Intellectual education is an education in which educators create certain situations and improve the intelligence level of the educated. "Wisdom" includes content and form. In terms of content, it refers to people's mastery of knowledge, agile and correct understanding, discrimination and judgment of things, and specific inventions. As far as form is concerned, it includes the mental and practical ability to understand, distinguish, judge and invent (that is, intelligence). Because intelligence is of great significance to the production of intelligent content, the understanding of the category of intellectual education should first be linked with the understanding of "intelligence" and its development.

1. What does intelligence include?

The popular concept of intelligence in China refers to the synthesis of various cognitive abilities such as observation, memory, thinking and imagination, and its core component is abstract thinking ability. Zhu Zhixian, ed. Dictionary of Psychology, Beijing Normal University Press, 1989, p. 953. Therefore, the so-called cultivation of intelligence, of course, also includes the development of the above-mentioned abilities. In order to realize the development of these abilities, China scholars usually advocate education by imparting knowledge and developing skills. This understanding is closely related to the reference to Soviet psychology and pedagogy.

Modern western psychology has rich achievements in exploring intelligence, and there are great differences in understanding.

For example, regarding the elements of intelligence, Spearman thinks that intelligence factors are mainly composed of general factors (G factors) and special factors (S factors). The former refers to the ability that can be detected in all intelligence tests; The latter refers to the ability to express only on individual topics. Guildford believes that intelligence involves thinking (cognition, memory, divergent thinking, convergent thinking and evaluation), content (vision, hearing, symbols, semantics and behavior) and product (unit, category, relationship, system, transformation and implication), with a total of 150 kinds of psychological abilities. At present, the mainstream of western psychology is cognitive psychology. The main point of cognitive psychology is that intelligence is a person's ability to process information. The most representative is the ternary intelligence theory put forward by American psychologist Robert Jeffrey Sternberg. Robert Jeffrey Sternberg believes that intelligence is the psychological ability to adapt individuals to the environment; Adaptive behavior should not only reflect the novelty of stimulus, but also reflect the degree of automation of information processing; The psychological mechanism of adaptive behavior is the synergistic effect of reflective component, operational component and knowledge acquisition in information processing. Many achievements of cognitive psychology need further examination. However, these achievements have played an important role in promoting our correct understanding of intelligence.

We might as well have a comprehensive understanding of Chinese and western viewpoints. Intelligence is actually a person's intellectual ability. It can be manifested as the synthesis of various cognitive abilities such as observation, memory, thinking ability and imagination ability. It can also be understood as the comprehensive psychological ability of systematically processing and processing information.

2. In what sense can intelligence be developed?

Psychology and pedagogy often have two different views on intelligence. Psychology, especially measurement psychology, often links intelligence with IQ, and regards intelligence as the position of individuals in the group according to their intelligence level. This kind of intelligence is influenced by genetic factors far beyond the role of environment or education. At the same time, although the individual's cognitive ability is constantly developing with the growth of age and education, its IQ status in peer groups is often relatively unchanged. This concept of intelligence is a natural strength, not a potential ability that can be cultivated and developed through education. Another view is that intelligence is mainly an acquired cognitive ability. Perkins, a professor at Harvard University in the United States, believes that intelligence = natural or natural ability (strength)+tactics)+knowledge. Among them, "force" refers to the physiological function of the human nervous system, which is not easy to be changed; The latter two refer to the strategic skills and knowledge of various disciplines that individuals can acquire through learning. Obviously, if we only understand the intelligence in the former sense, the significance of intellectual education will be greatly reduced.

The correct understanding of the concept of intelligence should be as follows: first, because even the narrow sense of intelligence is not a closed system, it can not be separated from the influence of related factors, so we agree with the broader concept of intelligence, that is, intelligence is a comprehensive ability composed of talent, strategy and knowledge. Second, even if intelligence is regarded as the position of an individual in a group according to intelligence, the IQ of a person is not absolutely constant. In primary school, children's intelligence is in the development stage, not to mention narrow and arbitrary conclusions about students' intelligence. All educational activities need to do is to develop students' intelligence level under the condition of recognizing intelligence differences.

3. The difference between intellectual education and teaching

Intellectual education and teaching are overlapping concepts. Intellectual education is juxtaposed with moral education, physical education and aesthetic education, forming a complete educational content framework. Their superior concept or concept is "education", and teaching is a possible form of education for all kinds of education. In other words, teaching is not just a way of intellectual education. Moral education, physical education and aesthetic education all need teaching methods, and each education has its own particularity in teaching process, principles and methods. Similarly, teaching is an important way of intellectual education, but this way is not the only way of intellectual education.

(B) the function of intellectual education

Intellectual education is of great significance. The Constitution of People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates: "The state trains young people, teenagers and children to develop in an all-round way in morality, intelligence and physique." Intellectual development is an important task for educators in China. The significance of intellectual education can be understood from its necessity and possible functions.

1. We should cultivate people's intelligence level through intellectual education.

We know that the achievements of human wisdom are passed down and developed in two ways: one is objective or material, such as tools, books and other media; The second is the subjective form, that is, the psychological ability of the subject, including intelligence. The two promote each other through interaction. The necessity of education for intellectual development is mainly reflected in two aspects.

First, without the participation of school education, people's intelligence will develop in life, but this development is spontaneous and slow. School education is conscious of the development of intelligence, so it will provide more conditions and methods to stimulate the development of intelligence, thus accelerating this development.