Psychoeducational Assessment
- The Learner’s GPS
Angela MacPhee, M.Sc.
Registered Psychologist
Psychoeducational assessment is a term with which
many parents are familiar once their children have
entered the education system. Some parents may
have even advocated for their child to receive
such an assessment through their child’s school.
At the school level, due to limited resources,
psychoeducational assessment is often provided to
those children with the most significant learning
or behavioural challenges. Due to this reality, some
may inadvertently receive the message that these
assessments are only accessed when a learner has
completely lost his or her way.
While it is true that psychoeducational assessment
is essential for learners who have wandered far
from the beaten path of academic success, these
assessments can and do provide so much more
than a roadmap back for lost learners. These
assessments provide a GPS of sorts to any learner,
in the sense that results illuminate each person’s
personal pathway to maximizing success. A number
of domains are investigated, including cognitive
functioning, academic achievement, and social/
emotional/behavioural health.
A pivotal part of these assessments is the examination
of the student’s cognitive profile, which provides a
large component of the driving instructions for those
steering this student’s learning journey. Cognition
refers to thinking, and so looking at one’s cognitive
profile involves examining how one “thinks”.
Thinking involves both comprehension and problemsolving, and efficient information processing. Each
of us has a unique cognitive profile, with our own
personal strengths and challenges. Knowing how to
rely on our learning strengths is like taking the road
that is free from traffic; the driving is quick, easy, and
enjoyable. Understanding how to “get around” our
learning challenges is like having a warning that there
is major congestion on the main highway, and turning
down a side road to get to the same destination with
less delay and stress.\
Assessing a student’s cognitive profile will first
illuminate how that learner best understands new
and complex concepts. The question that is answered
is does this student best learn through language (and
therefore rely on a “telling” approach to teaching),
or does s/he prefer a visual, demonstration-based
approach (i.e. and therefore rely on a “showing”
approach to teaching). Having these directions
allows the student, parents and teachers to default
to the student’s personal learning style when the
road gets bumpy and the student is having trouble
comprehending a particular curriculum concept.
For example, the learner who best understands
language may have some degree of challenge in an
experiential math lesson, where students are working
with manipulatives to discover the operation of a
geometrical concept. The language-based learner
will benefit from that highly hands-on, visual-based
lesson along with the rest of the class, but may need
to be supplemented with a step-by-step explanation
of what s/he needs to know to solve this type of
problem. Alternatively, the learner who learns best
when concepts are made visual may have some
degree of challenge studying for a history test on
Confederation in Canada. Although s/he will benefit from reading chapters and studying notes, s/he
may not really take command of the information
well until s/he can “see” how the concepts operate
together (e.g. using diagrams, timelines, etc.).
Secondly, information-processing styles are also
examined in detail. The list of information processing
functions and their implications is long, and cannot
be discussed fully here. What is important to point
out is that processing challenges can cause a bright
student to run into difficulties consistently displaying
his/her intellect. For example, if speed of processing
is an issue, tasks will take longer than necessary, and
tests may go unfinished. If memory is a concern,
the student may understand a concept well, but
struggle to recall it later. Often, discrepancies can
exist between verbal memory and visual memory
(i.e. one is much stronger than the other), meaning
that there are some roads those learners should take
to study (e.g. drawing diagrams, making flow charts)
and some they should clearly avoid (e.g. reading
notes, talking about the information aloud), and vice
versa. As adults, some of us have learned through a
lifetime of experience where our processing strengths
and challenges lie, and how to navigate tasks
accordingly. Some of us have not, and as a result,
experience ongoing frustration with certain types of tasks. Younger students do not have the benefit
of this experience, but can be shown a shortcut by
understanding how they process and how to work
effectively with their personal profile.
“Reach my potential” is the destination every learner
would program into their GPS. Having detailed
information about the cognitive profile provides
the turn-by-turn directions for maximizing learning
success. This information is valuable at any age,
when aspects of learning are frustrating, inconsistent,
or difficult.
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