Identifying high academic potential in Australian Aboriginal children using dynamic testing

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of dynamic testing as a method for identifying high academic potential in Australian Aboriginal children. The 79 participating Aboriginal children were drawn from Years 3-5 in rural schools in northern New South Wales. The dynamic testing method used in this study involved a test-intervention-retest format where the intervention was designed to address predicted causes of underachievement. The dynamic testing method used in the present study proved to be an effective identification tool, revealing high academic potential in similar proportions to those in the instrument normative population. The present study has implications for both gifted education and Aboriginal education generally. These implications arise from the findings of this study that many of the children were 'invisible' underachievers and that it is possible to identify this underachievement in the dynamic testing process.