Intelligence, Sapience and Learning, part 2: Dark Science – the deathly (mal)practice of Francis Galton and Cyril Burt
By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 25 July 2024
By Sandra Leaton Gray and David Scott on 25 July 2024
This blog post is Part 2 of a series relating to our newly published book: Intelligence, Sapience and Learning: Concepts, Framings and Practices.
Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) and Sir Cyril Burt (1883-1971) were two pioneers of differential psychology who had close connections to UCL and IOE respectively. They worked at a time when a theistic philosophy in education was on the decline, and the new discipline of Psychology was in the ascendancy. The lives of Galton and Burt provide us with a cautionary tale about the dangers of working unchallenged in the field of science, with little accountability. (more…)