BIOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS 



Intelligence tests are widely used in the schools in 

 grouping children for instruction. Teaching can never 

 reach optimum efficiency in classes of extreme heter- 

 ogeneity. The class range of ability is reduced by divi- 

 sion into A and B sections, and still more by a three-fold 

 or five-fold classification. Classification of children into 

 X, Y, and Z groups (corresponding to bright, average, 

 and dull), with special classes for the feeble-minded and 

 for the most highly gifted, has been found to yield the 

 best results. X and Z groups, for example, do not profit 

 maximally from the same type of curriculum or from the 

 same pedagogical procedures. The methods and subject 

 matter of special classes for defectives have little in common 

 with those suited to average children, and much the same 

 can be said of special classes for the highly gifted. The 

 widespread introduction of special classes for the gifted 

 is unquestionably one of the most significant movements 

 in modern education. 



Classification of a given child for instruction is not 

 based upon intelligence tests alone, but takes account of 

 health, previous scholarship, and personality factors. 

 Nor is placement looked upon as final; the progress of 

 each child is followed, and classification is changed when 

 it appears desirable. The aim is to fit the school to the child 

 in order that each may profit to the greatest possible 

 extent from the instruction given. This makes it necessary 

 to have objective measurements, not only of intelligence, 

 but also of as many traits of mind and personality as it is 

 possible to secure. The result is that psychologists are 

 busily engaged in devising, validating, and standardizing 

 scales for the measurement of achievement in all the school 

 subjects, others for the measurement of special aptitudes, 

 and still others for various aspects of personality, interests, 

 and attitudes. In most cases the tests of personality traits 

 must be regarded as tentative and experimental, but they 



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