Human Intelligences

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This "CV" file was last revised on Monday, 28 January, 2008 

About Me

From 1966 until 2007, I was employed by various state-funded public educational systems as:

  1. A part-time university lecturer
  2. An elementary school principal
  3. A regular classroom teacher in elementary and high schools
  4. A special education instructor in primary and secondary schools
  5. An education reviewer, writer and (sometimes) qualitative researcher
  6. A supply teacher

Throughout, I developed and used an assessment and programming instrument titled Smarter.  Initially developed in the 1960's, Smarter is my acronym standing for successful minds are really the end result.  In 1966, as a novice teacher, Smarter aided me as I taught public school regular and special students.  This informal intellectual assessment tool was meaningful during one-on-one counseling sessions with special learners, their teachers and, more often than not, parents.  Often, I considered conventional teaching and mainstream assessment tools unsuccessful when dealing with this exceptional school population.

From 1969 until 1973, as a primary school principal, I used Smarter to guide small groups of students and staff towards a better understanding of themselves and their cerebral capacities.

In 1975, as a high school teacher, I was able to draw on Smarter to help me (visually) display the positives, or plus side of numerous problem learners, especially certain early- and mid-adolescents involved in serious school and social situations.  Via Smarter, I believe that I was able to convince numerous girls and boys that yes life was indeed worth living.

In other words, I tried to show them that their (negative) LD label was not that they had only a Learning Disability and, more often than not, perceived as learners "at risk" (see the lower left-hand quadrant in the below schemata) but simply and more positively-speaking, that their LD label meant that they learned differently.  In short, I attempted to show them that their learning glass was half full ... that they were promising learners (see the upper right-hand quadrant in the below schemata).

Smarter Interpretative Schemata

Copyright  ©  1990, 2008  by Clifford J. F. Morris

The above interpretative schemata, first designed in the early 1960s, hypothesizes a successful learning mode by showing flashing line segments continuously intersecting with a horizontal (x-axis) intellectual continuum and a vertical (y-axis) affective continuum.  Here, the viewer sees a representation of a student's societal success as resting in the upper right-hand corner whereby effective learning blends (Howard Gardner's) many intelligences with (Julian Rotter's) internal locus-of-control and (Alfred Bandura) high levels of self-efficacy.  Each of the eight (8) flashing diagonal line segments represent a Gardner intelligence.  Terms located to the perimeter of the four learning quadrants suggest polar opposite and possible learning processes.  The more interested reader can click here and scroll down to "Part III: Thinking and Working Smarter not Harder" for for a closer interpretation of this schemata.

In 1985, as a graduate student, I modified my Smarter schemata to measure the intellectual performances of numerous research subjects.  Today (2008), I still use Smarter to change doom and gloom perceptions of reality towards a boom and zoom quest for success.  Now, I:

  1. Editing writings and reviewing book.

  2. Commenting on our best learning styles and several intelligences.

To conclude this informal 'cv', here is a little comments about that latter point. As the study of our cognitive capabilities is a model of the mind too good to drop, I continue to comment on the general nature of human intelligences and most appropriate learning styles, as I still feel that these variables are often overlooked when trying to place individuals into a meaningful career choice.

Since the mid 1960's, I have enjoyed researching the nature of human intelligence. I am especially interested in the past and ongoing writings of the following five (5) theorists:

  1. Reuven Feuerstein

  2. Howard Earle Gardner

  3. Karl Anders Ericsson

  4. Robert Jeffrey Sternberg

  5. Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky

These academics are so important to my ongoing discussion of human smarts that I feel a few additional comments about each of them are in order here.  Feuerstein continues to operate out of the Jerusalem International Center for the Enhancement of Learning Potential. His work on elevating the performance of functionally illiterate people is unquestionably interesting. To this day, Gardner works out of Harvard University. He theorizes that we have multiple types of intelligence, all based in different regions of the brain. Ericsson -- a k a the torchbearer in the Expert Performance Movement -- studies the cognitive structure of expert performance. He is especially interested in how expert performers attain their superior accomplishments by acquiring complex cognitive mechanisms and physiological adaptations through extended deliberate practice. Sternberg still argue that human intelligence is fed by three (3) cerebral abilities: analytical, practical and creative. His ongoing concern is that analytical ability is the sole ability rewarded by standardized intelligence tests.

And finally, I could not conclude this note without very briefly mentioning Vygotsky.  His theoretical framework claims that social interaction plays an essential role in the development of cognitive functioning. Simply acknowledged for here, his writings state that every function in cultural development appears twice: first on the social level, that is, between people (inter-psychological) and ... later on, at the individual level, in other words, within the individual (intra-psychological). This function applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory and to the formation of daily concepts. In short, Vygotsky's hypothesis is that all of our higher cerebral functions originate as actual relationships between individuals. Another aspect of his theory -- and one that I used for years as a teacher -- is his notion that the potential for cognitive development depends upon the zone of proximal development (ZPD) ... that cerebral level of cognitive development attained when anyone engages in social behaviour. Full development of his ZPD depends upon full social interaction. The range of societal skill that can be developed with adult guidance or peer collaboration exceeds what can be attained alone.

education | expertise | home | human intelligences | journal of human intelligences | journals/newspapers | learning styles | ottawa | reviews | sayings | sports & education

author index a b c d e f g h ij k l m no p qr s t uv w xyz | home | name index a b c d e f g h ij k l m no p qr s t uv w xyz

This "CV" file was last revised on Monday, 28 January, 2008