A. Main Results of Recent Researches.
B. Popular Doubt about the New View.
C. Effect of Environment on Intelce.
D. Intelce and Achievement.
E. Impact on School Education.
F. A Changed View of Intelce.
G. Interaction between gene and environment.
Intelce was believed to be a fixed entity, some faculty of the mind that we all possess and which determines in some way the extent of our achievements. Its value, therefore, was as a predictor of children"s future learning. If they differed markedly in their ability to learn complex tasks, then it was clearly necessary to educate them differently and the need for different types of school and even different ability groups within school was obvious. Intelce tests could be used for streaming children according to ability at an early age. And at 11 these tests were superior to measures of attainment for selecting children for different types of secondary education.
1
Today, we are beginning to think differently. In the last few years, research has thrown doubts on the view that innate intelce can ever be measured and on the very nature of intelce itself. There is considerable evidence now shows the great influence of environment both on achievement and intelce. Children with poor home backgrounds not only do less well in their school work and intelce tests but their performance tends to deteriorate gradually compared with that of their more fortunate classmates.
2
There are evidences that support the view that we have to distinguish between genetic intelce and observed intelce (习得智力). Any deficiency in the appropriate genes will restrict development no matter how stimulating the environment. We cannot observe and measure innate intelce, whereas we can observe and measure the effects of the interaction of whatever is inherited with whatever stimulation has been received from the environment. Researchers have been investigating what happens in this interaction.
3
Two major findings have emerged from these researches. Firstly, the greatest part of the development of observed intelce occurs in the earliest years of life. It is estimated that 50 percent of measurable intelce at age 17 is already predictable by the age of four. Secondly, the most important factors in the environment are language and psychological aspects of the parent-child relationship. Much of the difference in measured intelce between "privileged" and "disadvantaged" children may be due to the latter"s lack of appropriate verbal stimulation and the poverty of their perceptual experiences.
4
These research findings have led to a revision in our understanding of the nature of intelce. Instead of it being some largely inherited fixed power of the mind, we now see it as a set of developed skills with which a person copes with any environment. These skills have to be learned and, indeed, one of them is learning how to learn.
5
The modern ideas concerning the nature of intelce are bound to have some effect on our school system. In one respect a change is already occurring. With the move toward comprehensive education and the development of unstreamed classes, fewer children will be given the label "low IQ" which must inevitably condemn a child in his own, if not society"s eyes. The idea that we can teach children to be intelt in the same way that we can teach them reading or arithmetic is accepted by more and more people.