Collective Intelligence- Group IQ

In preparing our children to live and work in this new era, we need to remember that teaching them the skills of collaboration- negotiation, compassion, active listening, compromise and collective creativity- will be essential to their success. And, while asking children to work cooperatively with one another in small groups has been a central component of teacher practice for many decades, deliberate instruction in the skills of collaboration has not. Now, it seems, investigators studying successful adult interactions have discovered that groups can actually demonstrate a kind of collective "intelligence" based on the ability of the group members to work well together.

In a recent article in the Globe (December 19, 2010 "Group IQ"), reporter Carlyn Y. Johnson sited research from MIT and Carnegie Mellon that indicates that "group intelligence is not strongly tied to either the average intelligence of the members or of the team's smartest member." Nor were the group's "motivation, satisfaction or unity" important in predicting team success. The trick seemed, rather, to be in the make up of the team and its ability to "grapple with a complex task" effectively. The research further suggested that there were three criteria, in particular, that tracked with group effectiveness: leadership that encouraged active participation by all group members, with people taking turns speaking; the ability of the group members to "read" others feelings; and evidence of stronger "social sensitivity" on the part of more members in the group. In schools, it may be more a question of using this new insight and tweaking, rather than changing practice that will help us prepare our children to contribute to winning teams.

This year, all three Watertown elementary schools have adopted the "Caring School Communities" program as part of our effort to strengthen our school environments for children. Key to this curriculum is the expectation that children will learn to listen to and value the thoughts of other people. Identifying issues, brainstorming and evaluating proposed solutions to problems, and encouraging children to recognize the contributions of their peers to the success of the group also feature in the explicit goals of regular group meetings. This spring, the schools will be piloting a home-based component of the program, in which parents and guardians will be asked to take a role in similar conversations with our children. More details regarding this new kind of "homework" will be included in future newsletters.

As Johnson's article points out, "much of human history has been shaped not by one person at a time but by networks of people, whether they were bands of hunter-gatherers or corporations...[Moreover] new knowledge is increasingly being produced by teams." It is up to us all to ensure that our children will be active, thoughtful participants on those very important teams.