This issue of the IRCD Bulletin is devoted to commentaries on an article by Arthur R. Jensen on the nature-nurture controversy in a recent number of "Harvard Educational Review." Contents of the Bulletin are comprised of the following: "Education, Ethnicity, Genetics and Intelligence; Jensenism: Another Excuse for Failure to…

It has been said that the heritability of learning ability or of intelligence is irrelevant to teachability. In support of this statement we see it pointed out that a child or a group of children show some response to training, and this is held up as evidence against the heritability of intelligence or learning ability. Most estimates of the…

Thirty children, 7.5 to 8.5 years, in two classrooms in a Catholic school trying to implement an informal curriculum were studied. The classrooms were not "exemplary"; The children had lower-middle-class origins. Each child was observed under free-choice conditions for approximately 80-90 minutes over a 3-month period. Two-minute narrative records…

Six papers are included in this collection. "How Misconceptions about Language Affect Judgments about Intelligence," by Roger W. Shuy, and "The Cultural Context of Learning to Read," by R. P. McDermott, deal with contexts in which evaluation of a student's reading are made: a teacher's direct evaluation of a student's reading performance, and a…

Theories explaining differences in IQ performances between races in terms of (a) genetics and (b) the role of the environment are both criticized. It is argued that the Cultural Distance Approach, which stresses the role of a subculture's distance from the major culture on which IQ questions are based, has the greatest explanatory power. (RDN)

Human cognition research is shifting away from the importance of IQ and is emphasizing the stimulation and acceleration of a child's mental development. The emerging field of instructional psychology is trying to facilitate cognitive development. Current experimental programs--a university-school project in Belgium and a family project in…

The assessment of hearing impaired children is fraught with a number of problems. These include lack of valid assessment measures, faulty theoretical assumptions, lack of knowledge regarding the functioning of cognitive processes of these children, and biases against these children. This article briefly considers these issues and describes a study…

Based on the view that young children have a different intellectual culture from adults' in the way they know and understand nature, this paper explores ecological human brain development, children's intellectual culture of naturalist intelligence, and developmentally and culturally congruent curricula for young children. The paper discusses the…

This study examines cultural bias in the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Results indicated no evidence of specific factors peculiar to Blacks v Whites, and rank order of item difficulties was similar in both groups. Race differences were due to differences in mental maturity rather than to test bias. (Author/RD)

Results of attitude, intelligence, and creativity tests administered to 180 children, ages 10-11, indicate that school attitude is not significantly related to intelligence, creativity, sex, achievement, school attended, or class attended. (CP)

Reviews the current theories concerning individual differences in cognitive functioning. While some argue that heredity places a genetic cap on intellectual development, others emphasize the dynamic interrelationship between cultural and environmental factors. Concludes that intelligence is more complex than the heredity advocates allow. (MJP)

Investigates the differential effects of computer conferencing on expository writing for students of seven intelligence types. Students were assigned to treatment groups that provided controlled exposure to a topic: unstructured exposure; computer conferencing; face-to-face discussion; and computer conferencing and face-to-face discussion.…

Scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) Verbal, Performance, and Full Scales were compared for 26 adolescents with educable mental handicaps. The WAIS-R, while strongly correlated with the WISC-R, provided higher scores on all three scales. Several WISC-R…

Provides background material on logic programing and presents PROLOG as a high-level artificial intelligence programing language that borrows its basic constructs from logic. Suggests the language is one which will help the educator to achieve various goals, particularly the promotion of problem solving ability. (MVL)

Research suggests children have seven distinct intelligences (linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal). The article presents ideas to help elementary teachers develop intelligences in their students. It describes the project approach to providing multiple opportunities for using…