Intelligence & Study Guide

Intelligence Study Guide

Objectives:

●     Define "intelligence" and explain how your definition might impact your teaching

●     Describe multiple theories of intelligence

●     Analyze the impact of sex, race, culture, and socioeconomic status on intelligence

Key Terms:

Pages 137-152

IQ – Intelligence quotient is a score that compares mental age and chronological age. The formula is Intelligence Quotient = Mental Age/ Chronological Age x 100

Flynn Effect – the effect of increasing IQ score by James Flynn

Cognitive Ability – is the ability to create and remember images and spatial information.

Cognitive Style – There are two types of cognitive styles visualizer and verbalizer. Visualizer usually thinks using images and visual information. Verbalizers usually think using words and verbal information.

Learning Preference – a persons preferred way of studying and learning.

Intellectual Styles – a way to think about intellectual styles that is manageable. There are three types: Types I, II, and III. Type I – prefers unstructured, free-flowing, creative, complex, and autonomous learning. Type II – prefers structured and straightforward tasks. Type III picks and choices between types I and II.

Spearman’s g – General intelligence that is used to perform a mental test. Each test is required some specific ability in addition to g.

Catell’s Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence

·         Fluid intelligence is mental efficiency and reasoning ability

·         Crystallized Intelligence is the ability to use problem-solving methods that are appropriate to your culture.

Sternberg's Theory of Successful Intelligence – intelligence is more than your measurement of your mental abilities. It is about your successes based on your own definition of success in your culture. The theory has three parts: analytic, creative, and practical intelligence

Gardner's Multiple Intelligences – an individual’s intelligent abilities broken down into eight separate abilities: linguistic (verbal), musical, spatial, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic (movement), interpersonal (understanding others), intrapersonal (understanding self), and naturalist (understanding human made patterns).

Distributed Intelligence – the ability to use things, people, or resources beyond ourselves to act more intelligently.

Emotional Intelligence – our understanding and regulation of our emotions.

Mindset:

·         Fixed Mindsets

o   Thinking your intelligence and talents are a fixed trait.

·         Growth Mindsets

o   Abilities and talents cultivated through effort and instruction.

Summarize the information about sex and intelligence:

            From infancy through the preschool years, most studies find few differences between boys and girls in overall mental and motor development or in specific abilities. Scores on tests of specific abilities show sex differences. From elementary through high school, girls show higher scores than boys on tests of reading and writing. Boys, however, show an advantage when it comes to manipulating visual images and spatial abilities. Can intelligence be heredity or environment?? It is almost impossible to separate intelligence from experience and genes. Psychologists today believe that intelligence is the result of both heredity and environment.

Summarize the information about race and intelligence:

             There are studies that show a difference in IQ scores based on race; however Neuroscientists believe there are no physiological differences in the brains of people from different races that would explain different intelligence levels.

Summarize the information about culture and intelligence:

How people are raised, what their culture values, and what their environments are like can dramatically impact their performance on IQ tests. Some cultures think that reading books is useless while other cultures may value the way they hunt. Culture can play a large role in how intelligence is defined, what we feel is intelligent behavior, and what qualities we will try to teach future generations. Culture factors are an important factor to consider but socioeconomic status is one fact that has played a major role in IQ.

Summary:

Intelligence is the “ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations.” Intelligences are used to process knowledge for life and its complexities. Many theories describe intelligence gain and describe how the brain may compartmentalize the new information. Strategies and systems have been developed that measure Intelligence success in the classroom. However, more research and observation is needed. It may be that we will never know what intelligence really is, how our brain organizes the information, if it can expand, or if it is even quantifiable.

Application Questions:

1. How do you define intelligence? How will this definition impact how you teach, what you teach, and the expectations you have for your students?

            The definition that I really like is “the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations.” I want my students to be growth-mindset students. One of the reasons why I am becoming a teacher is that I know that some kids do not have a support system. I want to be able to show them their abilities and give them belief that they can do and be anything they want to be.

 2. How will you incorporate multiple intelligence's and intellectual styles/preferences in your teaching?

Learning styles and incorporating multiple intelligences will be incorporated into my teaching. Throughout this chapter I understand the benefits of incorporating them and it provides me with a strategy to make learning more effective. One way I would incorporate them was if I was seeing my students struggle with a topic I would try to find other ways to teach the concept. For example, if my lecture is heavily verbal/linguistic approach than I will try and incorporate as much as I can of all eight strategies into my lesson plan. My goal with this is to ensure that I am reaching every student through various means of learning styles.

 3. How will you help your students develop a growth mindset?

I will help my students develop a growth mindset by teaching students strategies. They can also develop mindset by me helping them understand and accept that errors and mistakes are a part of the learning process and to learn from them. I also read recently that to help develop a growth mindset teachers want to make sure that they are comparing a student’s progress to their prior work and not comparing them to other students.

  

4. How will you help your students develop Emotional Intelligence? Be specific about how you will help students develop each of Goleman’s 5 attributes.

I want to create an environment where students respect and understand emotions. They understand their own emotions and they can sympathize with other student’s emotions. This environment will allow my students to be honest and students can be themselves. In order for this environment to exist I will need to be the example and show students how to properly handle themselves as situations come up. To motivate my students I want to create an award system. I remember in 5^th grade we had a reward system that everyone had a green, yellow, blue, and red card. If within two weeks everyone got a green card the whole class had some reward (movie, party, treats, etc.) The card system was to promote good behavior and encourage students’ interactions and environment to encourage students to get the green card. 

Explore Online Learning

In class today we had to read two articles that I found very interesting.

The first article was about how a teacher became converted to online learning. I really liked how he structured the online course and thought this would be beneficial for me to refer to again when I teach. To access the article click here.

The second article is about a virtual high school in Utah. I am so impressed with this school that I am heavily considering applying to this school after I graduate. To read this article click here.

Assignment:

Answer these questions to add your thoughts regarding online education. Remember to respond to your team members’ responses as well for full points.

• Does online education meet the purposes of education that we discussed?
• Why is online education a real option for so many students?
• Would I take a position as an online teacher? Why or why not?
• If a school was hiring a teacher and their grade level team or department was strong on blended or hybrid online learning would you want to take the job? Why or why not?
• Brainstorm- Share ways that you would/could use online education as a teacher to be more effective.

My Response:

1. Yes online education does meet the purpose of education. One of the purposes of education is to help children be prepared for real-life and business. Today businesses do almost everything online. As globalization becomes a bigger part of our economy future children will need to be knowledgeable about the internet, and being able to use online tools effectively. Online education teaches our children how to communicate effectively online, how to use the internet as a resource, and how to gain a valuable education. The only difference is that they are not sitting in a physical school in a classroom for 8 hours a day. 

2. I have noticed that children today want things now and they do not want to waste time doing it. Online education can be an option for these students. I have seen firsthand where online education can be completed faster than in a physical classroom. Some courses allow you to work at your own pace and other courses are very structured. In some cases I think online education can be beneficial for children with autism and ADHD and ADD. I have a cousin who is autistic and he has one class a school year online. He loves it. It is very interactive and captures his attention. He is even required to use the web cam and upload videos to answer questions to the teacher. The interactive activities helps him learn things faster. It is another way of ensuring that special education children has an opportunity to learn.

3. I would take a position as an online teacher. I feel online learning can be as effective as learning in a physical classroom if done correctly. I have worked for the past seven years for Internet marketing businesses. I feel that I could provide new interactive ways of learning to students via online. 

4. Yes I would take the job if the department wanted me to use blended or hybrid online learning. I have had courses at UVU that were hybrid and I enjoyed them a lot. If something came up and I didn't understand something I still had a class period once a week where the teacher could answer those questions and clarify anything. On top of that, tests and quizzes were done online and therefore did not take up as much of  our time in class. It allowed more time to focus on stuff that we needed to learn. 

5. Students can learn a lot from their peers. By having effective group discussions online the teacher is able to gauge how well each student knows and understandings the concept being taught. The group discussions allow students to work together but the individual assignments allow the students to work independently. There are tools available that I would use that would allow students to participate in both synchronous and asynchronous activities.

Purposes of Education

Assignment: 

• Tell what you think are the top 3 reasons we have schools or provide education.
• Add a 4th reason that is “sad, but true” reason that the public thinks we should have schools. An example would be, “ Some people think that it is the purpose of schools to make sure that students get fed properly each day.”
• After you have posted your 4 reasons, make sure that you respond to at least 2 team members’ posts to earn full points on this discussion and all future discussions.

My response:

The first reason why an education is provided is so that the children can contribute to society. The children our are future. We need to teach them and help them to aspire and reach their dream goals. We need the children to be educated so that they can continue to contribute to businesses and help grow our economy.

A second reason why an education is provided is to provide academics that they normally would not get at home. For example, you could have a parent that is great in math but does not know anything about science or writing. In addition what if the math concepts they are teaching their children are too advance for the child to understand? Teachers are trained to provide knowledge to children on a level that helps them grasp and build off of those concepts.

The third reason why an education is provided is to help children develop self-confidence and have high self-esteem. Some children are coming from various backgrounds and the child may feel useless and like they are not going anywhere in life. This child just needs one perosn in their life that can see their potential and who they can become. A teacher can see that and encourage them and instill that confidence in them. By doing so you may impact at least one child who will be grateful for that, work hard, and become successful.

The fourth reason that education is provided that is "sad but true" is that school is a child day care. Sending children to school free's parents so that they can work, pursue interests, and other activities.