Academic and Practical Intelligence

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH CENTER NRC ON THE GIFTED G/T AND TALENTED University of Connecticut University of Virginia Yale University Academic and Practical Intelligence Robert J. Sternberg Elena L. Grigorenko Jerry Lipka Elisa Meier Gerald Mohatt Evelyn Yanez Tina Newman Sandra Wildfeuer Yale University New Haven, Connecticut November 2004 RM04200 Academic and Practical Intelligence Robert J. Sternberg Elena L. Grigorenko Jerry Lipka Elisa Meier Gerald Mohatt Evelyn Yanez Tina Newman Sandra Wildfeuer Yale University New Haven, Connecticut November 2004 RM04200 THE NATIONAL RESEARCH CENTER ON THE GIFTED AND TALENTED The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented (NRC/GT) is funded under the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act, Institute of Education Sciences, United States Department of Education. The Directorate of the NRC/GT serves as an administrative and a research unit and is located at the University of Connecticut. The participating universities include the University of Virginia and Yale University, as well as a research unit at the University of Connecticut. University of Connecticut Dr. Joseph S. Renzulli, Director Dr. E. Jean Gubbins, Associate Director Dr. Sally M. Reis, Associate Director University of Virginia Dr. Carolyn M. Callahan, Associate Director Yale University Dr. Robert J. Sternberg, Associate Director Copies of this report are available from: NRC/GT University of Connecticut 2131 Hillside Road Unit 3007 Storrs, CT 06269-3007 Visit us on the web at: www.gifted.uconn.edu The work reported herein was supported under the Educational Research and Development Centers Program, PR/Award Number R206R000001, as administered by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. The findings and opinions expressed in this report do not reflect the position or policies of the Institute of Education Sciences or the U.S. Department of Education. ii Note to Readers... All papers by The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented may be reproduced in their entirety or in sections. All reproductions, whether in part or whole, should include the following statement: The work reported herein was supported under the Educational Research and Development Centers Program, PR/Award Number R206R000001, as administered by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. The findings and opinions expressed in this report do not reflect the position or policies of the Institute of Education Sciences or the U.S. Department of Education. This document has been reproduced with the permission of The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. If sections of the papers are printed in other publications, please forward a copy to: The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented University of Connecticut 2131 Hillside Road Unit 3007 Storrs, CT 06269-3007 Please Note: Papers may not be reproduced by means of electronic media. iii Academic and Practical Intelligence Robert J. Sternberg Elena L. Grigorenko Jerry Lipka Elisa Meier Gerald Mohatt Evelyn Yanez Tina Newman Sandra Wildfeuer Yale University New Haven, Connecticut ABSTRACT This monograph describes interventions in a Native Alaska setting. The goal of the first study was to provide a further test of the hypothesis that academic and practical intelligence may be, from an individual-differences standpoint, largely distinct constructs. The goal of the second study was to examine the efficacy of culturally-based triarchic teaching in comparison with conventional teaching of a geometry unit. The research represented a first attempt to apply triarchic teaching to a mathematics curriculum, as well as a first attempt to apply such teaching using materials adapted to a cultural setting different from that of mainstream U.S. culture, Yup'ik Eskimos in southwest Alaska. v Academic and Practical Intelligence Robert J. Sternberg Elena L. Grigorenko Jerry Lipka Elisa Meier Gerald Mohatt Evelyn Yanez Tina Newman Sandra Wildfeuer Yale University New Haven, Connecticut EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This monograph describes interventions in a Native Alaska setting. The goal of the first study was to provide a further test of the hypothesis deriving from the triarchic theory of successful intelligence (Sternberg, 1985a, 1997; Sternberg et al., 2000) that academic and practical intelligence may be, from an individual-differences standpoint, largely distinct constructs. Continuing our attempt to survey various unindustrialized cultures (i.e., different from those where the concept of intelligence originated) for the distinction between these two types of intelligence, in the present study we conduct research in the rural and relatively urban settlements of Alaska Natives1, Yup'ik people. The main objective of this study was to explain the ratings on Yup'ik-valued traits in the studied adolescents by their performance indicators on tests of analytical and practical intelligence. Once again, our argument is that both kinds of intelligence can be important for predicting these traits of interest. Moreover, designing the study, we expected to see higher predictive power of the everyday life knowledge in rural communities. We found that children in the urban community outperformed children in the rural community on the test of crystallized intelligence; children in the rural community, however, outperformed children in the urban community on the test of practical intelligence. We also found that a measure of practical intelligence assessing tacit knowledge provided prediction of rated practical skills that was complementary and, in certain instances, incremental to the prediction provided by conventional measures of fluid and crystallized intelligence. The goal of the second study was to examine the efficacy of culturally-based triarchic teaching in comparison with conventional teaching of a geometry unit. The research represented a first attempt to apply triarchic teaching to a mathematics curriculum, as well as a first attempt to apply such teaching using materials adapted to a cultural setting different from that of mainstream U.S. culture, Yup'ik Eskimos in 1 The term Alaska Native is used in reference to Alaska's original inhabitants. Alaska Natives include three groups—Aleut, Eskimo, and Indian groups; the groups differ in terms of their ethnic origin, language, and culture. vii southwest Alaska. The results showed superior instructional outcomes for all dependent variables, including assessments of memory-based as well as analytically-, creatively-, and practically based achievement. Our data provide an extension of past data showing that triarchic instruction is superior to conventional instruction across a variety of school subject-matters, participant age levels (primary and secondary), and participant socioeconomic levels. This demonstration shows that teaching analytically, creatively, and practically in a cultural setting rather remote from that of the mainstream United States can make a difference to school achievement, at least if the teaching is adapted to the cultural setting of the individuals, in this case, Yup'ik Eskimos in southwest Alaska. viii Table of Contents ABSTRACT v EXECUTIVE SUMMARY vii Intervention Study I—Academic and Practical Intelligence: A Case Study of the Yup'ik in Alaska 1 Academic and Practical Intelligence: A Brief Review of the Literature 1 Yup'ik Culture: A Brief Overview 6 Method 7 Participants 7 Materials 8 Design 12 Procedure 12 Results 12 Reliabilities 12 Basic Statistics 12 Group Comparisons 12 Correlations 14 Structural Equation Modeling 17 Discussion 21 Intervention Study II—Triarchically Based Instruction and Assessment of Sixth-grade Mathematics in a Yup'ik Cultural Setting in Alaska 25 The Yup'ik Culture 26 Culture and Curriculum: The Role of Triarchically Defined Intelligence 27 Method 28 Participants 28 Materials 29 Procedure 31 Design 31 Data Analysis 32 Results 32 Outcome Measures 32 Preliminary Analysis 32 Discussion 35 References 39 ix List of Tables Table 1.1 Descriptive Statistics 13 Table 1.2 Intercorrelations 15 Table 1.3 Intercorrelations in the Two Groups of Adolescents 16 Table 1.4 Parameter Estimates From the Fitted SEM Models 20 Table 2.1 Descriptive Statistics 33 xi List of Figures Figure 1.1. A Diagram for Model 1 18 Figure 2.1. Estimated Marginal Means at Pre and Posttest 34 Figure 2.2. Estimated Marginal Means for Memory (a), Analytical (b), Practical (c), and Creative (d) Scores 36 xiii Academic and Practical Intelligence Robert J. Sternberg Elena L. Grigorenko Jerry Lipka Elisa Meier Gerald Mohatt Evelyn Yanez Tina Newman Sandra Wildfeuer Yale University New Haven, Connecticut Intervention Study I—Academic and Practical Intelligence: A Case Study of the Yup'ik in Alaska Elena L. Grigorenko, Elisa Meier, Jerry Lipka, Gerald Mohatt, Evelyn Yanez, & Robert J. Sternberg Academic and Practical Intelligence: A Brief Review of the Literature Although psychologists and laypeople often think of intelligence as a unitary entity, various aspects of intelligence (e.g., intelligence demonstrated in a classroom and intelligence demonstrated in everyday life) may be somewhat distinct. One of the earliest psychologists to make this point was an experimental psychologist, Edward Thorndike (1924), who argued that social intelligence is distinct from the kind of intelligence measured by conventional intelligence tests. Many others subsequently have made this claim as well about social and practical intelligences (see reviews in Kihlstrom & Cantor, 2000; Sternberg et al,

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