NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
How is intelligence determined? It is a commonly held belief that adults are smarter than adolescents, adolescents are smarter than elementary school children, and elementary school children are smarter than preschoolers. However, how is one able to comment on intelligence? Perhaps there is confusion in the definition of what smart is.
The definition of smart is to be knowledgeable, which would tend to prove the prior statement true; the old a person is, the more knowledge they have attained. Intelligence, on the other hand, has a different denotation. It is defined as the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new o trying situations, the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate ones environment. If one uses this definition, it can prove the prior statement to be false; children for all ages are able to learn and manipulate their environment, arguably, more so than adults.
To prove the statement, one must first chose from these two definitions; without clarification, the argument is not clear. By taking the stance that children have as much intelligence as do adults, the researcher must set up a scientific way to obtain proof. To prove this, close observation of groupings of preschool age children, elementary school children, adolescents, and adults would be required. Under close study, one may observe how each reacts to their environment. For elementary school children, the environment that they affect is much smaller than that which encompasses adolescents and adults. One would need to watch how each age group learned new things and how they used what they learned to change the environment around them.
That a small child learns to tie their shoe or make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and an adolescent learns how to do calculus means nothing. No matter how menial the task, learning is learning and can be used to prove that the intelligence of children is equal to that of adults. What does have an effect on intelligence is environment and natural ability. To eliminate this variable as much as is possible, one must take a random sampling of each age group to ensure that the average subject will indeed have average results.
Once one has gathered data form his or her subjects, they must closely examine the evidence in order to measure the levels of learning and environment manipulation that each age level displayed. If these levels are equal for all age groups or anything different from the sequence given at the beginning of the experiment, then the statement has been proved false.
Free research essays on topics related to: school children, elementary school, elementary, age group, adolescents
Research essay sample on Elementary School School Children