(28 February: please read the new material at the end of the post. Thanks)Notes on "Intelligence"
This post has rather less in it than I expected, because most of what we talked about is at least touched on at: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/intelligence.htm where you will also find a range of onward links, specifically including the Flynn effect, and a brief mention of Gardner on multiple intelligences.
- The "Flynn effect" is discussed at http://www.indiana.edu/%7Eintell/flynneffect.shtml and also here. Note that the latter article tackles Spearman's g head on.
- The two different forms of thinking identified by Hudson--"convergent" and "divergent"--are discussed here (just in case you missed it first time).
- The distinction between Gf (fluid intelligence) and Gc (crystallized intelligence) originates from Cattell in 1967. As the initials suggest they are both seen as aspects of Spearman's g factor. There is a brief summary here. At the time of writing (last updated 8 Feb.) the Wikipedia article was pretty sound, but of course you can't rely on it.
- The inherent problems of any kind of assessment are discussed here.
- The Dweck mindset idea has its own website here, and there's a good summary--with practical implications--from Geoff Petty here. It's perhaps too simplistic and pitched in the discourse of the "personal growth" and "positive psychology" movement, but it does tie up with some of the recent research on what works best in teaching, which we shall return to later.
- See Gould S J The Mismeasure of Man for the best critical account of the concept and history of intelligence.
- Wordle is actually at www.wordle.net (I'd said wordle.com)
- On eugenics, you may be interested in this review, from as late as 1952, and these videos (sample those related examples in the right-hand column, and the comments--which is why I have linked to the source rather than embedding it--which need to be read for what they say about the authors and their times rather than their explicit content).
- The contentious book on IQ (in part) I mentioned was The Bell-Curve (1994) by Herrnstein and Murray: it so happens that Charles Murray is making ripples again with another new book published this week in the States, although not much concerned with IQ this time. It's reviewed here.
- The link with Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (raised by Jackie) is noted here. The scene of classical conditioning of babies against flowers is in this chapter.
- The other dystopian view I referred to was Michael Young's The Rise of the Meritocracy, 1870-2033 reviewed here, and (via his obituary) here.
- De-sensitization therapy is outlined here.
We shall be looking at two more aspects of cognitive theory.
- Gestalt, and
Have a good break!
Additional points (28 February)
I've just been reviewing the pacing of this unit, and bearing in mind that you want time on application and indeed preparation for the assessment, I think we need to quicken the pace a little. So I'd like to look at learning from experience tomorrow, too. We've already touched on it several times, but not looked at it systematically. I know the web-page looks dense, but remember, we are interested in the underlying ideas, not in memorising the detail.
That should mean that we can go on to humanistic and situated ideas about learning the following week (again, they just need to be put in context, because we've already mentioned them), and we shall by then have an overview of the field, ready to start exploring its relevance with reference to your own practice.
Ready for that: please give some thought to one or two critical incidents from your own teaching, which you are prepared to share and "mine" to see what the ideas have to say about them.
By "critical incidents" I don't necessarily mean "problems". They may be occasions on which "the penny dropped" for someone. Why? Or when you tried teaching something differently, and the results were unexpected. Why, and how?
We'll talk about this in more detail tomorrow. See you then!
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