Thinkers Academy

This site is posting articles concerning the teaching problem solving skills.

Name:
Location: Illinois, United States

There are two passions in my life, science and education. I have M.S. from Moscow State Education University (Physics) and Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Weizmann Inst. of Sciences, Israel. In Science, I was performing Spectroscopic study of biomimetic compounds and proteins.

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Can Fluid Intelligence be Developed?

Fluid intelligence is responsible for our problem solving skills. It is "the cognitive-processing skills that enable us to manipulate abstract symbols" contrary to the crystallized intelligence that represents "our stored knowledge" (Complex Cognition. R.J.Sternberg & T. Ben-Zeev, 2001. p.323). Most sources consider fluid intelligence to be a natural ability which is not dependent on acquired knowledge.

Based on my experience, I believe that, in spite of the generally accepted approach, the fluid intelligence can be improved by means of a proper training. I consider abstract thinking to be a skill that could be taught through specially designed exercises and games or can be developed in the process of adapting to new life conditions.

Once I was coaching checkers 4.5 hours a week. At the beginning of the school year, Masha (not her real name) was losing almost all her games; she was less smart than any other student in my 15 pupils group. The girl was 10 years old, and I knew that she had D's in math in spite of all her efforts. At the end of the school year, her brain "awaked". She was winning most of her games in our checkers club, and her grades in Math improved to the level of A's and B's. In Math she had the same teacher as all the previous school years, so all the conditions in the Math class were staying the same.

Playing checkers taught her the skill of abstract thinking that helped her to understand math. As for me, it shows that girl's fluid intelligence was increased as a result of playing board game. The abstract activity in one area (checkers) had increased the ability "to manipulate abstract symbols" in another area (Math).

Same is true vice versa. I loved playing checkers in elementary and middle school. When I start going to Science & Math Academy, I stop playing checkers. I don't know for sure why. May be I did not have time or an interest, but I did not play checkers for two years. When I start playing checkers again, I was two levels higher than before without any training in checkers. In this case my training in Math and Science influenced my ability for abstract thinking in checkers.

Even so, not any type of education in math, Science, checkers or chess can develop better thinking. It is highly dependent on the teacher's strategies, curriculum, and on the level of student's engagement. But... it is the theme of my next articles.