Learners andThinking

1
The Middle Phase of Learning

• Learners andThinking

Pupil Free Day Monday 12 July 2004 Alison Rose,
Di Marsden and Denise Tarlinton
2
Middle YearsStudents in Years 4 to 9

• Why the focus?
• A period of dynamic growth and change
• Loss of enthusiasm for learning
• Disengagement from classroom activities
• Make the least progress in their learning
• A very important part of Education Queenslands
  reform agenda
• Middle schooling reforms are building

3
SESSION OVERVIEW

• 1. Middle Years of Learning
• - Research
• - Nature of Middle Years learners
• - Teaching Practices to support Middle Years
  learners
• 2. Gardners Multiple Intelligences
• - Ways to incorporate MI into teaching practices
  in the Middle Years
• 3. Strategy to encourage Cooperative Learning in
  the Middle Years Decision Making Matrix
• - Classroom applications

4
What does research tell us about this distinctive
phase of growth and change?

• Broadest range of stages of physical, social,
  emotional and intellectual development
• Students make the least progress in learning
• Gap between low and high achievers increases
  significantly
• Students most at risk of disengaging from
  learning (they can be physically in the
  classroom, but switched off from learning)
• Supportive environment is essential, in middle
  phase of learning students also need to be
  challenged intellectually to remain engaged
• (QSRLS, MYRAD)

5
MYRAD - Middle Years Research and Development

• The more students believe their teachers to be
  emphasising thinking and learning strategies
• The greater the motivation
• The more strongly they are involved in productive
  cognitive strategies
• The more firmly they focus on the task goals
• The less they see school to be focussed on
  individual ability and competition
• The less they perceive a lack of control over
  their own learning

6
Students in the middle years

• What are they like?
• What are their interests?
• How do they like to learn?

7

• Thinking about broader issues beyond home and
  community
• Engaging with diverse cultures and technologies
• Very competent handlers of new media and
  multi-modal forms of communicating
• Experiencing a far more uncertain world than we
  knew
• Beginning to think abstractly about important
  ideas (concrete to abstract)
• Wanting to engage in authentic learning
• Seeking meaning in their lives at school and
  beyond
• Questioning their identity and beliefs - their
  place in the world
• Very peer-oriented
• Often egocentric
• Like to be active

8
Teaching Practices to enhance learning in the
middle years

• Real life problems
• Integrated curriculum
• Constructivist approach
• Balance of practical and non-practical activities
• Time for in-depth studies
• Explicit teaching of higher order thinking skills
• Cooperative learning
• Heterogeneous student groupings
• Learner centred
• Variety of teaching approaches
• Flexibility in time, movement and groupings

9
BUT

• Not in every lesson,
• every day

10
Middle Years students also need

• Strong, positive relationships with their
  families, teachers, peers and communities

11
How are you SMART?
12
Naturalist
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Group
Self Smart
Nature Smart
Verbal Linguistic
The SMARTS
Kinaesthetic

Body Smart
Word
Visual
Logical Mathmatic
Musical
Math
Picture
Music
13
Self Smarts

• Prefer to work on their own
• Like to think things through in their mind
• Keep a diary or journal
• Often reflect on how what they are doing
• Like to think about how they feel
• Often wonder what other people are thinking
• Like to set goals
• Like self-choice and contract activities

14
Self Smarts are usually good at

• Journal writing
• Meditations
• Self assessments
• Diary writing
• Reflections
• Quotations
• I statements
• Records
• Creative expression

• Setting goals
• Affirmations
• Insight
• Writing poetry
• Interpretations
• Creative writing
• Working by themselves
• Organising themselves

15
Self Smarts learn best through

• Diary and journal writing
• Self-evaluation
• Self-paced activities
• Contracts
• Independent research tasks
• Reflection
• Meditation
• Studying
• Rehearsing
• Self-assessing
• Self-expression
• Recounts
• Poetry
• Autobiographies

16
Math/Logic Smart

• Like to learn step by step
• Enjoy solving problems
• Like to explain how things work to people
• Working with numbers is fun
• Like setting up science experiments
• Are happy when things seem logical (they make
  sense and can be explained)
• Enjoy watching documentaries
• Enjoy board and/or computer games
• Are usually good at maths and science and ICT
  activities

17
Math/Logic Smarts are usually good at

• Formulas
• Theories
• Calculations
• Computing
• Codes
• Games
• Probabilities
• Percentages
• Fractions

• Mazes
• Puzzles
• Outlines
• Matrices
• Sequences
• Patterns
• Logic
• Analogies
• Timelines
• Equations

18
Math/Logic Smarts learn best through

• Experimenting
• Computing
• Calculating
• Graphing
• Timelines
• Sequencing and ordering
• Charts and Diagrams
• Reasoning
• Collecting
• Surveying
• Analysing
• Comparing and contrasting
• Ordering
• Classifying
• Predicting
• Ranking
• Evaluating

19
Picture Smarts

• Like drawing and painting
• Enjoy making models, murals and collages
• Like using pictures and diagrams to learn
• Can visualise the finished product in their mind
• Colour is important to them
• Can draw maps from memory
• Prefer television programs involving art and
  craft demonstrations
• Enjoy jigsaw puzzles and mazes
• Enjoy art activities

20
Picture Smarts are usually good at

• Story-boarding
• Videotaping
• Photography
• Symbols
• Designing posters
• Making murals
• Creating mobiles
• Collages
• Statues

• Mosaics
• Paintings
• Drawings
• Sketches
• Illustrations
• Cartooning
• Sculpting
• Making models
• Constructing
• Mapping

21
Picture Smarts learn best through

• Painting, drawing and sketching
• Watching films and videos
• Sculpting and creating collages, murals and
  mobiles
• Visualising
• Story-boarding
• Observing
• Cartooning
• Decorating
• Mapping
• Illustrating
• Drawing diagrams
• Using and designing Graphic Organisers

22
Music Smarts

• Enjoy listening to music
• Like singing
• Find sounds fascinating
• Usually play a musical instrument
• Sometimes make up their own songs
• Often tap their feet or fingers to various
  rhythms
• Enjoy television programs such as Rage, Video
  Hits, etc
• May enjoy dancing

23
Music Smarts are usually good at

• Performances
• Singing
• Musicals
• Playing instruments
• Rhythms
• Compositions
• Harmonies
• Chords
• Trios

• Quartets
• Beat
• Melodies
• Raps
• Jingles
• Scores
• Writing songs and music
• Choirs

24
Music Smarts learn best through

• Singing
• Playing instruments
• Making up song lyrics
• Finding the beat and pattern in things
• Composing
• Improvising
• Attending concerts and performances
• Performing
• Selecting music
• Discussing music
• Writing jingles
• Making instruments

25
Nature Smarts

• Could enjoy photography
• Like to hike through bushland settings
• Have a pet/s that they care for themselves
• Enjoy gardening
• Prefer television programs with a focus on nature
  like Burkes Backyard, Ground Force or Animal
  Hospital
• Enjoy camping and hiking
• Prefer to be outside
• Care about the environment by reusing and
  recycling

26
Nature Smarts are usually good at

• Weather forecasting
• Star gazing
• Fishing
• Exploring
• Caving
• Categorising rocks
• Ecology studies
• Catching butterflies
• Shell collecting
• Looking after pets
• Identifying plants
• Gardening

• Field trips
• Field studies
• Bird watching
• Observing nature
• Planting
• Photographing
• Nature walks
• Camping
• Weather forecasting
• Star gazing
• Fishing
• Exploring

27
Nature Smarts learn best through

• Hands-on experiences
• Gardening
• Pet care
• Nature walks
• Observations
• Comparisons
• Classifying
• Recycling and reusing
• Discovering
• Digging
• Touching
• Sorting
• Displaying
• Uncovering
• Relating

28
Word Smarts

• Like to write stories and poems for others to
  read
• Love reading
• Understand and know the meaning of many words
• Enjoy word puzzles like crosswords and word
  searches
• Like telling jokes, riddles and stories
• Often like making speeches and doing debates
• Enjoy television programs that have witty
  scripts/ sitcoms like Malcolm in the Middle or
  The Simpsons

29
Word Smarts are usually good at

• Debating
• Joking
• Speaking
• Reading
• Story-telling
• Listening (to people and audio-tapes)
• Writing
• Report writing
• Crosswords

• Nonfiction
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Using the Internet
• Emailing
• Research
• Books
• Bibliographies
• Biographies

30
Word Smarts learn best through

• Debating
• Reading
• Writing
• Research
• Speaking
• Poetry
• Reporting
• Creating
• Reciting
• Listening
• Spelling
• Word games
• Labeling
• Joking
• Discussions

31
Group Smarts

• Prefer working with other people
• Enjoy helping others
• Like meeting new people
• Enjoy playing sport in a team
• Usually have a lot of friends
• Have good ideas for their classroom
• Enjoy television shows such as soapies like
  Home and Away and Neighbours
• Enjoy spending time with their friends
• Prefer group work

32
Group Smarts are usually good at

• Group projects
• Group tasks
• Observation charts
• Social Interactions
• Dialogues
• Conversations
• Debates
• Arguments

• Communication
• Collages
• Murals
• Mosaics
• Round Robins
• Sports
• Challenges
• Games
• Consensus

33
Group Smarts learn best through

• Negotiation
• Group work
• Team activities
• Discussion
• Debating
• Cooperating
• Sharing
• Role play
• Reporting
• Surveying
• Questioning
• Clarifying

34
Body Smarts

• Enjoy sports
• Like working with their hands
• Understand better when they do hands on
  activities
• May like acting
• Like to move around a lot when theyre working
• Prefer sporting programs on television
• May like to dance
• Enjoy school activities such as HPE and drama

35
Body Smarts are usually good at

• Interviews
• Sports
• Games
• Races
• Building
• Keyboarding
• Obstacle courses
• Pottery
• Balancing

• Role playing
• Drama
• Skits
• Body language
• Facial expressions
• Experiments
• Dancing
• Gestures
• Field trips
• Lab work

36
Body Smarts learn best through

• Sports and PE
• Manipulation
• Construction and building
• Hands-on experiences
• Dance
• Drama
• Role-play
• Sculpting
• Making
• Shaping
• Performing
• Physical activity

37
Why an MI Approach?

• The way you exist in the world
• The way you learn best
• The way you operate
• The way you value experiences in the world
• The way that your relationships with others are
  shaped
• A way we can engage students in meaningful
  motivational learning that caters for their
  individual strengths while allowing for
  identification of areas that need further
  development
• The way we can differentiate and integrate for
  our middle years learners

38
The MI Framework is

• Powerful
• Affirming
• Empowering
• Engaging
• Self-reflective
• Fun
• Energising

39
Implications for Students and Teachers

• Teachers use more authentic, student-centred
  approach to the education process in that their
  instruction matches the ways in which students
  learn.
• Students are afforded the opportunity to develop
  more than one type of intelligences which will
  help prepare them for our fast-changing world and
  its demands.
• Students learn to appreciate individuality
• Teachers must be careful not to use this theory
  as a way of labeling students and restricting
  their learning experiences.

40
Implications for Students and Teachers

• Teachers should not replace their current methods
  with MI lessons. Rather they should incorporate
  MI strategies into their lessons to help
  strengthen and develop their eight intelligences.
• MI theory does not dictate that we should teach
  everything eight ways. Rather, we must realise
  that any topic can be taught in more than one way
  and that we should use a variety of strategies
  and activities.
• If we teach using MI strategies then we must also
  assess students in these ways.

41
The MI Handicap
42
Teaching Practices to enhance learning in the
middle years

• Real life problems
• Integrated curriculum
• Constructivist approach
• Balance of practical and non-practical activities
• Time for in-depth studies
• Explicit teaching of higher order thinking skills
• Cooperative learning
• Heterogeneous student groupings
• Learner centred
• Variety of teaching approaches
• Flexibility in time, movement and groupings

43
Dimensions of Learning

• Making Decisions with the Decision Making Matrix

Decisions, decisions
44
TRY THIS

• While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot
  off the floor and make clockwise circles (That's
  to the right.... -)Now, while doing this, draw
  the number "6" in the air with your right hand.

45

• Activity
• A local coffee shop has decided to serve
  customers complimentary chocolate chip biscuits
  when they order coffee
• Assist the manager in selecting the best biscuit
  from the packets in front of you.

46
Whats going on here?

• You are being asked to make a decision
• What is a decision?
• According to the Compact Oxford English
  Dictionary a decision is
• A conclusion or resolution reached after
  consideration
• The action or process of deciding (p. 280).
• According to Dimensions of Learning it is a
  Complex Reasoning Process.

47
Decision Making The process of developing and
using criteria to select from choices that seem
to be equal alternatives.

• What am I trying to decide?
• What are my choices?
• What are important criteria for making this
  decision?
• How important is each criterion?
• How well does each of my choices match my
  criteria?
• Which choice matches best with the criteria?
• How do I feel about the decision? Do I need to
  change any criteria and try again?

48
The Decision Making Matrix
49
Alternatives
50
Alternatives
51
Alternatives
52
Alternatives
53
Decision Making The process of generating and
applying criteria to select from among seemingly
equal alternatives.

• Identify a decision you wish to make and the
  alternatives you are considering.
• Identify the criteria you consider important.
• Assign each criterion an importance score.
• Determine the extent to which each alternative
  possesses each criterion.
• Multiply the criterion scores by the alternative
  scores to determine which alternative has the
  highest total points.
• Based on your reaction to the selected
  alternative, determine if you want to change
  importance scores or add or drop criteria.

54

• Activity
• A local coffee shop has decided to serve
  customers complimentary chocolate chip biscuits
  when they order coffee
• Assist the manager in selecting the best biscuit
  from the packets in front of you.

55
Now its your turn
Score
56
Why Decision Making and the Decision Making
Matrix?

• We need to make decisions EVERY day- vital skill
• This process encourages thinking (complex
  reasoning process).
• Requires reading, writing, research and fact
  finding.
• Can requires the use of a variety of sources of
  information- books, WWW, charts, CD Roms,
  videos/DVDs, etc.
• Graphic Organiser provides students with a means
  to organise their thinking and research.
• Provides a structure for student writing.
• Allows students to make decisions more easily.
• Gives students facts to help them justify their
  decisions.

57

• Good teaching is more a giving of right
  questions than a giving of right answers.
• Josef Albers

58
Some ideas for using the Decision Making Matrix

• You are a Journalist with Life Magazine. Choose
  the most influential person from the 1990s to be
  included in a special issue.
• What is the best tree for the Australian
  rainforest? Choose from four alternatives.
• Where will you go with your family on the
  Christmas holidays?
• Which Captain would you have most liked to have
  sailed under?
• Which planet in our solar system (other than
  Earth) would best support human life?
• If you could have a pet, which one would you
  choose?
• Who was the best Australian Prime Minister?
• Would you have rather lived in Ancient Egypt,
  Rome or Greece? Justify your answer.
• Which system of government is the most fair?
• Which is the best magazine for children
  available in shops today?
• Which animal would make the best pet for an
  elderly person?
• Which painter of the 18th Century would you have
  most liked to have studied under?

59

• The best teachers are those who equip students
  to THINK for themselves.

60
What are we trying to achieve?

• A classroom that is a safe place to give opinions
  and take risks
• A classroom where students thinking is accepted,
  encouraged and valued
• A classroom where every students ideas are
  welcomed and considered equally important
• A classroom where collaboration and cooperation
  are fostered
• A classroom where every students individual
  strengths and interests are nurtured
• A classroom that is FUN!

61
Multiple Intelligence (SMART) Print Resources

• Brown, D, Knight, BA., S. Bailey and W. Wearne.
  (1999). Blooms Multiple Intelligences Themes
  and Activities.
• Fogarty, R and Judy Stoehr. (1998). Integrated
  Curricula with Multiple Intelligences, Teams,
  Themes and Threads. Cheltenham, Vic. Hawker
  Brownlow.
• Korff Wilkens, D. (1996). Multiple Intelligence
  Activities (Grades K- 4). Westminster, CA
  Teacher Created materials, Inc.
• Lazear, D. (1994). Multiple Intelligence
  Approaches to Assessment Solving the Assessment
  Conundrum. Cheltenham, Vic. Hawker Brownlow.
• McGrath, H and T. Noble. (1995). Seven Ways at
  Once Units of Work Based on the Seven
  Intelligences. Book 1. South Melbourne
  Longman.
• McGrath, H and T. Noble. (1995). Seven Ways at
  Once Units of Work Based on the Seven
  Intelligences. Book 2. South Melbourne
  Longman.
• McGrath, H and T. Noble. (1998). Seven Ways at
  Once Units of Work Based on the Seven
  Intelligences. Book 3. South Melbourne
  Longman.
• Pohl, Michael. (2000). Learning to Think,
  Thinking to Learn Models and Strategies to
  Develop a Classroom Culture of Thinking.
  Cheltenham, Vic. Hawker Brownlow.
• Vialle, Wilma. and J. Perry. (1995). Nurturing
  Multiple Intelligences in the Australian
  Classroom. Victoria Hawker Brownlow.
• Wood, Beth and G Jorgensen. (1994). Spotlight on
  Multiple Intelliegences (for Teachers and
  Children Too). Dalby, Qld. Heads Together.
• Wood, Beth and G Jorgensen. (1994). A Treasure
  Chest for Teachers and Children Too Themes to
  Foster Multiple Intelligences. Dalby, Qld.
  Heads Together.