“Individual difference and

educational implications-
thinking, intelligence and
attitude”

Presentation by
Shrooti Shah
M.Sc. Nursing
Batch 2011
 Contents

1. Introduction
2. Definition of individual difference
3. Nature of individual difference
4. Types of individual difference
5. Factors affecting individual difference
6. Individual difference and intelligence
7. Individual difference and attitude
8. Individual difference and thinking
9. Educational implications of individual difference
10. Role of schools in meeting the individual differences
11. Conclusion
12. References
 Individual difference
Introduction
• We, in spite of belonging to a common
species known as human beings, have our
own individuality which contributes towards
the variation and differences found in us.

• It is these differences that are entitled as

„individual differences” in the languages of
sociology and psychology.
Introduction…

• The differences among individuals, that

distinguish or separate them from one
another and make one as an unique individual
in oneself, may be termed as individual
differences.

• The psychology of individual differences is

concerned with the systematic study of
intelligence and abilities associated with
personality of learner, learning styles and
needs and interests of learner.
Introduction…

• Learning is most effective when differences in

learner‟s language, cultural, and social behaviour
are taken into account.

• A teacher should be sensitive to individual

differences.

• A teacher‟s challenge is to acknowledge and

celebrate the differences among children and
work to maximize the growth in each child.
Definition of individual difference

• Individual differences stand for the

variations or deviations among individuals in
regard to a single characteristic or a
number of characteristics
-Carter B. Good

• Individual differences stand for “those

differences which in their totality,
distinguish one individual from another.
 Nature of Individual Differences

1. Inter-personal differences

2. Intra-personal differences

3. Inter-group differences

4. Intra-group differences
Types or varieties of individual
differences

• Physical or physiological
differences

• Psychological
differences
 Types or varieties of individual
differences
• Physical differences: individual differ in
height, weight, colour of skin, colour of eyes
and hair, size of hands and heads, arms,
feet, mouth and nose, length of waistline,
structure and functioning of internal
organs, facial expression, mannerisms of
speech and walk, and other such native or
acquired physical characteristics.
 Mental differences

• People differ in intellectual abilities and

capacities like reasoning and thinking, power
of imagination, creative expression,
concentration etc.

• On the basis of these differences they are

usually classified as idiot, imbecile, moron,
border line, normal, very superior and genius
 Difference in motor ability

• There exist wide differences in motor

abilities such as reacting time, speed of
action, steadiness, rate of muscular
moment, manual dexterity and resistance to
fatigue etc.
Difference in achievement

Differences exist in achievement and in

knowledge even among individuals who have
almost the same amount of intelligence and
have been subjected to equal amount of
schooling and experience.
 Emotional differences

• In some individuals, positive emotions like

love, affection and amusement and the like
are prominent whereas, in some negative
emotions are more powerful.

• Individuals also differ in the manner they

express their emotions. Some are
emotionally stable and mature, while others
are emotionally unstable and immature.
 Differences in interests and
aptitudes
• Variations occur among the individuals in relation to
the specific tastes and interests.

• In a similar way, people are found to have different

aptitudes. Some have mechanical aptitude, while
the others have scholastic, musical or artistic
aptitudes.
 Differences in self-concept

• Self concept reflects the images, considerations or

judgement about one‟s abilities and limitations
usually held by an individual not only projecting
himself before others but also for estimating his
self in his own eyes.

• Students must be made to form proper and real

concept about their self so that they may be helped
in their progress and development by maximizing
their potentials after getting rid of evils and
negative things detrimental to progress.
 Learning differences

• Some learn more easily and are able to make

use of their learning more comfortably than
others.
• For some, one method of learning or
memorization is more suitable, while for others,
a different method suits.
Differences in study habits
 Differences in social and moral
development
• Some are found to be adjusted properly in
the social situations and lead a happy social
life while others are socially handicapped,
unsocial or antisocial.
• Similarly, people are found to differ in
respect of ethical and moral sense.
 Factors Effecting Individual
Differences

1. Heredity (What occurs naturally as a function

of the genes)

2. Environment (What is learned and

communicated in different cultures or other
social groups) includes Family, Socio-economic
status, Culture, Previous knowledge,
experience and gender differences.
 Individual difference and
intelligence
• The concept of intelligence is complex,
abstract, and broad.

• Plato talked about individual differences in

intelligence.

• Early theories of intelligence viewed it as

the ability to learn, adjust in the
environment, acquire knowledge, and solve
problems.
Intelligence…

• In a symposium on intelligence in 1986, 24

psychologists presented 24 different theories of
intelligence (Sternberg, 1986).
• In 1912, William Stern created the concept of IQ
• Intelligence is normally distributed in the
population
• There are crystallized and fluid intelligence
• A teacher should be aware of the concept of IQ
• Aware of the students having multiple intelligence
• Aware of the students having low IQ
 Multiple Intelligence Theories

• Recent psychologists viewed intelligence as

multiple abilities.

• It is necessary for a teacher to have a

thorough understanding of intellectual
abilities of students.
 Sternberg’s Theory of
Intelligence (2000)
• According to him, intelligence comes into three
forms that are analytical, creative, and
practical.
1. Analytical ability: The ability to analyze,
evaluate, judge, compare, and contrast.

2. Creative ability: The ability to create, design,

invent, and originate.

3. Practical ability: the ability to use, apply,

manipulate, and implement.
Gardener’s Eight Types of Intelligence
(Frames of Mind)

1. Verbal skills--------authors, journalists, speaker

2.Mathematical skills------scientists, engineers, accountants
3.Spatial ability---------three dimensional thinking, architects,
sailors
4.Bodily-kinaesthetic skills----manipulate objects, surgeons,
dancers, athletes
5.Musical skills------sensitivity to pitch, melody, composers,
sensitive listeners
6.Intrapersonal-------understand oneself, psychologists,
theologians
7. Interpersonal-------interact with others
8.Naturalistic skills-----understand nature and human made
systems, farmers, ecologists, landscapers
 Learning and Social
Intelligence
• Learning is influenced by social intelligence which is
the ability to establish interpersonal relationships
with others. Socially intelligent person can easily
interact and communicate with others. He can
reduce his/her stress level by sharing it with
his/her support group.

• Learning can be enhanced when students have the

opportunities to interact and collaborate with
others on instructional tasks.
 Learning and Social Intelligence…

• Learning situations that allow for and

respect diversity encourage flexible
thinking, social competence, and moral
development.

• Learning and self-esteem are heightened

when learners are in respected and caring
relationship with others who see their
potential, appreciate their unique talent,
and respect them as individuals.
 Emotional Intelligence

• Emotionally intelligent means having

emotional self-awareness, managing one‟s
emotions, reading emotions, and handling
relationships.

• Learners having emotional intelligence are

less vulnerable to stress.

• It is a new concept in psychology and

different from the traditional IQ.
 Emotional intelligence…

• Slovery and Mayer (1990) defined emotional

intelligence as the ability to monitor one‟s own and
others feelings and emotions, to discriminate among
them, and to use this information to guide thinking
and actions.

There are four aspects of emotional intelligence

1. Emotional perception
2. Emotional integration
3. Emotional understanding
4. Emotional management
 Teachers and students having emotional
intelligence can improve their relationship:
1. By understanding the causes of their feelings
2. Being good at managing one‟s own anger
3. Being good at listening to what other people
are saying
4. Being motivated to share and cooperate
5. Deal with stressful situations with tactful
manner
 Individual difference and
intelligence
• Gardner‟s perspective presents the
possibility that most, and quite possibly all,
of our students may be QUITE intelligent in
one way or another.

• The debate continues…however, many

educators have embraced multiple
intelligences because of its optimistic view
of human potential, and encourages us to
use many different teaching methods.
“Attitude is a little thing that
makes a big difference”
-Winston Churchill
 Attitude

“An attitude is a particular feeling about

something. It therefore, involves a
tendency to behave in a certain way in
situations which involves that something,
whether person, idea or object. It is
partially rational and partially emotional and
is acquired, not inherent in and individual.”
 Components of attitude

a. Cognitive - our thoughts, beliefs, and ideas about

something. When a human being is the object of an
attitude, the cognitive component is frequently a
stereotype.

b. Affective - feelings or emotions that something

evokes. e.g. fear, sympathy, hate.

c. Conative, or behavioral - tendency or disposition to

act in certain ways toward something. Emphasis is
on the tendency to act, not the actual acting; what
we intend and what we do may be quite different.
Attitudes can be acquired through social
learning

• Classical conditioning: This is learning based on

association when one stimulus regularly precedes
another. The one that occurs first may soon
become a signal for the one that occurs second.

• Instrumental conditioning: here a child plays an

active role in the learning process, which ranges
from receiving selective rewards or punishments to
learning to hold the right views.

• Modeling: this is learning that take place when a

child witness examples and models her behaviour
accordingly.
Individual difference and attitude

Some of the main influences on attitude

formation are:
1. Teacher
2. Friends/peer group
3. Parents
4. Teaching method
5. The language itself
 Difference in attitude

• Attitude is one of the important attributes of our

behaviour.

• Individuals are found to possess varying attitude

towards different people, groups, objects and
ideas.

• Their attitude may be positive, negative or of

somewhat indifferent nature. Similarly they differ
in respect of beliefs, opinions and ideas.

• Some are conservative and rigid while the others

are progressive, liberal and dynamic.
 Thinking

The great philosopher Descartes

had said, “I think, so I exist”,
implying that thought is the very
essence of human existence.
 Concept of Thinking

• Thinking is a complex process which involves

manipulation of information as we form concepts. It
also engages in problem solving, reasoning and
making decisions.

• Thinking is a higher cognitive function and the

analysis of thinking processes is part of cognitive
psychology.

• Thinking is a pattern of behaviour in which we make

use of internal representations (symbols, signs etc.)
of things and events for the solution of some
specific, purposeful problem.
 Definitions of thinking

• Ross: Thinking is a mental activity in its

cognitive aspect.

• Kolesnik: Thinking is the reorganization of

concepts.

• Woodworth:Thinking is mental exploration

for finding out the solution of a problem.
 Types of Thinking

a) Convergent Thinking
b) Divergent Thinking
c) Critical Thinking
d) Reflective Thinking
e) Lateral Thinking
Types of thinking…

1.Convergent thinking: Convergent thinking

proceeds on the assumption that there is one
single best solution to any problem, and also
that the solution can be arrived at on the basis
of the existing knowledge.
 Types of thinking…

2. Divergent thinking: Divergent" thinking

may start from existing knowledge, but it
proceeds in different directions and are not
limited or bound by existing knowledge
 Types of thinking…

3. Critical thinking
• Critical thinking assesses the worth and validity of
something existent. It involves precise, persistent,
objective analysis. When teachers try to get
several learners to think convergent, they try to
help them develop common understanding.

4. Reflective thinking
• Reflective thinking is normally a slow process. It
takes considerable time to work on inferring and
combining by reflecting upon what we have learnt.
This is a higher form of thinking.
Types of thinking…

5. Lateral thinking
• Lateral thinking is about reasoning that is
not immediately obvious and about ideas
that may not be obtainable by using only
traditional step-by-step logic.

• Lateral thinking involves discarding the

obvious, leaving behind traditional modes
of thought, and throwing away
preconceptions.
 Educational implications of individual
differences

1. In any group there are individuals who deviate

from the norms of the group. Along with the
average, the presence of very superior and
extremely dull is equally possible in a class.

2. Every teacher should try to have the desired

knowledge of the abilities, capacities, interests,
attitudes, aptitudes and other personality traits
of his pupils and in the light of this knowledge
should render individual guidance to children for
the maximum utilization of their potentialities.
 Educational implications of
individual differences…
• It is wrong to expect uniformity in gaining
proficiency or success in a particular field from a
group of students. On account of their subnormal
intelligence, previous background, lack of proper
interest, aptitude and attitude etc. some students
lag behind in one or the other area of achievement.

• All students cannot be benefited by a particular

method of instruction and a uniform and rigid
curriculum.
 Role of schools in meeting the
individual differences
• “Since we supposedly are teaching
individuals, not groups of individuals, it is
the function of the school within its
budgetary personnel and curricular
limitations to provide adequate schooling
for every learner no matter how much he
differs from every other learner.”
-crow and crow
Role of school…
1. Proper knowledge of the individual’s
potentialities

• The first step in making provision for the

individual differences is to know about the
abilities, capacities, interests, aptitudes and
other personality traits of individual pupils.

• For this purpose, help from intelligence

test, cumulative record card, interest
inventories, attitude scales, aptitude tests
and measures for assessing personality
traits should be taken.
Role of school…
2.Ability grouping

• In the light of the results derived from

various tests for knowing individual
differences in terms of individual
potentialities in various dimensions, the
students in a class or area of activity can be
divided into homogenous groups.

• Such division can prove beneficial in

adjusting instruction to varying individual
differences.
Role of school…
3. Adjusting the curriculum

• The curriculum should be as flexible and

differentiated as possible.

• It should have the provision for a number of

diversified courses and co-curricular
experiences.

• It should provide adjustment suiting the

local requirements and potentialities of the
students in different groups.
Role of school…
4. Adjusting the method of teaching

• Every teacher should be somewhat free to

formulate his own plan and strategy and
adopt instructional procedure which he
finds most suited to the particular types of
pupils under him.

• He should try to follow a different

procedure or method of instruction suiting
the requirements of varying ability groups
of his pupils.
Role of school…
5.Adopting special programmes or methods
for individualizing instruction

• Schools may also adopt special programmes

or method of teaching like Dalton plan, the
Winnetka plan, the project method or use
programmed learning material for enabling
the students to learn their own individual
pace.
 Other measures of individualizing
instructions

1. The size of the class or section should be as small as

possible.
2. The teacher should try to pay individual attention
the group under instruction.
3. The teacher should keep in view the individual
differences of his students while engaging them in
drill or practice work in classroom or assigning home
task
4. In case ability grouping is not possible and more
specifically under the prevalent system of class
teaching, special coaching and guidance programme
for both the dull and gifted children is most helpful.
 Conclusion

1. Individual Differences in learning.

2. Learning and diversity.

3. Standard and assessment.

 References

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Innovation Division Higher Education Commission (HEC).Islamabad
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Sons Canada, Ltd.
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