0.4 Multiple intelligences  (Page 5/5)

One Way

GOAL: To apply what you have learned about Multiple Intelligences to your classroom over an extended period of time.

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• Provide a general overview of what you plan to teach this next month:
• Choose 4 "Multiple Intelligences." For each intelligence, describe 3 ways you will apply that intelligence to your classroom.

Additional intelligences

Since Howard Gardner's original listing of the intelligences in Frames of Mind (1983) there has been a great deal of discussion as to other possible candidates for inclusion - naturalistic intelligence (the ability of people to draw upon the resources and features of the environment to solveproblems); spiritual intelligence (the ability of people to both access and use, practically, the resources available in somewhat lesstangible, but nonetheless powerful lessons of the spirit); moral intelligence (the ability to access and use certain truths).

Emotional Intelligence

In a 1994 report on the current state of emotional literacy in the U.S., author Daniel Goleman stated:

"...in navigating our lives, it is our fears and envies, our rages and depressions, our worries and anxieties that steer usday to day. Even the most academically brilliant among us are vulnerable to being undone by unruly emotions. The price we pay for emotional literacy isin failed marriages and troubled families, in stunted social and work lives, in deteriorating physical health and mental anguish and, as asociety, in tragedies such as killings..."

Goleman attests that the best remedy for battling our emotional shortcomings is preventive medicine. In other words, we need toplace as much importance on teaching our children the essential skills of Emotional Intelligence as we do on more traditional measures like IQ and GPA(Grade Point Avergaes).

Exactly what is Emotional Intelligence? The term encompasses the following 5 five characteristics and abilities:

• Self-awareness - knowing your emotions, recognizing feelings as they occur, and discriminating between them.
• Mood management - handling feelings so they're relevant to the current situation and you react appropriately.
• Self-motivation - "gathering up" your feelings and directing yourself towards a goal, despite self-doubt, inertia, andimpulsiveness.
• Empathy - recognizing feelings in others and tuning into their verbal and nonverbal cues.
• Managing relationships - handling interpersonal interaction, conflict resolution, and negotiations.

Why we need emotional intelligence

Research in brain-based learning suggests that emotional health is fundamental to effective learning. According to areport from the National Center for Clinical Infant Programs, the most critical element for a student's success in school is an understanding ofhow to learn. ( Emotional Intelligence , p. 193.) The key ingredients for this understanding are:

Confidence

Curiosity

Intentionality

Self-control

Relatedness

Capacity to communicate

Ability to cooperate

These traits are all aspects of Emotional Intelligence. Basically, a student who learns to learn is much more apt tosucceed. Emotional Intelligence has proven a better predictor of future success than traditional methods like the GPA, IQ, and standardized testscores.

Hence, the great interest in Emotional Intelligence on the part of corporations, universities, and schools nationwide. Theidea of Emotional Intelligence has inspired research and curriculum development. Researchers have concluded that people who manage their ownfeelings well and deal effectively with others are more likely to live content lives. Plus, happy people are more apt to retain information and doso more effectively than dissatisfied people.

Building one's Emotional Intelligence has a lifelong impact. Many parents and educators, alarmed by increasing levels ofconflict in young schoolchildren - from low self-esteem to early drug and alcohol use to depression - are rushing to teach students the skillsnecessary for Emotional Intelligence. Also, in corporations, the inclusion of Emotional Intelligence in training programs has helpedemployees cooperate better and be more motivated, thereby increasing productivity and profits.

"Emotional Intelligence is a master aptitude, a capacity that profoundly affects all other abilities, eitherfacilitating or interfering with them." (Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence , p. 80.)

Assignment 8: towards a new intelligence

GOAL: To identify and describe a new intelligence derived from observation and experience.

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Goleman's work on Emotional Intelligence and Gardner's naturalistic, spiritual, and moral intelligences point ustowards new discussions and inquiries about intelligences yet unnamed.

• If you were to think about a capacity you have seen in others - students, friends, community members - or even in yourself, anintelligence that has not yet been identified by Gardner and Goleman, but is present, what name would you give it?
• Once you've given a name to a previously unnamed intelligence, write a brief 4 - 5 sentence description of it.
• Give evidence for this intelligence citing at least 1 example.