Stupid students due to pandemic? This is behind the new study

The years 2020 to 2022 were a challenge, especially for German students. Due to the school closures, lessons were primarily held digitally from home. The consequence: Considerable strain on emotional and social development as well as an enormous drop in performance. This is the result of a new study now published in the journal
„Plos One“
has been published.

Study compares performance of 424 students

As part of their study, the researchers compared the performance of a total of 424 students from four schools in Rhineland-Palatinate from grades seven to nine. The young people were asked to
Berlin intelligence structure test
for young people to complete.
This tests various skills:

• processing speed,
• memory,
• processing capacity,
• Ingenuity and ability to deal with numerical, verbal and figural material.

To do this, the scientists divided the subjects into groups of 104 depending on:

• Gender,
• class type (regular classes and gifted classes),
• grade level and
• age of this.

In the next step, the results of the intelligence test were compared with comparable groups from 2002 and 2020.

2002 and 2022: Seven IQ points difference

The result:
While the mean of general intelligence for 2002 was still at
112 IQ score
was only about 2020
105
. In addition, another sample from 2012 showed significantly higher values ​​than the other two groups from 2002 and 2020. According to the study, this indicates that the previously observed difference is not the continuation of a longer downward trend. Pupils in the pandemic years performed significantly worse on average than the comparison groups in 2002 and 2012.

Ten months after the first test in 2020 – correspondingly 16 months after the start of the pandemic – the pandemic group was tested again. The increase in intelligence (almost 8 IQ points) was in the normal range here, but the gap to previous years could not be made up again. Perceived stress was not significantly related to performance on the intelligence test.

Intelligence is multifactorial

“Intelligence (is) a complex construct that correlates substantially with school performance – and much more -” says Eva Stumpf, Director of the Institute for Educational Psychology “Rosa and David Katz” at the University of Rostock, with regard to the study on. As Stumpf explains, the development of differences in intelligence is a combination of disposition and environment. This includes, for example, the family and school learning environment.

“Even if the influence of schooling on the development of cognitive abilities is generally difficult to investigate – among other things because there are no comparison groups that have not been schooled – existing findings indicate that both the quantity and the quality of schooling influence intellectual development” , comments the expert.

Criticism of G8: “One year of school increases intelligence by about five IQ points”

With regard to the results, Detlef Rost, Professor of Psychology at the Center for Mental Health Education in China, also criticizes the G8 system: “One year of school brings an increase in intelligence that corresponds to about five IQ points. In the context of the G8-G9 discussion, for example, this means, to put it bluntly, that the missing school year and the associated increase in intelligence makes our students dumber,” emphasizes Rost.

As the researchers summarize in their report, the results indicate that the pandemic and the resulting problems in education could have an impact on the intelligence development of students. Klaus Zierer, Chair of School Education at the University of Augsburg, considers the results to be plausible.

“Due to the study design, in which different cohorts are compared over different periods of time, it is possible to draw this conclusion,” explains Zierer. “For children and young people, the corona pandemic was characterized by school closures and – even more serious for personality development – ​​social isolation. Young people in particular need the other person in order to be able to develop psychosocially and also to be able to learn.”

Other factors of importance: digitization and smartphone use

Nevertheless, the expert argues that there are other important moderators who should be called in when the conclusion is drawn. An example of this is the digitization of the living environment, which has increased dramatically since 2012. “There are studies on this that show, for example, that the duration and type of use of smartphones has a negative impact on the development of intelligence,” explains Zierer. He also criticizes the representativeness of the study given the very different sample sizes.

Rost agrees: “In 2020 and 2012, classes from four schools in Rhineland-Palatinate, including special classes for gifted students/high performers, which are rare or non-existent in other federal states, were examined.” This significantly limits the robustness of the study.

Criticism: The study does not provide any new insights

“Further problems of the study – which are partly also mentioned by the authors themselves – are the lack of before-and-after testing,” adds Samuel Greiff, Professor of Psychology and Pedagogical-Psychological Diagnostics at the University of Luxembourg. However, this was hardly possible in this way, since it should have been foreseen in 2019 that the pandemic would exist.

The study does not provide any really new insights, but it does emphasize the importance of face-to-face teaching for students for their emotional, psychological and intellectual development.

“In short, the results are consistent with what is already known: length of school attendance has a positive effect on intelligence. During the pandemic, students received fewer classes. Other problems came along, such as online lessons, which often involve little more than the stupid filling out of worksheets. The study cannot clarify what is ultimately responsible for which change,” the scientist sums up.