# Developing a strategic guideline to design an intelligence instrument applicable to South African school learners

## TL;DR

This paper creates a guideline for designing fair intelligence tests for diverse South African school learners.

## Contribution

A strategic framework is proposed to design culturally appropriate intelligence instruments for South African school contexts.

## Key findings

- Current intelligence measurements are less relevant for South African school learners.
- Designing valid and reliable intelligence measures is challenging in the current South African context.
- The education system and socio-economic factors significantly influence intelligence assessment needs.

## Abstract

In addition to difficulties that arise when attempting to conduct culturally fair and valid assessment practices to multi-ethnic school learners [who vary in degree of acculturation, education, and socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds], South African practitioners also face the reality of having a shortage of up-to-date, culturally appropriate intelligence instruments. This qualitative document analysis aimed to develop a strategic guideline to design an intelligence instrument that is suitable for South African school learners of a multi-ethnic population and from multidiverse contexts. Applying a reflexive thematic approach, we analyzed two documents—articles produced during phases 1 and 2 of an overarching three‑phased PhD study—to reveal the following themes: (i) utilized intelligence measurements in current South African school learner context are less relevant; (ii) it does not seem feasible to design or adapt suitable intelligence measures that are valid and reliable in the current South African school learner context; (iii) the South African education system is a major issue specifically within lower socio-economic status contexts; and (iv) current South African school learner contextual and demographic influences need to be taken into consideration. From these themes, steps were developed that comprise the proposed strategic framework to design applicable intelligence instruments for South African school learners. The steps include both guidance towards instrument design as well as the manner and context of its application, as these features function as interrelated entities.