An extra year at school can make your child smarter: A recent study suggests that if your child goes for an extra year of education then it may leave him with new knowledge and an increased IQ. The increase in IQ of children ranged from 1.197 IQ points to 5.229 IQ points. The average increase was noted to be of3.394 IQ points.
The results are strong indication that education raises intelligence test scores.The researchers say that they used the 42 data sets using several different research designs to figure out how an extra year of education can impact a child’s IQ.
Research has long shown that there lies a direct relationship between education and intelligence. However, it stays an ambiguity whether it is because education boosts intelligence of a child or an individual with high IQ is likely to stay in the school for longer time than the peers.
Researchers had to look at three different types of quasi-experimental studies from a plethora of sources. These include published articles, books, pre-print articles, working papers, dissertations, and theses.
For inclusion in the Meta-analysis, each data set should have provided with cognitive scores obtained from objective measurement. These measurements should come from participants aging six years or older with healthy cognitive skills.
The process yielded 42 data sets from 28 studies.There were a total of 615,812 participants involved in the inclusion.
The surprising thing is that the effect is so long lasting that it appeared even for those who completed intelligence tests in their 70s or 80s. There is something special about this educational phenomenon that it is so beneficial right across the lifespan.
The researchers also mentioned that the each type of study has its own pros and cons. New findings also raise several questions that the future will have to answer.
