Are Students Getting Smarter?

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Students just about everywhere are becoming less intelligent. However, this reality is fairly counter-intuitive to many. It is a fairly common belief that the next generations are getting smarter, technology is becoming more complex, we’re discovering more every day so how could our students possibly be becoming less intelligent? We are sending them to schools to increase their intelligence, making sure that the students are doing their homework, all sorts of different techniques to help make our kids smarter. And the problem lies here; our formal education system is not helping our students become more intelligent.
Well first it is important that we look at what I mean by intelligence. We know three things about intelligence: it is diverse, we think about the world in all the ways we experience it, through vision, sound, kinesthetic; it is dynamic, it is very interactive, the brain is not compartmentalized, it relies on all parts to function; it is distinct, everyone has a talent and it is important that people find that talent special to them. Intelligence is dependent on several factors but one of the most important factors research suggests is creativity. Creativity is another broad term, which, along with many experts in this field, will define as the ability to have original ideas that have value (Changing Paradigms). Now an important part to creativity is divergent thinking. Robinson explains divergent thinking is the ability to look at a problem and come up with many ways to solve the problem and this is a necessary part of intelligence because it allows you to come up with original processes ways to solve a problem. An example of divergent thinking would be “how many uses can you think of for a paper clip?”. Most people c...

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...in the same way and we should not have an education system rooted in these beliefs.

Works Cited

Ainsworth-Land, George T., and Beth Jarman. Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the
Future--today. Champaign, IL: HarperBusiness, 1992. Print.
“Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains." Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains.
N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
Brame, Cynthia J. "Flipping the Classroom." CFT RSS. Center for Teaching, Sept. 2012.
Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
Changing Paradigms. Prod. RSA. Perf. Sir Ken Robinson. RSA - Changing Paradigms.
RSA, 13 Apr. 2011. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.
Pappas, Stephanie. "Are Humans Getting Smarter or Dumber?" LiveScience.
TechMedia Network, 04 June 2013. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.
Robinson, Ken, and Lou Aronica. "Gillian Lynne." Finding Your Element: How to
Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.

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