User:Vipul/Heiner Rindermann

Heiner Rindermann is a German psychologist and educational researcher.

Academic career
Rindermann receieved a Ph.D. in psychology in 1995 on the subject of teacher evaluations from Heidelberg University and and completed a Habilitation in 2005 on the topic of teacher quality at University of Koblenz and Landau. In September 2007 he was appointed professor for evaluation and methodology of developmental psychology at the University of Graz. Since April 2010, Rindermann holds the Chair of Educational and Developmental Psychology at the Technical University of Chemnitz.

Research
Rindermann does research in educational psychology, developmental psychology, differential psychology, pedagogy, and clinical psychology.

Course evaluations
Rindermann's doctoral research was focused on course evaluations. In 1994, in collaboration with Manfred Amelang, Rindermann developed the questionnaire HILVE (Heidelberg Inventory for Course Evaluation) that could be used by students, teachers, and outside observers to assess the quality of teaching, the teaching behavior of teachers, and trends in student attendance through the duration of the course. Due to its multidimensionality, the assessment would provide a realistic picture of lectures and seminars.

Intelligence and education
A 2007 study by Rindermann found a high correlation between the results of international student assessment studies including TIMSS, PIRLS, and PISA, and national average IQ scores. The results were broadly similar to those in Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen's book IQ and the Wealth of Nations. According to Earl B. Hunt, due to there being far more data available, Rindermann's analysis was more reliable than those by Lynn and Vanhanen. By measuring the relationship between educational data and social well-being over time, this study also performed a causal analysis, finding that nations investing in education leads to increased well-being later on.

Some of Rindermann's work has concentrated on the "smart fraction" theory, which states that the prosperity and performance of a society that is above a particular threshold of intelligence, with the threshold point being well above the general median intelligence level in most societies.

Rindermann's research has been cited by people studying the relation between intelligence, education, and economic growth, such as Garett Jones.