Abstract
A thorough book that asks all the right questions about assessment, provides many answers and explanations, examples and discussion points for both the professional psychologist and the interested educator. In addition, the work is mature enough and confident enough to ask and embrace all the doubts, anxieties and complexity of assessing intelligence and that ever-with-us question, what is really tested when we test? Very early on in the book the question is asked, ‘How can we measure something we can’t define?’ (Kranzler and Floyd. p. 2):
In the symposium the editor asked 14 leading experts to define intelligence, among other questions. He received 14 different replies. Sample responses from the selected experts included the following: ‘The power of good responses from the point of view of fact’ (Thorndike) ‘The ability to carry on abstract thinking.’ (Terman) ‘Intelligence involves the capacity to acquire capacity.’ (Woodrow) ‘The ability of the individual to adapt himself adequately to relatively new situations in life.’ (Pinter) ‘Intelligence is what the tests test.’ (Boring) (Kranzler and Floyd. p. 2)
Primarily aimed at supporting and informing an American readership, the publication would prove valuable to any teacher or instructor with a need to understand in a critical and professional way why we test, what we test and what tests tell us, including the limitations of such information. Chapter 11 ‘Assessment of Intellectual Giftedness’ (Kranzler and Floyd. p. 194) is particularly enjoyable.