Assessing intellectual potential in rural Tanzanian school children

Abstract

What do conventional intellectual-ability tests tell us about the abilities of Black Africans living in non-Westernized environmental contexts? We examined an aspect of this question in a study employing dynamic testing, conducted in rural villages near Bagamoyo, Tanzania. A total of 358 experimental-group children in 10 schools, ranging in grade levels from 2 to 5, participated in the study. An additional 100 students of the same ages served as control participants. All experimental-group participants received three dynamic tests (administered in Kiswahili) of largely fluid intellectual abilities: Syllogisms, Sorting, and Twenty Questions. Each test given to the experimental group comprised administration of a separately scored (a) pretest, (b) intervention teaching cognitive skills and strategies contributing to success on that kind of test, and (c) posttest. Control participants received only the pretest and posttest. In addition, scores were available for the experimental-group children on reference tests of intellectual abilities and school achievement. We found that scores of children in the experimental group increased significantly from pretest to posttest relative to scores of children in the control group. Pretest scores of experimental-group children were relatively weak predictors of posttest scores, whereas pretest scores of control-group children were significantly stronger predictors of posttest scores. Posttest scores on the dynamic tests generally were better predictors than were pretest scores of the reference ability and achievement measures.