~ The MI News ~
Summer 2000 Edition
(Volume 2, Number 2) |
Publisher Branton Shearer | Editor
Cliff Morris |
Table of contents
1 Welcome message by Clifford Morris
2 The parenting
corner by Clifford Morris
3 Encouraging
performances of understanding by Howard Gardner
4 Multiple
intelligences at a community college by Joyce Ksicinski and Rex Sinclair
5 For your
intelligences only by Clifford Morris
1. Welcome message by Clifford Morris
Welcome readers to the Summer 2000 issue of the
MI-News. To all of our continued readers, thanks for riding the MI
train. For those of you who are visiting us for the first time, MI-News
is provided free by Branton Shearer's Multiple
Intelligences (MI) Research and Consulting. The goal of this
newsletter is to provide you with theoretical and practical information about Howard Gardner's MI
Theory. We always try to explore MI applications via discussion, contact
and sharing.
We hope that you find this edition interesting
and informative. To start, I would like to share with you part of the
contents of a recently received email from a Mr. Garry Dennis, a grade 4 state
funded public school classroom teacher. His email described how he
recently taught a geometry lesson to his students. As I can not match his
prose, I shall quote him directly and from the beginning of his comments:
"My name is Gary Dennis and I am a new
reader of the MI-News newsletter. I was reading the lesson plans that
were recently submitted and I appreciated them very much. I have been
teaching in the range of grades three to eight in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada,
for the past 28 years. I recently attended a Performance Learning Systems
(PLS) course on MI and I am growing with MI Theory. If I were still in
school administration and 20 years younger, I would want to work towards a
whole school using MI in the classrooms.
What makes the most sense to me in regards to MI
Theory is to use it in two ways. Mi (get the pun!) first preference is to
use it to vary instruction using all eight (8) of the intelligences in the
classroom. Can you imagine how we would maintain the students' interest
in lessons if we could do this? The second way would be to use a project
approach with opportunities for students to select from activities that would
each highlight one of the intelligences. Presentation of the projects
would ensure that everyone addresses the Interpersonal Intelligence."
I would like to share a geometry lesson that I
recently taught to my grade 4 students. The concepts involved teaching
slides, flips, and turns. In the past, I would have gone right to the
dotted paper and used the overhead projector to aid my teaching. This
time, I chose to emphasize the Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence
approach. My classroom has square tiles on the floor so I had students
stand about the room on tiles and I had them move one tile at a time using the
up - down - right - left movements that are used in slides. Then I
progressed to move Up 5, Right 6. I couldn't believe how quickly the kids
had caught on. They had very little difficulty when we moved to using
paper and pencil. For teaching flips, a group of students lay on the
floor and became the flip line. Another group formed a shape on one side
of the flip line while the students who were to become the flip image had their
backs turned. The flip image group then had to work as a group and become
the flip image. We did a similar activity to demonstrate turns using the floor
tiles. I tend to write a little too concisely but I hope that you see how
simple but powerful a little MI Theory can be.
2. The parenting corner by Clifford Morris
I am often invited to speak to educators, in
particular, to classroom teachers and to groups of pre-service teachers in the
Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa about Howard Gardner's (HG)
Multiple Intelligences (MI) model. Invariability, I am asked to recommend
books of an informative, interesting, and practical MI nature. In my next
talk, I shall surely recommend the below four book, recently received from the
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).
Most generally speaking, all of the following
four books well outlined the HG model of the mind and how MI theory can best
serve others. As well, I found that the four books were a most
interesting and enjoyable read. Actually, I had not planned on reviewing
them for this newsletter. Initially, I had only planned on reading them and
placing them on my subscriptions table for others to see and possibly to
purchase. However, after truly enjoying their message and being quite
impressed with what the five authors had to say, I decided to write up the
following short review.
Here then are those four books, followed by my
comments.
Becoming a Multiple Intelligences School
by Thomas R.
Hoerr.
Copyright © 2000
by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
Alexandria,
Virginia USA
ISBN 0-87120-365-0
(paperback) 113 pp., $23.95 U.S.
Multiple Intelligences and Student Achievement:
Success Stories from Six Schools
by Linda Campbell
and Bruce Campbell.
Copyright © 1999
by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
Alexandria,
Virginia USA
ISBN 0-87120-360-X
(paperback) 108 pp., $15.95 U.S.
Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, 2nd
Edition
by Thomas
Armstrong.
Copyright © 2000
by Thomas Armstrong
Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
Alexandria,
Virginia USA
ISBN 0-87120-376-6
(paperback) 154 pp., $22.95 U.S.
ADD/ADHD Alternatives in the classroom
by Thomas
Armstrong.
Copyright © 1999
by Thomas Armstrong
Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development
Alexandria (ASCD),
Virginia USA
ISBN 0-87120-359-6
(paperback) 126 pp., $11.95 U.S.
Those who purport to offer Multiple
Intelligences (MI) programs, be they classroom teachers, parents, or school
administrators, claim that they can successfully present children with
different avenues for learning almost anything. Can such a wide ranging
pronouncement be actually possible? For example, how can one classroom
teacher with say 25 students, or a parent with four young children at home, or
a school principal with the educational responsibility over 35 teachers and 500
students possibly address the following eight intelligences, or to cite
directly from Howard Gardner, the 'father' of MI, eight "windows of
learning into the same classroom"?
1. Visual-spatial—art smart: creative,
imaginative, and perhaps more a visual learner
2. Bodily-kinesthetic—body
smart: agile, energetic, touching and talking healthily
3. Logical-mathematical—math
smart: logical, inventive, and a problem-solver
4. Linguistic-verbal—word
smart: reader, writer, and perhaps more an auditory learner
5. Musical-rhythmic—music
smart: sings, plays, and is rhythmic
6. Naturalistic—category
smart: holistic thinker, classifier and appreciates the environment
7. Interpersonal—people
smart: a socializer, a listener, and a keen communicator
8. Intrapersonal—'me'
smart: strong-willed, intuitive, and an introspective learner
Perhaps you have recently asked yourself that
same question. In other words, are you now perchance thinking about
restructuring your classroom program or, if you are a school administrator,
conceivably considering a reorganization of your entire school program to
incorporate the Gardner MI model? If you responded to the above questions in
the affirmative, then I would strongly suggest that you read the above four
books. They are a must read before you commence any form of
restructuring.
First of all, in Becoming a Multiple
Intelligences School, Thomas Hoerr presents an insider's account of how to
apply MI to all aspects of schooling. His details on the 10-year process he and
his colleagues encountered are thoroughly outlined. He systematically describes
how to familiarize MI theory to parents, students, and faculty, including the
magnitude of instilling a teamwork approach throughout the development of such
a school. I especially found his comments on how to develop new assessment for
tracking and reporting student growth to be refreshing, innovative, and so
welcomed.
Second, Linda and Bruce Campbell's Multiple
Intelligences and Student Achievement provides a fascinating commentary on
implementing MI in six schools that have used MI theory for at least five years
-- two elementary, two middle, and two secondary -- in California, Indiana,
Kentucky, Minnesota, and Washington. Their case study approach chronicles the
application between all types of students. Moreover, they suggest
applying MI instructional approaches that are positive and engaging such that
all students benefit from schooling.
Third, Thomas Armstrong two books, his expanded
2nd Edition, Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, and ADD/ADHD
Alternatives in the classroom updates Gardner's MI theory as confirmed
classroom applications. In both books, Armstrong encourages teachers to
show a more holistic view that validates individuals for who they truly are.
The first book, Multiple Intelligences in the
Classroom, outlines innovative strategies for integrating an eighth
intelligence, the naturalist. Moreover, Armstrong presents new outlooks,
including three potential predicaments, about the possibility of a ninth
intelligence -- the existential -- the intelligence of concern with ultimate
life issues and its potential. Armstrong's insights for teaching and learning,
recent case studies and research on the effective uses of MI theory represents
a welcomed update.
Before commenting on Armstrong's other book, an
important aside to all parents interested in rearranging their home
learning environments around Gardner's MI model. While Armstrong has fittingly
tailored his revised version to the practicing classroom teacher, I would strongly
recommend Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, 2nd Edition to parents
who continuously want to help their children discover meaningful career paths
that their offspring will find most enjoyable. This excellent book
contains numerous practical tips, strategies, and proven examples from current
educational environments, in the main, from current state funded public
schools. Armstrong provides ideas, resources and teaching tools that
parents can immediately use to help their girls and boys achieve their fullest
potential. As well, by using the many ideas from this excellent resource
book, parents, as well as practicing classroom teachers, can consider different
career choices and how those under their charge might feel about them. Parents wishing
to view a web site that highlights MI and careers, can click here.
The second book by Armstrong, ADD/ADHD
Alternatives in the classroom, highlights imaginative student journeys, bodily-kinesthetic
cues, posters, drama, and dances as feasible classroom strategies for
empowering children stamped with the negative ADD/ADHD label. Instead of
looking at students who carry the ADD/ADHD mark as having a
"deficit", Armstrong, instead, presents a more positive and holistic
view that validates these learners for who they truly are.
If any of these books contain a flaw, it is ADD/ADHD
Alternatives in the classroom. Here, the author stumbles severely in his
treatment of the role MI can have on ADD/ADHD classroom students. Unlike his
previous books on MI, Armstrong devotes sparse attention, a meager two pages,
to possible MI intervention strategies. Although he comments "that the
most powerful---and exciting---application of MI theory involves teaching it to
students" (p. 61), additional comments fail to outline specific classroom
strategies. Moreover, he should have explained in greater detail alternative
assessment techniques. To fill this void, I would suggest that after reading ADD/ADHD
Alternatives in the classroom, you might wish to click here
to go to the MI section of Armstrong's web site. There, you will find
additional articles and commentaries more applicable to MI and the ADHD child.
Nevertheless, the authors of the four books
under review are to be commended for their comprehensive comments on nurturing
students' intelligence strengths. All of the books view Multiple
Intelligence learning to be a matter of taking hold of the world's wealth of
knowledge and presenting it to students \ in a comprehensive, multi-dimensional
scheme that is comfortable and creative for them and, most important, teaches
them forever. Taken together as a whole, the four above books advocate
practical strategies for reducing or (possibly) eliminating achievement gaps
between all types of learners. Moreover, they provide teachers and school
administrators with new insights for developing a MI learning environment.
These books are a must read for all who are interested in MI schooling.
Ordering Information
To order any of the above books, contact the
publisher, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD),
directly, at 1703 Beauregard, Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22311-1714
USA. Their telephone numbers are: 1-800-933-2723 or 703-578 9600.
Their fax number is 703-575-5400 and their email address is
member@ascd.org. And to view their website, click here.
3.
Encouraging performances of understanding by Howard Gardner
Excerpted with the
author's permission from
Intelligence
Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century
Basic Books, 1999
Obstacles to understanding are ubiquitous and
cannot be averted readily. Moreover, misunderstandings are inevitable as
long as people succumb to the temptation to "cover everything" – for
instance, in a course on Western history to go from Plato to NATO in thirty-six
weeks. Nonetheless, in recent years, four promising approaches to
understanding have evolved, and each recognizes the obstacles and seeks to
inculcate more productive performances of understanding. I will mention
three briefly and then turn to the fourth and featured approach: the use of MI
theory to enhance student understanding.
Observational Approaches
The first approach involves observing and
applying the practices of institutions that have successfully inculcated
understanding. The traditional institution of the apprenticeship is one
example. Young apprentices spend much time with a master practitioner,
observe him up close, and gradually engage in the daily practice of problem
solving and product making. The contemporary institution of the
children's museum or the science museum is another exemplary way to mold
understanding (see chapter 11). Students have the opportunity to approach
intriguing phenomena in ways that make sense to them, they can take their time,
and they face no test pressures. More important, they may bring issues
with them from home to school, to the museum, and back again—gradually
constructing sturdier understandings by using multiple inputs (and multiple
ways of reacting to those inputs) in diverse settings. In learning how
these institutions have generated deeper understandings, we receive clues about
how best to teach for understanding.
Confrontational Approaches
A second approach features frontal tackling of
the obstacles to understanding. One comes to grips directly with one's
own misconceptions. For example, if a person believes in the inheritance of
acquired characteristics, he can cut off the tails of generations of
salamanders and see whether a shorter-tailed salamander gradually (or abruptly)
emerges. If another person regularly invokes memorized algorithms to
solve problems, she can be given the opportunity to construct her own
mathematical formula thorough experimentation with relevant (and irrelevant)
variables. And if someone else habitually engages in stereotypical
thinking, he can be encouraged to consider each historical event or work of art
from multiple perspectives. Note, however, that none of these is
foolproof; moreover, occasionally adopting "multiple perspectives" or
challenging misconceptions will not suffice. Teachers need to encourage
understandings by pointing out inadequate conceptualizations and asking
students to reflect on the consequences. Students gradually learn to
monitor their own intuitive theories and thus cultivate habits of
understanding.
A Systematic approach: Teaching for Understanding
In collaboration with the educational
researchers David Perkins, Vito Perrone, Stone Wiske, and others, I have
developed a third, more systematic approach to the problem, Teaching for
Understanding, which features an explicitly performing stance. Teachers are
asked to state explicit understanding goals, stipulate the correlated
performances of understanding, and share these perspectives with the students.
Other key features of this "understanding framework" include a
stressing of generative topics that are both central to the discipline and
attractive to students (for example, Why are there fourteen varieties of
finches on the Galapagos Islands? When and how was the "Final
Solution" arrived at?); identifying "through-lines" that
permeate a unit or course (for example, how to go from an observation to a
hypothesis and back again to fresh observations that will ultimately yield
further hypotheses); and assessing students' understandings not simply at the
end of the course, but through regular, interim "practice"
performances.
I have suggested that understanding is a generic
problem with generic solutions. It is important for students to
understand, the achievement of understanding is challenging, and there are a
variety of means that might aid students. A generic approach would seem
justifiable, since it is reasonable to approach a problem in terms of its
fundamental constituents. Certain tacks might in fact prove successful
with all students, or at least the vast majority. But as I've now established,
human minds do not all work in the same way, and human beings do not have the
same cognitive strengths and weaknesses. Knowing this should strongly
influence how we teach students and how we assess what they learn. We all
possess the same ensemble of intelligences—in one sense, they represent our
species' intellectual heritage—but we do not exhibit equal strengths or similar
profiles. Some people are strong in one intelligence and weak in others,
and strength in a particular intelligence does not necessarily predict strength
(or weakness) in others.
As I've pointed out, many educators see MI
theory as an end in itself. That is, a school or program is meritorious
to the extent that it extols MI ideas or measures students' intelligences or
features the intelligences in curriculum or pedagogy. But enhancing
"multiple intelligences" is not in itself a suitable goal of
education. Rather, it is better thought of as a handmaiden to good
education, once educational goals have been established on independent grounds.
Indeed, I would argue that MI is most usefully invoked in the service of two
educational goals. The first is to help students achieve certain valued
adult roles or end-states. If one wants everyone to be able to engage in
artistic activities, it makes sense to develop linguistic intelligence (for the
poet), spatial intelligence (for the graphic artist or sculptor),
bodily-kinesthetic intelligence (for the dancer), and musical intelligence (for
the composer or performer). If one wants everyone to be civil, then it is
important to develop the personal intelligences.
The second goal—and the one most relevant to
this chapter—is to help students master certain curricular or disciplinary
materials. Given that, students might be encouraged to take a course in
biology, so as to better understand the origins and development of the living
world, and to study history, so as to better understand people's plans,
actions, and consequences in the past. One could take the position that
everyone should study the same thing in the same way and be assessed in the
same way. The standard view of intelligence leads readily, perhaps
ineluctably, to that educational course. Yet, if there is validity to the
idea of multiple intelligences—if individuals indeed have different kinds of
minds, with varied strengths, interests, and strategies—then it is worth
considering whether pivotal curricular materials could be taught and assessed
in a variety of ways.
4. Multiple Intelligences at a community college
by Joyce Ksicinski and Rex Sinclair
Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences (MI)
Theory and Branton Shearer's Multiple Intelligences Developmental Assessment
Scales (MIDAS) instrument were the basis for two different studies in 1999 and
2000 at the College of the Redwoods (CR). Dr. Ksicinski began this
research for her successfully submitted dissertation, “Assessment of a
Remedial Community College Cohort for Multiple Intelligences” towards
completion of an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of La
Verne. The research continues via a California Funds for Instructional
Improvement grant, expanding upon the initial study to a larger group, from 81
participants to the current level of 294.
CR is a rural community college located beyond
the “Redwood Curtain” in NW California. Approximately half of CR's
students enter at an assessed remedial level versus transfer-ready.
Although these descriptions are not mutually exclusive, we retain them for this
study. Many remedial students are re-entry to an academic atmosphere.
The younger, transfer students are typically recent graduates from local high
schools.
Gardner says, "I discourage efforts to
characterize…because this picture is fluid and changing", in his
introduction to "Frames of Mind" (Tenth Edition, Basic Books, 1993 p.
xxii). However, he supports alternative means of instruction. The
researchers began by looking for statistically significant differences in the
eight MI between the transfer and remedial cohort as well as between the
instructors and students. We hoped to discover clues to possible means of
raising the remedial group towards the transfer skill level using the MIDAS
instrument.
Although the expanded study is still in process,
preliminary data are surfacing some expected results. That is, males are
rating themselves higher in Kinesthetic than females. Transfer students
have higher mean scores in Linguistics than the remedial cohort. The data
collection in the fall 2000 term will enable a more robust analysis of
disaggregated data according to the moderator variables of age, gender, and
ethnicity. However, there is a preliminary finding that invites
speculation because of its tantalizing possibility.
In Dr. Ksicinski’s original work, the highest
paired correlation of the eight intelligences lay between the Intrapersonal and
the Logical-Mathematical scales. Statistician and CR Mathematics
instructor, Mr. Sinclair, found that this correlation remains strong in the
expanded study involving the two groups. Test of differences between the
Intrapersonal and Logical-Mathematical scales shows a significance at 99%
confidence level. Anecdotal material also suggests that self-confidence
and success in mathematics coincide. These data seem to support this
notion, and a possible cross-discipline intervention scheme. We postulate
that improving our remedial student's self-awareness and confidence would
improve their mathematical ability. An experimental study could engage
some students in diary keeping, meditation, and similar self-awareness methods
while others would follow traditional paths.
A community college fits the mold of Dr.
Gardner's “uniform schooling”; therefore, cross-disciplinary changes remain
hypothetical. Other areas of investigation will correlate MIDAS results
with Grade Point Averages and results from the classes where we used the
MIDAS. We are not trying to change future ballet dancers into
mathematicians; however, remedial math classes begin at whole number
study. Everyone would agree such competence is mandatory in society
today. These issues warrant further study and consideration.
For additional information about the above
study, please contact the authors at the following locations:
Joyce Ksicinski, Ed.D.
College of the
Redwoods
7351 Tompkins Hill
Road
Eureka CA 95501
707.476.4274
joyce-ksicinski@eureka.redwoods.cc.ca.us
Rex S. Sinclair
College of the
Redwoods
7351 Tompkins Hill
Road
Eureka CA 95501
707.476.4100 ext.
4839
rex-sinclair@eureka.redwoods.cc.ca.us
or
rsinclair@wcinet.net
5 For your intelligences only by Clifford Morris
To repeat a comment that I have often made in
past issues of this newsletter but perhaps of interest for first time readers,
since 1985, I have been quite interested in the writings of Howard Gardner,
especially his work on Multiple Intelligences (MI) not because we were born in
the same year but because both of us seek alternative ways of looking at the
psychological construct 'intelligence.'
Over these years, I have enjoyed collected much
information on him and his "claim to fame" theory -- his notion that
all human beings possess "many kinds of minds." This interest
commenced when I was a practicing classroom teacher and a graduate
student. At that time, I involved Gardner's hypothesis for my graduate
school research assignments, and, perhaps more importantly, as 'entry points'
into the many different kinds of minds of my special education students.
Having recently retired from the daily duties of daybooks, report cards, and
staff meetings, my interest in MI continues, but now in the form of a hobby.
My most recent hobby, or collection includes the
gathering up of various doctoral dissertations abstracts on those who have
successfully incorporated the Gardner MI model into their thesis. As soon
as I receive publication permission from ProQuest Digital Dissertaions (PQDD),
I shall publish them in the MI-News. In the interim, here are a few
comments about PQDD.
About ProQuest Digital Dissertations Services
To cite directly from the homepage of ProQuest
Digital Dissertations (PQDD), they are "the single, authoritative source
for information about doctoral dissertations and master's theses." The
database "contains more than 1.6 million entries ... represent[ing] the
work of authors from over 1,000 graduate schools and universities.
Approximately 47,000 new dissertations and 12,000 new theses to the database
each year."
This database "includes bibliographic
citations for materials ranging from the first U.S. dissertation, accepted in
1861, to those accepted as recently as last semester. Citations for
dissertations published from 1980 forward also include 350-word abstracts
written by the author…The full text of more than one million of these titles is
available in paper and microform formats. Institutional subscribers to
ProQuest Digital Dissertations receive on-line access to the complete file of
dissertations in digital format starting with titles published from 1997
forward."
For information on purchasing the full-text
copies of a dissertation for any of the following eight abstracts, contact UMI,
a Bell & Howell Information Company, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor,
Michigan 48106. Their telephone number is 1-800-521-0600, extension 3042.
If you reside outside of the United States, or in Canada, call 1-734-761-4700,
extension 3042. Click here to
go to UMI's website.