Psychometric Testing of Students – a work in progress

Andy WattsFebruary 2011

“All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have equal opportunity to develop our talent.”

John. F . Kennedy

Year 10 Case Study

What is Psychometric Testing?

How can this help students?

Where are we now?

Questions

• Confident, precocious, intelligent child who never showed any signs of problems, pressures or frustrations until her personal circumstances changed

• Initially tested at 13 due to a mother’s intuition about possible depression – nobody involved in her education seemed to be able to do anything to help

• Following results from EI and PPA, which alerted the fact there was a problem, she was taken to an educational psychologist who identified her to be exceptionally bright but diagnosed her with Dysgraphia; a form of dyslexia.

• Before being diagnosed with this condition, the child exhibited anger and frustration thinking she was stupid, resulting in her withdrawing and disengaging from lessons. She now understands her own problem and with the help of the school has put strategies in place to deal with this.

Year 10 Case Study

• Following her diagnosis and work with the educational psychologist, she was tested again and has dramatically improved on areas of her EI which initially indicated depression.

• Her parents now consider her to be back on track but fortunate that they were lucky enough to have access to something extra to help their daughter.

Extension after representation

• 3 workshops were held in July involving 18 year 10 students.

• The workshops covered communications and self awareness, preparation for and practice of job interviews and a Thomas ‘PPA’ psychometric test which was reported to each student.

• All agreed that the pilot programme had been successful and helpful.

What is Psychometric Testing?

• Psychometrics is the study and measurement of individual differences in human beings to see how they are different from each other. Tests include the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and traits.

• It has a 100 year history and tests sell over $2 billion per year internationally.

• Thomas offers three different assessments to look at the various aspects which make up an individual:

• Behaviour - Personal Profile Analysis (PPA)• Aptitude - General Intelligence Assessment (GIA)• Emotion - Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Thomas Assessments

Competency

Behaviours

Personality & Awareness

Hard Skills

Aptitude & Ability

GIA

EIQ

Skills

360

PPA

Thomas Assessments

Competency

Behaviours

Personality &Awareness

Hard Skills

Aptitude & Ability

Personal Profile Analysis (PPA)

Provides an insight into how people behave.

• Understand Strengths and Limitations?• What can an individual bring to the

team?• Communication Styles.• Fears, Motivators & Values.

Marston’s TheoryPERCIEVED SITUATION

Hostile, unfriendly, antagonistic

ACTIVE

BEHAVIOURS

PASSIVE

BEHAVIOURS

Friendly, favourable

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

DOMINANCEDOMINANCE(POWER)(POWER)

COMPLIANCECOMPLIANCE(POLICY)(POLICY)

INFLUENCINFLUENCEE

(PEOPLE)(PEOPLE)

STEADINESSSTEADINESS(PACE)(PACE)

Personal Profile Analysis (PPA)

Dominance

DrivingCompetitiveForcefulInquisitiveDirectSelf-StartingAssertiveMild Mannered

Low Decision NeedNon demandingAccommodatingHesitant

Working Strength -

Efficiency Factor

InfluentialPersuasiveFriendlyVerbalCommunicativePositive

ReservedReflectiveProbingSeriousSuspiciousSelf-Conscious

InfluenceWorking Strength -

Efficiency Factor

Steadiness

DependableDeliberateAmiablePersistentGood ListenerKind

MobileAlertActiveRestlessDemonstrative

Efficiency Factor

Working Strength -

Compliance

CompliantCarefulSystematicPreciseAccuratePerfectionistLogicalFirm

PersistentStubbornStrong-WilledIndependent

Working Strength -

Efficiency Factor

Self Awareness

General Intelligence Assessment (GIA)•Provides an insight into an individual’s fluid intelligence and speed of learning

•Do they prefer to do things quickly and accurately; slowly and accurately; quickly and inaccurately or slowly and accurately

•Looks at 5 cognitive areas; reasoning, perceptual speed, number, speed and accuracy, word meaning and spatial visualisation

Emotional Intelligence (EI)•Provides an insight into how people get on with each other and it is critical to successful work

•An index of an individuals perceived ability to understand process and utilise emotion related information in every day life.

•Looks at how well they manage their own emotions and the emotions of others

•Individual facets looked at include self esteem, self motivation, adaptability, stress management

How can this help students?

Rather than a broad brush approach, gives each individual increased self awareness regarding their own:•behaviour including strengths and limitations and preferred style of working/learning•their level of emotional intelligence and can highlight issues such as self esteem and confidence which may prevent a small problem spiralling out of control•cognitive skills; are they more literate or numerate?; do they prefer data and spreadsheets or graphics?; do they solve problems quickly or prefer to take their time and think about things?

Where are we now?• Two distinct groups of student selected

(May/Jun) • Students invited to undertake assessments &

Parental agreement sought with Parent’s Information evening (Sept/Oct)

• Staff trained by Thomas to interpret Assessments (Nov to Jan)

• Intervention strategies being formulated (on-going)

• Feedback to individuals started (Feb)

Issues… and other stuff….

• Involvement of parents• Time to feedback• EI• Intervention strategies to be employed• Working with other agencies• Informing staff and integrating into

classroom practice• How to measure Impact

Questions?