Educational Practices and Representations of Intelligence: What Relations? A Qualitative Study

Despite broad consensus about the effects of educational practices on child development, many questions about which ideas guide these practices remain unanswered. A particularly pressing issue is the relationship between specific educational behaviors and ideas people hold about children’s global development. A qualitative study was conducted in order to explore the relationship between educational practices and social representations of intelligence and its development. Participants consisted of four groups with different educational roles: parents, teachers, parents who are also teachers, and students. Forty-five participants were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide regarding the main features of educational practices such as discipline, autonomy, control and monitoring, communication, rules, punishments and decision making in failure situations. Furthermore, the interview also included some topics concerning general representations of intelligence, its nature or nurture and specific educational practices perceived as having a major role in the development of intelligence. The interviews were analyzed using a content analysis approach. Results reveal the underlying themes in subject’s speeches and enhance our understanding of educators and students’ perceptions about intelligence and the general dimensions of educational practices they put into action when educating young infants.