Revealing Minds Assessing to Understand and Support Struggling Learners

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Edition: 1st
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2007-08-24
Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
List Price: $32.36

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Summary

Revealing Minds is a practical, hands-on guide to assessing learning problems, based on the approach of All Kinds of Minds, the groundbreaking nonprofit institute co-founded by Mel Levine. Whereas most assessments of struggling learners focus on what is "broken" within a student and needs to be fixed, All Kinds of Minds has adopted a more positive and comprehensive approach to the process. Rather than labeling children or categorizing them into certain pre-defined groups, their optimistic and helpful path creates a complete picture (or "profile") of each student, outlining the child's assets along with any weaknesses, and identifying specific breakdown points that lead to problems at school.The process of assessment should be able to answer a question such as, "Why is my son struggling with reading?" with a better answer than, "Because he has a reading disability." Revealing Minds shows how to discover hidden factors-such as language functioning, memory ability, or attention control-that are impeding a student's learning. It goes beyond labels and categories to help readers understand whata??s really going on with their students and create useful learning plans.Providing scores of real-life examples, definitions of key terms, helpful diagrams, tables, and sample assessments, Pohlman offers a useful roadmap for educators, psychologists, and other professionals to implement the All Kinds of Minds approach in their own assessments.

Author Biography

Craig Pohlman, Ph.D., NCSP, is a licensed psychologist at All Kinds of Minds, a nonprofit institute helping struggling learners improve their success in school and in life. He has conducted and supervised thousands of assessments of students from kindergarten through college.

Table of Contents

Assessing to understandp. 1
The case for phenomenologyp. 2
Profiles as tools for understanding studentsp. 2
Answering the question why? (and why that matters)p. 5
Identifying assets (and why they matter)p. 7
Neurodevelopmental variation as normal variationp. 9
Why the focus on assessmentp. 9
The approach of this bookp. 10
My perspective and backgroundp. 12
Assessment is both complex and simplep. 13
The need for a frameworkp. 15
The prepared mindp. 15
The pitfalls of being atheoreticalp. 17
Conceptual correctnessp. 18
Theoretical frameworks for understanding learningp. 20
A neurodevelopmental frameworkp. 23
Other factors that may impede learningp. 27
Selecting a framework : a choice for the professionalp. 29
The art of task-analysisp. 31
Two types of reasoningp. 32
Analysis of academic skillsp. 33
Analysis of assessment tasksp. 36
Constructing learning plansp. 38
Task-analysis as an assessment toolp. 40
Making linkagesp. 41
Functions versus skillsp. 41
Linkagesp. 43
Why linkages matterp. 44
Major linkages between skill deficits and neurodevelopmental functionsp. 47
Assessing from multiple anglesp. 55
Assessment and testingp. 55
Multi-method assessmentp. 56
Qualitative and quantitative findingsp. 58
Dynamic and standardized techniquesp. 62
Limit testingp. 64
What history can revealp. 65
Assets and affinitiesp. 68
The case for teamworkp. 70
Assessment as a processp. 71
Comparing and contrasting anglesp. 72
A better use of the discrepancy conceptp. 73
Clinical contrastsp. 74
Academic task to academic taskp. 76
Neurodevelopmental task to neurodevelopmental taskp. 79
Neurodevelopmental task to academic taskp. 87
Clinical branching logicp. 93
Contrasts in history reportsp. 99
A tool for better understandingp. 100
Searching for recurring themesp. 101
Making the casep. 101
Examples of recurring themesp. 104
Potential hazards in the search for recurring themesp. 108
Tactics for organizing findingsp. 109
Change in coursep. 112
Assessing attentionp. 115
The construct of attentionp. 115
Some important distinctionsp. 119
General assessment considerationsp. 122
Tasks designed to assess aspects of attentionp. 125
Task-analysis for attentionp. 132
Attention signs and symptomsp. 135
Secondary attention deficitsp. 139
Assessing memoryp. 143
The construct of memoryp. 144
Some important distinctionsp. 145
General assessment considerationsp. 147
Tasks designed to assess types of memoryp. 150
Task-analysis for memoryp. 159
Memory signs and symptomsp. 162
Assessing languagep. 167
The construct of languagep. 167
Some important distinctionsp. 171
General assessment considerationsp. 175
Tasks designed to assess components of languagep. 177
Task-analysis for languagep. 185
Language signs and symptomsp. 188
Other neurodevelopmental factors to considerp. 195
Spatial orderingp. 195
Temporal-sequential orderingp. 202
Neuromotor functionp. 203
Conceptualizationp. 207
Reasoning and Logicp. 210
Creativityp. 213
Social cognitionp. 214
Cross-construct phenomenap. 216
Degree of contextp. 218
Other factors that can affect learningp. 219
Organizationp. 221
Turning the cornerp. 223
Telling the storyp. 225
Importance of demystificationp. 225
Guidelines for written reportsp. 230
Communicating outside the boxp. 232
Understanding to assessp. 237
Having new eyesp. 237
Making the casep. 238
The virtues of splittingp. 239
Framing the workp. 240
Preparing the mindp. 241
Passionate curiosityp. 242
Talking the talk and walking the walkp. 243
Supporting research for a neurodevelopmental framework
Assessment task-analysis guide
Index of potential findings
Tests and batteries for neurodevelopmental assessment
Learning plan resources
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

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