INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF CREATIVITY AND IQ ON NINTH-GRADE ACHIEVEMENT

The interactive effects of IQ and creativity upon ninth-grade achievement were examined, with special focus upon the IQ threshold concept of Torrance He hypothesized that achievement is predicted better by IQ than by creativity below the IQ threshold, while IQ validity decreases as creativity validity increases above the threshold. This implies an IQ X Creativity interactive effect on achievement. If an IQ threshold exists, regression weights for IQ X Creativity interactive predictors should be statistically significant when included in multiple regression equations. Three creativity factor scores were estimated and were each multiplied by IQ to define three moderated or interactive predictor variables. A slight though statistically significant increase in validity resulted by adding the moderated variables to IQ and the three factor scores in multiple regression equations. Thus, there was weak support for the existence of an IQ threshold, but the regression of achievement on creativity decreased rather than increased with higher IQ.     

Wellbeing and Education: Issues of Culture and Authority

The idea that education should equip people to lead flourishing lives and help others to do so is now becoming salient in policy-making circles. Philosophy of education can help here by clarifying what flourishing consists in. This essay examines one aspect of this. It rejects the view that wellbeing goods are derivable from human nature, as in the theories of Howard Gardner and Edmond Holmes. It locates them, rather, as cultural products, but not culturally-relative ones, drawing attention to the proliferating forms they have taken over the past three or four centuries. It looks to aesthetics and art criticism as a guide to a philosophical treatment of wellbeing goods more generally. It also takes off from aesthetics and art criticism in seeking to identify reliable authorities on the flourishing life. On this, it rejects elitist conceptions in favour of a more democratic model, emphasising its importance in education for citizenship.     

From Constructionism to Deconstructionism: Anticipating Trends in Educational Styles

This paper reviews various issues concerned with the design of computer-based learning (CBL) systems and the educational philosophies from which they are derived. It considers them from the point of view of four themes of contemporary thinking: rational, pragmatic, critical and radical. In particular, the paper considers the current enthusiasm for constructionist learning and teaching methods and how these may evolve in the light of recent research. It is seen that many of the current trends in CBL system design can be related to post-modern ideas about the role of technology in society.     

Why Minimally Guided Teaching Techniques Do Not Work: A Reply to Commentaries

Knowledge, although seemingly available, is often not used for problem solving. That means it remains "inert." Three types of explanations exist for this phenomenon. Metaprocess explanations assume that the relevant knowledge is available, but it is not used because of disturbed access processes (e.g., lacking metacognitive control). Structure deficit explanations suppose that the deficit is rooted in the structure of the knowledge itself (i.e., the knowledge is not available in a form that allows for its application). In situatedness explanations, the traditional concepts of knowledge and transfer are questioned. One basic assumption of this perspective is that knowledge is fundamentally situated (i.e., context-bound). In the last decade, instructional models have been developed that try to remedy the inert knowledge problem and take into account important aspects that have been raised by the different explanations.     

Higher Education and Industrial Development in Ireland

In the structures of European society, the institutions of education, state, industry and others have always been quite autonomous and largely separate from each other. This contrasts with the USA and Japan, where the linkages between the university and industry sectors have always been very strong and cooperation between the two has been long established. This paper addresses itself to the situation in Ireland and reviews the many institutional structures for university industry cooperation. The specific developments in University College Dublin are described and the benefits which such cooperation bring to both the university and industrial sectors are summarised.