From the behavior of the children he decided which tests were useful. He then threw out
those tests which failed to predict successfully, and tried again.
What did these tests prove? Nothing. They
indicated
the level of a child??™s intelligence at the time the
test was administered. They did not
prove
that the child has great ability or potential. They have been
given to an enormous number of children. They are still in use today.
Mr. Cyril Burt was a psychologist interested in predicting the ability of children. The British government
wanted to reduce the cost of education. They reached a position whereby Mr. Cyril Burt provided
(much) questioned figures that ???proved??? that it was possible to predict a child??™s ability, and the British
government imposed a test on all British children at the age of 11 (called the 11-plus), which determined
whether a child would go to a Grammar school (for the brighter) or a Secondary-Modern school (for
the less-bright). Many studies have shown that the tests were very bad predictors of a child??™s ability and
have blighted the lives of a generation of children. Britain still has a terrible shortage of graduates and
technicians, but Mr. Cyril Burt was knighted.
1.1 Conclusions
1. Theories can be disproved.
2. Theories can be very useful and good predictors within a limited range of environments.
3. Tests only work in a limited range of environments.
4. Conclusive tests are very difficult to write.
Pages:
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80