Comparison of African Indigenous and Western Intelligence Tests using Validation Processes of Bakare Progressive Matrix And Wechsler Adult Intelligence Tests

The study was designed to examine test bias: a comparison of indigenous and Western standardized intelligence test validation processes using the Bakare Progressive Matrix and Wechsler intelligence tests among adults in the Ibadan metropolis. The study was anchored on Van de Vijver (1998)’s Bias and Equivalence theory, while the survey design was adopted. A sample size of 550secondary school teachers participated in the study. The multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted. In the first stage, all five Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the metropolis, were enumerated. In the second stage, five schools were randomly selected from each of the LGAs. In the third stage, 22 teachers were randomly selected in each school, totaling 550 teachers. The instruments used were: Bakare Progressive Matrix (KR = 0.96) and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale IV (WASI-IV – KR = 0.93). Item parameters estimate and item analysis was used to analyse the findings. The internal consistency of each of the intelligence tests varies as the foreign test (KR21= 0.713) displayed a better reliability coefficient than the local test using the Kuder Richardson reliability index. The indigenous intelligence scale difficulty ranges between 0.30-0.965 (3.0%-96.5%), while the Western intelligence scale ranges between 0.000-0.99 (0.0%-99%). This implies that there is a need for improvement on the indigenous scale. It was recommended that efforts should be made by the government, research institutes, and educational bodies to ensure that the indigenous standardized scales are promoted and subjected to rigorous and sophisticated psychological testing that will promote replicative practices outside the shores of Africa that would be readily relevant, accepted and practiced in Western communities.