EDUCATIONAL DIAGNOSIS: TYPES, HOW IT IS DONE AND EXAMPLE - ECONOMÍA - 2025

An educational diagnosis is the set of judgments and qualifications that are made with the aim of evaluating different characteristics of students within a teaching process. These characteristics can be related to several areas, such as physical or intellectual abilities, learning or school difficulties.

The main objective of this type of practice is to collect evidence that allows educators to adjust their teaching methods to the individual needs of each student.

In this way, they become a very valuable resource to improve the educational process and to make better decisions regarding the way of teaching in the future.

Educational diagnoses, also known as pedagogical diagnoses, fulfill three functions: preventive, to avoid problems before they occur; predictive, to discover what is causing a student's difficulties; and corrective, to develop an action plan to solve them.

Types

Depending on the aspects studied, there are mainly five types of educational diagnoses: individual, global-general, analytical, group and specific. Next we will see what each of these consists of.

Individual

This type of educational diagnosis is responsible for studying different differential aspects of a specific student.

Some examples might be your learning abilities, your intellectual abilities, the way you behave in the classroom or even your personality and way of being.

In this way, an individual diagnosis would be made when a student shows problematic behaviors that are believed to be related only to their individual characteristics.

Global-general

Educational diagnoses of the global-general type are carried out especially in situations in which it is required to know in depth different aspects of a person.

With this type of exam you can study the biological level (such as height or the presence of diseases), the psychological level (intelligence, personality), the socio-environmental level (country of origin, economic status) and the educational level (level of education achieved, extracurricular activities).

This type of diagnosis is carried out, for example, when a person wants to join public institutions such as the army or the government.

Analytical

The third type of educational diagnosis is made in cases in which a person presents a problem related to their learning. Its main objective is to determine what are the causes that cause it, in such a way that it can be intervened on it.

These problems can be related to qualifications, but they can also be more personal. For example, if a child shows signs of suffering psychological abuse, it is the duty of the teaching team to investigate more about the subject.

Group

This type of educational diagnosis focuses on studying problems that affect not a single individual, but a whole group (for example, all students in a class).

It can be done to understand why problems occur with that particular set of students, and to propose solutions to them.

For example, a teacher whose class is especially problematic would have to study the different group dynamics present in the class.

In this way, it could intervene effectively on all the components of the classroom, and not only on each one of them individually.

Specific

Lastly, educational diagnoses of a specific type focus on studying all those problems related to a specific aspect of a student.

Some examples would be language disorders, visual or hearing problems, delayed physical or motor development, among others.

How is it done?

To properly conduct an educational diagnosis, educators have to go through a series of phases:

- Planning.

- Exploration.

- Analysis.

- Solutions.

Planning

Planning is the part of the educational diagnosis in which educators have to decide what to study with it.

In this first stage, the relevant elements for the case are chosen, proposing the objective to be achieved with the investigation.

On the other hand, teachers must also indicate how they are going to collect the information, choosing for this different instruments and measurement techniques.

Thus, in the planning stage the foundations must be laid so that the rest of the process is defined in advance.

Exploration

Once the variables to study and the way to investigate them have been chosen, those in charge of the pedagogical diagnosis process will have to begin to collect the relevant data for the case.

This can involve everything from the application of all kinds of tests or examinations to research on certain aspects of the student's life, such as his family situation, his background or previous studies that have been carried out on him.

The way to carry out this phase will depend on the type of educational diagnosis to be carried out.

Analysis

Once all the relevant data for the investigation have been collected, the next task that teachers have to carry out is to analyze them to discover where the problems presented by the student or group of students come from.

To do this, the better you define what you want to achieve in the first stage and the more relevant the data that has been collected, the easier the analysis process will be.

Solutions

If the process has been carried out in the correct way and the results have been satisfactory, at this point those responsible for the educational diagnosis will have found the causes of the problem suffered by the student or group.

Thanks to this, they will be able to propose appropriate solutions to intervene on the situation. These solutions will have to be analyzed once applied, to study if they have produced the expected results or not.

Example

Below we will examine a specific case so that it is better understood how the process of applying an educational diagnosis works. It involves the study of the problems of a student who has failed all subjects in the first year of ESO.

Planning

The teacher, observing the student and his school performance, has the hypothesis that he has some type of intellectual deficiency. To study this theory, he decides to apply a series of intelligence tests.

Exploration

Once the tests to be applied have been chosen, the teacher will pass the tests to the student, performing several of these to contrast the results with each other.

Analysis

The data collected by the intelligence tests show that indeed the student has a slight cognitive deficiency. With this information, the teacher could formulate an intervention plan in the last step.

Solutions

To alleviate the effects of the newly discovered deficiency of the student, the teacher proposes to include him in the educational support plan.

It is expected that, by having a more personalized attention from the integration team, the student will improve their school results.

The effectiveness of this solution should be checked after a few months, with the aim of modifying it if it is seen that it has not worked.

References

1. "Pedagogical diagnosis" in: Ecured. Retrieved on: May 17, 2018 from Ecured: ecured.cu.
2. "Comparative table: types of pedagogical diagnosis" in: Command Learn. Retrieved on: May 17, 2018 from Command Learn: commandlearn.wordpress.com.
3. "Educational diagnosis" in: Definition Of. Retrieved on: May 17, 2018 from Definition Of: definicion.de.
4. "Preparation of a pedagogical diagnosis" in: Command Learn. Retrieved on: May 17, 2018 from Command Learn: commandlearn.wordpress.com.
5. "Concept of pedagogical diagnosis" in: Initial Education. Retrieved: May 17, 2018 from Initial Education: educacioninicial.com.