Cultural Bias In Australia

There is a common, underlying perception that students from particular cultural and linguistic backgrounds – what is generally referred to as ethnicity - have a predisposition towards educational success in Australian schools (Watkins, 2013). Students from Anglo backgrounds, for example, are often seen as having a cultural advantage whilst others, such as Middle Eastern students, are perceived as culturally prone to underachievement. These claims confine ethnicity to fixed and bound stereotypes, and see educational achievement as a result of the inherent qualities of these groups (Watkins, 2013). However, ethnicity

Indigenous Education in Australia has been the subject of ongoing policy focus and repeated official inquiry as the nation grapples with trying to achieve equity for these students, according to Gray and Beresford (2008). There are many underlying factors behind the development of a plateau effect of progress in this area, this paper will delve into the topic of the Australian Curriculum (ACARA) as one of these main factors effecting equity amongst students in schools. According to the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, “the Australian Curriculum promotes excellence and equity for all students by providing a challenging curriculum from which rigorous, relevant and engaging learning programs can be developed that address

Many people accuse IQ tests to be biased against an assortment of cultures. Intelligence has been proven to be affected by environmental factors (Cherry), and typically this includes one’s culture and upbringing. One’s culture can influence many things, as simple as what intelligence is to how people look at the world around them. According to Dr. Robert Serpell, in the some of the more rural areas of Africa, when parents talk about the intelligence of children “they prefer not to separate the cognitive speed aspect of intelligence from the social responsibility aspect” (Benson). The Luo tribe in Kenya has four aspects to their views on intelligence, these aspects include academic intelligence, practical thinking, comprehension, and social

One of the most frequently stated criticisms of standardised tests is that they do not measure creativity and problem solving ability. Because standardised testing is mostly presented in a multiple choice format, a teacher cannot, see where a child went wrong when he or she failed to solve a math problem correctly, because no work was shown (S.E Smith, 2011). In addition, critics feel that the questions on standardized tests are too simplistic for children to fully demonstrate reading comprehension, critical thinking, and problem solving. Another issue being focused on when referring to standardised testing is the bias (A. Kohn, 2000). Certain cultural and language biases may be impossible to eliminate entirely from standardised tests, meaning that some populations such as low socio-economic, Indigenous peoples, girls and other minorities may be at a disadvantage when they take standardized tests. While test writing companies do their best to eliminate obvious bias and offensive language, it is a difficult thing to correct for entirely (PISA, 2011).

Australia is multicultural society that brings an abundance of cultural and ethnic backgrounds amongst society; therefore it is an educator’s responsibility to have an understanding of how to support the diverse range of students that will be encountered within classroom context. Culture is regarded as an individuals behaviours and perceptions, which is influenced by the people and groups in which one belongs (Lawrence, Brooker & Goodnow, 2012, p.75). Culture gives an individual a sense of worth and sense of identity, shaping the daily practices of every day life (Lawrence, Brooker & Goodnow, 2012, p.76). The Cultural practices of students can influence academic approaches and mindset towards schoolwork, both within a classroom setting and

Over the years, there has been a great deal of concern on the performance of certain groups of people on tests that are said to be standardized. The result has been under-representation of some of these groups due to the differences in performance, a pattern that has persisted over time. Some scholars argue that these differences are due to cultural differences, while others point to cultural deficiencies and deprivation as possible explanations. However, whichever way they look at it, it is obvious that tests are culturally biased; they are unfair and discriminate against minority groups. I will explore this view further in this paper.

Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines intercultural as “between or among people of different cultures” (Webster's New World College Dictionary, 2017). Definition alone, however, is not important to understand the nuances of how the intercultural communication affects our lives in this ever-globalizing meshing that is at the core of our universe now and will be part of our lives for the foreseeable future. The world we live in now not just requires us to understand the intercultural intricacies, it indeed demands that we master the art of communicating across multiple, diverse, and often, contrasting cultures that exist in the World today.

Australia is a multicultural country, with ever growing multicultural population. It is the educator’s responsibility to create awareness among students to understand the existence of cultural differences, and the benefit of embracing them. The educators are role models fro the students to acknowledge and accept the difference among people, the way and artist uses different colours and shades of painting instead of using just one colour. This guide would throw light for the educators to walk through the issues that may rise among students engrossed in cultural stereotypes. The strategies and activities along with curriculum links would be a supportive guide for educators to confront cultural issues, proving them with appropriate strategies.

The way Culture-fair IQ test is defined as an intelligence test. This form of examination is designed to assess intelligence of individuals without having to rely on knowledge. Intelligence has been defined as the capacity of an individual for logic, ability to comprehend, learning, creativity and problem solving. As for knowledge, it would be defined as the facts, information and skills obtained by a person through experience or education. This examination was created to be fair to different type of individuals from different type of cultures. The structure of this exam consists non-verbal questions but of paper and pencil questions that involve relationships between figures and shapes.

Large numbers of immigrants was a basic involvement of what made IQ testing necessary. Fass successfully states how immigration was a crucial part of IQ testing and the school system development. “They were a convenient necessity to the schools because they made possible a learning process tailored to individual potential, organizable by classes, while still allowing for progression of instruction by age.” (Fass

There are myriad factors that go into the progression of a child’s development, both physical and cognitive. As the theory of epigenesis states, children’s genes and their environment both work together in a complex relationship that determines whether or not certain phenotypes will be present in the child. A child’s IQ is one of these phenotypes, as well as more observable characteristics such as their height or personality. What the research collected in this study aims to discover is how the socioeconomic status of a child and/or their family affects their cognitive development, specifically their intelligence quotient. It will also address the theory that development takes both nature and nurture, rather than one or the other, to cultivate on a progressive path.

People have many different kind of intelligences when we are growing. How can we measure the person is intelligent or talent? Most people will use standardized test to measure the person is smart or not. Maybe some international students face the culture bias because their countries or teachers’ thoughts. I think if people just only put intelligent on the test it won’t be comprehensive. Intelligence can show in many different kinds of area and people won’t have one intelligent, maybe one person can own several intelligences in the life.

Therefore: difficult to measure the Western standard IQ of a nonWestern culture •  And: difficult to measure the IQ of subcultures within the same society.

The thesis of this article is that IQ and other ability tests are based on social conventions in each of these three cultural domains. These conventions are presupposed or assumed by a test and its tester. However, for any test to function successfully, these conventions must also be shared by the participants. If a test travels, so must the conventions on which it is based. Otherwise, cross-cultural misunderstanding results and validity is compromised. For a test to travel freely, its foundational conventions must be universally understood by potential participants. In each of the three cultural areas--values, knowing, and communicating--two or more foundational conventions are discussed. The transportability of cross-cultural tests either for comparative research or for I thank L. MoniqueWard and JenniferJacobs for their comments on a draft of this article. I give special thanks to StevenLopez for valuable suggestions concerningrevisions. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Patricia M. Greenfield,Departmentof Psychology,Universityof California, LosAngeles,CA 90095. Electronicmail may be sent via Internet to greenfield@psych.ucla.edu. 1115

Human intelligence is assessed at a young age which places people into certain groups based on their performance. These practices can be harmful as others may begin to predetermine one’s destiny due to scoring low or high on an exam. However, the factors that make up intelligence assessments can be up for debate as many begin to wonder if those are the factors that truly determine intelligence. The Bell Curve, written by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, attempts to offer an explanation on what makes up intelligence and the external and internal factors that may affect it. Robert J. Sternberg reviews the ideas introduced in The Bell Curve involving general factors of intelligence, cross-cultural differences, and real-world application of intelligence assessments.