| dc.creator | Somerset, H. C. A. | |
| dc.date | 2011-04-12T14:24:36Z | |
| dc.date | 2011-04-12T14:24:36Z | |
| dc.date | 1977 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2012-11-10T12:58:33Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2012-11-10T12:58:33Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 10-11-12 | |
| dc.identifier | Somerset, H. C. A. (1977) Aptitude test, socio-economic background and secondary school selection: the possibilities and limits of change. Discussion Paper 249, Nairobi: Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi | |
| dc.identifier | http://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/123456789/671 | |
| dc.identifier | 317273 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/handle/123456789/1945 | |
| dc.description | A group of verbal reasoning questions, of the type often used in
intelligence tests, were included in the English paper of the Kenya
secondary school selection examination (C.P.E. - Certificate of Primary
Education) from 1971, and from 1974 scientific reasoning questions were
included in the general paper. In early 1974 a full-scale item analysis
of the 1973 selection paper was made. This paper presents some results
from the analysis carried out for the years 1973 to 1976 of the English
paper and the science section of the general paper.
The scores of pupils from Nairobi high-cost primary schools and
from rural low-cost schools are compared. Three interesting results of
this analysis are presented and some possible explanations offered. For
one thing, pupils from the Nairobi high-cost schools perform up to 70 per
cent better on English items testing knowledge of specialised words,
expressions and idioms, whereas in the science paper, descriptive items
testing knowledge of specialised and technical terms produce a mean
difference of less than 12 per cent. Secondly, the verbal reasoning items
in the English paper give the Nairobi high-cost pupils a smaller advantage
than the achievement items; whereas in science, the reasoning items give
a bigger advantage than the descriptive and explanatory items. Finally,
the observation items in the science paper produce an especially large
performance gap between the two types of schools.
These and other results suggest that the huge performance advantage
enjoyed by Nairobi high-cost pupils in the English paper can be ascribed
entirely to two sources: first, their greater familiarity with the language,
and second, the superior quality of the teaching they receive. In both
papers, questions which test higher-level intellectual skills, such as
the ability to reason, are particularly sensitive to the effects of teacher
quality, rather than reflecting the innate capacity of the pupils. | |
| dc.language | en | |
| dc.publisher | Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi | |
| dc.relation | Discussion Papers;249 | |
| dc.rights | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ | |
| dc.rights | Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi | |
| dc.subject | Economic Development | |
| dc.subject | Education | |
| dc.title | Aptitude test, socio-economic background and secondary school selection: the possibilities and limits of change | |
| dc.type | Series paper (non-IDS) | |
