School Failure And Its Poor Relationship With Intelligence
School failure is a phenomenon that affects a large number of children and adolescents around the world. In fact, it is considered one of the great problems of the current education system.
This phenomenon is often related to students who have a low intellectual level. However, this is a completely wrong thought, because, as we will see in the following lines, the causes of school failure are very different and are not always linked to learning difficulties.
The problem of school failure
By “school failure” we refer to difficulties in achieving the school goals set by the education system, which can manifest themselves in the following forms:
- Receive negative votes.
- Abandon your studies.
- Produce an academic performance far below the potential achievable by intellectual abilities.
Unfortunately, it often happens to observe the presence of some of these behaviors in schools and institutes.
According to official statistics referring to 2018 provided by Eurostat on the school dropout rate in Italy, 14.5% of young people between 18 and 24 abandon their studies before obtaining an upper secondary school diploma. This is very worrying, because the responsibility for education falls on the whole of society. In this sense, there is no doubt that there is something that is not working well or is not being done correctly.
What is intelligence and how does it relate to studies?
According to psychologist Howard Gardner, intelligence involves the presence of the cognitive abilities necessary to solve a problem or to elaborate important products in a given cultural context. Consequently, it can be said that there are multiple types of intelligence that help us to be competent in different disciplines.
Thus, each person possesses a series of limits and potentials within the different areas of knowledge. The educational system, however, is limited to assessing intellectual abilities associated with the linguistic and logical-mathematical areas. Therefore, a large number of children feel frustrated in the face of educational demands placed by the institution, because they find themselves in the need to develop other cognitive skills.
Furthermore, it is important to point out that a pupil who presents a good academic performance does not necessarily have a high intellectual coefficient, since his marks may be due to:
- Spend a lot of time studying.
- Strive for good results.
- Possess strong academic motivation.
- Demonstrate a great interest in the subject.
School failure and its poor relationship with intelligence
Once the concept of intelligence is understood, it is easy to understand that school failure has a poor relationship with the intellectual level. Although intelligence affects the r en Dimento school students, there are other internal and external factors that determine success or failure in learning.
Thus, school failure can appear for different reasons, such as:
- Show a low level of attention and concentration in the classroom.
- Having limited short-term memory.
- Present an obvious lack of motivation in the face of learning.
- Show boredom in the classroom.
- Being lacking in support and motivation, both at school and at home.
- Living in a poor and dysfunctional family and socio-cultural context.
- Suffering from stress, depression or anxiety.
- Present some kind of specific need for educational support.
All of this can prevent the pupil from developing his or her qualities in the correct way, resulting in the child’s academic failure.
Ultimately, and as a main conclusion, it can be said that school failure can occur in any child, regardless of his age or intellectual abilities. Consequently, the education system has a duty to carefully observe the entire student body and to help those with low academic achievement.
To this end, it is necessary to identify the causes and put into practice various measures, according to the needs of each student, because all children have the right to receive quality education and thus be able to triumph in studies and in life.
