The BPS History of Psychology Centre (HOPC) has been awarded funding to produce a resource for secondary school students on the history of IQ testing in the UK education system.
Provided by the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS), the funding will replicate IQ tests from the society’s archive which were used to evaluate young children’s intelligence during the 1960s and 1970s.
This testing, administered and formulated by psychologists, led to many children of Black Caribbean descent being incorrect sent to schools for the ‘educational subnormal’.
The resource will encourage students to think critically about the tests, the wider social implications of their use and the legacy of this type of testing, which has been an excluded and under-researched part of UK history.
Alongside the resource, the society will also run several interactive sessions in secondary schools to engage with students and help to bring the story of these IQ tests to life.
