By Silke Hummer
Corona has not only made our children sick, but also stupid.
Six months after the start of the pandemic, Germany’s schoolchildren performed significantly worse in an intelligence test than comparison groups in 2002 and 2012. This is the result of a study in the specialist magazine “Plos One“ published study by German scientists.
The researchers from Trier and Chemnitz examined the performance of a total of 424 seventh to ninth graders from four schools in Rhineland-Palatinate. To do this, they used the Berlin intelligence structure test.
Here, processing speed, memory, processing capacity as well as ingenuity and ability to deal with material containing numbers, words or figures are tested. An overall value for general intelligence is then determined from these tested sub-areas.
The study first compared the intelligence test performance of 104 comparable students between 2002 and 2020 in terms of gender, class type (regular classes and gifted classes), grade level and age.
The result
While the average general intelligence determined for 2002 was still an IQ of 112, the value in 2020 was only around 105. A further analysis showed that the sample from 2012 had higher values than the other two groups from 2002 and 2020 scored According to the study, this suggests that the previously observed difference is not the continuation of a longer downtrend.
Ten months after the first test, i.e. 16 months after the start of the pandemic, the researchers tested again. During this period, the children achieved an average increase in general intelligence of almost eight IQ points, which corresponds to an expected increase during a school year.
Between 1 and 10.8 IQ points are usually added per school year. The previously determined deficit compared to previous years could not be made up.
According to the study, the results provide evidence that the pandemic and the resulting problems in education may have affected students’ intelligence development. This was particularly evident in the first few months of the pandemic.
That’s what experts say
A year of school therefore brings an increase in intelligence that corresponds to about five IQ points. “In the context of the G8-G9 discussion, this means, to put it bluntly, that the missing school year and the associated increase in intelligence makes our students dumber. The study does not bring any new insights in this regard, but it is still interesting,” says Prof. Dr. Detlef Rost, Professor of Psychology at the Center for Mental Health Education at Southwest University Chongqing (China).
“In fact, the corona pandemic has had a number of negative consequences. In particular, negative effects on stress and emotions have been widely reported, but also on specific school performance, such as in mathematics and reading,” emphasizes Prof. Dr. Samuel Greiff, Professor of Psychology and Pedagogical-Psychological Diagnostics at the University of Luxembourg.
In short, the results are consistent with what is already known: “Duration of schooling has a positive effect on intelligence. During the pandemic, students received fewer classes. Other problems came up, such as online lessons, which often involve little more than the stupid filling out of worksheets,” says Prof. Dr. Detlef Rost. However, the study cannot clarify what is ultimately responsible for which change.