An interesting article, of course, it primed me, so when I saw the picture, with the tree, saw, axe and hammer, I thought, hmm, actually.
The hammer stands out.. because there's a relationship between the tree, saw and axe, in that you can cut down and shape the tree with either an axe or saw, while you can't do much with the hammer (since there are no nails), a kid who would answer that way should probably be considered at least as smart as his peers.
I've generally always hated these "multiple perfectly valid answers, but only one counts, but we won't tell you which of the multiple valid perspectives we want you to take" type of questions.
An interesting article, of course, it primed me, so when I saw the picture, with the tree, saw, axe and hammer, I thought, hmm, actually.
The hammer stands out.. because there's a relationship between the tree, saw and axe, in that you can cut down and shape the tree with either an axe or saw, while you can't do much with the hammer (since there are no nails), a kid who would answer that way should probably be considered at least as smart as his peers.
I've generally always hated these "multiple perfectly valid answers, but only one counts, but we won't tell you which of the multiple valid perspectives we want you to take" type of questions.