The Portrayal of Intelligence in Introductory Educational Psychology Textbooks

Because of the importance of students’ and teachers’ implicit beliefs about intelligence, we designed a study to determine: (a) How is intelligence defined—as a malleable or fixed entity—in introductory educational psychology textbooks? and (b) To what extent are classroom applications of intelligence topics included in the textbooks? We conducted a content analysis of the intelligence topics presented in 11 introductory educational psychology textbooks and identified 19 intelligence topics. The texts generally defined intelligence as involving adaptive behavior and problem solving. The amount of pages devoted to classroom application was less than the amount devoted to explaining the topics. We provide implications for instructors and textbook authors. For example, instructors should consider how they can best help students make sense of the variety of intelligence topics and theories. They should also design activities that ask students to think about and make explicit their beliefs about intelligence.