Aligning developmental and educational diagnosis:

Principles and implicationsAndreas 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 evaluationDevelopmental Evaluation Psychometric evaluation School evaluationWhere do they stand? How do they compare to others? How much do they know?

Three approaches to evaluationDevelopmental 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 relationsReasoning 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 IQReasoning 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

• Object matching Number recognition

• Phonics Count

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.

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• Alignment of representations

• Rule-based sorting• Pragmatic inferences

• Dual representations, theory of mind, theory of mind

• Focus-choose-respond: alternate between representations

Tasks• 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 • 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

Tasks• mental number line allowing numerical

operations

• 3 * 5 = 8, a + 4 = 7

• transitivity, class relations, etc.

• Second-order theory of mind

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

ProcessesTasks• if (r = s + t) and (r + s + t = 30), specify

r = ?

• Why is this task more difficult (or complex) than this?

• Grasps the principle underlying various transformations of reality

• Proportionality and physical systems

• Awareness of logical constraints and principles of validity and truth

Cycle 4, Phase 2: Principle alignment

Processes• Principles are aligned in complex

systems allowing the grasp of hidden properties of relations by logical implication

• Specify principles of truth and validity

• Inferential relevance mastery: search their representational spaces and choose between representations

Tasks• When is true that M + P + N = M +

S + N

• Why you are good in this but not so good in that

THANK YOU

ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?