The SCERT App

The Situated Cognition and Everyday Reasoning Test (SCERT) has been developed by David Johnson, Chartered Educational Psychologist and University Reader in Comparative and International Education, University of Oxford.

The test recreates through animation, a number of everyday events and uses these to assesses the mathematical, scientific and moral reasoning abilities of children in developing countries. There is compelling evidence to suggest that children in developing countries exhibit high order reasoning capabilities when confronted with problems situated in everyday events; but conflicting evidence when presented with word-based, number-based, or diagrammatic information that attempts to ‘establish’ an everyday scenario from which a problem is created. By changing the mode through which an everyday reasoning problem is presented, the test aims to harvest a deeper understanding of cognition.

SCERT is an individually administered test aimed at children between the ages of 10 years and 12 years who would normally be expected to be in the fourth, fifth, and sixth classes in primary schools in developing countries. In some countries younger or older children are found in these classes or are not in school. With this in mind, the test can be used to assess children in primary schools or in households, with the interpretation of the data reflective of the specific context in which the test is taken.