difficulties of order “psychosomatic “: any context which

accompanies any announcement by serious disease (cancer, palliative
care…) medical departments/health.

4. Societies' problem (delinquency, drug-addiction, taking of hostage,

victimology…)
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The analysis, interpretation of results and selection of remediation
actions are part of a process that cannot be retracted without risks,
namely the clinical method in which the psychometric assessment is
only one step. The diagnosis of learning disabilities is difficult and
complex because different variables must be taken into account.

The diagnostic process of learning difficulties

The diagnostic process learning difficulties has three phases.

The description and the understanding of the difficulty of learning

(apprenticeship) thanks to an interview of accompaniment:

- The description and the understanding of the student representation of

the subject. Without this information, the continuation risks to be
useless or to become a succession of parallel speeches in which each is
persuaded to speak about the same thing while that's not the case.

- The description of the learning difficulty focusing on the problem

itself, that is to say the relationship between 'student and the content of
subject ". How precise circumstance manifests difficulty? On what
specific content? How works the student? This is to describe the activity
(student - subject content) in which was manifested the difficulty. This
exploratory approach (initiative) can lean on the techniques of the
interview of exploitation which allow helping the learner to describe
very exactly how he studies this subject.

- The description of the other elements of context by extending the

overall situation of the student. What else can play a role (Which was
not identified in the previous phase): the personal situation of the
student or specific items in this class, or related to teachers or the school.

It is thus a question, with this phase, of obtaining a very precise

description of the difficulty of learning (apprenticeship) in all its
components before emitting hypotheses of causes.

The formulation and the check of the hypotheses of explanatory

causes of the difficulty of learning (apprenticeship).

- The formulation of hypotheses of explanatory causes of learning

disability based on fairly detailed explanatory theories.

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- The testing of hypotheses of explanatory causes using psychometric
assessment instruments.

- The additional accompanying interview with the student and parents

to gather sufficient information to constitute a reliable psychological file.

Remediation hypothesis of learning disabilities and remediation

actions

- The formulation of remedial hypothesis based on explanatory causes

underlain, of course, by explanatory theories.

- The choice of remediation actions achievable within the constraints

formulated explanatory causes and specifics of the learning situation,
finally list the possible and feasible remediation.

- The development of an action plan with the student in close

collaboration with all stakeholders (teachers, parents, doctors, etc.) or
external resources (external support structures, for example: the
psychotherapeutic support).

- Monitoring (if necessary,) adaptation and modification of the action

plan.

- Evaluation of the effects of the action plan with the actors of

remediation.

The interview of accompaniment bound to the learning difficulties

(apprenticeship)

The support focuses on solving learning difficulties allows the

interview to analyse with the student the problem situation. This is to
identify the causes in order to choose a relevant and effective solution.
In this type of interview, the main difficulty is how to do an exhaustive
search to make sure we understood the difficulty of prior authorize
assumptions of causes therefore remediation. Indeed, it cannot be
effective remediation without a relevant diagnosis, and it may be
pertinent diagnosis without an accurate analysis of the problem
situation. On the other hand, in some cases it is necessary to first create
awareness in students of the problem before installing the
communication contract. This interview requires a structured approach

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to identify the problem: consider the representations, the precise
description of the difficulty, and processes implemented. The interview
conducted based on the use of appropriate instruments and techniques.

According to the way we use them, they can favour or hamper

the conduct of an interview. The main acts and the techniques used in
the conduct of interview consists, firstly, in showing his availability and
in showing the interest which we feel for the other, to install the
relation, negotiate the contract of communication (the objective, the
time, the theme, the confidentiality, the role of each and verify the
membership of the pupil: contractualization); secondly, to accompany
his narrative by the management of the silences, the gestural dynamics,
the relaunchings and to use reformulations to verify that we understood
well and to show him to the interviewee so that this one goes farther;
thirdly, to deepen by using the focus (centred on the real-life
experience), and the fragmentation (centred on the action), and to help
the pupil to analyze what he updated (Mucchielli, 2002).

There are four main characteristics common to different types of

assistance interview: the communication contract - by joining the
student to the objective, theme, and duration - is going to allow a really
interview and to structure its course. It is necessary to take time to build
the contract stage by stage. Whatever is the type of interview, the phase
of exploration is essential to the understanding of the situation and to
the elaboration of a relevant diagnosis. It is necessary to reconcile
listening (centration on the person) and moved forward to the objective
of the interview (centration on the problem). The guidance counsellor
has to resist the natural and spontaneous attitude to make instead of the
other, what means that the attitudes of counsel, implication, control are
generally useless and ineffective (Mucchielli, 20002). An interview of
support of the learnings can come down until the very fine
decomposition of a professional gesture or cognitive operations.

The main traps to be avoided are: not being available, believing

that provide the assistance to the other is enough to solve his problem,
telling the other that what we think suits for him, judging what has
done the person, urging the person to justify himself, not helping the
person to analyse the information he produces in leaving him in the
vagueness and indecision finally be centred on yourself and not to
identify the reference frame of the student (Mucchielli)
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The variables influencing the diagnosis of learning difficulties

The causes of the difficulties are usually plural. One cause may
hide others; links exist between conative and cognitive causes. In certain
cases it is cognitive elements (for example difficulties of understanding
bound to the complexity of the task) that are going to decrease the
feeling of skill (competence) of the learner. In other cases, it is the low
(weak) feeling of personal efficiency that is going to limit the investment
of the learner in the task and to cause (provoke) the failure while the
learner was cognitively capable of making a success. The following
variables may bias the diagnosis:

a) The framework of guidance counsellor or representations and beliefs

of the person who analyses. For example, the natural tendency to focus
on the person instead, of firstly, considering the learning difficulty.

b) The non accessibility of certain causes can bring the student to have
difficulty in formulating the situation because of his emotional state, the
complexity of the situation, or the no consciousness of all the elements
of this one.

c) The non consciousness of the difficulty by the student or his greater

or lesser degree of acceptance does not allow, straightaway, a finer
analysis of this difficulty. It is then useful to go beyond what the student
describes, by the analysis of tracks and student verbalisations.

d) The natural tendency to quickly help the student can lead teacher and
guidance counsellor to go quickly to the cause and solution by a process
of interpretation, without enough descriptive elements of the
problematic situation and without having toured the assumptions of
causes. It may be relevant and therefore effective remediation diagnosis
without detailed knowledge of the learning difficulty.

The accurate analysis of the problem is thus a necessary but

difficult move because the problems in the diagnosis of learning
difficulties similar to those posed by the analysis of human functioning
in real situations. Teachers and psychologists, guidance counsellors are
in fact confronted with the difficulties of apprehension of human
behaviour that is more complex in a learning situation. It is therefore

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necessary to use a structured diagnostic process focusing on the
description phase of the learning difficulty.

Communication of test results

How to communicate

According to Tournebise (2004), the communication is source of

freedom, respect, consideration and sensibility (without affectivity).
There we are different without being distant. There is communication
when the individuals share really the way they feel, without fear of
judgment or reproach. He does not find power, or manipulation there.
The reason of each is profoundly respected and can be easily shared.

To communicate the test results to a student is to provide

information about him; also it is to feed the information which he has of
him by the contribution of an external source (the tests). It is what we
call feedback.

This «feedback» is continuing in a consulting relationship where

the student thrives on listening and communication retro-guidance
counsellor and where, in turn, feeds the student by his speech dynamics
maintenance. That is to say that the interaction between the counsellor
and the student are required, and that the active, voluntary, student
(Guédon 2000).

The results should not be reported routinely. They must be

accompanied by interpretative explanations: the nature of the test, the
conclusions that can reasonably be drawn and limitations of these
results. Moreover, the results should be transmitted in the form of
qualitative descriptions and performance levels rather than in terms of
numerical scores. Except when transmitted to another a trained
professional must take into account the characteristics of the person to
whom you communicate the test results. It should also prevent potential
emotional reactions of the individuals involved and, if necessary,
respond appropriately.

It is established that the transmission of the results of the tests

modifies the conception which the student has of himself. More exactly
it affects his reference system and all his representations. Doubtless

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every person tries to maintain his identity and the image which his has
of himself. However, the results of a test which will be communicated
will be likened as far as they seem acceptable and can be integrated into
his self conception. For example, a student who thinks with conviction
that he is talented in mathematics will accept with difficulty any result
against his convictions.

The student tends to regulate himself to gradually adjust to the

information his receives from outside. At all, this is the work of
assimilation and accommodation to which the guidance counsellor must
be careful. He must also be sensitive to the emotional and cognitive
responses that modulate the transmission and reception of new
information. He must allow the student to respond to them. This will
avoid the dissonance between the received message and image that the
student has forged himself. Accordingly, in the transmission of test
results, the guidance counsellor will avoid absolute judgements and
promote their meaning depending on the student's concerns. It is also
the guidance counsellor to make nuances required in interpreting the
results. Only he can do because he knows the limits of testing and
student characteristics. It should also never communicate to him the
results that have not been sufficiently explained (Guédon 2000).

Communication strategies for the results

The communication of the results can be done according to two

strategies: transmission with preliminary auto-evaluation or direct
transmission of the results (Guédon, 2000). The first consists in
proposing to the student an exercise enabling him to anticipate his
results and to thus reveal the representations which he is made of his
personal characteristics, those which are concerned in the test. This
preliminary self-assessment is to ask students to evoke his strengths and
weaknesses and to indicate by means of a aptitude profile sheet, the
levels at which he thinks of being located.

This allows identifying in broad terms, the image that the student
makes himself. The advantage of this strategy is to get him to take some
evaluation by performing a reflection on aspects of his personality or
behaviour before knowing the test results.

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 The second is to directly expose the student outcomes. This
assumes that the guidance counsellor manages the reactions of the
student. This direct transmission gives more latitude to the guidance
counsellor about the importance to be given to different results; but it
can have the disadvantage of encouraging an attitude of passiveness
reception

The different methods of restitution

Classical approach consists in opposing the idiosyncratic

methods to the nomothetic methods. The first consist in making emerge
the characteristics specific to a particular person while being based on
his own system of values, needs and professional interests so that he
produces his own categorizations. The interview of restitution will be
used to extract from knowledge which the subject has on himself but
which is not directly available insofar as they are implicit at the
beginning.

The second, nomothetic methods are represented by the

standardized methods and consist in locating the results of a student
compared to those obtained by groups of students. One then presents
the scores obtained according to a calibration (according to the sex, the
age group, the socio-professional category, etc) which makes it possible
to categorize the student compared to a given group of individuals.
(Sylvie Lyons-Poiraud 1980)

Indeed, the communication of the results of tests to the student

demands a preparation, a strategy and a very meticulous way of
introducing interview. The practice of the testing is very complex and
the professionals who devote themselves to it have to undertake a strict
step by adopting a critical attitude. (Marie-Chantal Guédon, Réginald
Savard)

“A score of test is never a direct and precise measurement” and

“the information which results from this is thus partial, vague and more
or less temporary”. Moreover, “the results of tests as well as possible
provide only vague and limited indications on the characteristics of a
person”. Guédon advises to note with the student “the inaccuracy
which always surrounds the results of tests and the limited character of
those”. Not only the tests known as of orientation are less valid than it is

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generally believed, but they can be affected by various skews due to
their structure, because of forced choices, which had with the perception
of the guarantor who says “That depends”, due to the key of correction
established in reference to a group and not to an individual, which had
with the social desirability, the state of the student, etc

An inventory of interests, for example, could recognize

significant interests with a person even if he does not have. To trust
such artificial and factitious results would lead to a kind of confusion of
the student. In the same way, the technique of the forced choice can
push the student to register too many choice or preferences which are
not appropriate to him precisely so that the final profile will inevitably
tend to skew its reality.

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150
 CHAPTER 7:
THE REPORT OR STATEMENT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL
EXAMINATION
___________________________________________________

Plan of the psychological examination report

Observation/behaviour:

Describe the presentation and the contact (carelessness,

mannerism, familiarity, seduction…) the quality of the ocular contact
(evasive, odd presentation), physical demonstration of anxiety, the
language (quality, quantity). In the introductory paragraph, included
evolution in the assessment (compared to the type of stain ...)

Interview:

The anamnestic elements must be very brief or information that

the applicant has not. What perception he has about his difficulties?
Raise the symptoms, defences or personality

The history or anamnestic interview

Frame

The question of the frame environment in which the patient is received.

- What are the reasons: demand?

He consults you about himself, at the request of a third party, who?

Ask about his perception of the reason for his presence. Make explicit

- What are representations of what is a psychologist?

- How does he address to the psychologist?
- Is there a third accompanying party? Which information to give him?

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- inform him on what follows the assessment, what the patient will have
to make and which type of information will circulate? The confidence
and the sincerity of the patient will depend on it
Identify the request the nature of the encountered difficulties
- To appreciate resonance for the subject himself and the entourage of
his difficulties
- To appreciate the consequences with the plan of the adaptation, in the
daily life

Do not fall into the interrogation, do not force the resistance of the
patient, tend to the benevolent neutrality (let him express what he wants
without being systematically challenged). If the application concerns
only one symptom, careful do not focus exclusively on it, but do not
neglect either.

Grid of anamnesis:

- The patient's character

i. With the patient: description of himself, his behaviour, his tastes, his
reactions ...

ii. With other protagonists ask how does a day

- Family and social entourage

i. Parental employment

ii. Siblings (age, what they do, if similar difficulties ...) observe family
tolerance vis-a-vis the different courses.

iii. Extra-curricular activities, activities with other people, holidays,

outward

- Nature of difficulties

Description, appearance and fluctuation of the behaviour and the

symptom, the disorders and the search for events of life concomitant
(removals) and repair on the child, family, entourage, her operation and
that of the others. At the conclusion of these investigations, put forth
hypotheses on the nature of the disorders, their factors of maintain to

152
have possibly resorts to an assessment to confirm or cancel the
assumptions.

Tests:

Make a paragraph by test with conclusive short phrase, or relevant

regrouping.

Conclusion:

The asked question begins again, answers it with strong arguments,

mention of the located positive points, argued psychotherapeutic
proposal and to propose some therapeutic targets.

The report

The report should be short and organized. Organize the themes with
some logic (announce, explain them...) the purpose will be to transmit
information. Do not bring out the different hypotheses, nor the
questions posed to the psychologist, or the path of his thought... It is
raise important elements identify them and describe them to argue the
raised problem.

Make a relevant interpretation of data; explain the processes that are at

work. (Ex of fraternal rivalry: it is not enough to say that there is one,
but to whom? How it expresses?)

The Conclusion must be

-brief description of the essential elements of the behaviour and the

contact

-rapid assessment of intellectual potential

- answer the question concerning the intellectual potential

-summary of the problem and the operation of the subject

-make recommendation and therapeutic indications to find a solution to

the problem, (or even several solutions if there are more problems).

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THE REPORT TO SCHOOL

1 / School question posed at the failure of a child

The report should answer these questions

- Why he does not work

- Why is it a behaviour that really seems inadequate?

- How long it lasts

- What to do?

2 / Official Report: Classical plan or the form of a letter.

Remember the reason for the child consultation. Describe the behaviour
by placing the child in the context of the psychological statement,
specify that it is an individual context and address the description of
behaviour as part

Efficiency: do not specify a number, just the area where the subject is, if
his skills match or not the children of his age. Describe the strengths and
weaknesses. Identify the causes of problems such as delayed speech,
dyslexia ... Ex: the results show global challenges, ranging below the
average child his age. We will ask the teacher to the tolerance of
difficulties. It helps to change the image of the child with the teacher.

Personality: clarify the difficulties encountered in the adaptation plan

as the feeling of failure that can be painful. Children need to be
reassured. Describe if a personable reaction to look the other way or
even indifferent reactions. We will address the agitation in terms of
worry and anxiety. Instability in terms of anxiety is not well known
teachers. Inhibition is better tolerated by the school. Attention is not
entered into the details of the child's privacy but we only speak school
and relationships. Give therapeutic indication as rehabilitation
including pedagogy, because of these difficulties, we will provide a
support for him to give new benchmarks.

154
Report to parents

1 / the oral report

In an interview situation, parents are often worried. It must be

remembered the emotional state in which they are located. The child in
difficulty may represent a wound for them, what may seem trite to us is
not necessarily for parents. Better to avoid too heavy words. Parents
seek the solution to a problem and the understanding given their
difficulty.

A / Objectives of the interview

Make parents understand what their child is, and this interactively.
Help them discover the needs, ways to react and their child's feelings,
the reasons which lead the child to be like that to bring a different look
on their child. Modify certain operating mode and consider possible
measures to help the child.

For informative objective, transmit the elements concerning the child for
better understanding and for therapeutic goal, make them understand
and accept the need for support. It is for us to adapt to our stakeholders
to promote understanding.

B / methods

Semi-structured interview is recommended. Do not read the report but

making interact with parents from the blueprint. Parents may bring
their reflection; let them follow the thread of associations.

C / the formulation of the results

Reformulate the reason for consultation with parents. Ask parents if

their child has issued impressions or questions about the report sheet,
what he expects. See what the child tells his parents. The formulation of
the results will depend on the parents' request type. Is this a one-time
request, factual (repetition, orientation, why is he shy that her sister is
not ...), are the demands of disappearance of symptoms, a request for
explanation of behaviour that rout... Explain the distance with the
psychologist, adaptation to a new situation by linking with the
behaviour at school or at home.
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Explain what is verbal and what performance is. Explain the type of
event that has been switch. Appreciate his knowledge, skills and
abilities in various fields. Explain what is verbal and what performance
is. Describe the operation with the successes and challenges. Valuing the
child in his successes to change his image among parents. If the results
are consistent and bad, it must be approached!

Describe what each field represents. Explain what a specific difficulty,

why it bothers him is. Comment out the method of approach to the
child's environment (quick, impulsive, meticulous...).

The Interview with the subject warns the child that we will discuss
certain points with his parents and asked his consent. It discusses the
general elements of a situation to understand the climate to parents. Ex,
the teen needs of autonomy, his friends ... When it comes from the
register of toxic or dangerous, it is not forced to pass but may insist on
suffering, loss of motivation, fled. When there is a suicide risk, take time
with the patient and understanding without saying.

The therapeutic measures require, first to talk to parents who could

oppose. Explain the purposes of re-education, the terms, and the way it
happens. Rehabilitation has a side reassuring as a proposal. Explain the
goals, what this approach, provide a support for the child needs help,
regain balance sheet items, and explain how this kind of aid can help to
get better...

The most common objections:

- Minimization of troubles, conflict

- Spontaneous remission, "he certainly has problem but with time it will
pass"

- Dramatization of the therapeutic measure, caused adverse effects, fear

of psy ...

- Rationalization of the material difficulties

- Verbalization of an inescapable fate

156
It is for us to raise awareness on the concept of symptoms, the risk of
resurgence, suffering.

Contact the doctor in case of psychosis or severe disease; it must be

approached with the same parents if they are reluctant, it is important to
raise awareness of what is happening.

Conclusion

Provide evidence of the existence of the disorder, stress away capacity /

performance, thinking about the future projection of their child. Explain
what therapy means to react differently, to relieve his anguish, to have
different relations, restore self-esteem, to give a more positive image,
enable it to achieve a goal. The interview with the parents must be
empathetic with a common goal.

THE REPORT TO STUDENT

Children and adults should be informed of the results of the

psychological statement. The psychologist has established a confidence
space for listening when he received someone, the subject waiting for
feed-back.

The report is a transmission job; translation is a word implementation

difficulties, anxieties and opportunities. The subject had time for
reflection and can resume some aspects. The psychologist is available
for the subject and offers a word space.

Description of the results of ability tests

Say to the student that he has good capabilities; this will reassure
especially if academic performance is not good. Show him he has
everything to succeed. It can be therapeutic.

-Average and homogeneous results: talk in terms of skills of children of

his age. Even if you have a blockage, it will help you ... We talk also in
terms of patterns, lack of difficulties. We also describe: hesitation,
cancellation, worthlessness, doubt, and precipitation, meticulous, slow
This may resonate with what he lives in his classroom.

157
-Average and heterogeneous results: talk in terms of ease, fluency in
such areas and discomfort and difficulties in such other areas. This
resonant with what bothers the topic in academic performance. There
are reasons to the difficulties, it condones, plays down and we will seek
ways to help.

- Low Results: describe and analyse the difficulties in areas without

objectifying. Ex it is difficult for you to explain, you have trouble for
expressing yourself, you old gaps that hinder you ... The child in this
situation is often discouraged and talk with him, describe the
consequences of his lag between performance and requirements of a
class. It discusses measures that can help him, as educational... which
will help him to make progress to regain the rhythm of the class.

Description of the results of tests of personality

Prevent that what we are going to discuss is not specific, children and
teens do not like to be marginal. Given the main directions of our study
of personality without saying the origin.

For anxious subjects, speaks about their concern; discusses the concept
of shyness; establish a contact is difficult... Take examples, promotes the
relationship with the psychologist. This reduces the feeling of guilt.

The written report: advantages and disadvantages:

Disadvantages:

Risk of freezing the subject in an established portrait that ignores the

mobility of an individual, his development opportunities. The report is
valid at any given time. We must well mark the date, the time, report
will be outdated in some time especially if measures were put in place.
Specify that it is personal and it is preferable that the child does not see
because the words used can have a strong impact.

Risk of use of the report for inappropriate purposes, parents can

perhaps make a misuse. To avoid misuse, formulate things reduced
way, qualify or even it can refuse to do so if you feel a risk.

158
Advantage:

It gives an overall view, enables development, classification and

articulation of different elements. The choice of words will be reflected.
It serves as a basis for reflection and discussion; it allows forget
omissions, distortions, incorrect changes, reshuffles. It allows writing By
writing the therapeutic indication; we put the parents in front of their
responsibility and encourage reflection.

159
160
 CONCLUSION

The use of psychometric instruments in schools meets two needs.

Firstly, prognosis by an estimate of the chances of success of a learner to
follow learning or to consider whether the learner has the skills
necessary to undertake a specific learning (course of study) in the
subsequent cycle to establish selection or guidance, decisions based on
skills presumed to follow this new learning. Secondly, the need for
diagnosis of the difficulties of learning or school problems by an
analysis of situations of learning, needs, profiles and requirements of
learners, at the beginning or during an apprenticeship to develop
learning benchmarks to organize result of learning with the ultimate
intention of helping the learner to overcome his difficulties.

By experiments, Psychometric evaluation is a difficult art. The

development of a prognostic orientation, selection or diagnostic requires
mastery of theoretical and technical knowledge underlying the
construction and utilization of the relevant tests. Psychologists and
counsellors must have technical knowledge of tests construction, as well
as knowledge in such areas as statistics, differential psychology, clinical
psychology, the psychology of work. This qualification implies the
mastery of the choice of the test, administration techniques, correction
and interpretation of the results.

Conducting tests with the characteristics of an experimental

situation, the intermediate or parasitic variables that relate in particular
to the characteristics of the examiner, the situation of the assessment, the
examinee, and the type of preparation test followed by the examinee
must be monitored or controlled. Also in order to ensure the
effectiveness of the assessment, the assessor must interpret the results in
decoding the meaning of the results taking into account the context of
the particularities of the student and the situation, and by focusing on
questions or needs of the student

Regarding the results, they should not be disclosed routinely.

They must be accompanied by interpretative explanations: the nature of
161
the test, the conclusions that can reasonably be drawn and limitations of
these results. Moreover, the results should be transmitted in the form of
qualitative descriptions and performance levels rather than in terms of
numerical scores. Except when transmitted to another a trained
professional must take into account the characteristics of the person to
whom you communicate the test results. It should also prevent potential
emotional reactions of the individuals involved and, if necessary,
respond appropriately.

The guidance counsellor-psychologist should preferably use

nuanced qualitative observations which may include the indication of
the strengths and weaknesses of the individual. It is appropriate to
provide such information, as far as possible, orally before the writing.
These basic rules should always be observed to avoid sprains to the
psychologist Code of Ethics. After being impregnated with all these
methods and indications, we are also convinced that the collective
psychometric assessment is no less delicate practice. It emerges from the
foregoing that, to use the tests in an efficient manner, we must invest
time and be available: availability to update psychometrics and to study
the relevant documentation, and availability to meet students and
explain the significance of their test results and implications. We must
be convinced that the use of psychometric instruments remains a
professional act, and as such, it requires specific expertise.

This expertise among school psychologists and guidance

counsellors should contribute to the refinement of formative assessment
in order to make it more effective and efficient. We found that formative
assessment has three components (prognosis by highlighting alleged
skills, prior learning assessment and diagnosis of difficulties), is central
in the teaching process because «it provides the teacher and the learner
feedback on the degree of control and the difficulties encountered.
Formative assessment is required as the price to pay for that education
turns into a veritable "pedagogy of success for all » This work can be
carried out in a real collaboration between the teacher and the school
psychologist or guidance counsellor.

162
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