ABSTRACT
Present study was carried out to correlate academic performance of Indian school children with their intelligence quotient (as measured by Porteus Maze Tests). These tests have been tried and tested successfully in previous studies, don’t require sophisticated equipment and are easier to administer than traditional tests like Wechsler Tests. Contrary to popular belief, no statistically significant correlation was found in this study between intelligence and academic grades. Thus intelligence is not a prerequisite to succeed in examinations and therefore in life.
ABSTRACT
Present study was carried out to correlate academic performance of Indian school children with their intelligence quotient (as measured by Porteus Maze Tests). These tests have been tried and tested successfully in previous studies, don’t require sophisticated equipment and are easier to administer than traditional tests like Wechsler Tests. Contrary to popular belief, no statistically significant correlation was found in this study between intelligence and academic grades. Thus intelligence is not a prerequisite to succeed in examinations and therefore in life.
ABSTRACT
El estudio de las matemáticas ha sido y es aún una fuente de frustración y ansiedad para un número considerable de estudiantes. No obstante, se considera como una piedra angular en la formación escolar, por el énfasis que hace en el entrenamiento analítico y en el manejo del lenguaje simbólico. El propósito del presente estudio fue valorar los niveles de ansiedad, vía procedimientos conductuales y fisiológicos antes y después de la administración de un examen de matemáticas en el bachillerato y analizar la relación que guardan éstos con el desempeño en el examen, en el curso y en el promedio semestral. Las preocupaciones escolares fueron evaluadas mediante una prueba computarizada basada en la versión emocional del paradigma de Stroop, diseñada ex profeso para medir la ansiedad escolar, que consistió en una tarea de discriminación condicional que empleaba palabras con carga negativa o neutra (Hernández-Pozo, Macías & Torres, 2004). Esta prueba se administró antes y después del primer examen de matemáticas del curso. Se monitoreó la tensión arterial, antes y después de cada exposición a la prueba de Stroop. Participaron en el estudio 205 bachilleres. El desempeño académico global guardó una relación inversa con el nivel de ansiedad conductual. Los resultados contradictorios entre el desempeño en matemáticas y el promedio general, así como la ausencia de diferencias por género en ansiedad medida conductualmente, cuestionan la generalidad de aseveraciones que relacionan de manera inversa el desempeño académico con los niveles de ansiedad de los bachilleres.
The study of Mathematics has been and is still a source of frustration and anxiety for a large number of students. The purpose of this study was to inquire systematically upon levels of test anxiety through behavioral and physiological procedures before and after a Math test, in 205 senior high school students. Academic worries were assessed by means of a computerized task based on the emotional version of the Stroop paradigm designed ex profeso to measure school anxiety (Hernández-Pozo, Macías & Torres, 2004). The Stroop task was administered, along with recordings of blood pressure and pulse, before and after the first Math test of the course. Academic general scores were inverse to the behavioral anxiety level, however the best Math scores were associated to middle levels of behavioral anxiety. Contradictory findings between academic performance in Math and global score, and the apparent lack of gender difference in anxiety measured through behavioral procedures suggests the need to review the generality of previous assertions relating academic performance inversely with levels of anxiety of high school students.