Culture, instruction, and assessment

Abstract

Instruction and assessment need to be understood and thought about within the cultural context in which they occur. Educators and educational researchers may make assumptions that apply in their home culture but not elsewhere. And even different subcultures within an overall mainstream culture may have different views on instruction and assessment, and what constitutes intelligent performance in each. In this article, I consider the relevance of culture to instruction and assessment. I describe studies that show the importance of understanding instruction and assessment in their cultural contexts, and conclude that education and its goals must be understood in such contexts.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my many collaborators at and affiliates of the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies and Expertise (PACE) Centre for their collaborations. My principal collaborator in this work has been Elena L. Grigorenko, who has made invaluable contributions to our research for this article. The work in Kenya and Jamaica was supported primarily by the Partnership for Child Development, centred at Imperial College, University of London. The work in Tanzania was supported by the James S. McDonnell Foundation. The work in Alaska was supported by the Institute of Educational Sciences (formerly the Office of Educational Research and Improvement), US Department of Education. The work in Zambia was supported by USAID. The work in Taiwan was supported by the US Office of Educational Research and Improvement. The work in San Jose, CA, was supported by the Spencer Foundation.