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Toward Proficiency
VUE Number 14, Winter 2007
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
Intellective Competence
By Edmund W. Gordon
Edmund W. Gordon is the Richard March Hoe Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the John M. Musser Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Yale University.
> Author's biography
The ability to use knowledge to engage and solve problems, not just acquire knowledge,
is increasingly the currency of advanced societies. The goal should be to develop such abilities in a broader range of young people.
The concern with what it means for students to be proficient is not unrelated to my long-time concern with the development of what I have called intellective competence. In our book Affirmative Development: Cultivating Academic Ability, Beatrice Bridglall and I make the case for the"affirmative development of academic ability," in which we argue that intellective competence, increasingly, is the universal currency of technologically advanced societies (Gordon & Bridglall 2006). What are the characteristics of this universal currency?
While my list of characteristics begins with an emphasis on rigorous academic experiences and achievement, I do not stop there. The mastery of academic learning is, for me, only instrumental to the development of intellective competence. In my vision of teaching, learning, and assessment, academic-outcome standards are central, but the explication of what we want learners to know about specific disciplines and to be able to do academically must be considered as instrumental to what we want learners to become. I have argued that it is important for learners to become compassionate human beings, capable of rational adaptation of and to the world around us and capable of using mental processes, information, and available resources to solve problems. There is no question about the importance of what students learn and are taught. Most of us would agree that teaching and learning independent of content (subject matter) is problematic. However, just as teaching and learning without subject matter is vacuous, teaching and learning should not be so constrained by content that the purpose of engagement with these pedagogical endeavors is precluded.
I am more and more persuaded that the purpose of learning — and the teaching by which it is enabled — is to acquire knowledge and technique in the service of the development of adaptive human intellect. I see these as being at the core of intellective competence. The old"scholastic aptitudes" may not have been so far from the mark. In the effort to achieve some distance from the actual material covered in the nation's diverse curricula, the scholastic aptitudes or abilities were conceived of as more generic capacities to handle academic work. But, more important, scholastic ability has come to reflect the meta-manifestations of intellective abilities that result from particular kinds of education and socialization. It may be more appropriate that instead of scholastic aptitudes, we think of developed expressions of a wide range of human learning achievements, some of which are related to what happens in schools — and all of which are related to sense making and problem solving.
These developed abilities are not so much reflected in the specific discipline-based knowledge a student may have, but in the student's ability and disposition to adaptively and efficiently use knowledge, technique, and values through mental processes to engage and solve both common and novel problems. James Greeno (2006) suggests that what I call intellective competence is really"intellective character."
Understanding Intellective Competence
What is intellective competence? I have come to use the term to refer to a characteristic way of adapting, appreciating, knowing, and understanding the phenomena of human experience. I also use the construct to reference the quality with which these mental processes are applied in one's engagement with common, novel, and specialized problems. Intellective competence reflects one's habits of mind, but it also reflects the quality or goodness of the products of mental functioning.
These developed abilities are reflected in the student's ability and disposition to use knowledge, technique, and values through mental processes to engage and solve both common and novel problems.
Like social competence, which I feel is one manifestation of intellective competence, it reflects"goodness of fit," or the effectiveness of the application of one's affective, cognitive, and situative processes to solving the problems of living. Twenty years ago I might have used the term"intelligence" or "intelligent behavior" to capture this characteristic or quality of one's mental capabilities or performance. In 2006, I am concerned with more. I am trying to capture aspects of human capability, developed ability, and disposition to use and appreciate the use of human adaptive processes in the service of intentional behavior. I am not surprised that James Greeno (2006) calls it a manifestation of character. No matter what we call it, I argue that intellective competence can be created through the deliberate development of academic ability. The task to which I am committed in my next career is the "affirmative development of academic ability" in a broader range of human beings.
Deliberatively Developing Academic Ability
Within the education establishment, we know a great deal about the deliberate development of academic ability. I propose that the education community use that knowledge to embark upon a deliberate effort to develop academic abilities in a broad range of students who have a history of being resource deprived and who, as a consequence, are underrepresented in the pool of academically high-achieving students. The deliberative or affirmative development of academic ability should include more equitable access to such educational interventions as:
It is possible that the attention we give to improving the quality of teaching and to broadening access to good teachers, while being necessary to the achievement of academic proficiency, may not be sufficient. Increased attention may need to be given to learning.
Developing Personal Agency
Important as these educational interventions are, the matter of personal agency may be even more so. It is possible that the attention we give to improving the quality of teaching and to broadening access to good teachers, while being necessary to the achievement of academic proficiency, may not be sufficient. Increased attention may need to be given to the learning domain of the"teaching and learning" dyad. Good teaching is necessary, but it may take appropriate student learning behaviors to achieve proficiency. In my thinking about learning behavior on the part of the student, I tend to privilege:
REFERENCES
Bandura, A. 1982."Self-Efficacy Mechanisms in Personal Agency," American Psychologist 37:122–148.
Gordon, E.W., B. L. Bridglall, and A. S.Meroe, eds. 2005. Supplementary Education: The Hidden Curriculum of High Academic Achievement. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Gordon, E.W., and B. L. Bridglall, eds. 2006. Affirmative Development: Cultivating Academic Ability. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Greeno, J. G. 2006."Toward the Development of Intellective Character." In Affirmative Development: Cultivating Academic Ability, edited by E.W. Gordon and B. L. Bridglall. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Archives
Toward Proficiency
VUE Number 14, Winter 2007
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
Intellective Competence
By Edmund W. Gordon
Edmund W. Gordon is the Richard March Hoe Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the John M. Musser Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Yale University.
> Author's biography
The ability to use knowledge to engage and solve problems, not just acquire knowledge,
is increasingly the currency of advanced societies. The goal should be to develop such abilities in a broader range of young people.
The concern with what it means for students to be proficient is not unrelated to my long-time concern with the development of what I have called intellective competence. In our book Affirmative Development: Cultivating Academic Ability, Beatrice Bridglall and I make the case for the"affirmative development of academic ability," in which we argue that intellective competence, increasingly, is the universal currency of technologically advanced societies (Gordon & Bridglall 2006). What are the characteristics of this universal currency?
While my list of characteristics begins with an emphasis on rigorous academic experiences and achievement, I do not stop there. The mastery of academic learning is, for me, only instrumental to the development of intellective competence. In my vision of teaching, learning, and assessment, academic-outcome standards are central, but the explication of what we want learners to know about specific disciplines and to be able to do academically must be considered as instrumental to what we want learners to become. I have argued that it is important for learners to become compassionate human beings, capable of rational adaptation of and to the world around us and capable of using mental processes, information, and available resources to solve problems. There is no question about the importance of what students learn and are taught. Most of us would agree that teaching and learning independent of content (subject matter) is problematic. However, just as teaching and learning without subject matter is vacuous, teaching and learning should not be so constrained by content that the purpose of engagement with these pedagogical endeavors is precluded.
I am more and more persuaded that the purpose of learning — and the teaching by which it is enabled — is to acquire knowledge and technique in the service of the development of adaptive human intellect. I see these as being at the core of intellective competence. The old"scholastic aptitudes" may not have been so far from the mark. In the effort to achieve some distance from the actual material covered in the nation's diverse curricula, the scholastic aptitudes or abilities were conceived of as more generic capacities to handle academic work. But, more important, scholastic ability has come to reflect the meta-manifestations of intellective abilities that result from particular kinds of education and socialization. It may be more appropriate that instead of scholastic aptitudes, we think of developed expressions of a wide range of human learning achievements, some of which are related to what happens in schools — and all of which are related to sense making and problem solving.
These developed abilities are not so much reflected in the specific discipline-based knowledge a student may have, but in the student's ability and disposition to adaptively and efficiently use knowledge, technique, and values through mental processes to engage and solve both common and novel problems. James Greeno (2006) suggests that what I call intellective competence is really"intellective character."
Understanding Intellective Competence
What is intellective competence? I have come to use the term to refer to a characteristic way of adapting, appreciating, knowing, and understanding the phenomena of human experience. I also use the construct to reference the quality with which these mental processes are applied in one's engagement with common, novel, and specialized problems. Intellective competence reflects one's habits of mind, but it also reflects the quality or goodness of the products of mental functioning.
These developed abilities are reflected in the student's ability and disposition to use knowledge, technique, and values through mental processes to engage and solve both common and novel problems.
Like social competence, which I feel is one manifestation of intellective competence, it reflects"goodness of fit," or the effectiveness of the application of one's affective, cognitive, and situative processes to solving the problems of living. Twenty years ago I might have used the term"intelligence" or "intelligent behavior" to capture this characteristic or quality of one's mental capabilities or performance. In 2006, I am concerned with more. I am trying to capture aspects of human capability, developed ability, and disposition to use and appreciate the use of human adaptive processes in the service of intentional behavior. I am not surprised that James Greeno (2006) calls it a manifestation of character. No matter what we call it, I argue that intellective competence can be created through the deliberate development of academic ability. The task to which I am committed in my next career is the "affirmative development of academic ability" in a broader range of human beings.
Deliberatively Developing Academic Ability
Within the education establishment, we know a great deal about the deliberate development of academic ability. I propose that the education community use that knowledge to embark upon a deliberate effort to develop academic abilities in a broad range of students who have a history of being resource deprived and who, as a consequence, are underrepresented in the pool of academically high-achieving students. The deliberative or affirmative development of academic ability should include more equitable access to such educational interventions as:
- Early, continuous, and progressively more rigorous exposure to joyful pre-academic and academic teaching and learning transactions. This exposure should begin with high levels of communicative, literacy, numeracy, and self-regulatory development.
- Rich opportunities to learn through pedagogical practices traditionally thought to be of excellent quality. We do not need to wait for new inventions: Benjamin Bloom's Mastery Learning, Robert Slavin's Success for All, James Comer's School Development Program, Bob Moses's Algebra Project, Vinetta Jones's Equity 2000, the College Board's Pacesetter, and Lauren Resnick's "effort-based thinking curriculum" all attempt to do some of this.
- Diagnostic, customized, and targeted assessment; instructional and remedial interventions.
- Academic acceleration and content enhancement.
- The use of relational data systems to inform educational policy and practice decisions.
- Explicit socialization of intellect to multiple cultural contexts.
- Exposure to high-performance learning communities.
- Explication of tacit knowledge, metacognition, and meta-componential strategies.
- Capitalization of the distributed knowledge, technique, and understanding that reside among learners.
- Special attention to the differential requirements of learning in different academic domains.
- Encouragement of learner behaviors such as deployment of effort, task engagement, time on task, and resource utilization.
- Special attention to the roles of attitude, disposition, confidence, and efficacy.
- Access to a wide range of supplementary educational experiences.
- The politicalization of academic learning in the lives of communities of culturally subordinated people.
It is possible that the attention we give to improving the quality of teaching and to broadening access to good teachers, while being necessary to the achievement of academic proficiency, may not be sufficient. Increased attention may need to be given to learning.
Developing Personal Agency
Important as these educational interventions are, the matter of personal agency may be even more so. It is possible that the attention we give to improving the quality of teaching and to broadening access to good teachers, while being necessary to the achievement of academic proficiency, may not be sufficient. Increased attention may need to be given to the learning domain of the"teaching and learning" dyad. Good teaching is necessary, but it may take appropriate student learning behaviors to achieve proficiency. In my thinking about learning behavior on the part of the student, I tend to privilege:
- Time on tasks related to what has to be learned.
- Deliberate deployment of energy and effort to those tasks.
- Seeking and utilizing necessary human and material resources.
- Personal efficacy — the belief that the learning goals and related tasks are worth the effort.
REFERENCES
Bandura, A. 1982."Self-Efficacy Mechanisms in Personal Agency," American Psychologist 37:122–148.
Gordon, E.W., B. L. Bridglall, and A. S.Meroe, eds. 2005. Supplementary Education: The Hidden Curriculum of High Academic Achievement. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Gordon, E.W., and B. L. Bridglall, eds. 2006. Affirmative Development: Cultivating Academic Ability. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Greeno, J. G. 2006."Toward the Development of Intellective Character." In Affirmative Development: Cultivating Academic Ability, edited by E.W. Gordon and B. L. Bridglall. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
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