Table of contents
MI-News, Fall 2001, Volume 3, Number 3
1 For your intelligences only by Clifford Morris1. For your intelligences only by Clifford Morris
2 Smart options: How smarts can lead to career possibilities by Dan and Phillippa Baran
3 MI dissertation database update by Clifford Morris
4 How to give powerful lectures using the multiple intelligences by Branton Shearer
5 MI-News articles from previous issues by Clifford Morris
If you are a first time visitor, thanks for clicking here and welcome to this third (of four) MI newsletter of this year. The MI-News newsletter is provided free by Branton Shearer's Multiple Intelligences (MI) Research and Consulting. The main objective in publishing the MI-News is to provide you with some theoretical and practical information about Howard Gardner's MI model and, perhaps more importantly, how this model of the human mind is currently being implemented all over the world. The newsletter attempts to explore MI applications via discussion, contact and sharing. If you have an interesting idea, tried-and-tested lesson plan, or practical MI suggestion, please e-mail the editor, Cliff Morris, with your comments.2. Smart options: How smarts can lead to career possibilities by Dan and Phillippa Baran
Smart Options is a new (2000) career development program based on Howard Gardner’s MI theory and Thomas Armstrong’s popularization of the concept. Created for students in grades 7 and 8, the program gives this younger population a richer understanding of themselves and shows them how they can use this knowledge to carve out more meaningful lives and careers. Smart options is available in English and in French; it requires between 4 and 6 hours of classroom time, although additional time, if available, can be devoted to exercises and activities. The overall package is organized as four Lesson Plans and includes four components: a 32-page full colour Student’s Resource Book, a Facilitator's Guide, a poster suitable for mounting on a classroom wall, and an introductory video.3. MI dissertation database update by Clifford MorrisThe Student’s Resource Book contains descriptions of each of the eight intelligences (smarts), checklists for understanding your smarts, exercises that show how your smarts can be applied to career exploration, and suggestions for improving the strength of your smarts. The Facilitator's Guide provides step-by-step directions for leading students through their Resource Books, background information about intelligence and the contributions of people like Gardner and Armstrong, and a brief bibliography. The poster summarizes the eight types of smarts (People, Self, Logic, Word, Nature, Body, Image, and Music) as well as a sample of occupations requiring particular strength in these smarts. The complete package is available through the National Life/Work Centre, 488 Central Street, Memramcook, New Brunswick, Canada E4K 3S6. It can be ordered by calling 1-888-533-5683. The e-mail address is lifework@nbret.nb.ca and the web site URL is http://www.lifework.ca/pr_smart.html.
In this space, in the Summer 2001 issue of this newsletter, a data base associated with dissertation citations and abstracts of Howard Gardner's MI was introduced. Since that issue, I have received e-mails of appreciation from psychologists, educators, and parents. I wish to take this space to thank them for their kind words of praise and, perhaps as important, for their informative and constructive comments. While it has taken considerable time and effort to acquire and assemble the many citations and abstract records, it has been a rewarding experience. Thanks especially to those of you who have e-mailed me, at cmorris@igs.net, with your suggestions for improvements.4. How to Give Powerful Lectures Using the Multiple Intelligences by Branton ShearerMore to that point, here is what I have been able to accomplish thus far with your fine suggestions. First, a psychologist suggested different background colours for each field, the thinking being that it would be easier to read field content. That I did. Second, a special education teacher suggested that I rearrange and condense some of the other original field contents. That I was also able to program. Please continue to email me your viewpoints, especially views as to how this data base can better your MI research. Finally, a comment to those of you who have included attachment files. Many of these files contain the abstracts of your own MI research projects. Unfortunately, as of this date, I can not insert them into the database, as all files in this data base represent summaries of formally reviewed research. However, if I continue to receive additional abstracts, I may develop an additional data base for such records. At this time, I do not wish to mix both types of research.
I was recently talking with a group of young people and asked them who was their best teacher. They immediately began by saying that they liked one teacher because she was nice and another teacher they did not like because she hated them and gave them a low grade when they deserved a higher one. I interrupted this litany of likes and dislikes by saying, “No, I want to know who is your best teacher because you learned the most and could do your best in that classroom. They paused for a long moment as if they had never before given it any thought. The most common first response was that the best teachers explained things clearly so the students could understand and the teacher held the students’ attention and varied the sound of his or her voice.Teaching is such a mysterious art form. I am sure if I continued interviewing these young people that I would have learned many more things that good teachers do. But, this article will focus on the qualities of a lecture (or explanation) that make it a powerful learning experience. I will use the multiple intelligences as a framework to build a model of the “powerful lecture/explanation.” Of course, every lecture will not be your best example of this model, but this will provide you with a set of guidelines that may inspire you to give your students the best that you have to offer on any given day.
Interpersonal
The first intelligence for consideration is the interpersonal because we must remember that a lecture is not a monologue, but rather a dialogue with the mind of the listeners who are responding and asking questions to themselves as we speak. Of course, we are not mind readers, but we must do our best to give full and careful consideration to what is going on inside the minds of our listeners just before and during our talk. We need to gauge what they already know about this topic and what they want or need to know. In other words, what is the news that we are delivering to the doorstep of their lives? What will we say or do that will encourage them to open their front door and admit us into their living room with our news? Then, we must know what it is that we want them to do with this news after they have received it. What will encourage them to process this information so that the mind will file it the proper place in memory and, more importantly, they will have understanding of how to use it for solving future problems or concerns especially regarding how your idea will be useful to other people?
It will activate the interpersonal intelligence when you give an example of how your idea has been used in your family, community or by people in the past. If you use examples from other cultures that illustrate the meaningfulness of your new ideas / skills / knowledge, your impact will be amplified. Provide time for your listener to contemplate how they can apply the new information to a situation involving someone important in their life. In this way, you can give permission to your listeners to imaginatively and perhaps creatively use your ideas to provide a valued service to others.
We must always remember that teaching is never devoid from emotion and feelings. Even the seemingly dry bit of information, abstract concept and mundane skill has a feeling attached to it by the student. Thus, as we lecture, we must be alert to the emotional responses that are evident in the raised eyebrows, slight grin, head tilt, shoulder slump, hand movement, foot scuffle and butt wiggle. Do not let your lecture be tuned out by flat bottom syndrome (FBS). After 20 minutes of sitting and listening, I figure that at least 20% of the brain of my listeners has begun to grow numb due to FBS. And after 40 minutes, nearly half of the brain has taken a leave of absence and is off on an interesting vacation or perhaps on a date with some very fascinating and stimulating young man or woman. The mind is a curious and hungry animal that will take off hunting other more tasty prey when we fail to provide it with satisfying game (see 'Naturalist' below).
Logical mathematical
This desire to have our questions answered, incomplete knowledge satisfied, and to hear the conclusion of an engaging tale is the second element of a satisfying lecture experience. The mind of the brain seeks coherence and closure. Once our curiosity is piqued, our mental detective engaged, an enticing set of clues provided, then we wish to either discover the exciting conclusion for ourselves (this is the best) or for the lecturer to provide the conclusion or affirmation for our own answers. The magician must always remember that his audience is trying their best to learn the secrets of how the tricks are performed. The detective novelist maintains the reader’s attention by providing clues so that the reader must decide if they are relevant or not through logical reasoning.
The lecturer, however, should not provide “red herrings” and misdirection as they are confusing and annoying to a listener. But, it can be very powerful to give a set of facts and wonder aloud about the possible explanation or relationship among those facts. This usually raises in the listener’s mind the most common and expected answer. If you then counter this “conventional wisdom” with your news of difference you will truly make an impact. O. Henry made his fame on the surprise ending and you can engage and convince your listener of the power of your thesis by a logical contrast between their normal assumptions and the surprising good sense of your ideas.
The more sharply that you are able to logically describe the distinct differences between your thesis and that which is commonly assumed then the more satisfying will be your presentation to the mind of the listener. This, then, brings us to the third (and most obvious) intelligence bearing on the success of your lecture, the linguistic verbal intelligence.
Linguistic verbal
It is perhaps too obvious to say that the words of your lecture should be interesting, evocative and well aimed. The highest form of lecture will display an easy and naturally flowing quality of “voice” that is an authentic personal expression. This takes a level of expertise that produces prose that is knowledgeable yet uncluttered with jargon. However, the use of a few unique and uncommon words can serve like an unusually shaped key found in the street as the listener accompanies you on this lecture journey. But, like any good guide, you will want to be sure that your listener comes to know what the key opens and how what is inside the door will be useful in the future. You may do this in a prosaic way through logical explanations or with poetic devices or an intriguing narrative. Remember that words convey concepts, but they also embody musical sounds and evoke pictures in the palate of the mind’s eye.
When you are contrasting your thesis with another idea then you will want to use words that paint a visual distinction between the two ideas (see 'Visual spatial' immediately below). The wisdom of your logic will then be clearly etched in the mind’s eye of your listener. This may be what my young student interviewees were referring to when they said that their best teachers gave them clear explanations.
The other important thing to remember is that your lecture really is a story that you are telling. Even if are not telling a story with the usual elements (A beginning that sets the scene, a middle that provides characters, plot and conflict that is following by a conclusion that resolves the conflict in a satisfying way so that “They lived happily ever after. “) you can be sure that your listeners are creating a story out of it in their mind in their own way. The question for you is, how much of the plot, setting, characters and conclusion will you want them to create for them selves and how much will you provide for them? If you allow your listener the liberty of drawing their own (inaccurate?) conclusions or embellishing elements that you leave out then you must be aware of the risks of doing this.
Of course, you certainly should use to your advantage the innate storytelling capacity of your audience to engage their attention and guide their application of your ideas. This can be coupled effectively with the interpersonal intelligence by guiding your audience to create a story about how they will use your new ideas to help others in some important way. You may want to invoke their inner-storyteller and introduce a bit of playfulness by using that ancient incantation, "Once upon a time…" or any other appropriate story starter technique. You can also use the five journalistic devises to guide your audience in writing a news article or press release -- who, what, when, where and how. If you are concerned about the degree of your listeners' acceptance of your ideas then suggest that she engage in a brief point -- counter point debate or write several reasons behind two conflicting viewpoints.
Of course, verbal note taking is the classic, standard classroom learning technique to enhance memorization of information. Your topic will be more easily organized, recognized and truly understood by the brain if the verbal notes are arranged and augmented diagrammatically on the page using visual tricks and cues. The more personalized these visual cues and linguistic elaborations then the better, too, will the listener's mind process and integrate your new information.
You never know what kind of past personal stories and images will be evoked in the mind of your audience as you speak. This truly is one of the great mysteries of lecturing (not to mention life beyond the lecture hall). To rewrite an old saying, “A word is worth a thousand pictures.” So, this brings us to the fourth intelligence, the visual spatial.
Visual spatial
Do you see what I mean? On the one hand, you may clearly grasp my idea, but on the other hand ... you are left holding the bag. Do my words leave an empty feeling in the pit of your stomach? Or do you have a gut sense that what I have said is quite right? Hopefully, my words are not over your head and I am not scattering pearls before swine. Or maybe my ideas are so poorly articulated that you are struggling to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Well, if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then there is no accounting for taste so whenever you receive criticism or praise for your lectures always remember to consider the source.
The point of this cluster of fractured sayings and clichés is that while there is nothing new under the sun, it is powerful medicine to evoke both familiar and unique images in the mind’s eye of the listener. Truly, a powerful image can unleash a thousand words for the perceiver, so it is your job to use those images carefully by drawing the listener into the bull’s eye of your targeted idea. An unusual, exaggerated or humorous image can act like super glue on the listener’s attention and memory system.
One of the first rules of memory is that you must be paying attention in order to activate the neural pathways that will create an impression on the mind. If teachers had a dollar for every time they requested the class’s attention, there would be no need for a public retirement fund for teachers. There is no doubt that powerful images can get the attention of your audience. This is especially important for children today who are awash in a virtual flood of dynamic images nearly from birth. Tella-Tubies cavort across the screen and a big yellow bird teaches children their numbers and letters on Sesame Street. Teenagers inhale over 100 hormonally charged images per minute watching MTV. We should not underestimate the influence of video games and spectacular movies that every child is exposed to regularly from a very early age.
Powerful, engaging lectures are needed if you are to compete with last night’s movie where the child fought incredible aliens on distant planets without having to lift more than a finger from the comfort of his living room sofa. For images to be most effective the listener should actively create them. Your common, off-the-shelf images are good, but for deep learning and memorization the listener should be an active creator of his own unique and personally designed images that are associated with the topic. Passively received images like those from television are okay for gaining attention, but they need to be acted upon and processed by the listener in order to shift the idea into long term memory. This process will be facilitated when the images evoke powerful emotions and feelings. Do you get the picture?
Musical
Speaking of feelings, music has long been known for its ability to evoke intense emotions and durable memories. You can harness this potential when you remember to modulate the sounds of your voice like a sensitive singer. The sounds of new and unique words will also trigger in the listener’s ear a string of associations and evaluations that can either gain or repel attention. The use of music during your lecture is a technique worth exploring by the experienced speaker. The ill-conceived use of music can be a distraction and annoyance, but the well placed song lyric or tune that conveys your meaning can leave a profound and lasting impression.
Your new information will be warmly welcomed by your audience if it "rings a familiar bell." Is there a catchy phrase or song lyric that sums up and is easily associated with your key point? In song lyrics this is called the "hook" and in advertising it is the jingle or in politics an emphatic slogan that can rally the multitude. If your idea can be associated with an already familiar catchy tune or lyric then you are half way to winning over the heart of your listeners. The use of such meaningful musical mnemonics opens inner doors in the mind of listener's home so that what was previously "strange and suspect" is now 'almost family" so-to-speak. It is no wonder that children in every country around the world are taught their nation's anthem so that in times of war (or at sporting events) you can have people feeling "at home" and in sync with 100,000 strangers. Does that sound reasonable to you?
Naturalist
There are at least three ways for using the naturalist intelligence to enrich your lectures that are known to many of the most effective presenters. The first, at the beginning of your lecture, is to bark loudly like a dog or make jungle sounds and monkey noises. No, just kidding! I got your attention, didn’t I? Just when your mind had just about enough of this dry written essay, it suddenly woke up. But, seriously, it is quite helpful to think of your lecture as a growing tree or vine that needs the care of an attentive gardener. You need a solid root structure to establish rapport before your ideas can branch out and blossom in the mind of your listener. This is known as preparing the seed bed for planting. Remember, then, to prune your branches so that all of your and your audience’s energy will be directed toward producing large and succulent pieces of fruit during the harvest of your conclusions. Also, each listener should leave with a basket full of nourishing ideas, action plans and seeds, which s/he may plant for future harvests.
The second naturalist strategy is to describe the characteristics of an animal that somehow relates to your topic, even if it requires a long stretch of the imagination. Actually, stretching your metaphor beyond common sense usually enhances memorization and emotional impact. It is good to sometimes mention your pet dog or cat (no, you shouldn’t bark or meow because you don’t want to get too cute and loose the respect of your audience who will think you are either a sap or a wacko). But, evoking the characteristics of animals in your lecture will activate the humanity of your audience and increase rapport by sending the message that you are members of the same herd, school or flock. You just happen to be the goose in the lead position that is at that moment honking the loudest (no actual honking recommended).
Notice how just the mere mention of animals brings out the barnyard humor in even, I, your distinguished author, whose sage counsel you must value or you would not still be reading these words? Of course, I suspect that your loyal attention is far less than that of my chief morale officer, Molly, the ever patient Chocolate Labrador Retriever, whose duties include prolonged afternoon and guarding against rogue squirrels in the backyard. She also reminds me that it is quitting time exactly when her dinner bowl needs to be refilled. Ah, there is nothing like a loyal employee to calm the boss's nerves during even the most stressful of work days. She is a good reminder that it is important to climb down from my ivory tower of grand ideas and tend to the needs of the living and squirrel-invested world.
The final way to activate the naturalist intelligence is to respect that your audience seeks to discover patterns and deviations from expected patterns. We all respond involuntarily to having our “buttons pushed.” Like men and women in the bush, we are constantly searching for plants that we recognize as being edible versus those that are noxious. We follow our noses as we sniff out lies and false promises and will track down promising ideas with the determination of bloodhounds when we catch the scent of truth.
Existential awareness
Speaking of truth, that is truly a fundamental reason why any of us are listening to each other talk at all. We are seeking out the truth or the affirmation of truth as we know it or suspect it. The existential or philosophical aspect of our human nature wants to know the ultimate answer to questions such as, “Why are we here?” and “Where are we going?” and "How will I be remembered." To be most effective as a lecturer you should address these implicit questions or if you are cagey enough, you may provoke your listeners to acknowledge their own perhaps implicit answers. But, then, be prepared to provide follow-up confirmation or news of a difference. It is not advisable to leave your audience with a vague sense of confusion or uncertainly regarding the ultimate purpose of your information / lecture.
If you are a teacher, remember that you serve as a gatekeeper for your discipline or profession. When a student asks the ever popular question, “Why do I have to learn this boring junk?”, rather than being annoyed at the distraction and negativity, it is your golden opportunity to explain how your profession contributes vital goods, services or information to the world and community. If you do not have a ready made spiel about this then I suggest that you get one. Give your audience something solid to carry home and plenty of philosophical cud to chew on for a long time afterward. You will provide a most memorable learning experience if you can deliver news that offers your listeners more interesting, challenging and worthwhile life choices.
Bodily kinesthetic
How will you know if and when you have made an impact on your audience? Watch their bodies and feel your own. The body is like a fleshy living communication antenna that not only records but also immediately responds to provocative information. Use you naturalist skills to carefully observe and note a pattern in the changes in facial expressions, body posture, hand movements and the position of legs. You can then correlate these with your own body movements and felt sensations. Where are you tensing up? What is happening with your hand motions? What is your posture?
To involve and direct your audience’s participation you may want to create movements that will accentuate your point. It is quite a stretch for most lecturers to move from the safe comfort of the verbal realm to the bodily kinesthetic because this often means we must perform in an area of weakness and discomfort. Who wants to be perceived as incompetent in front of an audience? It may take some time to experiment with simple hand or body movements before you really are comfortable incorporating movements into your lectures. Over the years, I have added five or six possible movements for my audience to perform in conjunction with specific topics. For example, you may want to teach children to make subtraction and addition signs when learning basic math. This might be elaborated even further for more complicated algorithms.
Intrapersonal
Sharing personal antidotes, feelings and opinions can establish a rapport with your audience that is unobtainable by other, more objective means. Of course, you do not want to overdo your self disclosure, as it can be embarrassing to play upon the sympathies of the listener. You need to ask yourself what the purpose of your self disclosure is in the context of your presentation. Are you revealing this personal information to better attain an objective of the talk or more for your own personal benefit? You will need to be perfectly frank with yourself about this or ask someone to give you objective feedback.
Perhaps the most important contribution of intrapersonal intelligence is your meta-cognitive inner dialogue that is “online” monitoring the effectiveness of your lecture. This monitoring allows you to keep track of your progress towards your goals and to make necessary mid-course corrections in response to an intuitive or logical sense that you have missed the mark or you have gotten off track. This meta-cognitive process can come in the form of an inner conversation, images, felt bodily sense or a reaction to the sounds of your own voice (or the audible reactions of your listeners). If you have pre-viewed your talk in your mind’s eye/ear prior to giving it then you will already be primed for the expected kinds of reactions each element will evoke from the listeners. As you talk then, your meta-cognitive co-pilot will be monitoring for direct hits or misses as compared to your previously charted expectations. A post lecture re-viewing will allow you the opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of each element in the presentation in attaining your goals. A thorough re-view – with notes – will set the stage for your next lecture so that it will be an even more sparkling experience for yourself as well as your listeners.
To sum up, this article has delineated the specific strengths (see "MI Lecture Checklist" immediately below) of each of the multiple intelligences as theorized by Howard Gardner. The intelligences provides a rich array of tools from which you may choose to create an energized, active-learning lecture / presentation. These are the colors on your palate ... and just like real colors there are a range of shades for each intelligence and most of the world is made up of blended colors. I hope that you will be inspired to use the full range of shades from this palate to enrich and engage the listener's mind, heart and body. By bringing out the best in yourself you will likewise inspire to bring out the best in your listener.