~ The MI News ~
Winter 2001, Volume 3, Number 4
Publisher Branton Shearer | Editor
Cliff Morris |
Table of Contents
1.
Introduction
2. Forthcoming New
City School MI Institute
3. About the MI Dissertations Citations and
Abstracts Database
4. About AERA's Multiple Intelligences: Theory and
Practice SIG
5. Multiple Intelligences Theory
and Bloom's Taxonomy of
Educational Objectives
1. Introduction
If you
are a first time visitor to this web site, thanks for clicking here and welcome
to this final (of four) editions of the MI newsletter for the 2001 year.
To see previous issues of the MI-News, click here.
This newsletter is produced, published, and provided free to you
by Branton Shearer's Multiple
Intelligences (MI) Research and Consulting. The main objective in
publishing the MI-News is to provide you with theoretical and practical
information about the Howard
Gardner model of multiple intelligences and, perhaps more importantly,
how this model of our brain and mind is currently being implemented
elsewhere. The newsletter attempts to explore MI applications via
discussion, contact and sharing. Thus, if you have interesting MI ideas,
tried-and-tested MI-based lesson plans, or practical MI suggestions which you
feel our readership would enjoy using, please e-mail the newsletter's editor, Clifford
Morris, with your comments.
As the 2001 Christmas season approaches, we, the staff of the
MI-News, hope that this festive time finds you happy, safe, and relaxing with
your family members. And, as you take a few minutes to rest, we hope that
the contents of this issue may assist you in some way as you prepare for the
forthcoming 2002 year.
2. Forthcoming
New City School MI Institute
On April 25-26, 2002, Thomas R.
Hoerr, Ph.D., Director of the New City School, on 5209 Waterman Avenue, St.
Louis, MO 63108, (voice: 314-361-6411; fax: 314-361-1499) will conduct another
MI Institute conference. This conference will be held over a two-day
period. School will be in session until noon each day, so one option
available to participants will be spending time in classrooms! His
previous conferences sold out with 260 people each. The enrollment at
this conference will be limited to approximantely120 participants. For
additional information, please email Dr. Hoerr at trhoerr@newcityschool.org, or visit
his web site, at www.newcityschool.org.
3. About the MI Dissertations Citations and Abstracts Database
In the Summer 2001, Volume 3,
Number 2 issue of this newsletter, a
data base associated with dissertations citations and abstracts of Howard
Gardner's MI was first introduced. In this issue, we continue the
commentary again but with additional detail. Here then are additional
specifics about what a user might encounter upon entering this research tool.
First,
the user sees the following overview.
The administration of this database is provided by Multiple
Intelligences: Theory and Practice a Special Interest Group (SIG) of
the American Educational Research Association, Multiple Intelligences Research and Consulting,
and Clifford Morris.
The purpose of this research database is to provide a series of MI researched records, that is, records formally researched and reviewed by dissertation thesis
committees. Like learning, this
data base is always under construction, as current (2001) citations and
abstracts are continuously being added.
Second, the user is presented
with two possible search choices. S/he can select a pre-determined key
phrase from a scroll-down menu or can type in a more selective key phrase.
Sample Record
|
Accession Number: ADG 9826711 |
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|
Author: Burke, Dorothy M. |
EdD |
Title: The Relationship of Multiple Intelligences
Profiles to Success in Computer-Based Concept Mapping |
|
Subject: Education, Technology. Teacher Training.
Cognitive Psychology |
||
|
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International. Volume:
59-03, Section: A, page: 0790. Year = 1998 |
||
|
Abstract: A concept map is a graphical representation of
concepts and their interconnections. Research has shown that concept maps
reflect the student's cognitive structure, enabling both teachers and
students to determine the level of understanding of material attained before,
during or after instruction. Several studies have determined that the
addition of the use of a computer-based concept mapping tool for preparing
maps increases the level of complexity of students' maps. However, not all
students are successful mappers, whether prepared on a computer or drawn with
paper-and-pencil. The purpose of this study was to investigate the
relationship between pre-service teachers' multiple intelligences profiles,
as defined by the work of Howard Gardner (1983), and the levels of complexity
in their computer-based concept maps. This study was conducted with
pre-service teachers (N = 20) enrolled in a science methods course at a
northeastern university graduate program. After an initial questionnaire to
determine their computer and academic background and prior exposure to
concept mapping, students received instruction on how to develop concept maps
and on how to create concept maps using the computer-based concept mapping
tool, Inspiration Circler. They completed the MIDAS
instrument to determine their individual intelligence profiles. A
unit on the 'Phases of the Moon' was taught, after which the subjects took a
paper-and-pencil test and then prepared computer-based concept maps of their
understanding of the material. The findings in the study substantiated the
hypothesis that strengths in multiple intelligences were predictive of
success in concept mapping. Using the Pearson product-moment correlation, one
intelligence, musical-rhythmic, produced a significant correlation (r = 0.54,
p > 5.05) with the level of complexity in the pre-service teachers'
concept maps. Ability in music and success in concept mapping both require
higher order thinking skills, suggesting that success in concept mapping can
be increased among students, when concept mapping is used consciously to
develop higher order thinking. Ascertaining students' multiple intelligences
profiles can increase teachers' understanding of their cognitive abilities
and shed light upon the underlying influences in cognitive tasks such as
concept mapping. |
||
|
Acknowledgement: The dissertation citations and abstract
contained here are published with permission of ProQuest Digital
Dissertations. A copy of the dissertation may be obtained by addressing your
request to UMI® Dissertation Services, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI
48106-1346 USA. Telephone (734) 761-7400; Web-page:
wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations. Further reproduction is prohibited without
permission. |
||
We hope that all of the
immediately above may motivate you to take your turn at searching this data
base. And, as mentioned at the outset of this section, the data base
continues to be updated with current records.
4. About AERA's Multiple Intelligences: Theory and
Practice SIG
In this section of our
newsletter, we wish to highlight the Multiple Intelligences (MI) Special
Interest Group (SIG) of the American
Education Research Association (AERA). SIG's demonstrate an
important function. They "provide a forum within AERA for the
involvement of individuals drawn together by a common interest in a field of
study, teaching, or research when the existing divisional structure may not
directly facilitate such activity. The Association provides the SIG's
program time at the Annual Meeting, publicity, scheduling, staff support,
viability, and the prestige of AERA affiliation. The Association has
established a set of guidelines to the SIG's for forming, operating and
terminating. A copy of the SIG Policies and Procedures Handbook can be
obtained from the AERA Central Office. The primary responsibility of a
SIG to the Association is to maintain a professional support system for its
membership consistent with the purpose of the Association as a whole. All
responsibilities, including financial, placed on SIG's by the Association are
meant to avoid potential conflicts with existing structure and to partially
reimburse the Association for expenditures incurred in the support of the
SIG's." (AERA homepage). To read more about these SIG's, go to http://www.aera.net/sigs/.
Upon
arrival at the homepage of the MI-SIG, at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Column/7568/index.html,
the reader will note a series of links, especially developed to inform others
about MI. Please note the Gardner and MI Links
section, that is, the third item down from the top in the left-hand column,
especially the internet links to adults and multiple intelligences. In
forthcoming issues of this newsletter, we hope focus more on how adults
throughout the world are involved in Multiple Intelligences. If you are
aware of others who have interesting projects associated with this interesting
model of the mind, please email us with your comments.
5.
Gardner's Multiple
Intelligences Theory and Bloom's Taxonomy of
Educational Objectives
Back
in the middle 1950's, one of the central themes within the educational arena
was that of Dr. Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives. Wherever an educator went, s/he was certain to be
introduced to his taxonomy for categorizing
different level of abstraction of questions that commonly occurred within
educational settings, in particular, inside the regular classroom (Bloom,
1956). At the time, his taxonomy provided a useful classification
structure with which to arrange classroom test questions, as classroom teachers
tended to ask questions within particular levels. It was the theory of
the time that if students were able to determine the levels of questions that
might appear on their term examinations, that they would thus be better able to
study domain content data by utilizing appropriate learning strategies.
In a nutshell,
Bloom highlighted some six (6) such questioning and learning strategies.
They ranged in order of cerebral complexity from the basic to the complex,
commencing with knowledge, then comprehension, then application,
analysis, synthesis,
and finally towards the highest cognitive competency, which Bloom termed evaluation. Now, half a century later, we
have also incorporated Howard Gardner's MI model into our daily lesson plans.
To view a table which blends Howard Gardner’s (1983) seven
intelligences to Benjamin Blooms (1956) Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives, go to http://members.ozemail.com.au/~mickday/australi.htm.
Enjoy the comparisons!
Reference
Bloom, B. S. (Ed.)
(1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of
educational goals: Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. New York ; Toronto:
Longmans, Green.
5b. More MI internet
links
1.
The Theory of Multiple
Intelligences
3.
The Gale
Encyclopedia of Psychology and Howard Earl Gardner
4.
The New School
of Northern Virginia
5.
Why
teachers are drawn to using Multiple Intelligence Theory in their classrooms
Send
mail to Clifford Morris with questions or comments about
this web site