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We’ve all heard or said the following at one point in our lives–possibly in the reverse! Discussion ensues. Proving is required. And the proving most certainly involves the demonstration of greater knowledge. Of course, the boy trying to prove his point and the girl trying to prove her point, uses the knowledge that each has acquired that he or she believes the other will not have–thus proving his or her greater intelligence.
I had the experience of hearing my children and their opposite gendered cousins having this discussion as well in the last couple of day during holiday visiting. Listening to them comparing their factual knowledge, I realized that intelligence is no longer based on the memorization of facts. We only attribute 20-25% of a student’s grade to factual knowledge. Regardless of state or province, the guiding documents are much more focused on what students are able to do with their knowledge.
Why?
There is so much information available today that there is no possible way for one person to memorize all of it. An individual is considered intelligent if he or she can problem solve to determine what information is needed and how he or she is going to acquire that information. The acquisition of information is performed by using critical thinking skills!…not by memorizing facts.
There are two other main skills that are required in addition to critical thinking skills: communication (verbal, written, visual, etc.) and making connections between ideas, literature, other writings and world events.
Thus, knowledge is not the primary focus of education or intelligence.
I don’t believe that girls are smarter than boys or that boys are smarter than girls. Individuals, male or female, have differing strengths and weaknesses, and intelligence is definitely not so easy to define today with the changing expectations of what we expect students to be able to DO in their adult work.
As a child, yes, I told many a boy that girls are most definitely smarter; now, as I raise three boys, I see other intelligences that I had discounted as a young woman because they didn’t suit my learning style or aptitudes.
As a closing note–which will open a whole other can of worms–is it possible that we are educating students in a way that makes it seem that girls are more intelligent than boys?
Interesting blog post and good points on why memorizing facts is only the surface of real learning. Even though I am not convinced that data from high stakes tests provide us with the only data we need to analyze it would be interesting to see what the data reveals about learning in the 4 core content areas. I think the answer is in your final question…good food for thought. You are also on the right track when you start to look at other types of intelligences as a measuring stick instead of the typical method of acquiring data through high stakes testing. Great points and thought provoking.
Even though in the beginning of the differentiated instruction movement, I was in the groaning section, I have become more of a proponent of considering your teaching and evaluation. Are you differentiating how you teach and evaluate your students? It’s easy as a teacher to teach and evaluate according to how you, as an individual, are more comfortable learning! The mark of a good to excellent teacher is one who strives to meet the learning needs of all his/her students.
I’m a big fan of giving students varied choices as to how they are evaluated; however, one must be careful to not let students always avoid areas where they are not as strong because they will not improve if they don’t challenge themselves in a problem area.
Thanks for your response.
I have always thought common sense and quick thinking an important part of intelligence. Remembering facts and figures is basically a photographic memory. As you mentioned combining literature, ideas and world events shows an intelligent mind. The difference between boys and girls depends on the subject and the individual person.
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I agree with your addition of common sense and quick thinking — street smarts!
When I was in high school, we had homeroom competitions for fun activities. Every year there was a trivia competition every day for a month, and we would win because of one boy in our homeroom who had a photographic memory. He could remember almost everything he ever read, but he had great difficulty in class applying that knowledge or working with that knowledge. We were all very impressed, however, with what questions he could answer!
I couldn’t agree with you more, knowledge is not about memory retention … but in my opinion having the ability to access and utilize the resources available.
CheekyLit,
I am not a teacher anymore, but as a supt. we are working on using a varitey of teaching and evaluation tools in our district. We are not where I would like to be, but it is a focus of our PD and leadership. Our district vision is to reach every student as a learner and we understand that meeting the needs of all requires differentiated instruction and evaluation. I like your ideas of giving students a choice in evaluation…I like the idea of choice for assignements also. Keep up the good thoughts.
Hi Kim,
This certainly is one of the great worldwide debates and I think that you’ve touched on a key element, being that of measurement. If you Google the question, I’m betting that you can find a multitude of studies and/or cases to be made for both sides of this coin. Measurement is so vital to the argument…are we talking ‘book smarts’ or innate ‘street smarts’…or as you say, the synthesis of ideas, problem solving. Personally, I would hazard a guess to say that neither is ‘smarter’ but that each have their innate and learned strengths.
T’will be interesting to see what other readers have to say on this one.
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I was reading your “Girls are Smarter Than Boys” and decided to Google it and came across this:
http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/1973-who-really-smarter-boys-girls.html
I found some points interesting – What’s you opinion?
I agree that some points are interesting. It definitely highlights the typical difference between boys and girls, but I can think of many exceptions to the rule that I’ve seen in my teaching.
I THINK this article begs the questions, “Are these gender stereotypes that are perpetrated by societal expectation? Is it possible that the difference are expectations in our society?”
One main concern that remains the same: language skills overall are degenerating every year regardless of gender.