Aggregated News
The House of Commons Education Committee is currently investigating 'Underachievement in education of white working class children'. At a session on 4 December it took evidence from a range of experts, including geneticist Professor Robert Plomin, an internationally recognised authority on the genetics of children with learning disabilities in particular and behaviour genetics in general.
The whole session makes for interesting viewing, but with his recent study grabbing headlines, the exchanges between Plomin and the Committee are particularly worth a listen (from 11.07 in the video).
Plomin began by suggesting that rather than talking about IQ or intelligence, which tends to raise red flags, the Committee should instead focus its attention on the heritability of educational attainment as measured by exam scores. 25 minutes later, prompted by Dominic Raab MP, he concluded the meat of his contribution by venturing into wider debates on genetics, intelligence and socioeconomic status (about which he has also published very recently).
Committee members were clearly impressed - and occasionally wowed, it seems - by Plomin's knowledge, authority and argument. But they were...
The whole session makes for interesting viewing, but with his recent study grabbing headlines, the exchanges between Plomin and the Committee are particularly worth a listen (from 11.07 in the video).
Plomin began by suggesting that rather than talking about IQ or intelligence, which tends to raise red flags, the Committee should instead focus its attention on the heritability of educational attainment as measured by exam scores. 25 minutes later, prompted by Dominic Raab MP, he concluded the meat of his contribution by venturing into wider debates on genetics, intelligence and socioeconomic status (about which he has also published very recently).
Committee members were clearly impressed - and occasionally wowed, it seems - by Plomin's knowledge, authority and argument. But they were...