The Contribution of Formal Schooling to the Increase in Intellectual Capital

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 130.237.165.40 on Tue, 06 Oct 2015 14:23:24 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Contribution of Formal Schooling t o the Increase i n Intellectual Capital TORSTEN HUSEN ALBERT TUIJNMANSubstantial IQ gains from one generation to the next have been recorded for men in many industrial societies since the 1950s. Some authors have attempted to argue away these results by claiming that intelligence tests do not measure general IQ but rather something with a weak causal link to IQ. Others have taken the evidence emerging from, for example, The Netherlands as showing that the massive increase in the nation's intellectual capital is accounted for by environmental factors, not the least of which is formal schooling. By using the Linear Structural Relations (LISREL) method and longitudinal data collected in Sweden for a male cohort, the influences of home background and formal schooling on adult IQ test scores are estimated. This study shows the importance of formal schooling in enhancing the intellectual capital of a nation. The implications for educational policy and practice are discussed. a crucial problem in psychological research relevant to education. This issue has been given increased visibility by a recent study of the stability of IQ conducted by Flynn (1987). He compares generational changes in IQ test scores collected over time for representative samples in 14 industrial societies. The data show average IQ gains ranging from 5 to 25 points on a scale with a mean and a standard deviation of 100 and 15, respectively. The median gain across countries is 15 points, or a full standard deviation (Flynn, 1987, p. 184). Rather than interpreting the results as indicating that IQ has increased from one generation to the next, the author questions the validity of certain group intelligence tests, such as the Ravens Progressive Matrices Test. In this connection, it may be mentioned that the feasibility study conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement back in the early 1960s showed that, contrary to expectations, the "culturefree" items such as Raven's Matrices were found to have more cross-national variance than did the verbal tests (Foshay, 1962).On the basis of indirect evidence, Flynn then argues that a substantial portion of the IQ gains observed in the data are accounted for by unidentified, environmental variables. For example, the data collected in the Netherlands from 1952 to 1984-1982 are considered to "prove the existence of unknown environmental factors so potent that they account for 15 of the 20 points gained" (Flynn, 1987, p. 171). In passing, Flynn (1987, p. 188) mentions two variable...

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