The Inability to Make Inferences

The Inability to Make Inferences Inbox

"Someone once asked a former prime minister of New Zealand what he thought about all the Kiwis going to Australia and living off the dole (i.e. welfare). His reply was 'that every time a Kiwi goes to Australia, the average IQ of both countries goes up'."

As an experiment, I told this joke to all my students at Kyushu University (one of the top ten universities in Japan) in both English and Japanese and out of the eight classes I was teaching with an average of between 25-50 students per class (about 300 students), only one student was able to figure why the IQ in both countries would go up - (he was in the one class where the students did not have to take a test to enter the university and of which the professors considered the students below par. On the other hand, none of the medical students could figure it out). I have even told this to Japanese professors who couldn't figure it out.

Now, cultural differences may play a part in this inability, but the point I want to make is that in a system where students are not given experiences to reflect on in order to figure out the answers to problems themselves, but rather given the answers to memorize in order to take a test, they are not going to develop this "natural" ability. Hence, a system like this actually harms their ability to actually "think" and often gives those people who do actually graduate from the top universities - because they are good at memorizing facts and taking tests - a false sense of intellectual superiority, which in turn becomes harmful to the rest of the population - since those people are usually the ones in positions to "pull the strings". This kind of system is endemic in Asia, but it is also part of Western education systems (but not to the degree it is in Asian systems). Unfortunately, I find this inability also endemic among most doctors I have had the opportunity to meet and talk with (except for of course the doctors on the ML. Scary, though if you think about it!

peace

paul

P.S. In case you didn't get "it", the reason the IQs in both countries would go up is because it was implied that (1) all Kiwis have higher IQs than all Aussies, and (2) any Kiwi that would want to go to Australia must have a lower IQ than your average Kiwi that wouldn't but naturally higher than any Aussie. :)