Rethinking Intelligence Measurement

Measuring intelligence through standardized tests limits understanding, undermining a broader, more dynamic, and adaptive form of ecological intelligence.

### Rethinking Intelligence and Education: Embracing Dynamic, Contextual Intelligence
* 🧠  Dr. Peter Gray challenges the need to **measure intelligence**, criticizing the current education system's focus on **standardized testing**.
* 📊  Gray argues that traditional assessments only measure a student's **ability to perform under specific conditions**, rather than their **true potential**.
* 🎓  The current system often limits students to predefined problem spaces, hindering their ability to **think dynamically and creatively**.
* 🌱  Gray advocates for a more holistic approach that values "**ecologically valid**" intelligence, which involves **managing oneself in complex contexts** and **adapting in real-time**.
* 🏫  This dynamic form of intelligence is crucial for society and should be **supported more in educational settings**.
* 🔍 " We have this incredible drive in our culture to **enumerate everything and measure everything** - and I'm not sure that we need to do that.
* 🎯 " It undermines agency in a sort of broader sense, and instead teaches kids to **focus very narrowly on the problem spaces that have already been invented**.
* 🧒🏽 " How smart a child is, rather than looking at what I would call a more **dynamic, lived, ecologically valid** sort of emergent kind of intelligence.

- I don't know that there's a
need to measure intelligence. We have this incredible
drive in our culture to enumerate everything
and measure everything - and I'm not sure that we need to do that. From my perspective, our
current education system measures intelligence by
a young person's ability to perform on a predetermined, pre-designed assessment
at a particular time and to give back the
answers that are expected given what was given to them. That system of measurement
does tell you something about what they can do under those conditions, but it doesn't tell you
anything about their potential. So one of the real problems with this way of thinking about achievement, which often morphs over into intelligence, is that it undermines agency
in a sort of broader sense, and instead teaches kids to focus very narrowly
on the problem spaces that have already been invented, that are being given to them and formulated by somebody
else on somebody else's terms. Some of that is fine,

but the problem is that
becomes the privileged and oftentimes only way of
knowing what a child knows. How smart a child is,
rather than looking at what I would call a more dynamic, lived, ecologically valid sort of
emergent kind of intelligence, which is the ability to manage
yourself in complex context and make sense out of things, and invent in real-time on the fly. That is a much more
adaptive sort of ecological kind of intelligence, and I
think it's essential for society, and we really should
do more to support it.

How should we measure intelligence? | Mary-Helen Immordino Yang

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Rethinking the Measurement of Intelligence

The drive to measure and enumerate everything in our culture is questioned, especially in the context of measuring intelligence in the education system.

The current system is criticized for its narrow focus on predetermined assessments, which fails to capture the true potential and agency of individuals.

This approach is seen as undermining creativity and innovation by forcing individuals to operate within problem spaces defined by others.

Assessing a child's intelligence through standardized testing is seen as a privileged and limited approach.

There is a call for recognizing a more dynamic and adaptive form of intelligence, which involves the ability to navigate complex situations and think creatively in real-time.

It is argued that this ecological intelligence is crucial for society and deserves more support.