Special Education in Eastern Europe
tests or qualitative assessment of abilities as determined by actual performance. The relative use of one or the other approach in a nation varies, depending upon socio-cultural, political, and ideological realities. For example, standardized tests of intelligence are virtually unknown in the Soviet Union. On the other hand, the United States is known for its strong emphasis upon quantitative approaches in evaluating cognitive and educational abilities. In Poland, owing to a variety of historical reasons, assessment and evaluation approaches were influenced both by Western and Soviet, or Eastern, influence. The history of psychological and educational assessment in Poland dates back to 1920, long before Soviet influences came to bear in 1945. A number of Polish psychologists studied during this time in Western Europe. Among these the best known is Maria Grzywak-Kaczynska, who in 1925 studied with Piaget at Geneva, Adler in Vienna, and William Stern in Hamburg. Upon her return to Poland she came to specialize in school psychology at the Josef Jateyko School in Warsaw, where she functioned as a school psychologist until 1939 (Kostrzewski, 1971). It might be of interest to mention that school psychology as a discipline