The DISCOVER Assessment—What Is It?

     The DISCOVER Assessment is an observation-based instrument designed to measure a wide range of abilities in individuals ages three and up.  Unlike most traditional assessment methods, the DISCOVER approach combines several modern theories of intelligence with current research on brain functioning.  The result is a comprehensive and accurate profile of an individual's strengths.  To learn more about the theories and philosophies behind DISCOVER, see the topics Multiple Intelligence, Problem Solving and Diversity.

     Research on the initial Assessment design began in 1987 at the University of Arizona under the direction of Dr. C. June Maker.  Development of new components and expansion of existing instruments is ongoing.  Currently the Assessment exists in seven different forms to accommodate different age groups and implementation methods.

     The DISCOVER Assessment is very different from standard psychological instruments.  The designers' intent was to create a process that in no way resembled a "test", yet one which provided an accurate and practical measurement of intelligences.  They succeeded by creating a process with a non-threatening, challenging, and fun atmosphere.  Participants often do not realize or forget they are being "tested".  Most DISCOVER Assessments take place in a regular classroom with the entire class of students.  Participants are guided through active, hands-on problem-solving exercises, using toys and other age-appropriate materials, that have the appearance of play activities.  In reality the exercises are carefully designed to measure problem-solving abilities.  The problems and challenges presented range from simple and closed, requiring convergent thinking, to open-ended and complex, requiring divergent thinking.  As participants solve the problems posed, trained and certified individuals called Observers watch the participants and take careful notes.  They record which of approximately 120 "superior problem solving skills" they observe the children using.  This information later is compiled into "Strength Profiles", reports that help explain and summarize the Assessment results.  The Strength Profiles help administrators determine which students qualify for special services and help students understand and improve their learning skills.

Some of the Assessment's defining characteristics are as follows:

• Non-Biased Format—The Assessment was developed from research involving numerous age groups, cultures, languages, geographic locations, and ethnic identities.  Its design is appropriate and accurate to all languages and cultures and virtually eliminates the ethnic, cultural, and linguistic bias that is prevalent in many traditional assessment instruments.
• Performance-Based—Rather than relying solely on paper-and-pencil components with little resemblance to real world situations, the DISCOVER Assessment measures intelligences by looking at problem-solving performance.  DISCOVER researchers believe that measuring "intelligence" in this way provides a far more accurate picture of how an individual will face important decisions in life.  They also believe that measuring in this way will prove to be a better predictor of success.
• Intelligence-Fair (Gardner, 1992)—In the DISCOVER Assessment, each intelligence is measured in a way appropriate to its own characteristics, rather than being filtered through another intelligence.  If, for example, the goal is to measure mathematical ability, a word problem may not produce accurate results because of the linguistic "filter"—the child may be a mathematical genius but perform poorly because of poor linguistic skills or because of speaking a dominant language other than English.  In this case the ability actually being assessed is linguistic, not mathematical.  Each DISCOVER Assessment component is carefully designed to minimize this cross-intelligence contamination and to accurately measure each ability.
• Criterion-Referenced vs. Norm Referenced—Traditional assessment and testing instruments, generally, are Norm-Referenced.  Participants are compared to a large sampling of other participants and are rated on a percentile of right answers.  For example, if a participant tests at the 60th percentile, he or she answered more right answers than 59% of other participants who have taken the same test.  The main disadvantage of this approach is the generality of the results.  Such simple comparisons tend to obscure or ignore valuable information.  Measuring only right answers overlooks the strategies employed and the reasoning behind choosing one answer over another.  "Right-answer" assessments test knowledge, which actually means they test exposure.  DISCOVER's goal (while not ignoring the importance of knowledge) is to assess the ability to learn information, not just how many facts have been retained.  For this purpose, the DISCOVER Assessment is Criterion-Referenced.  Participants are "scored" according to the number of superior problem-solving skills they exhibit while pursuing the "right" answer or while solving a problem that has no clearly defined "right" answer.  The importance of a criterion-referenced approach can be illustrated by a simple example.  If a young child's task is to demonstrate correct shapes, the norm-referenced approach would have him or her draw the shapes; the drawings then would be either correct or incorrect.  A DISCOVER approach might be to give the child a set of Tangrams and ask him or her to pick out the square and parallelogram pieces, respectively, from the set (the right answer part).  Then, the child would be asked to make a square and a parallelogram with the remaining triangular pieces.  The child's success in doing so would demonstrate not only a thorough understanding of the basic shapes, but also a mastery of or an ability to deduce important spatial skills such as rotation and flipping (the child sees that rotating one triangle 180 degrees in relation to the other will produce a parallelogram and flipping and rotating it 90 degrees will produce a square).  Since real-life problems almost always involve numerous variables and several possible solutions, the DISCOVER approach measures qualities that are used in working out the "best" or "most appropriate" solutions.
• Standardized—The Assessment is standardized in its implementation.  Specifically, the directions and procedures always follow the same format, regardless of where implementation occurs.  However, standardization does not equate to a lack of flexibility or adaptability.  Within the standardized framework, many components can be customized to better integrate cultural applications. For example, toys used in the Oral Linguistic component can be changed so that they reflect the local culture and traditions and are familiar and comfortable to the child.
• Future Oriented—Unlike most tests, the DISCOVER Assessment results are useful both now and in the future because of the focus on problem solving.  Administrators, teachers, and parents can use the information immediately for placement issues, curricula enhancement, and modification of the learning environment.  The student, on the other hand, may be able to use the information for the rest of her or his life because s/he has learned to take advantage of problem solving techniques.