On May 21, 2010, the Swedish university professor Staffan Stenhag at the University of Uppsala defended his Ph D dissertation “Betyget i matematik: Vad ger grundskolans matematikbetyg för information?”, which in english would be “Mathematics Grade: What information is provided by the school grades in mathematics?”.
The findings and conclusions presented in the dissertation are another strong argument for giving a high weighting to mathematic ability when recruiting people for intelligence work. My own personal reflection is that mathematic and logic ability is positively correlated to mental intelligence – or IQ if you wish.
The following is an abbreviated translation of an interview with Staffan Stenhag made by Susanne Sawander, published on http://www.skolporten.com/art.aspx?id=CkaUG
Pupils with high math grades also succeed in other school subjects. A possible explanation is that math studies develop the general learning ability. Stenhag got interested in the subject by observing during 25 years as a college professor how students with successful math studies would also succeed in other subjects. The dissertation starts off with the question about why pupils should study maths at junior high school level. Stenhag reviewed existing arguments. Among those arguments was the claim that mathematics serve to develop the general intellectual ability. Another argument was that mathematics serves as a selection tool when identifying the pupils most apt for higher education. In order to assess the validity of these arguments, Stenhag checked for correlations between school grades in mathematics and school grades in other subjects. His research material consisted of the grades of 124 000 Swedish pupils graduating from junior high school in 2006. He also investigated the correlation between math grades and results in the national school exam in reading comprehension. Stenhag found that a top grade in mathematics is positively correlated to top grades overall, in other subjects as well. On the other hand, that correlation is not as strong between a top grade in Swedish, English or social science, and the overall grades. Moreover, Stenhag aslo found that 83 percent of pupils with a top grade in maths also got a top grade in reading comprehension. Stenhag says that it isn’t necessarily so that math studies as such result in high achievements in school. It could for example be so that the grade in math is an indicator for motivation, learning techniques, logic ability, and social conditions. He also finds it exciting to think that studies in math might develop the general intellectual ability.
Dissertation abstract in English:
The aim of this study is to investigate what the grade in mathematics tells us about the pupil’s general academic success in other school subjects in Sweden’s compulsory school. What proficiency, except mathematical skills, does a high grade in mathematics indicate? First an inventory of the official arguments for school mathematics was conducted. The inventory shows that the arguments generally can be classified into two main classes: i) utilitarian arguments and ii) cultural arguments. In addition to these two main groups the debate also includes more remote and indirect arguments: iii) the transfer argument and iv) the selection argument .If the two last arguments are valid it is assumed that the so called indication hypothesis should be true: that pupils who succeed in mathematics also will achieve high grades in other school subjects. A statistical analysis was conducted of the grades data for the approximately 124,000 pupils who completed compulsory school in Sweden 2006. The analyses provide support for the indication hypothesis. Those pupils who manage to achieve the highest grades in mathematics often achieve high grades in other school subjects as well. This applies to both the purely theoretical and to the more practically oriented subjects. In the last phase of the study it was assumed that a possible explanation for the results could lie in the reading comprehension hypothesis; that pupils who are successful in mathematics in their ninth year of compulsory school also have good reading comprehension. This hypothesis was tested with data from the pupils’ results in the reading comprehension test that was included in the national exam in Swedish in 2006. The results provided strong support for the hypothesis. Pupils with high final grades in mathematics also have good reading comprehension. However the reverse did not apply. A good result in the reading comprehension test was not a reliable predictor of a high final grade in mathematics.
The full dissertation is available here in PDF format. It also contains an extended, 6-page abstract in english: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:305754/FULLTEXT01
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