The Structure-of-Intellect - Learning Abilities Test (SOI-LA) (Meeker, 1975) has
an enthusiastic following in the USA, but is little-known in Australia.
It is based on the Structure-of-Intellect model of J P Guilford, and through a
series of up to 26 subtests, purports to identify 14 general learning abilities.
Forms are designed to cater for students from Kindergarten to adult.
In NSW, classroom teachers can have support for students with learning
difficulties through the Support Teacher program; this support often falls far
short of need, as there is a paucity of time and material resources.
There is a need for a tool which can identify areas of both strength and weakness
efficiently and suggest effective strategies to cater for the identified
weaknesses; the Meeker paradigm is purported to address this need with a
diagnostic approach which identifies learning disabilities which underlie and
serve to maintain school-based learning difficulties, and prescribes materials and
approaches for remediation.
This study explores the first part of the Meeker paradigm, the diagnostic approach
of the Structure-of-Intellect - Learning Abilities Test. This exploration is
undertaken in the context of four rural Support Teachers and their student with
learning difficulties from Grades 2-6. Rather than consider questions of the
Test's validity, this study was designed to explore the Test's utility in the
Support Teacher context, by giving the Support Teachers a working knowledge of the
concepts of SOI-LA, and to compare the application of their knowledge with the
information about their students' learning disabilities from the Test results.
Problems are evident with the Support Teachers' knowledge and understanding of
their students' disabilities; whist they felt comfortable about the approach
which the Test takes, they felt they did not know their students well enough to
make informed judgements about their disabilities. It was apparent from the study
that the Support Teachers' understanding of the concepts of the Test was
comparatively superficial, despite their impression that they did understand well.
Several difficulties with the instrument itself are highlighted by this study; the
assumptions underlying the derivation of the general ability scores are
questioned, and the suitability of Test Forms for a learning disabled population
of this age is open to criticism.
The Structure-of-Intellect - Learning Abilities Test may have utility as an
instrument for gaining information about a student's disability on an individual
basis, and may be best in the hands of the School Counsellor.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218876 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Cooper Davis, Pamela, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Pamela Cooper Davis |
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