Watch this video of Dr. Gardner of Harvard from YouTube.
Now watch this video of animation and a speech from a well know education enthusiast.
Write a comment on how the Theory of Multiple Intelligence fits in with 21st century learning OR make any general comments about the videos.
I couldn't help but think when I watched these.... We really have to change our thinking about how we teach our students. Enough talk!! ACTION NEEDED!!!
14 comments:
Wow!! This leaves you wondering about a lot of things. I certainly agree with the philosophy of waking students up to learning. Technology today has provided students with so many different opportunities to share what they know. We know that not everyone is good at the same thing (multiple intelligences). If we let children show us what they know in different formats based on their choice, I think we will be amazed at what they can demonstrate.
Oh, there's that word again...Collaboration! Funny how both children and adults learn best through collaboration, but when it comes to evaluating our students, we're right back to standardized tests. What really gets me is that after being in education for 27 years, and learning about multiple intelligences & how each child learns at his own pace (back in the eighties), here we are still pretty much doing the same thing. It reminds me of an old saying - if you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you're getting. I also found it interesting that in today's society, our children are flooded with technology at their fingertips, with ipods, video games, etc. stimulating their senses left & right, and the most important aspect of their young lives is practically mind-numbing. That's very sad.
What a great video. Dr. Colwell should be showing this one as we move towards change in Volusia County. I remember the push to incorporate multiple intelligences when I was trained on ITI-Integrated Thematic Instruction but in just a few short years, it was pushed aside as our curriculum maps, schedules and standardized testing took over. I can't help but be catty: as Accountability became the buzzword we began to lose some of the things that kept students interested- group projects, cooperative learning, performances, etc.. The powers that be keep talking about a business model of education, but we are not making cookie cutter products here. We are trying to prepare students for the unknown. We need divergent thinkers who can collaborate. We are living in exciting times, with change on the horizon. Students today have so many options and technology is a big part of that future. I loved the title of the organization -Edutopia. ... It will require a huge paradigm shift if all the stakeholders-taxpayers, parents, politicians, educators are going to invest in a new model for public education. Otherwise I see more virtual schools, charter schools cropping up to take its place-ironically, free of the constraints currently imposed which caused some of our current troubles. Lots to thing about. Thanks for the posting of the videos
Having taught Career and Tech Ed for the last 30 years, I could not agree more-my program in Early Childhood Education is based on student directed learning, teacher/peer feedback and self-reflection. Much of my success is because I am fortunate to have my students for multiple years; it takes patience to motivate the students to take personal responsibility for their learning (and I admit, some force feeding) as well as lots of effort to convince the students that they are capable of good work, and of course, time for multiple opportunities to practice their skills. My students leave high school with the skills they need to enter the work force. I am so discouraged by the political climate and attitudes towards our profession and don't see any support/recognition for edutopia.
I couldn't help but think about educators as well as students. We as educators also have our multiple intelligences; we also think in different ways and therefore would obviously be more successful if were were given that freedom. And why couldn't a kinesthetic teacher have a class full of kinesthetic students? But no, we're more and more shackled with our maps and reading blocks, our schedules. We're losing our students, figuratively, and we're losing our eductors, literally.
Wow, wow, wow! So true. Especially the collaboration part. As a primary teacher my class spends a majority of the day working in small groups. They can learn so much by working together. This is especially true in Reading. I am sitting here running ideas through my mind of how I can do this in Math:-)
I also agree with the ADHD part. With all of today's technology we cannot expect children to sit and listen to some paper/pencil lecture and keep their focus. (Or retain anything they do learn.) Students need to be actively involved in the learning process. At the beginning of the school year I have lots of parents ask why they are not seeing a lot of papers sent home. After they come in and see what our day is like and see how much progress their children are making, they understand!!!
Over the years, I "think" there has been an increase in ADHD and the connection to a young person's inability to sit still (too many stimuli) and our mode of education is an interesting theory on ADHD.
A few years ago some of our faculty read A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink which illustrated where the information revolution has brought us and the need to change to divergent thinking, especially since reativity seems to shrink with age (any of you working in early childhood see that more clearly!). The technology tools we are exploring should help us educate differently, according to how the brain learns. Moving the behemoth of EDUCATION in this country in a different direction is a daunting task. Gardner's points are well taken. Hopefully in VCS we will have good examples, educators wanting to make the change and collaboration on assessments that show it works, but the political committment to help foster this change is not evident.
Great Videos....The theory of Multiple Intelligence fits in perfectly with the 21st century learning. Students have different strengths in learning and technology provides a variety of ways for curriculum to be presented (logical, linguistic, spacial, etc.) Students can also create and present information learned in a format that is of most interest to them. They tend to retain more when they have a hands-on approach to learning. Technology provides that approach...and yes, we as educators do need to change our way of thinking to teach our 21st century learners.
I really enjoyed these videos...I agree with Dr. Gardner, we teach to much superficial information to students that gets forgotten, POOF! I'm amazed at advanced material is taught to our middle school students...calculus in middle school! Whew. I can't wait to see more models/examples of how to incorporate collaborative learning with students. It's discouraging too, to know that's what works, but to still be tested with pencil and paper. I can't figure out how they are going to test my art students on standardized tests, but it's coming in 2 years! Egads. The cartooning in the 2nd video is absolutely priceless! I'd love to see how they edited the video to synch up with the speakers' words. That takes a team to prepare a presentation like that!
"Are we reaching every child, and if not, what can we do differently so that we are?" What a powerful question Mr. Gardner poses. I agree with many of the points made in this video. We do have so much content to cover that at times it can limit the time we have to delve deeply into a given topic yet that is what is required to make that knowledge last and be useful for the learner. So much is "crammed" into the students so they can perform well on the standardized tests but how much of that is retained to become useful in their adult lives? Although it is unrealistic to think one must teach a topic eight different ways to touch each type of intelligence, it is imperative to try and incorporate as many possible pieces that will ignite each type of intelligence that one can into each lesson if one is going to reach each and every child.
I was touched by the charicature clip referencing that education is not a factory and children are not manufactured products. I agree that all too often it feels like our students are on an assembly line and that shouldn't be. I agree that we all must become more diveregent thinkers and that the educational system needs a complete overhaul to meet the needs of our students in today's age.
For both clips, technology gives educators an effective tool to incorporate into the classroom to help meet the needs of all learners.
I had read the book, Multiple Intelligences, while in college and loved it. When I began teaching, I started to implement some of his ideas into my teaching practices. However I hit a few snags. Like Meredith parents complained about not having papers sent home or too many projects. Apparently they were becoming too involved in their own child's projects. Staying on track with the curriculum maps or your team of teachers is almost impossible if you are implementing any activities that involves hands on experiences or creativity. I always start out the beginning of the year this way, but by Christmas....I get really antsy and change my teaching style completely until after FCAT. We need more academic time to engage the students in more creative ways to express their learning. I was lucky enough to have been at a Plus One school for a few years and boy am I having difficulty adjusting my teaching schedule to cram in all my great lessons.
Just the way the 21st century video was made uses multiple intelligences.
The use of the computer and technology will enable us to use more of the intelligences.
This is a great time for teaching!
So, we have all of these learned people who have done all of these studies and what are we still doing? Having our students sit and listen and do worksheets and take standardized tests. Yes, I know that changing the way we do things will be challenging--not hard or impossible--but CHALLENGING. There will be a lot to do. The teacher editions of the textbooks will no longer be enough. This will require thinking and purposeful planning. But here's the thing. It can and it should be done. We as the adults in charge need to change the way we do things and quit complaining when our students don't seem to care. We need to get to know our students and then be willing to meet them where they are so they can get the most out of what we are doing. Let them draw, move, or create with technology. Let them show what they are learning.
Very interesting videos. I liked the second one especially, because it showed that our schools were created for the needs of a society from many years ago, but we have not succeeded in adjusting them to different times and needs. The ADHD data was really horrifying! I think that the fact that we want our students to do well on standardized tests plays a big role in the difficulties we have in changing our ways, definitely.
Post a Comment