93515 - Cognitive Assessment in Multicultural Contexts

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students will know how to develop appropriate cognitive assessment protocols in people of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, reducing assessment biases through appropriate methodologies, procedures and tools

Course contents

The main contents of the course will be oriented to provide knowledge and tools for psychological assessment, and in particular for cognitive assessment, in populations with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. It will be illustrated how this theoretical and methodological knowledge are functional to the reduction of biases in cognitive assessment, with consequent implications for the choices in the diagnostic and educational fields, in order to favor inclusion and well-being in health and educational contexts.

The course will deal, in the first part, with issues relating to the theoretical and methodological principles of cross-cultural psychology and the methodological implications for cognitive and linguistic assessment (Response to intervention, linguistic and cultural bias in the construction of tests, criterion measures and process, socio-cultural approach).

Subsequently, tools for the assessment of cognitive functions (intellectual functioning, language skills, learning skills) and tools for the investigation of linguistic history will be presented, examining their application to multicultural populations, also in relation to the knowledge of the evolutionary trajectories of linguistic skills. Practical exercises will be conducted on some proposed tools together with discussions on case examples and classroom simulations.

Finally, also through group works, assessment tools with cross-cultural validations will be analyzed.

 

The lessons will be held from 27 September to 16 December (Thursday 9:00 - 13:00).  Department of Psychology, Bologna branch.

Readings/Bibliography

The bibliographic material will consist of scientific articles from international literature that will be made available at the beginning of the course. These readings are mandatory to pass the final exam.

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures to interactively discuss the topics covered by the course - Individual and small group exercises for case discussion activities - Group class presentations - Psychometric tests, questionnaires and interviews will also be shown, accompanied by practical exercises.

Assessment methods

The exam will consist of two parts:

1) During the lessons, students will be required to prepare a power point presentation (individually, or in small groups, maximum 3-4 students per group) in which they will have to deepen a topic related to cognitive assessment in multicultural contexts. Suggestions on the topics and the presentation's structure will be given at the beginning of the course or by contating me. Students who can't attend the lessons can alternatively write an individual short report (around 3 pages).

The work will be awarded a maximum of 15 points.

2) A final oral exam with open-ended questions (5 points each) on the topics covered in class and in the articles of the exam bibliography to test theoretical and methodological knowledge.

The maximum score for the exam is 30 with honors and the minimum score to pass the exam is 18/30.

For both parties, the attribution of scores will adopt the following criteria: - maximum scores for the answers which, in addition to being complete in terms of content, will show abilities of synthesis, critical analysis and knowledge of specific language. - Fair scores for products that are complete from the point of view of content but that do not use specific language and with reduced quality of synthesis / critical discussion; - Low scores for products with marginal gaps that do not use specific language and with reduced quality of synthesis / critical discussion; - Insufficient scores due to significant gaps in knowledge and non-compliance with the information / requests provided.

Teaching tools

PC with video projector, audio and video files, paper and pencil tools

Office hours

See the website of Paola Bonifacci