Since the early 2000’s, starting with the NCLB education reform movement in US education, I’ve have believed that Richard Snow’s notion of “aptitude” (i.e., aptitude-trait complexes) should be more central in US education and special education. Snow’s notion of aptitude embraces the older European notion of aptitude and not the largely cognitive-IQ-g centric US notion of aptitude.
I eventually completed a literature review and submitted (2004) a US Department of Education OSEP discretionary grant white paper—that curiously never saw the light of day! This “fugitive” piece of literature is described and can be downloaded at a prior IQs Corner post (click here). It is a long story, but 18 years later, after further study and refinement, I officially published the Snow-inspired Cognitive-Affective-Motivation Model of Learning (CAMML; click here to read the paper; click here for other related posts).
With the help of AI Grok, I have created a figure that compares the differences between the European and American notions of aptitude. It should be self-explanatory. I encourage readers interested in a proposed shift in education to the European notion of aptitude (NOT IQ-centric; instead Snow’s notion of aptitude trait complexes) to take a look at the CAMML paper mentioned above. Enjoy.
Click on image to enlarge for easy reading
