~ The MI News ~
Summer 2001 Edition
(Volume 3, Number 3) |
Publisher Branton Shearer | Editor
Cliff Morris |
Table of
contents
1 For your intelligences only by Clifford Morris
2 Smart options: How smarts can lead to career possibilities by Dan and Phillippa Baran
3 MI dissertation database update by
Clifford Morris
4 How to give powerful lectures
using the multiple intelligences by Branton Shearer
5 MI-News articles from previous
issues by Clifford Morris
1. For your
intelligences only by Clifford Morris
If you are a first time visitor, thanks for clicking here and
welcome to this third (of four) MI newsletter of this year. The MI-News
newsletter is provided free by Branton Shearer's Multiple Intelligences (MI) Research and
Consulting. The main objective in publishing the MI-News is to provide you
with some theoretical and practical information about Howard Gardner's MI model
and, perhaps more importantly, how this model of the human mind is currently
being implemented all over the world. The newsletter attempts to explore MI
applications via discussion, contact and sharing. If you have an interesting
idea, tried-and-tested lesson plan, or practical MI suggestion, please e-mail the editor, Cliff Morris, with your
comments.
2. Smart options:
How smarts can lead to career possibilities by Dan and
Phillippa Baran
Smart Options is a new (2000) career development program based on
Howard Gardner’s MI theory and Thomas Armstrong’s popularization of the
concept. Created for students in grades 7 and 8, the program gives this younger
population a richer understanding of themselves and shows them how they can use
this knowledge to carve out more meaningful lives and careers. Smart options is
available in English and in French; it requires between 4 and 6 hours of
classroom time, although additional time, if available, can be devoted to
exercises and activities. The overall package is organized as four Lesson Plans
and includes four components: a 32-page full colour Student’s Resource Book, a
Facilitator's Guide, a poster suitable for mounting on a classroom wall, and an
introductory video.
The Student’s Resource Book contains
descriptions of each of the eight intelligences (smarts), checklists for
understanding your smarts, exercises that show how your smarts can be applied
to career exploration, and suggestions for improving the strength of your
smarts. The Facilitator's Guide provides step-by-step directions for
leading students through their Resource Books, background information about
intelligence and the contributions of people like Gardner and Armstrong, and a
brief bibliography. The poster summarizes the eight types of smarts (People,
Self, Logic, Word, Nature, Body, Image, and Music) as well as a sample of
occupations requiring particular strength in these smarts. The complete package
is available through the National Life/Work Centre, 488 Central Street,
Memramcook, New Brunswick, Canada E4K 3S6. It can be ordered by calling
1-888-533-5683. The e-mail address is lifework@nbret.nb.ca and the web site URL
is http://www.lifework.ca/pr_smart.html.
3. MI dissertation
database update by Clifford Morris
In this space, in the Summer 2001 issue of this newsletter, a data base associated with
dissertation citations and abstracts of Howard Gardner's MI was introduced.
Since that issue, I have received e-mails of appreciation from psychologists,
educators, and parents. I wish to take this space to thank them for their kind
words of praise and, perhaps as important, for their informative and
constructive comments. While it has taken considerable time and effort to
acquire and assemble the many citations and abstract records, it has been a
rewarding experience. Thanks especially to those of you who have e-mailed me,
at cmorris@igs.net, with your suggestions
for improvements.
More to that point, here is what I have been
able to accomplish thus far with your fine suggestions. First, a psychologist
suggested different background colours for each field, the thinking being that
it would be easier to read field content. That I did. Second, a special
education teacher suggested that I rearrange and condense some of the other
original field contents. That I was also able to program. Please continue to
email me your viewpoints, especially views as to how this data base can better
your MI research. Finally, a comment to those of you who have included
attachment files. Many of these files contain the abstracts of your own MI research
projects. Unfortunately, as of this date, I can not insert them into the
database, as all files in this data base represent summaries of formally
reviewed research. However, if I continue to receive additional abstracts, I
may develop an additional data base for such records. At this time, I do not
wish to mix both types of research.
4. How to Give Powerful Lectures Using the
Multiple Intelligences by Branton Shearer
I was recently talking with a group of young people and asked them
who was their best teacher. They immediately began by saying that they
liked one teacher because she was nice and another teacher they did not like
because she hated them and gave them a low grade when they deserved a higher
one. I interrupted this litany of likes and dislikes by saying, “No, I
want to know who is your best teacher because you learned the most and could do
your best in that classroom. They paused for a long moment as if they had
never before given it any thought. The most common first response was
that the best teachers explained things clearly so the students could
understand and the teacher held the students’ attention and varied the sound of
his or her voice.
Teaching is such a mysterious art form. I am
sure if I continued interviewing these young people that I would have learned
many more things that good teachers do. But, this article will focus on
the qualities of a lecture (or explanation) that make it a powerful learning
experience. I will use the multiple intelligences as a framework to build
a model of the “powerful lecture/explanation.” Of course, every lecture
will not be your best example of this model, but this will provide you with a
set of guidelines that may inspire you to give your students the best that you
have to offer on any given day.
Interpersonal
The first intelligence for consideration is the
interpersonal because we must remember that a lecture is not a monologue, but
rather a dialogue with the mind of the listeners who are responding and asking
questions to themselves as we speak. Of course, we are not mind readers,
but we must do our best to give full and careful consideration to what is going
on inside the minds of our listeners just before and during our talk. We
need to gauge what they already know about this topic and what they want or
need to know. In other words, what is the news that we are delivering to
the doorstep of their lives? What will we say or do that will encourage
them to open their front door and admit us into their living room with our
news? Then, we must know what it is that we want them to do with this
news after they have received it. What will encourage them to process
this information so that the mind will file it the proper place in memory and,
more importantly, they will have understanding of how to use it for solving
future problems or concerns especially regarding how your idea will be useful
to other people?
It will activate the interpersonal intelligence
when you give an example of how your idea has been used in your family,
community or by people in the past. If you use examples from other
cultures that illustrate the meaningfulness of your new ideas / skills /
knowledge, your impact will be amplified. Provide time for your listener
to contemplate how they can apply the new information to a situation involving
someone important in their life. In this way, you can give permission to
your listeners to imaginatively and perhaps creatively use your ideas to
provide a valued service to others.
We must always remember that teaching is never
devoid from emotion and feelings. Even the seemingly dry bit of
information, abstract concept and mundane skill has a feeling attached to it by
the student. Thus, as we lecture, we must be alert to the emotional responses
that are evident in the raised eyebrows, slight grin, head tilt, shoulder
slump, hand movement, foot scuffle and butt wiggle. Do not let your
lecture be tuned out by flat bottom syndrome (FBS). After 20 minutes of
sitting and listening, I figure that at least 20% of the brain of my listeners
has begun to grow numb due to FBS. And after 40 minutes, nearly half of
the brain has taken a leave of absence and is off on an interesting vacation or
perhaps on a date with some very fascinating and stimulating young man or
woman. The mind is a curious and hungry animal that will take off hunting
other more tasty prey when we fail to provide it with satisfying game (see
'Naturalist' below).
Logical mathematical
This desire to have our questions answered, incomplete
knowledge satisfied, and to hear the conclusion of an engaging tale is the
second element of a satisfying lecture experience. The mind of the brain
seeks coherence and closure. Once our curiosity is piqued, our mental
detective engaged, an enticing set of clues provided, then we wish to either
discover the exciting conclusion for ourselves (this is the best) or for the
lecturer to provide the conclusion or affirmation for our own answers.
The magician must always remember that his audience is trying their best to
learn the secrets of how the tricks are performed. The detective novelist
maintains the reader’s attention by providing clues so that the reader must
decide if they are relevant or not through logical reasoning.
The lecturer, however, should not provide “red
herrings” and misdirection as they are confusing and annoying to a
listener. But, it can be very powerful to give a set of facts and wonder
aloud about the possible explanation or relationship among those facts.
This usually raises in the listener’s mind the most common and expected
answer. If you then counter this “conventional wisdom” with your news of
difference you will truly make an impact. O. Henry made his fame on the
surprise ending and you can engage and convince your listener of the power of
your thesis by a logical contrast between their normal assumptions and the
surprising good sense of your ideas.
The more sharply that you are able to logically
describe the distinct differences between your thesis and that which is
commonly assumed then the more satisfying will be your presentation to the mind
of the listener. This, then, brings us to the third (and most obvious)
intelligence bearing on the success of your lecture, the linguistic verbal
intelligence.
Linguistic verbal
It is perhaps too obvious to say that the words
of your lecture should be interesting, evocative and well aimed. The
highest form of lecture will display an easy and naturally flowing quality of
“voice” that is an authentic personal expression. This takes a level of
expertise that produces prose that is knowledgeable yet uncluttered with
jargon. However, the use of a few unique and uncommon words can serve
like an unusually shaped key found in the street as the listener accompanies
you on this lecture journey. But, like any good guide, you will want to
be sure that your listener comes to know what the key opens and how what is
inside the door will be useful in the future. You may do this in a
prosaic way through logical explanations or with poetic devices or an
intriguing narrative. Remember that words convey concepts, but they also
embody musical sounds and evoke pictures in the palate of the mind’s eye.
When you are contrasting your thesis with
another idea then you will want to use words that paint a visual distinction
between the two ideas (see 'Visual spatial' immediately below). The
wisdom of your logic will then be clearly etched in the mind’s eye of your
listener. This may be what my young student interviewees were referring to
when they said that their best teachers gave them clear explanations.
The other important thing to remember is that
your lecture really is a story that you are telling. Even if are not
telling a story with the usual elements (A beginning that sets the scene, a middle
that provides characters, plot and conflict that is following by a conclusion
that resolves the conflict in a satisfying way so that “They lived happily ever
after. “) you can be sure that your listeners are creating a story out of it in
their mind in their own way. The question for you is, how much of the
plot, setting, characters and conclusion will you want them to create for them
selves and how much will you provide for them? If you allow your listener
the liberty of drawing their own (inaccurate?) conclusions or embellishing
elements that you leave out then you must be aware of the risks of doing this.
Of course, you certainly should use to your
advantage the innate storytelling capacity of your audience to engage their
attention and guide their application of your ideas. This can be coupled
effectively with the interpersonal intelligence by guiding your audience to
create a story about how they will use your new ideas to help others in some
important way. You may want to invoke their inner-storyteller and
introduce a bit of playfulness by using that ancient incantation, "Once
upon a time…" or any other appropriate story starter technique. You
can also use the five journalistic devises to guide your audience in writing a
news article or press release -- who, what, when, where and how. If you
are concerned about the degree of your listeners' acceptance of your ideas then
suggest that she engage in a brief point -- counter point debate or write
several reasons behind two conflicting viewpoints.
Of course, verbal note taking is the classic,
standard classroom learning technique to enhance memorization of
information. Your topic will be more easily organized, recognized and
truly understood by the brain if the verbal notes are arranged and augmented
diagrammatically on the page using visual tricks and cues. The more
personalized these visual cues and linguistic elaborations then the better,
too, will the listener's mind process and integrate your new information.
You never know what kind of past personal
stories and images will be evoked in the mind of your audience as you
speak. This truly is one of the great mysteries of lecturing (not to
mention life beyond the lecture hall). To rewrite an old saying, “A word
is worth a thousand pictures.” So, this brings us to the fourth intelligence,
the visual spatial.
Visual spatial
Do you see what I mean? On the one hand,
you may clearly grasp my idea, but on the other hand ... you are left holding
the bag. Do my words leave an empty feeling in the pit of your
stomach? Or do you have a gut sense that what I have said is quite
right? Hopefully, my words are not over your head and I am not scattering
pearls before swine. Or maybe my ideas are so poorly articulated that you
are struggling to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Well, if beauty
is in the eye of the beholder, then there is no accounting for taste so
whenever you receive criticism or praise for your lectures always remember to
consider the source.
The point of this cluster of fractured sayings
and clichés is that while there is nothing new under the sun, it is powerful
medicine to evoke both familiar and unique images in the mind’s eye of the
listener. Truly, a powerful image can unleash a thousand words for the
perceiver, so it is your job to use those images carefully by drawing the
listener into the bull’s eye of your targeted idea. An unusual,
exaggerated or humorous image can act like super glue on the listener’s
attention and memory system.
One of the first rules of memory is that you
must be paying attention in order to activate the neural pathways that will
create an impression on the mind. If teachers had a dollar for every time
they requested the class’s attention, there would be no need for a public
retirement fund for teachers. There is no doubt that powerful images can
get the attention of your audience. This is especially important for
children today who are awash in a virtual flood of dynamic images nearly from
birth. Tella-Tubies cavort across the screen and a big yellow bird
teaches children their numbers and letters on Sesame Street. Teenagers
inhale over 100 hormonally charged images per minute watching MTV. We
should not underestimate the influence of video games and spectacular movies
that every child is exposed to regularly from a very early age.
Powerful, engaging lectures are needed if you
are to compete with last night’s movie where the child fought incredible aliens
on distant planets without having to lift more than a finger from the comfort
of his living room sofa. For images to be most effective the listener
should actively create them. Your common, off-the-shelf images are good,
but for deep learning and memorization the listener should be an active creator
of his own unique and personally designed images that are associated with the
topic. Passively received images like those from television are okay for
gaining attention, but they need to be acted upon and processed by the listener
in order to shift the idea into long term memory. This process will be
facilitated when the images evoke powerful emotions and feelings. Do you
get the picture?
Musical
Speaking of feelings, music has long been known
for its ability to evoke intense emotions and durable memories. You can
harness this potential when you remember to modulate the sounds of your voice
like a sensitive singer. The sounds of new and unique words will also
trigger in the listener’s ear a string of associations and evaluations that can
either gain or repel attention. The use of music during your lecture is a
technique worth exploring by the experienced speaker. The ill-conceived
use of music can be a distraction and annoyance, but the well placed song lyric
or tune that conveys your meaning can leave a profound and lasting impression.
Your new information will be warmly welcomed by
your audience if it "rings a familiar bell." Is there a catchy
phrase or song lyric that sums up and is easily associated with your key
point? In song lyrics this is called the "hook" and in
advertising it is the jingle or in politics an emphatic slogan that can rally
the multitude. If your idea can be associated with an already familiar
catchy tune or lyric then you are half way to winning over the heart of your
listeners. The use of such meaningful musical mnemonics opens inner doors
in the mind of listener's home so that what was previously "strange and
suspect" is now 'almost family" so-to-speak. It is no wonder
that children in every country around the world are taught their nation's
anthem so that in times of war (or at sporting events) you can have people
feeling "at home" and in sync with 100,000 strangers. Does that
sound reasonable to you?
Naturalist
There are at least three ways for using the
naturalist intelligence to enrich your lectures that are known to many of the
most effective presenters. The first, at the beginning of your lecture,
is to bark loudly like a dog or make jungle sounds and monkey noises. No,
just kidding! I got your attention, didn’t I? Just when your mind had
just about enough of this dry written essay, it suddenly woke up. But,
seriously, it is quite helpful to think of your lecture as a growing tree or
vine that needs the care of an attentive gardener. You need a solid root
structure to establish rapport before your ideas can branch out and blossom in
the mind of your listener. This is known as preparing the seed bed for
planting. Remember, then, to prune your branches so that all of your and
your audience’s energy will be directed toward producing large and succulent
pieces of fruit during the harvest of your conclusions. Also, each
listener should leave with a basket full of nourishing ideas, action plans and
seeds, which s/he may plant for future harvests.
The second naturalist strategy is to describe
the characteristics of an animal that somehow relates to your topic, even if it
requires a long stretch of the imagination. Actually, stretching your
metaphor beyond common sense usually enhances memorization and emotional
impact. It is good to sometimes mention your pet dog or cat (no, you
shouldn’t bark or meow because you don’t want to get too cute and loose the
respect of your audience who will think you are either a sap or a wacko).
But, evoking the characteristics of animals in your lecture will activate the
humanity of your audience and increase rapport by sending the message that you
are members of the same herd, school or flock. You just happen to be the
goose in the lead position that is at that moment honking the loudest (no
actual honking recommended).
Notice how just the mere mention of animals
brings out the barnyard humor in even, I, your distinguished author, whose sage
counsel you must value or you would not still be reading these words? Of
course, I suspect that your loyal attention is far less than that of my chief
morale officer, Molly, the ever patient Chocolate Labrador Retriever, whose
duties include prolonged afternoon and guarding against rogue squirrels in the
backyard. She also reminds me that it is quitting time exactly when her
dinner bowl needs to be refilled. Ah, there is nothing like a loyal
employee to calm the boss's nerves during even the most stressful of work
days. She is a good reminder that it is important to climb down from my
ivory tower of grand ideas and tend to the needs of the living and
squirrel-invested world.
The final way to activate the naturalist
intelligence is to respect that your audience seeks to discover patterns and
deviations from expected patterns. We all respond involuntarily to having
our “buttons pushed.” Like men and women in the bush, we are constantly
searching for plants that we recognize as being edible versus those that are
noxious. We follow our noses as we sniff out lies and false promises and
will track down promising ideas with the determination of bloodhounds when we
catch the scent of truth.
Existential awareness
Speaking of truth, that is truly a fundamental
reason why any of us are listening to each other talk at all. We are
seeking out the truth or the affirmation of truth as we know it or suspect
it. The existential or philosophical aspect of our human nature wants to
know the ultimate answer to questions such as, “Why are we here?” and “Where
are we going?” and "How will I be remembered." To be most
effective as a lecturer you should address these implicit questions or if you
are cagey enough, you may provoke your listeners to acknowledge their own
perhaps implicit answers. But, then, be prepared to provide follow-up
confirmation or news of a difference. It is not advisable to leave your
audience with a vague sense of confusion or uncertainly regarding the ultimate
purpose of your information / lecture.
If you are a teacher, remember that you serve as
a gatekeeper for your discipline or profession. When a student asks the
ever popular question, “Why do I have to learn this boring junk?”, rather than
being annoyed at the distraction and negativity, it is your golden opportunity
to explain how your profession contributes vital goods, services or information
to the world and community. If you do not have a ready made spiel about
this then I suggest that you get one. Give your audience something solid
to carry home and plenty of philosophical cud to chew on for a long time
afterward. You will provide a most memorable learning experience if you
can deliver news that offers your listeners more interesting, challenging and
worthwhile life choices.
Bodily kinesthetic
How will you know if and when you have made an
impact on your audience? Watch their bodies and feel your own. The
body is like a fleshy living communication antenna that not only records but
also immediately responds to provocative information. Use you naturalist
skills to carefully observe and note a pattern in the changes in facial
expressions, body posture, hand movements and the position of legs. You
can then correlate these with your own body movements and felt
sensations. Where are you tensing up? What is happening with your
hand motions? What is your posture?
To involve and direct your audience’s
participation you may want to create movements that will accentuate your
point. It is quite a stretch for most lecturers to move from the safe
comfort of the verbal realm to the bodily kinesthetic because this often means
we must perform in an area of weakness and discomfort. Who wants to be
perceived as incompetent in front of an audience? It may take some time
to experiment with simple hand or body movements before you really are
comfortable incorporating movements into your lectures. Over the years, I
have added five or six possible movements for my audience to perform in
conjunction with specific topics. For example, you may want to teach
children to make subtraction and addition signs when learning basic math.
This might be elaborated even further for more complicated algorithms.
Intrapersonal
Sharing personal antidotes, feelings and
opinions can establish a rapport with your audience that is unobtainable by
other, more objective means. Of course, you do not want to overdo your
self disclosure, as it can be embarrassing to play upon the sympathies of the
listener. You need to ask yourself what the purpose of your self
disclosure is in the context of your presentation. Are you revealing this
personal information to better attain an objective of the talk or more for your
own personal benefit? You will need to be perfectly frank with yourself
about this or ask someone to give you objective feedback.
Perhaps the most important contribution of
intrapersonal intelligence is your meta-cognitive inner dialogue that is
“online” monitoring the effectiveness of your lecture. This monitoring
allows you to keep track of your progress towards your goals and to make
necessary mid-course corrections in response to an intuitive or logical sense
that you have missed the mark or you have gotten off track. This
meta-cognitive process can come in the form of an inner conversation, images,
felt bodily sense or a reaction to the sounds of your own voice (or the audible
reactions of your listeners). If you have pre-viewed your talk in your
mind’s eye/ear prior to giving it then you will already be primed for the
expected kinds of reactions each element will evoke from the listeners.
As you talk then, your meta-cognitive co-pilot will be monitoring for direct
hits or misses as compared to your previously charted expectations. A
post lecture re-viewing will allow you the opportunity to evaluate the
effectiveness of each element in the presentation in attaining your
goals. A thorough re-view – with notes – will set the stage for your next
lecture so that it will be an even more sparkling experience for yourself as
well as your listeners.
To sum up, this article has delineated the
specific strengths (see "MI Lecture Checklist" immediately below) of
each of the multiple intelligences as theorized by Howard Gardner. The
intelligences provides a rich array of tools from which you may choose to
create an energized, active-learning lecture / presentation. These are
the colors on your palate ... and just like real colors there are a range of
shades for each intelligence and most of the world is made up of blended
colors. I hope that you will be inspired to use the full range of shades
from this palate to enrich and engage the listener's mind, heart and
body. By bringing out the best in yourself you will likewise inspire to
bring out the best in your listener.
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5 MI articles from previous
issues by Clifford Morris
This
section comments on two topics mentioned in previous editions of the
MI-News. First, I shall recall written excerpts from some of Howard
Gardner's recent books. Then, I shall review lesson plans involving
current practicing classroom teachers. I will comment on each in
turn.
First, the five (5) excerpts. To read, Enhancing
Education with MI, go to Part 5 of MI-News, January
1999, Volume 1, Number 1. To read the second excerpt, Existential
Intelligence, go to Part 5 of MI-News, February 1999,
Volume 1, Number 2. And to read the third excerpt, Deeper
into Multiple Intelligences: MI theory as a Tool, go to Part 2 of MI-News,
December 1999, Volume 1, Number 9.
The fourth excerpt, Encouraging Performances of Understanding, was Part
3 of MI-News,
Summer 2000, Volume 2, Number 2. The final excerpt, MI
Theory and the Workplace, was published as Part 2 of MI-News,
Fall 2000, Volume 2, Number 3 .
We trust that these excerpts may better your understanding of Gardner 's
multiple kinds of minds.
Finally, here are some lesson plans as you begin
another new school year. Sections 3 and 4 of the August 1999, Volume 1,
Number 7 issue
outlines classroom strategies by Angie Thompson and Mary Strouse. In the October 1999,
Volume 1, Number 8 issue, Diana Labbe
and Angie Thompson comment on their MI instructional strategies. And in
the Winter 2000,
Volume 2, Number 4 issue, Branton Shearer discusses MI lesson
plans at the high school level. And finally, Branton Shearer and
this writer used the Spring 2001, Volume 3, Number 1
issue to outline still more MI lesson
plans.