Thomson, Godfrey Hilton, Sir, 1881-1955 (psychologist and Bell Professor of Education, University of Edinburgh)
Person
Found in 259 Collections and/or Records:
Correspondence, 1910-1978
Series
Identifier: Coll-1310/1/1
Scope and Contents
Includes letters to and about Thomson regarding his life, work, and career from a variety of correspondents including Karl Pearson, Egon Pearson, Edward Lee Thorndike, Sir James Duff, Carlos Paton Blacker, David Glass, and Derrick Lawley.
Dates:
1910-1978
Correspondence between Thomson and Derrick Lawley regarding calculating a decline in intelligence, 19 Dec 1945-20 Dec 1945
File
Identifier: Coll-1310/1/1/11
Scope and Contents
Thomson and Lawley discuss potential problems with the calculations, looking at issues such as the validity of calculating the average family intelligence from one year group.
Thomson's letter is written on the reverse of 4 A5 copies of a supplementary sheet regarding the training of music teachers, briefly alluding to necessary qualifications and course of training.
Dates:
19 Dec 1945-20 Dec 1945
Correspondence between Thomson and Derrick Lawley regarding differences in IQ between two successive generations, 21 Oct 1945 - 23 Oct 1945
File
Identifier: Coll-1310/1/1/10
Scope and Contents
Discusses the work of Fraser Roberts and R S Fisher with regards to calculating the fall in IQ per generation, specifically the problems Thomson sees in the data being collected from one generation only. Lawley agrees with this, and expounds upon the problem further. Thomson also asks Lawley to check the calculations of Burt on the Sutherland and Thomson data, with Lawley subsequently highlighting their inaccuracies. Thomson's letter is written on the reverse of 7...
Dates:
21 Oct 1945 - 23 Oct 1945
Correspondence between Thomson and Edwin B Wilson, 1939
File
Identifier: EUA IN1/ACU/G1/6/2/3
Scope and Contents
In Wilson's first letter, dated 28 September 1939, he praises Thomson's book, the Factorial Analysis of Human Ability, though he confesses that he thinks the use of factor analysis in psychology limited. He discusses the response of President Woodrow, Britain, and France towards Germany, and describes Germany as an aggressive nation psychologically. In Thomson's reply, dated 21st November 1939, he thanks Wilson for his letter,...
Dates:
1939
Correspondence between Thomson and Oliver F M Nicoll, Secretary of the Royal Commission on Population, 9 Jun 1944 – 13 Jul 1944
Item
Identifier: Coll-1310/1/1/8
Scope and Contents
The correspondence refers to Thomson's work on the correlation of intelligence and family size. Nicoll asks Thomson to prepare a memorandum regarding his findings for the use of the commission, and later thanks him for producing this.
Also includes a telegram from B Hopkin, Assistant Secretary, asking for Thomson's permission to disseminate the memorandum.
Dates:
9 Jun 1944 – 13 Jul 1944
Correspondence between Thomson and W A B Hopkin, Assistant Secretary for the Royal Commission on Population, 9-19 April 1946
File
Identifier: Coll-1310/1/1/12
Scope and Contents
The correspondence regards Thomson's Galton lecture, specifically an apparent difficulty in the assumption that the parents of all the children in a particular age group form an unbiased sample of parents. Also included is a letter to Thomson from Lawley, stating he approves of Thomson's reply to Hopkins.
Dates:
9-19 April 1946
Darlington, 25 Nov 1930
File
Identifier: Coll-1310/3/1/2/17
Scope and Contents
Thomson discusses the limitations of intelligence testing, and its positive qualities, citing its objectivity and scientific basis. He outlines the processes involved in trialling the tests to establish their suitability and reliability, describing how the final order and content of the paper is decided; the difficulties involved in obtaining a representative sample of children; the need to incentivise children to do their best in the trial test, and the process of standardisation...
Dates:
25 Nov 1930
Draft article titled The Use of Tests of Intelligence in English and Scottish Schools, 10 Mar 1931
File
Identifier: Coll-1310/3/1/2/20
Scope and Contents
The article explores the uses of intelligence testing in determining mental defects in young children; examinations at 11 (eleven-plus) to determine the child's future schooling; and testing for the purpose of administering vocational guidance. Thomson examines each of these three uses in turn, citing examples of the use of intelligence tests in England and Scotland. He explores some of the problems of testing for selection to secondary school, in particular the possibility of...
Dates:
10 Mar 1931
Education and Vocation, 6 Oct 1942
File
Identifier: Coll-1310/3/1/2/27
Scope and Contents
Thomson argues that the British education system needs to make provision for vocational training, citing, in some detail, Germany's extensive system of vocational training as an example. He stresses that the vocational training undertaken through the necessities of war should be carried on through peacetime, ensuring it is integrated into the existing educational system and valued, and outlines the history and decline of apprenticeship and vocational education in Britain between...
Dates:
6 Oct 1942
Education as a National Problem of Today, 10 January 1931
File
Identifier: Coll-1310/3/1/2/18
Scope and Contents
This lecture is essentially the same in content as lecture titled Some National Problems of Today: Education, with a shortened introduction.
Dates:
10 January 1931
Additional filters:
- Type
- Archival Object 253
- Collection 6
- Subject
- Edinburgh -- Scotland 81
- Glenapp Ayrshire Scotland 49
- Education 29
- Intelligence 11
- Intelligence tests 11
- Examinations 7
- Education research 6
- Equalityyy 6
- London (England) 6
- Mathematics 6
- Statistics 6
- Vocational education 6
- Newcastle Upon Tyne (England) 5
- Teachers, Training of 5
- Child psychology 4
- Psychology 4
- Art and science 2
- Child development 2
- Cultural education 2
- Darlington England 2
- Durham England 2
- Educational tests and measurements 2
- Eugenics 2
- Factor analysis 2
- Glasgow Lanarkshire Scotland 2
- Graduation Ceremonies 2
- Heredity 2
- Human Evolution 2
- School community relationship 2
- Scotland -- Aberdeenshire -- Aberdeen 2
- St Andrews (Scotland) 2
- Wigan Lancashire England 2
- American (cultural identity) 1
- Bibliography 1
- Bingley West Yorkshire England 1
- Birmingham (England) 1
- Calculators 1
- Cambridge (England) 1
- Civilisation 1
- Classroom environment 1
- Communities 1
- Cornwall England 1
- Crieff (Scotland) 1
- Dundee Angus Scotland 1
- Edinburgh University Student's Handbook 1
- Education, Higher 1
- English (cultural identity) 1
- English teachers | Training of 1
- Etymology 1
- Falkirk Scotland 1
- German (cultural identity) 1
- Haddington (Scotland) 1
- Heredity, Human 1
- Individual differences 1
- Kassel Germany 1
- Lectures and Lecturing 1
- Leeds (England) 1
- Libraries 1
- Mental deficiency 1
- Music 1
- Nature and Nurture 1
- Newcastle-under-Lyme (England) 1
- Oxford Oxfordshire England 1
- Propaganda 1
- Sampling 1
- Science education 1
- Sheffield (England) 1
- Strasburg Germany 1
- Students 1
- Sunderland (Tyne and Wear, England) 1
- Teaching 1
- Working life 1
- World War, 1914-1918 1
- World War, 1939-1945 1 + ∧ less
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