Gc includes culturally acquired knowledge, including language, information, and concepts of the specific culture and the ability to apply this knowledge.
Gc is the factor that is most highly correlated with reading, math, and writing achievement as well as the factor that is most influenced by cultural bias in assessment.
It includes declarative and procedural knowledge and is influenced by personal experience.
Gc abilities influence the following academic skills:
How to improve Gc functioning:
If you have a student whose Gc scores are relatively weak:
Gc is the factor that is most highly correlated with reading, math, and writing achievement as well as the factor that is most influenced by cultural bias in assessment.
It includes declarative and procedural knowledge and is influenced by personal experience.
Gc abilities influence the following academic skills:
- Success with written expression, including vocabulary, mechanics, and content
- Oral and reading vocabulary
- Development of basic reading skills
- Development of reading comprehension skills
- Basic math skills and math reasoning especially as students get older, as declarative and procedural knowledge are of high importance.
How to improve Gc functioning:
- Children need to be exposed to a wide variety of spoken language as early as possible.
- In the classroom, try to use rich and varied vocabulary
- Teach vocabulary and other concepts using the pairing of visual tools (pictures, videos, demonstrations) with auditory information (verbal explanations)
- Link new vocabulary and concepts to children's prior knowledge
- Play word games such as Scrabble, Boggle, and crossword puzzles
If you have a student whose Gc scores are relatively weak:
- Help the student develop language and knowledge base as much as possible (see suggestions above)
- Pre-teach topics and vocabulary
- Reading vocabulary strategies
- Frayer model
- Reading visual aids strategy
- Reading visual imagery
- Story map
- Semantic feature analysis (can be used for all academic subjects)
- Math self-monitoring strategies