A review of the WISC-IV practitioner training and trainee administration errors in Turkey

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) is one of the tests used by psychologist working with children for the intellectual assessment of children in Turkey. To obtain the test practitioner certificate, psychologists must complete the necessary training and supervision process. The purpose of this study was to give information about the process of WISC-IV practitioner training and to review the administration errors of the trainees participating in the training. In the research, the protocols of the homework done by the trainees participating in the WISC-IV practitioner training under supervision were examined in the context of the errors made. In this context, 180 administration forms, taken randomly from the assignments, were used. Types of mistakes have been identified in three categories, including “administration errors”, “computation errors”, and “recording errors”, and data analysis was made on the frequency of errors. Results suggested that the most common error category made by the trainees was “administration errors”. The most common error types in this category were scoring and query errors in verbal items. It was observed that the second most common error category was ” computation errors”, and among this group, more errors were made in the subtest raw score calculated incorrectly. The findings revealed that error-free administration protocols were rarely seen in the WISC-IV practitioner training process, and the most common errors were related to verbal subtests. By paying attention to the information about the common types of errors observed during and after the WISC-IV training process of the practitioners, suggestions were made for techniques and strategies to reduce the errors.