TY - JOUR
T1 - Cognitive assessment and health education in children from two different cultures
AU - Sivaramakrishnan, Malathi
AU - Arocha, José F.
AU - Patel, Vimla L.
N1 - Funding Information:
The research reported in this paper was supported in part by grants to Vimla L. Patel from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (9410-92-1535) and by the James S. McDonnell Foundation, as part of the cognitive panel of the Child Health Partnership Program. We are very grateful to the children who enthusiastically participated in this project, as well as the teachers who provided their time and support in carrying it out. We would like to thank the Centro de Investigaciones en Desarrollo (CIMDER), Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia, the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and the TVS Elementary School in Madurai, State of TamilNadu, India. Finally, we would like to thank Kayla Cytryn for the careful editing of the manuscript and for her many valuable suggestions.
PY - 1998/9/16
Y1 - 1998/9/16
N2 - This paper presents research aimed at investigating high level comprehension and problem solving processes in children in two different countries, India and Colombia. To this end, we use a series of health-related cognitive tasks as assessment tools. In one study, we also examine children's performance on these cognitive tasks, in relation to their nutritional status and parasitic load. The ages of the children tested ranged from 2 through 14 years. The tasks were designed to assess comprehension of sequences, organization of concepts, understanding of health routines (hygiene practices) and evaluation of hypothesis and evidence. The results show that children approach the different tasks with a baggage of beliefs and local knowledge of the world which determines their reasoning process, their comprehension and their problems solving. The results are discussed in terms of cognitive assessment approaches, as applied to classroom instruction. Given that children construct their understanding of reality based on what they already know and that education does not take this into account, we recommend that assessment tools should be devised that can tap prior knowledge and understanding, such that this can be analyzed and understood in relation to knowledge taught in the classroom. Current educational assessment fails in such an endeavor.
AB - This paper presents research aimed at investigating high level comprehension and problem solving processes in children in two different countries, India and Colombia. To this end, we use a series of health-related cognitive tasks as assessment tools. In one study, we also examine children's performance on these cognitive tasks, in relation to their nutritional status and parasitic load. The ages of the children tested ranged from 2 through 14 years. The tasks were designed to assess comprehension of sequences, organization of concepts, understanding of health routines (hygiene practices) and evaluation of hypothesis and evidence. The results show that children approach the different tasks with a baggage of beliefs and local knowledge of the world which determines their reasoning process, their comprehension and their problems solving. The results are discussed in terms of cognitive assessment approaches, as applied to classroom instruction. Given that children construct their understanding of reality based on what they already know and that education does not take this into account, we recommend that assessment tools should be devised that can tap prior knowledge and understanding, such that this can be analyzed and understood in relation to knowledge taught in the classroom. Current educational assessment fails in such an endeavor.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0277-9536(98)00094-X
DO - 10.1016/S0277-9536(98)00094-X
M3 - Article
C2 - 9690818
AN - SCOPUS:0031846055
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 47
SP - 697
EP - 712
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
IS - 6
ER -