La Giornata dellIntelligenza Creativa Sessione 2, mattino

1
La Giornata dellIntelligenza Creativa Sessione
2, mattino

• Limportanza delle intelligenze creative e
  pratiche nel percorso di successo degli studenti
  universitari (come ridurre gli abbandoni, i
  fallimenti, i ritardi)

2
The Challenge

• Accepting students from all backgrounds while
  increasing retention and graduation rates

3
Suggested Solution

• Helping all students succeed, by
• Identifying potential at admissions
• Teaching to students strengths weaknesses
• Monitoring student progress and providing on-time
  support as needed

4
A framework for developing solutions

• Robert J. Sternbergs Theory of Successful
  Intelligence
• Students are SUCCESSFULLY INTELLIGENT, when they
  have the abilities to succeed in life by
• 1. Recognizing and capitalizing on strengths
• 2. Recognizing and correcting or compensating
  for weaknesses.

5
Capitalization and compensation enable people to
balance

• Adaptation to existing environments
• Shaping environments to improve them
• Selecting new environments.
• Via
• Analytical abilities
• Creative abilities
• Practical abilities

6
Analytical intelligence . . .

• . . . is evoked when we
• analyze
• compare and contrast
• evaluate
• explain
• judge
• critique

7
Creative intelligence . . .

• . . . is evoked when we
• create
• design
• invent
• imagine
• suppose

8
Practical intelligence . . .

• . . . is involved when we
• Use
• Apply
• Implement
• Employ
• Contextualize

9
Suggested solution

• Helping all students by
• Identifying potential at admissions
• Teaching to students strengths weaknesses
• Monitoring student progress and providing on-time
  support as needed

10
1. Identifying potential in the U.S

• Going beyond analytical measures such as GPA or
  SAT scores
• Example A of small revision to the admissions
  process Tufts Universitys Kaleidoscope project
• Example B of a moderate enhancement New England
  Prep School Scholarship program
• Example C of an extensive change Project Rainbow

11
Example A Kaleidoscope

• Question allowing for analytical skills
• In The Happy Life, Charles Eliot called books
  "the quietest and most constant of friendsthe
  most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the
  most patient of teachers." What work of fiction
  or non-fiction changed the way you live or the
  way you see the world? Why?
• Question allowing for practical skills
• Describe a moment in which you took a risk and
  achieved an unexpected goal. How did you persuade
  others to follow your lead? You may reflect on
  examples from your academic, extracurricular or
  athletic experiences.

12
Kaleidoscope

• Question allowing for creativity
• Use an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper to create
  something.  You can blueprint your future home,
  create a new product, draw a cartoon strip,
  design a costume or a theatrical set, compose a
  score or do something entirely different.  Let
  your imagination wander. 

13
Example B Prep School

• Classes of Attributes Selected
• Soft-Side Variables
• (Self-Reported) Character, Values, Motivation
• Hard-Side Variables
• Academic Intelligence
• Practical Intelligence

14
Soft-Side Instruments Student Self-Report

• Type of tasks preferred (too hard, hard, not too
  hard, easy)
• Self-awareness
• Self-confidence
• Commitment to learning and achievement
• Self-efficacy
• Locus of Control
• Resilience (semi-structured interview)

15
Student Self-Report Example Item

• You think that if you put enough hard work into
  it, you will do well in any academic
  subject._____
• Strongly Agree_1
• Agree_2
• Mostly Agree_3
• Neither Agree nor Disagree_4
• Mostly Disagree_5
• Disagree_6
• Strongly Disagree_7

16
Hard-Side Instruments

• Tacit Knowledge Questionnaire (known as
  School-Life Questionnaire)
• Constructed on the basis of
• Interviews with alumni
• Interviews with current students
• Conversations with teachers

17
School-Life Questionnaire

• 1 2 3 4
  5 6 7
• Not a very good
  Average A very
  good
• choice
  choice
• In day schools you rarely see your teachers
  outside of class. Some of them might be engaged
  in sports or other extra-curricular activities,
  but mostly you only see them in school-related
  circumstances. At boarding school the situation
  is quite different, because many teachers live on
  campus and you get to see them outside the
  classroom a lot.

18
Cont.

• Given this situation, rate the quality of the
  following behavior choices
• ____ (a) Always greet teachers and smile, but
  avoid seeing them outside of class.
• ____ (b) Take advantage of this situation to talk
  to teachers about your school-related problems.
• ____ (c) Wait and see if teachers approach you,
  and if so, what kinds of things they talk to you
  about.
• ____ (d) Talk to your teachers but avoid
  discussing your problems as this might give them
  a negative impression of you.
• ____ (e) Try to be sensitive and make a
  distinction between situations when teachers are
  available and unavailable to you.
• ____ (f) Always try to be noticedthe more
  teachers talk to you, the better your grades will
  be.
• ____ (g) Always ask whether it is a good time or
  not to discuss your problems with teachers.

19

• 1 2
  3 4
  5 6 7
• Not a very good Average A very
  good
• choice choice
• You are taking a math class that gives you a
  lot of trouble. On the first two tests you did
  poorly, and for tomorrow you have a homework
  problem that you are not quite sure how to solve.
  

20
Cont.

• Given this situation, rate the quality of the
  following behavior choices
• ____ (a) Try to find a solution, or at least some
  explanation of how to arrive at a solution, in
  the book .
• ____ (b) Give it a try if you cant solve the
  problem youll just have to tell the teacher you
  didnt understand it.
• ____ (c) Ask some of your classmates if theyve
  found the solution, telling them you want to
  compare it with yours (although you dont
  actually have one).
• ____ (d) Try hard, and if it doesnt work, give
  up on it you can always pretend you had
  forgotten you had homework.
• ____ (e) Suggest to some of your classmates that
  you study together.
• ____ (f) Go to see the one student in the class
  who you know is really smart and ask him for
  help.
• ____ (g) Try hard, take a lot of notes, then come
  to the teacher before class and tell her/him that
  you tried and failed.

21

• 1 2 3
  4
  5 6 7
• Not a very good Average A very
  good
• choice choice
• Students who are used to living at home and
  going to school nearby need to adjust to being
  away from home when they go to boarding school.
  All students miss home at times. A few students
  become very homesick. Knowing that it is
  sometimes difficult to be away from family and
  friends, imagine that you are in the situation of
  having just started boarding school.

22
Cont.

• Given this situation, rate the quality of the
  following behavior choices
• ____ (a) Write, e-mail, and call your friends and
  family as often as possible.
• ____ (b) Ask your friends and family to come to
  visit you so that you can show them your new
  surroundings.
• ____ (c) Go home to visit your friends and family
  whenever possible.
• ____ (d) Try to make new friends and not think
  too much about home.
• ____ (e) Force yourself not to call or write your
  friends and family too often.
• ____ (f) Tell your parents how difficult a time
  you are having and discuss the possibility of
  going back to your hometown school.

23
Predicting GPA Hierarchical/Stepwise Regression
24
What matters?

• Very high motivation to achieve (internal locus
  of control)
• Sensible self-confidence
• Expert knowledge of the school environment

25
Example C Rainbow

• Analytical
• multiple choice items
• Practical
• multiple choice items
• performance tasks (tacit knowledge inventories)
• Creative
• multiple choice items
• performance tasks

26
Vignette Sample ItemCollege Life Tacit-Knowledge
Inventory

• 1 2 3
  4 5 6
  7
• Not at all
  Neither Extremely
• Characteristic
  Characteristic nor Characteristic
• Uncharacteristic
• You are enrolled in a large introductory lecture
  course. Requirements consist of three term-time
  exams and a final. Please indicate how
  characteristic it is of your behavior to spend
  time doing the following, if your goal is getting
  an A in the course.
• ___Attending class regularly.
• ___Attending optional weekly review sessions, if
  there are any, with the T.A.
• ___Reading assigned text chapters thoroughly.
• ___Taking comprehensive class notes.
• ___Speaking with the Professor after class and
  during office hours.
• ___Talking to students who took the course last
  year.
• ___Studying regularly instead of cramming in the
  night before exams.
• ___Doing the extra credit or optional reading
  assignments.
• ___Skimming the required reading in the morning
  before class.

27
Vignette Sample ItemGeneral Workplace
Tacit-Knowledge Inventory

• 1 2 3
  4 5 6
  7
• Extremely Very Somewhat Neither Bad
  Somewhat Very Extremely
• Bad Bad Bad
  Nor Good Good Good
  Good
• Youve been assigned to work on a project for a
  day with a fellow employee whom you really
  dislike. He is rude, lazy, and rarely does a
  proper job. What would be the best thing for you
  to do?
• ___Tell the worker that you think he is
  worthless.
• ___Warn the worker that, if he is not on his
  toes today, you will complain to the supervisor.
• ___Avoid all conversation and eye contact with
  the other worker.
• ___Be polite to the other worker and try to
  maintain as business-like a manner as possible so
  that hopefully he will follow your example for
  the day.
• ___Tell your supervisor that you refuse to work
  with this man.
• ___The project is going to be impossible to
  accomplish with this worker, so you may as well
  not even try--you can always blame your bad work
  partner.
• ___See if you can convince one of your friends to
  take your place and work with this employee.
• ___Demand a raise from your supervisor you
  should not have to tolerate these conditions.

28
Everyday Situational Judgment - Movies

• Examinees see seven digitized movies depicting
  various real-life situations that college
  students confront or may confront.
• Show a sample clip Which math?

29
Cont.

• What is the most effective solution to this
  situation in terms of James achieving academic
  success?
• __1) Take the easy class and sit in on the
  difficult one.
• __2) Take the easy one.
• __3) Take the more challenging class.
• __4) Take the easy class and ask his friend the
  physics major to make the material more
  interesting for him.
• __5) Take the challenging class and have his
  friend the physics major help him with his
  homework.

30

• Creative Performance tasks
• Written stories (2)
• Oral stories (2)
• Cartoon captions (3)

31
Written Stories

• SHORT STORY TASK TITLES
• A Fifth Chance
• 2983
• Beyond the Edge
• The Octopuss Sneakers
• Its Moving Backwards
• Not Enough Time

32
Oral Stories
33
Cartoon Titles
  ________________________________________________
_______________________
34
Summary

• SAT alone explains about 9.8 of GPA variance
• New measures alone explain about 16.3 of GPA
  variance
• And, new measures explain about 8.6 of GPA
  variance beyond SAT alone, whereas SAT explains
  about 0.7 of GPA beyond new measures

35
Suggested Solution

• Helping all students by
• Identifying potential at admissions
• Teaching to students strengths weaknesses
• Monitoring student progress and providing on-time
  support as needed

36
2. Teaching to ALL students
37
Teaching to MEMORY skills

• RECALL who did certain things (e.g., proposed a
  theory),
• RETELL what things they did (e.g., the nature of
  the theory),
• RECITE how certain things are done (e.g.,
  computing a standard deviation),
• LIST when certain things are done (e.g., when
  squaring of terms is done in a formula), etc.

38
Teaching to ANALYTICAL skills

• ANALYZE (a literary plot, a theory in the
  sciences, a mathematical problem)
• COMPARE AND CONTRAST (two characters in a novel,
  two systems of government, the styles of two
  artists)
• EVALUATE (a poem, a cultural custom, a strategy
  in tennis)
• EXPLAIN (the use of grammar in a sentence, your
  interpretation of an historical event, the
  solution to a scientific problem)

39
A High School Psychology Example

• You have read about two alternative theories of
  sleep the restorative theory of sleep and an
  evolutionary theory of sleep, sometimes referred
  to as the preservation and protection theory.
• Briefly describe and compare and contrast these
  two theories. State what you see as the
  advantages and disadvantages of the evolutionary
  theory compared to the restorative theory.

40
Exercise

• Work in groups of 2 or 3 and come up with an
  example of an analytical activity that you do
  with your students.
• Model the activity for the rest of the group, as
  if they were the students.

41
Teaching to PRACTICAL skills

• USE (a lesson that a literary character learned
  in your life, a mathematical lesson in the
  supermarket, a lesson learned on the playing
  field in everyday life)
• APPLY (what you learned in a foreign-language
  class to an interaction with a foreigner, a
  lesson from history to the present, a scientific
  principle to everyday life)

42
A High School Math Example

• Think of something you do every day, and have
  been doing every day for the most part of your
  life. It can be any action, like brushing your
  teeth, smiling to greet friends, or listening to
  CDs. Calculate how many times a day you perform
  this action, then estimate how many times you do
  it in a month, then in a year, and finally how
  many times you are likely to have done it in your
  life. Express these results using the scientific
  notations you have learned in this section.

43
Exercise

• Work in groups of 2 or 3 and come up with an
  example of a practical activity that you do with
  your students.
• Model the activity for the rest of the group, as
  if they were the students.

44
Teaching to CREATIVE skills

• CREATE (a poem, a sculpture, a new game)
• DESIGN (a new system of government for the
  classroom, a scientific investigation, a
  comfortable home)
• IMAGINE (what life would be like in another
  country, what it would be like to be president of
  a country, how bees communicate to each other)
• SUPPOSE (worldwide temperatures increased 5
  degrees on average, people were paid to inform
  on neighbors who do not support the political
  party in power, the ozone layer were completely
  depleted)

45
A High School Physics Example

• Unit on vectors using airplane data
• Imagine that the earth rotated in the opposite
  direction, or at a different rate. How would this
  affect your planes arrival time?

46
Exercise

• Work in groups of 2 or 3 and come up with an
  example of a creative activity that you do with
  your students.
• Model the activity for the rest of the group, as
  if they were the students.

47
Assess what you teach

• Align teaching and assessment
• Examples from AP studies showing decreased
  differences between ethnic groups with practical
  and creative assessment items vs. analytical and
  memory items

48
Results of the AP studies
49
Suggested Solution

• Helping all students, including first-generation,
  low-income students, succeed, by
• Identifying potential at admissions
• Teaching to students strengths weaknesses
• Monitoring student progress and providing
  on-time support as needed

50
Assessing and tracking students

• Admissions
• Academic programming Placement / diagnostic
  exams, Focus groups, Student Academic Self
  Assessment, Other Surveys, Advising, Mentoring,
  Tutoring
• Graduation
• Alumni Survey on strengths and weaknesses

51
(No Transcript)
52
Developing a system for tracking students

• Identify what data is collected and by whom
  (e.g., admissions office, academic resource
  center, advisors)
• Centralize data and facilitate data flow (e.g.,
  software, outside expertise)

53
Providing on-time support

• Use the student information database to provide
  appropriate student support
• Evaluate impact of support program, develop
  additional programs as needed

54
Conclusion

• The theory of successful intelligence can provide
  one framework for considering and addressing
  students strengths and weaknesses at admissions,
  in teaching, and in providing on-going evaluation
  and support

55
Next steps

• What can be done at the Università degli Studi di
  Trento?
• Examples from other Italian Universities?

56
Contact information

• Linda Jarvin
• linda.jarvin_at_tufts.edu
• http//pace.tufts.edu/
• http//celt.tufts.edu/