Why your child might not be failing
Welby Ings
Out 24 July 2025
In Invisible Intelligence, educationalist, filmmaker and best-selling author Welby Ings considers how schools measure intelligence and shows how narrow definitions of literacy and numeracy can lead to bright students being described as ‘behind’ and positioned as problems, when they are not. Ings mixes poignant, humorous and insightful storytelling with current research to explore the ways that some children’s intelligent approaches to problem-solving are dismissed or ignored, with devastating consequences for individuals and society. Yet Invisible Intelligence offers hope. Written with wisdom, experience and compassion, it is the kind of book that ‘puts an arm around the shoulders’ of those who love and work with kids whose intelligence is not recognised because they don’t learn the same way as other children. Pragmatic, wise and helpful, Invisible Intelligence shows what we can do better in education, and why it’s so important that we do.
‘This book was so great I shut myself in my office and sobbed … Invisible Intelligence is timely, original and a very fresh breath of air.’ – Professor Vivienne Anderson.
Author
Welby Ings is a best-selling writer and celebrated New Zealand filmmaker. A professor in narrative design at Auckland University of Technology, he is the recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Tertiary Teaching Excellence and the NZ Government Award for Sustained Tertiary Teaching Excellence. In 2013 he was awarded the inaugural AUT medal for his contribution to learning and research. Invisible Intelligence is Ings’ second book in a planned trilogy on creative thinking and educational reform. It follows Disobedient Teaching (Otago University Press, 2017).
Publication details
Format: Paperback
Colour: Black and White
Dimensions: 230 x 155mm
Pages: 244 pages
Genre: Education, Non-Fiction
ISBN: 9781991348012
RRP: $45
Release date: 24 July 2025
Available for pre-order