‘Intelligence cannot be defined by exams.”
Hello you’re listening to In the News, I’m todays chat show host Charlotte Hicks and today I will be discussing the telegraphs latest news article “intelligence cannot be defined by exams” written by Peter Tait the current headmaster at Sherbourne Preparatory school. Joining me today is Maisie Raven a Phycologist and Sociologist who specializes in the education system and the development of young minds. Maisie welcome.
Hello Charlotte, thank you for having me to talk about this article.
The article opens with a quote from Edward De Bono addressing the difference between intelligence and thinking. He says - “Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven.” Being a specialist in this subject do you believe that this statement is relevant to the education system today?
Edward de Bono is a Maltese physician, psychologist, philosopher, author, inventor and consultant. He originated the term lateral thinking, wrote the book Six Thinking Hats. He himself is a very clever man but he experienced difficulty at school with exams because he says, intelligent people tend to be poor thinkers, studies have shown that many smart people tend to be overconfident in their brains, for example, Shane Frederick from MIT gave a brain teaser to many people.
A bat and a ball cost a pound and ten pence. The bat cost a pound and ten pence. The bat costs a pound more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
Well if I don’t think about it I think the ball would cost 10 pence.
The mind immediately thinks the ball costs ten pence which is what most smart people say at first, because they are overconfident and tend to blurt out whatever comes to mind first. So what I think Edward De Bono was saying in his statement is that intelligence is something we are born with, thinking is a skill that must be acquired, which is mostly true.
I agree, intelligence is a word that is passed around too frequently, the definition of the word is loosely “a quickness of understanding”, as said in paragraph three of this article. I think that many generations use this word to praise people who get high marks on exam papers, this is not altogether true. After the recent results of A levels and GCSEs how do you think pupils will feel in light of their intelligence at this current moment?
Measuring intelligence based solely upon examination results is not as solid a method as we first thought. These are many people out there who have all the knowle...
