Learning & Development: Intelligence - Smart thinking

It seems to us that the education system is the victim of a number of enduring myths with regard to intelligence, and that these are at best unhelpful and at worst downright harmful.

Here are eight corrosive beliefs which illustrate this:

1. Intelligence is essentially a one-dimensional commodity largely to be found in the kinds of thinking required by IQ tests.

2. Intelligence is relatively fixed: educators make use of it, but do not really alter it.

3. Mind and body are separate, and truly intelligent activity is located in the mind.

4. Intelligence is rational and conscious.

5. Intelligence is a personal 'possession', and using tools which have the effect of making you smarter is a kind of cheating.

6. Intelligence is an individual, not a social concept.

7. The concept of intelligence is universally valid, and not closely tied to the details and demands of one's particular 'habitat'.

8. Intelligence is an intellectual function, separate from moral functions.

Each of these mistaken beliefs brings with it approaches to teaching and learning that are unlikely to help children to realise their potential. Rethinking both intelligence and practice, however, could open up unexplored opportunities for children, and for early years practitioners we believe that much of what we have to say will resonate well with their practice.

THE CURRENT CONTEXT

We now have a coalition Government, and while the Department for Education's policies are emerging, we only have a vague sense of how the accelerated academies programme will affect younger children.

It seems unlikely that education secretary Michael Gove and his team will relax the current school performance regime, and highly likely that they will turn the clock back to an imagined age when traditional school subjects were the order of the day. Still, until we know more about the new primary curriculum, there is nothing to stop teachers adopting the ideas we explore in New Kinds of Smart; indeed, the book is full of examples of inspiring practice taken from all over the world.

We strongly agree with Scottish philosopher Andy Clark when he argues that 'the goal of early education (and perhaps of all education) should not be seen as simply that of training brains whose basic potential is already determined. Rather, the goal is to provide rich environments in which to grow better brains.'

But if we are truly to build a nation in which all children realise their potential, then we need to go one stage further. We need to accept the idea that most of what currently passes for intelligence is learnable. We can all, in short, get smarter, and the earlier in the educational process we start this, the better. It will be interesting to see whether the coalition Government's priorities will be driven by sound science and therefore start embracing this thinking, or whether political dogma will prevail.

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT INTELLIGENCE

Each of the myths mentioned can be debunked by reference to research from various different quarters.

Intelligence is composite. Getting on in the real world requires many different kinds of smart activity. But while Howard Gardner's thinking about multiple intelligences opened the door to new approaches, it has not yet explored which dimensions of intelligence are most useful and which can be most readily learned. It is the job of the teacher, we suggest, to cultivate dispositions such as resilience and resourcefulness, which are likely to create learners who are active throughout their lives.

Intelligence is expandable. Carol Dweck has shown how children who believe they can get smarter actually do so. They are more willing to experiment, make mistakes and extract every ounce of learning from their experiences. Those working with children need to develop and sustain growth mindsets in their charges.

Intelligence is practical. We need to create opportunities for young people to become more 'manipulate' as well as more articulate. And, while practical activity is valued in the early years, later on it becomes associated with less able students. The science does not support this curious dumbing down of seriously intricate and complex practical activity.

Intelligence is intuitive. As adults we value our hunches and recognise that not all of what we do is rational. So, we need to help students to do so too, developing states of mind conducive to using their intuition and seeing it as an additional way of making sense of the world, as Guy Claxton has shown.

Intelligence is distributed. Where once we used maps to navigate, now many of us use SatNav in our cars and even when we are on foot. Human beings are endlessly inventive, creating new tools to help them. Yet in the classroom, the use of tools is too often seen as a kind of cheating. We need to be encouraging learners constantly to be on the look-out for tools which will help them, and know when and how to use them.

Intelligence is social. The school system focuses largely on individual learners. 'Every child matters', as the legislation has it. Learning must be personalised. And that is right, of course. But in the real world, most of what we do will require us to work and play with others. We need 'socialised' learning too. Providing children with effective strategies for learning and working collaboratively has to assume more importance. It requires new approaches to developing group assessment, so that we can compare the effectiveness of team effort other than on the sports field.

Intelligence is strategic. At the core of learnable intelligence is the idea that children can become more conscious about their choice of method or approach. Imagine a drop-down menu of options in the child's mind's eye, or a voice in their head acting as a coach: 'How did I do this last time I faced it?' 'Who else could help me?' 'How could I do this differently?'

We need to get better at teaching children how to transfer their learning from one domain to another - from home to school and back, for example. Good reflective, formative assessment practices, as exemplified by Assessment for Learning (www.assessment.com) can help. But they are only the beginning.

Intelligence is ethical. And finally, intelligence is not neutral. We can use our minds for good or ill. The challenge for educators is to set all learning in a broader ethical context in which the ultimate intelligence is the survival of Homo sapiens in a fast-changing world.

GOING DEEPER

Let's look at just one area, the idea of expandable intelligence, and see how it is affecting practice. To recap, Carol Dweck's research has shown that children who can develop a growth mindset become better learners and score better on standard assessment tests.

Children with growth mindsets believe their brains are like muscles, capable of expansion. They believe they can get smarter. Consequently, they choose challenging activities and enjoy pushing themselves, for they intuitively know, even at a young age, that they will learn more this way. They are as interested in the process of learning - trying things out, learning from mistakes - as in the results of the learning.

Perhaps as a result of the self-esteem movement, some educators have come to think that praising children is always a good thing. Praising learners is good, the argument goes, because it boosts their confidence and shows you value them. It is easy to see why these kinds of beliefs grew up. Indeed, at first glance they seem universally benign. But go beneath the surface and you find that praising learners is not always such a good idea. For example, if you are praised for doing things you found easy, the praise may reinforce a belief in the fixity of intelligence and imply, albeit subtly, that the expenditure of effort is unlikely to be beneficial.

Conversely, if specifically commended for aspects of your effort that have led to improvement, then the message is clear: certain kinds of effort contribute to making you more intelligent. Too much praise, especially where it is in effect simply congratulating you for being clever, can be harmful.

How adults praise children really matters. Yet too often in early years settings we can slip into styles of praise which, unintentionally, are really saying little more than 'aren't you a clever boy/girl'. But if we want our children to develop a growth mindset, we need to notice the specifics of what they are doing to improve their learning: 'Well done for sticking with that colouring, Peter; I really noticed how you kept on going till you got the best colour'.

Professor Bill Lucas is co-director of the Centre for Real-World Learning at the University of Winchester

NEW KINDS OF SMART

New Kinds of Smart - How the science of learnable intelligence is changing education by Bill Lucas and Guy Claxton (Expanding Educational Horizons series, Open University Press) challenges the 20th century belief that intelligence is largely fixed. It explains the main strands of intelligence and provides examples and tools that teachers and educators can weave into their practice and so open up hitherto unexplored possibilities for children's learning.

FOOTNOTES

1. Howard Gardner (1993) Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. Basic Books

2. Carol Dweck (2007) Mindset: the new psychology of success. Ballantine Books

3. Guy Claxton (1998) Hare brain, tortoise mind: why intelligence increases when you think less. Fourth Estate