These chapters talk about the intelligence and any impairments students may have, the language development, diversity and immigrant education, culture, and cognitive learning. However, the multiple intelligences stuck out to me. There are many different forms of different kinds of intelligence. Gardner's theory specifically talks about 8 different kinds of intelligence. They are, linguistic, musical, spatial, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. (Woollwolk pg 123) I agree with having different ways of learning because each student learns differently. I learn differently depending on each subject. It is the same for my students. If I can connect the projects I come up with to their other subjects it is easier to create connections between things.
Another thing that stood out for me was the development of language in chapter 5. In classes anytime my peers said something wrong grammatically or phonically they were always scolded heavily. This chapter discussed other ways to help that rather than scoldings. It also helped me understand why anyone learning another language, people use double negatives because of that form of dialect in their languages. (Woolfolk pg. 186) This chapter also talked about what happens to students who are bilingual or become bilingual. I knew it was a sought after or pushed thing in high school but I never really thought of a reasoning why. Other than traveling or for high up jobs. Woolfolk states that "higher degrees of bilingualism are correlated with increased cognitive abilities in such areas as concept formation, creativity, a theory of mind, cognitive flexibility, attention, and executive functioning, and understanding that printed words are symbols for a language." (pg 180.) I really enjoy my students teaching me their own languages that they use at home so this chapter really was interesting.
I also found Gardner's theory interesting. I was wondering when I read this could someone have 2 or more intelligence? For example, could someone be logical-mathematical and interpersonal? You mentioned that you learn differently based on the subject, does that mean you yourself have multiple-intelligence?
ReplyDeleteYou broke down the areas you found interesting very well. The multiple intelligence piece was really good because like you stated people learn differently and if you're interested in something you would put more effort into learning that subject. For example science is my least favorite subject so I don't put as much time and effort into learning it, but math is my favorite subject so I'll go the extra mile to learn that content. Taking the time to try to understand that your students with language barriers really do want to learn what you're teaching makes you want to work even harder to make sure those students are successful. Since their native language may different they already begin with a challenge. They have to think about people constantly correcting them, making fun of them all while being educated trying to pick up a new language and learn their subject content.
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