A literature review by Fatima Zahra Moumou (14E272E) and Laila Amirdine Mohamed (16D093M) : M2 PEADID
No hard failure for high-IQ:
Introduction:
« Popular media report that 20% of gifted student may drop out of school in the US, while in France, the reported proportion of gifted children failing at school goes from one third to up to 70% », Guez, A., Peyre, H., le Cam, M., Gauvrit, N., & Ramus, F. (2018). Are high-IQ students more at risk of school failure? Intelligence, 71, 32‑40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2018.09.003
Keywords: High IQ, School failure, intelligence test, bias
What about the authors of this article?
Ava Guez is a young psychologist who works today at the Laboratory of Cognitive Sciences and Psycholinguistics of Paris. She has published various articles dealing with academic achievement, the present one being related to the IQ, another one is related to the existing evaluations and gradings biases leading to diverging results depending on sex differences.
Hugo Peyre is an associate researcher at the at the Laboratory of Cognitive Sciences and Psycholinguistics of Paris. He is also a child psychiatrist at the Robert Debré Hospital. His current research focuses on methodological approaches in cognitive epidemiology, genetic epidemiology and neuroimaging.
Marion Le Cam is a member of the Ministry of Education, she is also active in the Department of Evaluation, Forecasting and Performance (DEPP).
Nicolas Gauvrit is a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Artois and a developmental psychologist. He is an institutional member of the “Human and Artificial Cognition” university laboratory and author of several books including: Psychology of High Potential (2021) and Ordinary Gifted (2015).
Ramus Franck is a professor at the Cognitive Sciences and Psycholinguistics laboratory and a member of the French National Education Scientific Council. He is the author of the book the underside of intelligence (2014).
In this experimental article, published in the Intelligence journal (revue 71, page 32-40, 2018), Guez and al., have investigated the general aim that high intelligence coefficient (IQ) students tend to experience more frequent difficulties during their scholarship which leads them to school failure. The resulting study is longitudinal and involved a large population of 30.489 students in France. These students were followed between 6th and 3rd grade. The results show that there is no statistical evidence to support this widespread belief. Being a precocious child does not rhyme with academic failure, precocious children have better academic results and drop out less in school.
Work summary:
How often have we heard that high potential students with high IQ have a higher chance of dropping from school because it is not challenging enough for them, or that they get bored and decide to simply drop school. As Guez et al. (2018) reported, the literature provides numerous sources of evidence that there is a positive correlation between high IQ and social success. Numerous examples have been reported in the US. For example, a study conducted by Lubinski & Benbow (2006) has shown that the higher the IQ of students measured at the age of 12 to 13, the higher the chance to earn a doctorate by the age of 33. In order to evaluate this link between IQ and success in France, Guez et al. (2018) have conducted an extensive study where 30 489 students have been considered. The data used have been gathered in 2007 by the French Ministry of Education during a compulsory and approved study and grasps a representative population based on multiple factors “Region, public/private status of the school, urban unit, school establishment, age of entry in grade 6” (Guez et al., 2008).
Based on the multiple measures available, various elements have been considered by Guez et al., fluid intelligence, academic achievement and orientation, perceived self-efficacy and motivation. The first hypothesis and main observation Guez et al. pointed out is that high IQ student have statistically higher school grades at the “Diplôme National du Brevet” (DNB) evaluated at the 9th grade. Secondly, it is demonstrated that only 5.18% of DNB results were missing from the identified high IQ student, where 13.78% of DNB results were missing among the other students.
The results reported in this study confirms thus for France what has been evaluated elsewhere in the world (Lubinski & Benbow, 2006; Roznowski et al., 2000; Terman, 1926), students with high IQ do not present higher risk of dropping school and is on the contrary a good prediction first for academic achievement but also for social and professional success. Studies which have demonstrated a positive correlation between high IQ and “anxiety (Lancon et al., 2015), depression (Jackson & Peterson, 2003), internalizing and externalizing problems (Guénolé et al., 2013) and various psychological and physiological disorders (Karpinski, Kinase Kolb, Tetreault, & Borowski, 2018) are considered by Guez et al. (2018) as being based on case studies or biased samples and cannot be used to generalised to overall high IQ population.
Critical evaluation:
This innovative researcher participates, in our opinion, in a very important subject in the education field. Indeed, the equality of chance in the education is a priority in our society and it is taken seriously by the institutions. While Guez et al. (2018) make it clear that this study’s results “do not imply that the French education system is optimally suited to the needs of high-IQ children”, it is clearly demonstrated that the common belief that the education system in France does not favour high-IQ students and can drive them significantly to drop out of school is not based on evidence.
From a content point of view, this article is interesting as it tackles not only the main question regarding school failure of high-IQ student, but it takes advantage of the high amount of data gathered by the French ministry of Education to provides a larger view. Guez and al. (2018) highlighted that the high-IQ students exhibit a higher esteem regarding their ability to manage their learning or to meet their parents and teachers’ expectation. They also shown a higher self-regulatory efficacy which is linked to the capability to resist peer pressure to engage in high-risk activities like “alcohol, drugs or transgressive activities” Guez and al., 2018). It is reported however that high-IQ students do not show statistical difference, compared to the other children, regarding their “ability to form and maintain social relationships”. These above observations were the same for boys and girls. The study also reported on a more general consideration that high-IQ children suffer less from the effect of low socio-economic status. These elements, considered together with the main study, help comprehend better the subject dealt with in this study and provided answers to the questions that could have arisen.
Finally, this article takes the time to ensure that further conclusions are not drawn out of the study. It is clearly stressed for instance that despite the conclusions drawn, not all high-IQ student succeed, and “those ones deserve close attention, as do all pupils who do not succeed well in school” (Guez and al., 2018). It is also highlighted that this study cannot be taken as a base to consider that the French education system is optimally suited to the needs of high-IQ children. Avoiding in that sense to close the largely debated subject of educational system evolution and continuous improvement. Finally, the teacher who recommended this article is Mr. Jacques-Henri Guignard, his research is based on the identification of psychological components (cognitive, affective and/or conative) likely to characterize individuals with high intellectual potential (children, adolescents, adults). So, it seems logical that he suggested it to us to raise our awareness and draw our attention to this topical issue.
Conclusion:
In our future daily work as psychologist, this study is of great support as it provides evidence to help parents understand that there is not an intrinsic incompatibility between their high-IQ children and the educational system. On the contrary, Guez et al. have reported and demonstrated that the high-IQ is a strong indicator of success for academic and professional success. This is important as it presents a great support to help parents understand the “normality” of their children, being a girl or a boy, from a social point of view and their advantages from an academic and professional point of view. Through the reading of this article, we build the conviction that there is no hard failure for high-IQ children as widely believed.
This article was greatly appreciated as it provided statistical evidence for a well spread belief, but also from its construction point of view as it delved more into the subject, taking advantage of the quantity of data available. It also made us sensible to the potential unwritten conclusions that could be drawn from a study. In the present case, Guez et al. (2018) have made sure that those conclusions cannot be taken by specifically writing them down. Furthermore, Guez et al. (2018) introduced some limitations in their study regarding the intelligence’s measure which focused mainly on non-verbal intelligence. They also acknowledged that high-IQ potential student might have not been identified due to the test procedure. This opens thus for other studies to continue building on our understanding of the high-IQ children and their abilities and risks.
Vocabulary :
To stem: (page 32, second paragraph): Découler
Giftedness (page 32, second paragraph ) : “Douance” qui provient de don
Array (page 34, second paragraph) : Tableau
Skewness (page 34, Second paragraph) : Asymétrie
Threshold (page 34, third paragraph) : Seuil
Henceforth (page 38, first paragraph) : Désormais
To go further:
An interesting podcast: https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/etre-et-savoir/hpi-un-phenomene-de-societe