TEACHERS, how can you tell if a new student is intelligent from first glance?

Answer 1

you can't

Answer 2

Teachers really can't tell if a new student is truly intelligent just with one glance. However, as HUMANS, they may have some preconceptions (even if only subconsciously) of who's more sophisticated, mature, likely to excel, etc. based on how students dress and look. You can consider them preconceptions, prejudgments, discrimination, whatever, but we all do it even if we don't like to admit it (and sometimes, we don't like ourselves because we DO do it... since we've been living in such a PC world).

For example, the girl with the straightened blonde hair and the tighter-fitting clothes and the manicure who's wearing flip-flops may be considered "just another preppy girl... nice personality and interpersonal skills, but not that smart" while the Asian kid (and I can say this since I'm Asian) who's being really quiet and just standing there awkwardly is probably one of those "non-participants in class but also receives high test scores" types.

That's just how people judge others even if they're not willing to admit it. Obviously, though, such prejudgments may be totally wrong once the teacher gets to know the students.

Answer 3

intelligence is something so general and tricky that you,esp. as teacher,should avoid that tagging the best you can.each person has certain fields of interest and certain talents.
you might have a student that lacks all interest in your class.you'll see terrible papers.maybe they don't do that well there.but that doesn't have any thing to do with the "intelligence".switch the activity and you'll probably be astonished of what they can do.
i teached in kindergarten,primary,middle and high-school(lucky me:-) and I've noticed that the way kids think moves on a very large scale depending on what they want ,what they know ,what they believe about the abilities they have and the environment.
what you see at the class is usually far from reality and,unfortunately,it usually stays that way.
don't try to make judgments at a first glance.it's useless.
good luck!

Answer 4

Looking at a student won't tell me much, but once they start speaking, or turning in papers, I often can tell right away that this particular student has something special going for them.

Answer 5

Maybe not from looking but when they speak and they say stuff like:

I seen a dog.-they probably aren't smart/ not the proper way to say that

I saw a dog.-average/not that high vocabulary

The other day I saw a magnificent dog.-above average/good vocab

Answer 6

you should not even ask a question like that, because you cant