Do Teacher Judgments of Student Intelligence Predict Life Outcomes? - Essay Sample

Introduction

Researching and coming up with a critique of a unique qualitative study is a key element that any psychologist ought to have. It requires a great mind for one to establish qualitative research that is different from quantitative research. The essay focuses on a study titled 'Do teacher judgments of student intelligence predict life outcomes?' (Fischbach et al. 2013). The conductors of the research are Brunner, Baudson, Fischbach, Martin, and Preckel, and its year of publication is 2013. The study title is in the form of the study research question. The findings of the study answer the question in the affirmative. However, the sample size used in the experiment may not be a true reflection of the scenario across the globe. There are points of criticism, including the accuracy of the data in its methodology and some of the highlights of the qualitative research. According to the study, the judgments of teachers accurately predict the life outcomes of the students for as long as 40 years to come. There is a maintenance of the predictive power despite gaining control of the child's intelligence quotient. There is a limitation in the expectancy parameters like the potential of fulfilling the self-developed prophecies. The mediation of the potential effects is done through the attainment of education (Fischbach et al., 2013). The judgment of the teachers has a high reflection on the GPA and not the intelligence quotient. Taking deep insights into the main points of the study gives enough room for providing a critique of the study.

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The Research Question

Do teacher judgments of student intelligence predict life outcomes? (Fischbach et al. 2013)

It is a nice research question, but the addition of some elements regarding the study would bring out its specificity. For example, the inclusion of the GPA and intelligence quotient aspect in the research question would help notify the target audience about the measures on which the research question is based on. Another important inclusion would be the location. It is important to provide the audience with information on whether the research study represents the student population on the global stage, or in the United States or any other part of the world.

Sampling Strategy

The researchers decided to do tests on children under 12 years and do a projection with 52 years. The 12 years represents a tender age when a child is developing the intelligence quotient and mastering vital aspects in life through learning. The 52 years represent the children living in the future, considering eh effects of teacher judgments when at a tender age. The sampling of the students involved considered age, teacher presence, and GPA. The lower grade classes proved essential in the sampling strategy.

The Research Design Used

The study focused on students below 12 years and carried out a prediction of adult intelligence and further outcomes at 52 years. Some of the aspects under consideration of the study include subjective well-being, educational attainment, health, and socioeconomic achievement. The main center for the study was Luxemburg University, and Roman Martin discovered binders upon binders in the studies carried in 1968. It involved interviewing around 2,800 students within the 12-year age bracket through the use of intelligence tests and personality inventory. The students gave information on family backgrounds. The teachers played a major role as they gave information about the students regarding their grades and their intelligence levels.

Findings

The study showed that the children who came from disadvantaged families did not tap their cognitive potential maximally (Fischbach et al. 2013). Path analytic techniques were applied to the representative sample. The findings of the influence of the teachers in children's intelligence maintained with childhood intelligence. The predictive power was reduced with the adjustment in GPAs. The findings have a basis for the study results after using the path analytics tool. The data used in the research was from 731 respondents. It indicated that the intelligence quotient of the child was a strong predictor based on the teachers' judgment. The direct path method, the expectancy parameter, and the accuracy parameter were essential aspects of the findings. However, there are high chance that there was an inaccuracy level because of the diversity of thoughts amongst the students and teachers. For example, a certain teacher might have had a wrong impression of the intelligence quotient of a student by having a look at the student's average GPA. On the other hand, the intelligence quotient tests of the students might not have been an inclusive method of determining the teacher's judgment on the life outcomes of the students. It is worth noting that there is a demerit of the path analytic technique because some coefficients are biased, thereby bringing a lack of precision (Basoz, 2018). There are major problems related to collinearity. The results can only be accurate if all the aspects highlighted above were put into mind in the course of the study.

The Researcher's View and the Potential Biases

The researcher's paradigm is based on his thoughts that the teachers' judgment has a higher potential of predicting the future outcomes of the child. They believe that the sample size used is enough to give a global representation. The pattern of study involves using analytic tools for prediction. According to Patel, there are other tools other than the path analytic tool that may prove essential in the prediction aspect (Patel and Parikh, 2016). There are a few elements of reflexivity in the report, which may have influenced the findings.

An example is the idea that children below 12 years are the best sample to use. There is a belief that the children are developing, and learning their behavior is easy. The judgment made by the researchers settled on the age specifics of 12 and 52 years. However, other age brackets would still be essential in the research. The age of 13 or 10 is still viable.

Application of Ethical Principles

The research has a lot of confidentiality, which is a key aspect of ethical principles. Their results have the autonomous aspect because the public does not know the names of the students who participated, their school, and their teachers. The report does not have areas that indicate the use of deceptive practices. Such practices are unethical in any study. There were no risks or harm caused to the students and teachers during the collection of data. Therefore, the researchers had the ethical aspect in mind while conducting the study.

Conclusion

The critique of the research is important because it helps highlight some important aspects that the target audience might have missed in its review. It is a study that has an application in different areas concerning the behavior and state of students at a young age and the expected behavior when the students grow old. It is informative and descriptive in nature, which is the aim of every study.

References

Basöz, T. (2018). Willingness to communicate: a path-analytic model for tertiary-level learners of English in Turkey.

Fischbach, A., Baudson, T. G., Preckel, F., Martin, R., & Brunner, M. (2013). Do teacher judgments of student intelligence predict life outcomes? Learning and Individual Differences, 27, 109-119.

Patel, H., & Parikh, S. (2016, March). Comparative analysis of different statistical and neural network-based forecasting tools for prediction of stock data. In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Information and Communication Technology for Competitive Strategies (pp. 1-6).