Is intelligence a fixed attribute or can it be cultivated? Explore the intriguing intersection of education and cognitive development as we delve into the possibility of teaching intelligence, challenging traditional notions and sparking fresh perspectives.
Intelligence on the curriculum
Students with a higher level of intelligence perform better at school, they have also better chances of succeeding at work, and of climbing the social ladder during their careers.
- This is good news for education because just make students more intelligent and you make a huge contribution to society.
Bringing in problem solving
Intelligence is not limited to a largely predefined set of basic cognitive abilities, but it also involves aspects of problem-solving and decision-making, of planning and strategic exploration, of testing hypotheses and adequately correcting them when they are wrong.
- The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the convener of the world’s most important educational large-scale study, has given high priority to such a broadened understanding of intelligence
- For the first time ever, the 2012 PISA assessments captured broad aspects of intelligent behavior and problem solving
Lessons for the classroom
Teaching and instruction in the 21st century should focus more on cognitive flexibility, on problem-solving, and on those aspects of intelligence that are amenable to change
- There are numerous ways to do this
- Strategies to increase self-monitoring and evaluation
- Using teaching methods that facilitate deep rather than shallow understandings of the structure that underlies new problems
- All these methods boil down to the need to provide students with as many active, flexible learning opportunities
