Level of Intellectual Development of Teacher Education Students

Abstract

This report describes a study of level of intellectual development displayed by a population of primary teacher education students at the time of entry to college. The results presented are in broad agreement with United States studies which indicate that a significant proportion of the high school and college population is not at the level of formal operations. Moreover, the results suggest that, for the population studied at least, there was no relationship between level of intellectual development and performance on the New South Wales Higher School Certificate. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for secondary and tertiary education.