Psychopedagogical Assessment and Curricular Adaptations in Education
Psychopedagogical Assessment: Understanding Student Needs
Concept
According to the BOE (1996), psychopedagogical assessment is a process of:
- Gathering, analyzing, and evaluating relevant information.
- Considering the elements involved in the teaching-learning process.
- Identifying the educational needs of pupils who present (or may present) maladjustments in their personal and/or academic development.
- Establishing and specifying decisions about the syllabus proposal and the support needed to progress in the development of different abilities.
Aims
- Detect specific educational needs.
- Make decisions about schooling and flexibility of the schooling period (for students with SEN or high abilities).
- Design curricular adaptations.
- Assign resources (material, human, etc.) and specific support.
Procedure and Agents
- Detection in the classroom (by the tutor) or at home (by the family).
Tutor Protocol of derivation.
Psychopedagogist (+specialists) Assessment.
Psychopedagogist Report.
Psychopedagogist Dictamination* Inspection.
Specialists Intervention.
*Dictamination: This determines the most suitable school for a child, the type of support the child needs, and any necessary curricular adaptations.
Contents (Areas to Assess)
According to the Ministry Order (1996):
- Pupil:
- General development: Most important in Infant Education.
- Level of curricular competence: More important in Primary than in Infant Education. (Instrumental areas such as mathematics and language are foundational. If a child has problems in these areas, they will likely have problems in other subjects).
- Learning style: The way we learn (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc.). For example, listening is often the best way for dyslexics to learn.
- School context: Adaptation to the school.
- Family context: Selecting relevant information that affects the child.
- Social context.
Methodology and Instruments
- Interview: Parents can be asked about routines, the child’s past, previous events, and the child’s behavior outside of school.
- Observation: This allows for the identification of potential issues. It’s important to avoid biased judgment, record observations clearly and objectively, and maintain a continuous process. The curriculum should be consulted to determine what the child should be achieving.
- Psychometric tests:
- Standardized tests: These compare knowledge across different ages. A referential benchmark is used, based on tests administered to a large number of children of the same age, to determine the child’s knowledge level.
- Non-Standardized tests/Developmental scales: These indicate what a child can or cannot do, but don’t specify the level of knowledge (e.g., Cuestionario de Madurez de Cumain).
- Questionnaires:
- Open or closed answers.
- Questions about medical issues (allergies), the child’s relationships, siblings, etc.
Report and Decisions
- Psychopedagogical report:
- A written document.
- Includes quantitative and qualitative information gathered and analyzed during the assessment.
- Provides a synthesis of the pupil’s current (not necessarily future) personal and academic situation.
- Allows for the determination of the existence of SEN.
- Must use clear language, to communicate information to the family.
- Maintains confidentiality.
- Dictamination:
- A document that includes:
- Diagnosis.
- Description of SEN.
- Syllabus proposal: The most appropriate schooling modality + required support.
- Proposed by the psychopedagogist and school staff; supervised by Inspection.
- Dictamination à Inspection à Schooling Resolution (By Province Direction).
Curricular Adaptations: Addressing Student Needs
Levels of Curricular Concretion
Spain à Autonomous Community à School à Class à Student
- Minimum teaching contents (Government + Community): The Government mandates minimum knowledge requirements. However, there is Pedagogical Autonomy based on these minimum teaching contents. Each Community can focus on different content areas, while always considering the minimum requirements. (First Level of Concretion)
- School Educational Project + Pedagogical Proposal: The Community proposes a new curriculum based on the minimum teaching contents. Each school adapts this curriculum to its specific context. Each school has a different project due to factors such as economic and cultural levels. They must adapt the curriculum to the school’s environment.
- Each class has different teachers, pupils, etc., and adaptations must be made accordingly.
- Individualized syllabus adaptations: This involves constant adaptation to the circumstances. (For example, if pupils finish work earlier than expected, adjustments are made, such as allowing them to play or assigning additional work.) This is different from ISA (Individualized Syllabus Adaptation).
The Syllabus must be adapted to the educational needs of the student à Levels of curricular concretion = Levels of syllabus adaptation.
General and Ordinary Actions
- Principles of the Law:
- Equity
- Quality
- Flexibility
- Pedagogical autonomy to adapt to diversity
Adaptation to the characteristics of the school, neighborhood, classroom, etc.
In methodology:
- General methodological strategies and techniques that may be useful for all students.
- Globalized, interdisciplinary work.
- Centers of interest (e.g., a topic or theme).
Children don’t need to know the specific subject they are learning (math, science, etc.). Different areas are worked on (e.g., Language) within a broader topic (e.g., Christmas). The methodology is based on centers of interest. (This is different from corners: Centers of interest = Christmas, Corner = Language).
Use of different materials for manipulation: This makes learning easier and more engaging. (e.g., Children need to touch and see to understand quantity; they learn to count).
- Principles:
- Starting point, Prior Knowledge: What do they already know?
- Meaningful learning:
Meaningfulness:
- Logical: Contents must be presented in a logical, organized, clear, and systematic way.
- Psychological: Helping the child connect previous knowledge to new content.
- Social: What they learn should be useful in everyday life.
- Independent learning: Allowing students to learn through experience (manipulation).
- Modifying conceptual schemas (the idea we have of something): This is the engine of development. A cognitive conflict is provoked when students are given something to experiment with. (e.g., providing water and objects of different weights. They might think that heavier objects will sink and lighter ones will float. This experiment teaches them about density. Experimentation leads to a cognitive conflict).
In activities:
- Design activities with different degrees of depth: Not all students will achieve the same level.
- Various activities to work on the same content.
- Activities that require different kinds of output (Output is the expected result. Input is the information given to the child; e.g., the information the teacher provides for an essay).
- Different groupings: individual, pairs, groups of 3 or 4, large groups, etc. Mixing the members and the number. This is useful for detecting difficulties and observing how they work.
- Application in everyday life.
- Organizational strategies:
- Peer monitoring: Children with different levels, where those with a higher level help those with a lower level.
- Working corner: Having a corner is different from working *by* corners. *Having* a corner: When you finish your work, you can go to the corner you prefer. *Working by* corners: Learning something in each corner, rotating daily (e.g., Letter A, number 2, Rock music).
- Workshops (Talleres): Learning through fun and practical activities. (e.g., Instead of doing 13 sums, playing “shops”).
- Projects.
- Graded activities.
In assessment:
- Initial assessment (Prior knowledge/Base line): This can be compared to the final assessment to see what and how much the child has improved.
- Continuous assessment: Re-adaptation to needs (to adapt to children’s needs).
- Varied procedures and instruments: Using a diversity of procedures to reach all students.
In aims and contents:
- Sequencing of aims and contents depending on the group’s characteristics. Aims are not removed, but sequenced. (e.g., teaching topic 4 (earthquake) instead of topic 2 (animals) because an earthquake occurred in Spain).
- Selection and sequencing of didactic units.
Individualized Curricular/Syllabus Adaptations (ISA)
- Modifications of the syllabus in aims, contents, methodology, activities, and assessment criteria to address individual differences. (Not all of these elements need to be changed).
- Types of adaptations:
- Of access:
- Physical access: Furniture, lighting, technical aids/support for motor disabilities (wheelchair, crutches, etc.).
- To communication: Braille, technical aids for sensory disabilities (materials that allow the child to see or hear better, like glasses, etc.).
- Of content: Continuum of significance (continuous progress).
- Not significant (ordinary measures): For mild learning difficulties.
- Significant (individualized measures): For students with SEN with severe learning difficulties, or late entry or compensatory, with a discrepancy of +2 years. These modify prescriptive elements of the curriculum.
- Of access:
Student Groups and Educational Response to Each
- Special Educational Needs (SEN):
- Resources:
- Schooling modality:
- Mainstream groups.
- Specialized classrooms within mainstream schools.
- Special education schools à different syllabus.
- Schooling modality:
*Not only for children with Special Educational Needs.
- Syllabus Adaptations:
- Spatial.
- Communicative.
- Curricular/Academic.
- Educational support:
- Teachers involved (mainly specialists).
- Contents/Methodology: A different methodology will be used.
- Resources:
- High-Intellectual Level Students:
- Resources:
- Flexibility in the length of stages: This is not the best option, as it’s better for someone to explain all the content. For example, skipping a year (instead of 6 years of primary, the student completes it in 5 years).
- Enrichment programs (Programas de enriquecimiento): Allowing the child to research topics of interest. This is the best option. The student is asked to investigate a topic; they are not directly taught because they are independent learners.
Progressively: From the least significant to the most significant.
- Resources:
- Late entry students and students with a need for compensatory measures (economic, cultural disadvantages):
- Resources:
- Academic support.
- Linguistic support.
They need specific help with language and mathematics. They study using a different methodology and different content.
- Resources:
- Students with specific learning difficulties (LOMCE):
- Curricular adaptation (starting with methodology): From the least significant (adapting methodology) to the most significant (aims and contents).
- Support in affected areas, provided by specialists: A specific area (e.g., reading) that does not affect other areas (e.g., writing), unlike students with specific needs.