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TEACHERS' CONCEPTIONS OF STUDENTS' INTELLIGENCE AND INTELLIGENT FUNCTIONING: A CROSS‐SECTIONAL STUDY OF ELEMENTARY, SECONDARY AND TERTIARY LEVEL TEACHERS
Author(s) -
Fry P.S.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1080/00207598408247541
Subject(s) - tertiary level , psychology , school teachers , mathematics education , cognition , sample (material) , cognitive skill , developmental psychology , chemistry , chromatography , neuroscience
The study investigated teachers' views and conceptions of intelligence and intelligent functioning by asking a large representative sample of teachers to rate behaviors and attributes of intelligent functioning children. The objective was (1) to assess which cognitive, social and verbal factors teachers rate as being most important in the intelligent functioning of children; and (2) to determine whether elementary, secondary and tertiary level teachers have prototypic views of the characteristics of “ideally intelligent functioning ”elementary, secondary and tertiary level students. In an extended phase of the study elementary, secondary and tertiary teachers were also asked to indicate their level of tolerance of selective negative traits and behaviors in “ideally intelligent ”students. Consistent with predictions, the findings revealed that teachers have well‐developed implicit views of intelligence and intelligent functioning and they subscribe to several prototypic views of the “ideally intelligent functioning ”elementary, secondary and tertiary level students. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of the effects which teachers' implicit views of intelligence have on their assessment of children's functioning.