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from the those-who-can,-do,-those-who-can't,-teach dept.
In the US: this article presents an analysis how a person's chosen college major corresponds to their IQ. The interesting thing is that the relationship has remained essentially stable over the past 70 years. At the top of the list are math, science and engineering. At the absolute bottom of the list: education.
These data show that US students who choose to major in education, essentially the bulk of people who become teachers, have for at least the last seven decades been selected from students at the lower end of the academic aptitude pool. A 2010 McKinsey report (pdf) by Byron Auguste, Paul Kihn, and Matt Miller noted that top performing school systems, such as those in Singapore, Finland, and South Korea, "recruit 100% of their teacher corps from the top third of the academic cohort."
The article points out that it isn't quite this simple: Top schools place high requirements on all of their students; poor schools generally attract lower quality students in all of their programs. Still, the national averages are clear: overall, the least intelligent students go on to teach. This is an odd priority.
Educational organizations, of course, have a different view. This article claims that teacher quality declined from the 1960s through the 1990s, but has since recovered, with teachers being barely below average (48th percentile) among college graduates.
On a related note, there is a strong international correlation between teacher pay and student outcomes. The (rather obvious) theory is that higher pay attracts better candidates to the teaching profession.
No conclusions - just thought this might spark an interesting discussion...
(Score: 2) by SecurityGuy on Friday July 01 2016, @03:12PM
True that. Non-college FB buddy of mine posted some meme about how "Just because you went to college doesn't mean you're smarter than me." a while back. That's true...but people who are smarter than you are more likely to go to college, so yeah, people who went to college are on average smarter than people who don't. It's not that college makes you smarter. It's selection bias.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday July 01 2016, @04:17PM
While I believe that was true in the past, it may not be any more. Is it an intelligent choice to rack up a huge student loan debt for a piece of paper from a degree mill? I spent two years at a trade school and am comfortably supporting my family as the sole breadwinner.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Interesting) by SecurityGuy on Friday July 01 2016, @04:48PM
That's a fair point, but I suspect the numbers of people like you who have made the informed choice to do something other than college even though they'd be suited for college are relatively small. We still live in an era when the default expectation for a lot of people is that they should and will go to college. Some people choose to go to college because they don't want to get a job yet.
I'd also disagree with characterizing all colleges and universities as degree mills. I initially chose not to go to college, but finally did because I found not having the degree was a barrier to getting better jobs. "Fine. I'll get the stupid piece of paper.", I thought. Turned out I actually learned a lot.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday July 01 2016, @07:55PM
It's not that college makes you smarter. It's selection bias.
Where'd you learn 'bout this 'lection buy-ass'? In yer fancy college, college-boy?