Aligning developmental and
educational diagnosis:
Principles and implications
Andreas Demetriou
University of Nicosia, Cyprus
Presented at the conference on “30 years of Evidence in
Education” organized by the Center for Evaluation and
Monitoring of Durham University, London, September,
2014.
Three approaches to evaluation
Developmental Evaluation
Where do they stand?
Psychometric evaluation
School evaluation
How do they compare to others? How much do they know?
Three approaches to evaluation
Developmental
Psychometric
Educational
Theory based
Clinically based
Educational practice based
Criterion based (e.g.,
stages, levels, etc.)
Psychometrically based
Knowledge-learning based
Quality of understanding
Mental age or IQ
School grading systems
Positioning on a
developmental hierarchy
Positioning relative to a
reference group
Positioning relative to
subject matter learning,
success indices, etc.
Points to developmental
goals and “ideal” endpoint
Assumes stability of
individual differences
Directed by national
standards, curriculum
goals, etc.
Emphasizes mental and
developmental processes
Emphasizes traits and
abilities
Assumes learning habits,
Are the approaches related?
• They are related but they are not identical:
– Correlations between any pair of scores (e.g., Piagetian stages
and IQ scores, or IQ and school grades in the range of .5-.7).
• Therefore, they have a common core:
– Fluid intelligence, working memory, representational resolution,
flexibility of representational alignment, and range of control.
• Each reveals a different aspect of school-related learning:
– The kind of knowledge or skills they can be acquired
(developmental), facility of acquisition relative to other students
(psychometric), and the specific target knowledge and skills
already possessed (school evaluation).
Cycles and phases
of intellectual development
• Thought develops systematically in four cycles:
–
–
–
–
0-2 years: Episodic representations
2-6 years: Mental representations
6-11 years: Concepts and inferences
11-17 years: Principles
• Two phases in each cycle:
– Emergence of new representations (at 2, 6, 11 yrs.)
– Alignment of representations (at 4-6, 8-10, 14-17 yrs.)
Relations between processes
• The various aspects of the mind are related.
This is expressed in similarities in the patterns
of change in various processes as a function of
age, such as mental processing indicated in
processing speed, working memory, and
reasoning as indicated in the next picture.
Changes in mental processing,
representational capacity and inference
•
Reaction times decrease because
processing becomes increasingly
faster
•
Working memory capacity expands,
handling increasingly more
information
•
Executive control becomes
increasingly more focused, flexible,
and efficient and reasoning
becomes increasingly abstract
Cycles in speed, working memory, reasoning relations
Reasoning is predicted by speed
at the first phase of each cycle
(i.e., at 6-8 years and 11-13 years)
and by working memory at the
second phase (i.e., 4-6 years, 8-10
years, and 13-16 years). At the
beginning of cycles processing
speed is a better index because
thought in terms of the new
mental units is automated and
expands fast over different
contents. Later in the cycle, when
networks of relations between
representations are worked out,
WM is a better index because
alignment and inter-linking of
representations both requires and
facilitates WM.
Transcription of developmental level into IQ
Reasoning scores indicating
developmental attainment can be
transformed into IQ scores by
applying the standard IQ
specification formula:
IQ = (z x SD) + 100 or
IQ = MA/CA x 100 .
This transformation integrates
individual differences into the
developmental hierarchy.
It is highly interesting that the IQ
score of 100, which reflects the
intelligence of about 2/3 of the
population corresponds to the
developmental level of reasoning
that is modal for the 10-years-old
child.
Patterns of change in four PIPPS processes in 3-months steps 48 to 60
months
There are big changes even
within a year, if the measures
and samples are sufficiently
refined and adequate, as in
the PIPPS test. It can be seen
that the pattern of change of
different processes differs.
However, there are strong
relations as shown in the next
picture.
•
Object matching
•
Phonics
Number recognition
Count
Model of the relations between PIPPS in
preschool and school performance one year later
School attainment at 7 years
(measures indexed as 2) is
highly predictable by a
general factor identified by
performance on PIPPS.
Reading at preschool is also
highly related to attainment in
primary school one year later.
This is due to the fact that
reading is a good indicator of
the representational
alignment, which is the
developmental milestone of
the 5-6 years phase.
Tapping Developmental cycles and phases
• In the slides following I will summarize the
possibilities associated with successive
developmental phases and make suggestions
for tasks (tests) we can use to measure them
Cycle 2, Phase 1: Representational blocks
Processes
• Representational blocks
• Automatic inference
• Perception-based
awareness of mental
functions
• Selective attention: Track a
moving target
Tasks
•
•
Say number names, identify digits,
objects, etc.
It’s raining, we need …? (un umbrella).
Cycle 2, Phase 2: Representational alignment
Processes
Tasks
•
Alignment of representations
•
•
•
Rule-based sorting
Pragmatic inferences
•
•
•
Dual representations, theory of mind,
theory of mind
•
Focus-choose-respond: alternate between
representations
•
Matching number names with objects
arrays, pointing and naming, etc.
DCCS
We agreed I can play outside if I eat my
foot; I ate my food; I go to play outside.
Go/no go tasks
Cycle 3, Phase 1: Conceptual blocks
Processes
Tasks
•
•
mental number line allowing numerical
operations
•
3 * 5 = 8, a + 4 = 7
•
transitivity, class relations, etc.
•
Second-order theory of mind
•
•
Grasp of the inferential line
underlying aligned representations
Simple deductive inference as in
modus ponens
Awareness of stream of
consciousness, intentionally direct
it and grasp underlying mental
commonalities
Cycle 3, Phase 2: Conceptual alignment
•
•
•
Conceptual/Inferential alignment
connects number-related
representational spaces
The inferential line is used to derive
possibilities not given by aligning
multiple concepts
Inferential insight
•
Express different concepts into a common
metric, such as length, weight, area, etc.).
•
4 # 2} * 2 = 6, u = f + 3; f = 1; u = ?
•
Scan-select-search-shift: simultaneous
focusing on two stimuli and planned
action.
–
Say as many words starting from R as you can
then say words starting from M
Cycle 4, Phase 1: Principles
Processes
Tasks
•
Grasps the principle underlying
various transformations of reality
•
if (r = s + t) and (r + s + t = 30), specify
r=?
•
Proportionality and physical
systems
•
Awareness of logical constraints
and principles of validity and truth
•
Why is this task more difficult (or
complex) than this?
Cycle 4, Phase 2: Principle alignment
Processes
Tasks
• Principles are aligned in
complex systems allowing the
grasp of hidden properties of
relations by logical implication
• Specify principles of truth and
validity
• When is true that M + P + N = M +
S+N
• Inferential relevance mastery:
search their representational
spaces and choose between
representations
• Why you are good in this but not
so good in that
THANK YOU
ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?