General Scholastic Ability

One of the very commonly used words when teachers and parents talk about children in school is ‘bright’. Parents sometimes compare one child with a brother or sister and describe one as ‘bright’ and the other as less so. Teachers also know who the ‘bright’ ones in their classes are. The term is associated with ability to understand and remember what is taught in various subjects, learning quickly and doing well in tests. It is unfortunately often used carelessly as we shall see later in this section. The basis of the term is the notion of intelligence - which is well known (but not well understood.) It is true that some individuals consistently perform better in school tests, and are good at solving puzzles and riddles and are adept at memory-based games. They do relatively well on mental ability (or intelligence) tests which have items on reasoning, pattern recognition, problem solving. The mental quality or ability that such tests measure is also called scholastic aptitude since this seems to help students to do well in their studies which are related to school subjects.

We need to remember that the label ‘studies’ does not include learning in many areas which are seen as important for the holistic or well-rounded development of the child: art, music, dance, sports, drama, team work, caring for others, leadership, and so on.

Obviously, students with a higher level of scholastic ability will perform better in many class activities and tests related to them than others, especially when knowing and remembering what is in prescribed texts and writing long answers are involved. But curriculum transaction today also includes more open-ended activities (not linked to a single ‘correct answer’): dialogues, dramatization of themes, situations from stories and poems, creating displays/charts, sharing experiences outside school and so on. In this wider context of activities where written answers (to test questions) are only one component, those students with high scholastic aptitude will not automatically have any big advantage. So, we can state that the general level of scholastic ability of students does not influence their language learning in class in a strong and consistent way. This is especially true now, when communication skills are being emphasized rather than knowledge about language. Therefore, teachers should not simply assume that learners who get high or low grades in other subjects will perform similarly in the language class. The earlier discussion about prior learning and readiness is relevant here. Students who have not learnt what is needed as background for new learning will of course face difficulties. This is related to lack of opportunity to learn, not to low capacity to learn. While we should be happy about students who are doing well in studies, we must be very careful not to judge others as low in scholastic ability without proper evidence. We should expect so called scholastically weak students also to do well—especially in the language area.

 

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