Job Discussion Forums

[kev7161]

Many of you know of this theory. The idea that different students learn in different ways: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Musical, Verbal, Visual/Spatial, Kinesthetic (movement), and Logical (and I believe "Nature" has been added into the mix). How many of you trust this theory? How many of you utilize it? I know that most Chinese teachers may not have even heard of such things as we have seen first hand the typical teaching styles here, but have you met/observed any that try different things in their classes?

I try to incorporate as many different teaching styles as I can to keep the students interested. I definitely see those that I think cannot possibly utter a syllable suddenly come alive when they present a dialogue their group has worked on. Then again, I see a few that don't like working as a group while others relish group work days. I don't have much opportunity to move my kids around due to limitations with space, but I try to have as many as I can stand up, come to the front of the class, write on the board, etc. I definitely have many artistic types in my classes as well.

So, thoughts on this topic?

[latefordinner]

I picked occaisionally, but could as easily have picked "Huh, wuzzat?" or "As often as possible". When I was in uni, cognition and development theory were far less developed than now. "Me see dinosaur, me get spear" was about it. I have however long known that different students learn in different ways. I think that bit of teaching lore is a lot older than "me get spear".
I would like to do more, but the way I am used (and I believe many of us) is such that I can't tailor my lessons to the students as much as I'd like. I see about 1500 kids a week, perhaps more, for 40 minutes a class. Some classes have more than 50 kids. I can plan thinking "This is something abstract, this is something concrete, this is a song...", but since I don't know what will work for my kids (except for a few students, and suspect I could do anything and it would work anyway), I really can't plan any better than a Chinese teacher. That is a terrible thing to admit, but there you have it.

[go_ABs]

My gf is attempting to get through a book called "Open Mind" by some gal named "Dawna Markova, PhD".

The gist of it is that not only do we have different learning styles, but we have one each for our conscious, subconscious and unconscious minds.

According to the blurb "If your conscious mind is most stimulated by movement, for instance, it will be hard for you to learn while sitting still. If, on the other hand, movement stimulates your unconscious mind, you may find competitive sports frustrating."

It's not something that appeals to me very much, to be honest. As a teacher there are so many varieties of learners in my classes. According to this book, they've got three kinds of learning style each. That makes planning your teaching according to learning styles impossible for anything but one-on-one.

I try to put as much variety in my classes as possible, but don't ever think about what learning style each part appeals to. As long as the parts are different enough from each other to keep the young 'uns interested, then I'm happy.

Good topic, though, Kev.

[ChinaMovieMagic]

Ever see folks at a tourism spot...where they can have Photos taken of them wearing the robes of the Imperial Court. Folks are transformed.
Movie-based RolePlay-with-Robes...this is what I plan to develop in YangShuo English/Chinese/TaiChi/Folk Dance etc. learning community...the very environment of the classroom can raise the Affective Filter of many folks...

I often mention to teachers/students the relevance of theories of Gardner...in emphasizing that there are many avenues to success/happiness in life...other than logical and mathematical test scores...

For more about Role Play and Gardner-related activities, check out "Promoting Change in China's Classrooms" on this China-Job page

BELOW are relevant samples:

(from pg. 8 eight)
Multiple intelligences and puppet show
Professor Doctor Ms.Birsen Tutunis (Kadir Has University, Turkey)

Among the many interesting talks given today, Multiple intelligences and puppet show attracted many teachers whose focus is teaching young learners. Presented by Professor Doctor Ms.Birsen Tutunis, a very friendly and communicative lady from Kadir Has University in Turkey, this talk first detailed briefly Gardner's (1983) multiple intelligence theory, showing how comprehensive and interactive working with young learners can be.

In order to illustrate her points, Professor Tutunis exemplified with a whole lesson plan based on the story Beauty and the Beast. She then mixed story telling, storyboard, pictures, listening, performing and finally hands-on puppet and mask making, turning her talk into a real workshop by distributing materials like socks, table tennis balls, string and glue for the participants to make their own pets.

Needless to say all the participants were completely involved by the activity and having a lot of fun!
The message behind all that? Young learners profit and enjoy much more, and feel much more motivated when they're given the opportunity to create and manipulate language. However, judging by the group of teachers attending her talk today, we could say this wise piece of advice doesn't apply only to young learners!!
_________________


http://jaie.asu.edu/v30/V30S3rol.htm
Journal of American Indian Education
The Role of Imagery Training on Tohono O'Odham Children's Creativity Scores)

INTRODUCTION

When viewed as cultural strengths and not weaknesses or deficiencies, the natural skills and abilities of Indian children contribute to providing a total picture of a child's learning style. (Swisher & Deyhle, 1989, pg. 4)



Swisher and Deyhle (1989) point to the fact that American Indian students have unique gifts given to them by their culture. The following strengths have been reported for American Indian students: preference for pattern-symbolic learning (Walker, Dodd & Bigelow, 1989); strength in spatial ability (Diessner & Walker, 1989) and a strong preference for visual, kinesthetic and tactile learning modalities (Wauters, Bruce, Black & Hocker, 1989).

Imagery's attributes as a cognitive process align closely with Indian children's learning strengths. Imagery relies on visual, kinesthetic and tactile senses, since the area of the brain that organizes sensory information also mediates imagery (Nelson, 1988; Pribram, 1979). Imagery also acts to create internal symbols of external events that represent patterns and spatial relationships (Kaufmann & Helstrupt, 1985).

Research usually examines imagery's role as an extension of perceptional functioning (Shephard & Metzler, 1971), its role in memory (Greeson, 1981; Goldston & Richman, 1985; Rohwer, 1970) or its function in improving sports' performance (Suinn, 1983). A neglected area of research is imagery's role in creativity and problem solving (Speidel & Troy, 1985).

Initial research in imagery and creativity implies that they are closely related (Gowan, 1978). Horng and Torrance (1987) report that measures of flexibility, vividness and richness of imagery predict high creativity scores. Imagery assists creativity since it is the preferred human processing mode when tasks are abstract (Paivio, 1969), or require increased information processing in a novel situation (Kaufmann, 1980). Pylyshyn (1981) reports that imagery accesses an underlying matrix of information in the unconscious mind which can explain the insight or "aha" phenomenon that accompanies the creative process.

Since, imagery is closely tied to the creative process, and since imagery matches American Indian children's cognitive strengths, imagery training can be a strategy to improve these children's school performance. If this was documented, imagery training could be used as an instructional tool to increase American Indian children's creativity and problem solving ability in adapting to the school environment and in completing academic tasks.

The following study was designed to document whether or not imagery training in fact would improve children's creativity scores on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) (Torrance, 1974). The TTCT has two sections, figural and verbal. The figural form was chosen as a measure of creativity because it does not appear to be culturally biased (Tonemah, 1987). Creativity as defined on the figural TTCT test is drawing novel forms in frequency and elaboration, compared to other children and to the student's own performance.


Training

Imagery training for the experimental group occurred in a small group setting outside the children's classroom for 15 minutes each day across 6 days. Training was implemented by a college student enrolled in an internship. A script was created for each session. The first author can be contacted for a complete script of the sessions. Each session began with the leader and the children using rattles to create improvisational rhythms. The principal of the school who is a Tohono O'odharn tribal member, reported no conflict with using the rattles in the classroom with O'odharn traditions.
Creating improvisational rhythm, was done to vivify the imagery (Rider, Floyd & Kirkpatrick, 1985).
Rhythm acts to stimulate the limbic system of the brain which also activates the imagery process (Nelson, 1987).
Students could keep their eyes open or closed during imagery, since research reports that imagery is nearly as vivid with eyes open or closed (Marks, 1983).
After each imagery session, students were given the opportunity to talk about their imagery, and at times they were also asked to draw what they saw. The sessions included the following content:

Session One. Students were shown a picture and then asked to close their eyes to see the picture in their mind. Students discussed one of their favorite movies and then were asked to see a scene from their movie in their mind, using several senses. Students were then asked to let that scene move, as if they were watching the movie.

Session Two. Several exercises emphasized using all senses when imaging. For example: See your favorite food and taste it. See a place outside that you like, walk in it, touch a leaf, feel the wind, hear a sound.

Session Three. Students were asked to see themselves at their desk performing a task well. They were asked to see an imaginary animal helper on their desk. Time was spent focusing on the perceptual details of the animal, and students were asked to interact with the animal in the image. See Figure 1 for a picture of an animal that a student drew when debriefing this imagery exercise.

Session Four. Students were asked to image a situation when they felt they had a problem in dealing with another student. Time was spent vivifying the imagery by noticing perceptual details. Children were asked to let the image transform into a solution. See Figure 2 for a picture a student drew of working out a problem with a friend. A focusing in technique was taught in which they looked at a vague form or color in the image and kept watching it until it became clearer.

Session Five. This was a review session. Imagery tasks included seeing their family or a loved one and a favorite place.

Session Six. In this session students were asked to see what they would like to be doing in the future. For most children this took the form of what job they would like to have or places that they would like to visit. The leader assisted students in seeing perceptual details in the imagery and allowing the imagery to move.

[AsiaTraveller]

CMM posts 1299 words, again hijacking an otherwise potentially interesting thread.

Way to go! You must be awfully fun at parties.

[ChinaMovieMagic]

TOPIC of this thread is:
Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

QUESTION of OP is:
So, thoughts on this topic?

CMM's response is on-topic.
Asia Traveler's is less on-topic.

[AsiaTraveller]

CMM, when the OP asked for "thoughts," he wanted your thoughts and not simply a huge, unannotated pasting from the Internet.

Your cut-and-paste from the Internet had no commentary of your own about it, no indication of why somebody might want to read it, no preview of its contents. Why should I be motivated to read it? What's the relevance to ESL/EFL teaching (beyond general "multiple intelligences") of puppet shows and American Indian children?

How about writing (in your own words) a two- or three-sentence abstract or preview when you paste logorrheic excerpts from the Internet? Tell us why we might want to start reading (or even skimming) them. Then we'd know whether they might be worth our time. Those would be YOUR thoughts.

Model: "Here's an excerpt from XYZ, written by AB, which I found on the Internet at the following URL (<www.blah.com>). I think it's an enlightening passage because it focuses on Q, R, and S. I plan to use those techniques in my next conversation class."

In pedagogical circles, that's known as motivation. I hope you motivate your students better than you motivate readers of Dave's ESL Cafe!!

[ChinaMovieMagic]

TOPIC of this thread is:
Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

QUESTION of OP is:
So, thoughts on this topic?

CMM's response is on-topic.
Asia Traveler's is less on-topic.

[AsiaTraveller]

CMM thus proves he has only one intelligence. And he's lazy, too.

'Tis a pity.