Why are Some Brains “Smarter?”

Earlier in this century, IQ was believed to be genetically pre-determined, and mostly dependent upon verbal/logical skills. But Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligence made evident the many facets of intelligence, causing educators to expand the concept of intelligence beyond narrow definitions or categories. We now look at intelligence in a holistic way.

Top educational leaders, like Sternberg, Calvin, Perkins, and Sylwester allude to Piaget’s observations when describing efficient cognitive functioning. Intelligence seems possessed by those that have a huge repertoire of experiences, sensory and experiential: who can detect patterns and find commonalities between new experience and past experiential memories. This skill is editing: the monitoring of random stimuli, selecting those with traits common to the situation/experience at hand, and creating new categories (solutions) in connection with the dilemma at hand. There is a measure of improvisation here: the detection and selection of a pattern, then making a connection to an already-understood concept. Memory experiences and current perceptions are combined to create personal meaning!

For example, a first-time visitor to a hospital in a strange city can find the way around without much distress, knowing to check-in to the front desk, get a visitor’s card, abide by visiting hours, and even to grab an extra chair to sit aside the infirm friend. There are patterns of procedure that all hospitals share. This ability to approach any new situation and function effectively within it is due to our ability to see patterns and make connections – whether maneuvering in an airport or strange school, solving a home repair problem that has never before occurred, or driving a rental car different from our own personal model.

Classroom Applications
The ability to edit, or sort multitudes of stimuli into recognizable categories, connect them to already-comprehended understandings, and thus function effectively in new and uncharted situations, IS TEACHABLE. It must, however, be demonstrated and practiced enough to become a life skill. In the classroom, practice at editing might involve:
ÿ Sorting details of a story and creating categories based on some common trait (characters that show a measure of kindness or anger). These can become the basis for second-level supports/elaboration for expository writing.
ÿ Categorizing rocks or insects in a science class - perhaps identifying common traits of various rocks and using that as an opening for study of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks.
ÿ Sorting bags of buttons or leaves into 2, 3, or 4 unique categories. Then having others try to guess criteria used for the classifications.
ÿ Looking at a metaphor or simile in literature (i.e., Stephen Crane’s work: The wounded men flowed like blood from the body of the broken bridge…and asking (not what the metaphor/simile means, but) “How can wounded men be like blood?”
The more interconnected the brain nerve cells, the more sophisticated and “intelligent” that brain is apt to be. Forcing the brain to go beyond standard connections causes growth of new synapses, and improves communication efficiency within the brain.