Podcast Script:

Alex G: Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Teaching and Giggles. I am your host Alex
G and today we have Emmuh, Roachelle, Jonnie, and Caden joining us today.

Everyone: heyy amazing teachersssss and scholars!!!

Alex G: For today's topic we will be discussing the topic of intelligence and what factors
contribute to it. But before we start I wanna ask you guys what you think intelligence is or how
you would define it. Starting off with Emmuh.

Emmuh: Hey guys once again i'm Emmuh, and i'm also a teacher like you all tuning in today.
For me intelligence is a very complex and difficult term to measure. Overall I think it has to do
with problem solving and not necessarily grade based things

Roachelle: I would also agree with you. I think intelligence is something that should be off the
charts because oftentimes one's academic success determines how “smart” you are and it
shouldn't be that way.

Jonnie: If i'm being honest though I disagree. I think that one's academic success has to do with
those grades. I mean speaking from my personal experience I'm here where I am today
because of my hard work and those grades that I received from it. Without my grades I wouldn't
have been able to graduate and get my teaching credentials.

Emmuh: See but that's the thing. You mentioned “hard work” which means you still have to work
for that degree. You can be “smart” but if theres no effort you genuinely won't advance

Alex G: What do you think Caden?

Caden: I just think that it’s a difficult thing to measure. I'm sure we all agree when I say that we
all for sure struggled to get where we are today but it's all a cumulative of things. I would say
that it all starts from primary school.

Alex G: I'm glad you actually brought up elementary school because that's one of our biggest
topics that we will discuss today.

Jonnie: HE'S ON THE MONEY!!!!

Everyone: HAHAHAHAHA

Alex G: After looking at different studies and articles I came across a couple of interesting ones
that I’ve shared with you all and I wanted to see what you thought about it. Before anything I
wanted to repeat the question to you all, “Is there a correlation between intelligence and
how much time you spend writing? What are some possible factors to this question?”
Caden: We getting serious now

Alex G: HAHAHA yeah i decided to switch up this week. We usually discuss more light
hearted topics but today I wanted to discuss this topic because it's something that is
very meaningful to me. Writing has been life changing and I would like to see if it makes
a difference in things far more important than perhaps academic success.

Roachelle: I can speak for everyone when I say that writing has genuinely been a very
important skill that has helped us in our careers.

Jonnie: Definitely helpful but enjoyable? Not sure about that one

Emmuh: Okay Mr Mathematician

Roachelle: ANYWAYSSSS

Caden: Yeah let's get started with the first one.

Jonnie: MY BADDD

Alex G: Okay first up, do you guys think that the early stages of one's early writing
journey impact how intelligent or successful you’ll be in the future? In the article
“Creative expressiveness in childhood writing predicts educational achievement
beyond motivation and intelligence: A longitudinal, genetically informed study”
they talk about a study and childhood creativity.
Do you guys think that this article had something to do with the question or what do you
think?

Emmuh: I honestly would agree. The article emphasizes a huge chunk on the term
creativity. I think that one's education and intelligence forsureee has to do with creativity
starting from a young age.

Jonnie: Honestly I don't know if I really agree with that. I think that intelligence is
something that is determined by birth.

Emmuh: But see that's the problem, I think that's one of the biggest misconceptions
there can be when it comes to the topic of intelligence.

Caden: Yeah I think it can be a “gift” but also people can work their way up.
Jonnie: I don't mean to sound so negative and disagree with everything but this is why
our jobs as teachers are so important. The grades that our students receive not only
reflect their knowledge in the system but it reflects on our teaching styles. I believe that
as teachers jobs are EXTREMELY important. Theres alot of environmental factors and
the relationships we build with our students are very crucial to their learning and
understanding

Roachelle: That I will agree with. I think there's a big correlation between intelligence
and creativity and things like better working memory and faster information processing.

Caden: That creativity that the article mentions definitely has a lot to do with educational
achievements and intelligence. Creativity is a big factor in this question without doubt.

Alex G: This also goes hand in hand with “The incremental contribution of TOEIC®
Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Writing tests to predicting performance on
real-life English language tasks”. They also speak about test scores and the
correlation between intelligence and understanding. This article can potentially make a
strong connection about scores possibly not reflecting intelligence or writing skills.

Emmuh: I actually found this one extremely interesting because it's something that I had
never thought about. To me the biggest question that I got out of this article was about
language being a limitation in ways we rarely think about.

Caden: It was interesting seeing what the TOEIC Test really means. For those who don't
know, the TOEIC is a speaking and writing test that requires testers to construct a
response. It requires multiple language skills and learning outcomes are things like
language domain distinctions, decision making observations, and effects on how
learning can be detrimental.

Alex G: Since You mention that the topic of language actually hits close to home.
Because although I said that writing has been a huge part of my life, it also caused
many struggles and challenges throughout my life. I grew up in a multilingual
household. This means that growing up I struggled with learning two languages
simultaneously. Being multilingual has definitely helped me in my career but it has also
given me rejections.
The article “Multilingual Writers in College Contexts” really defines my process
because it hasn't been easy. There has been a demand for multilingual writers but
there's also many negative things around it.
Jonnie: Really? I wasn't aware of any of these things, I always saw it as strictly an
advantage ahead of everyone else. I believe they bring new ideas and practices that not
only inspires other writers but it makes a huge difference in the writing world.

Alex G: I'm not disagreeing with you but the system has gotten in the way with things
like pluralism, english only ideologies, and racialization. A Lot of judgment all around
which many see us as inferior or “not smart enough” because of the language and
background we come from.

Caden: I understand the whole thing about the world not seeing you as a whole
because of these factors. I wanna put in my input and bring up “learning disabilities”. I
think society has also tried to minimize people who share the same struggles as me. I
struggle with dyslexia and growing up and entering the education system I was often
judged. Just like in the article “The dynamics of narrative writing in primary grade
children: writing process factors predict story quality” they mention dyslexia affecting
important values like pausing times, transcription fluency, and effects on writing
processes overall. Opposed to let's say developing children who had no significant
relationships with the handwriting process.

Roachelle: Trust me you’re not alone when I say that I understand. Growing up I was
diagnosed with ADHD and it forsure had a huge impact on me, but look at us now! That
did not stop us from reaching our goals. The article “Written composition performance of
students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder” also talks about studies on
comparisons with people with ADHD vs those who don't. It does bring many stepbacks
but there's always ways to go around things

Emmuh: Yeah I agree to be honest, after today's podcast I feel like I have a lot of
reflecting to do

Alex G: I totally agree Emmuh! As teachers we have to try harder to understand and be
more patient with our students because we were in their shoes once.

Jonnie: yeah as teachers we have a huge responsibility and an input into their learning
developments

Alex G: I hope we can all reflect and really take in all the information we talked about today. All
these different factors can or cannot affect one's “intelligence”. Its all up to one's ideologies and
what we choose to believe in

Alex G: ANYWAYS GUYS thank you for tuning in today THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!
Everyone: “CROWD CHEERING”

ALEX G: SEE YOU GUYS NEXT TIME! WE OUT!

Everyone: BYEEE!!