Academic and Practical Intelligence

Robert J. Sternberg
Elena L. Grigorenko
Jerry Lipka
Elisa Meier
Gerald Mohatt
Evelyn Yanez
Tina Newman
Sandra Wildfeuer

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.

Reference:

Sternberg, R. J., Grigorenko, E. L., Lipka, J., Meier, E., Mohatt, G., Yanez, E., . . . Wildfeuer, S. (2004). Academic and practical intelligence (RM04200). Storrs: University of Connecticut, The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented.

Academic and Practical Intelligence
Robert J. Sternberg
Elena L. Grigorenko
Jerry Lipka
Elisa Meier
Gerald Mohatt
Evelyn Yanez
Tina Newman
Sandra Wildfeuer
 

Conclusions

  1. Tests of practical intelligence, as measured by tests of everyday domain-specified knowledge, can provide useful supplements to more conventional tests of more academic, analytical abilities.
  2. Members of different cultures are more likely to develop skills that are adaptive in their own cultures and less likely to develop skills that are adaptive in other cultures.
  3. Triarchic instruction (targeting on analytical, creative, and practical skills) is superior to conventional instruction across a variety of school subject-matters, participant age levels, and participant socioeconomic levels.
  4. Teaching analytically, creatively, and practically in a cultural setting rather remote from that of the mainstream United States can make a difference in school achievement, at least if the teaching is adapted to cultural setting of the individuals.
  5. Intelligence has somewhat different contextual instantiations in different cultures, and that these instantiations need to be taken into account when considering what it means to be effective in these varied settings.
  6. Teaching can be made more effective if it takes into account the cultural context in which it is being done, and if it appeals to varied abilities, namely, analytical, creative, and practical ones.