MODULE 8: Lessons 2 and 3
July 19
TODAY'S MESSAGE
TODAY'S ASSIGNMENTS:
#1. Begin lesson 2 by reviewing the notes on Language.
#2. Complete the lesson 2 practice activity.
#3. Complete the lesson 2 assignment - Language
#4. Begin lesson 3 by reviewing the notes on the Theories of Intelligence.
#5. Complete the Intelligence practice quiz.
#6. Complete the Intelligence forum assignment. In this forum you will describe which Intelligence theory you believe makes the most sense and why.
TEACHER TALK 1
Today you learned about Language. This cognition truly makes us human. Whereas other species communicate with an innate ability to produce a limited number of meaningful vocalizations (e.g. bonobos), or even with partially learned systems (e.g. bird songs), there is no other species known to date that can express infinite ideas (sentences) with a limited set of symbols (speech sounds and words). What makes it even more remarkable is that researchers are finding evidence for mastery of this complex skill in increasingly younger children.
The man we focused on today is Noam Chomsky. He is probably the world's most famous linguist to date. In the spirit of cognitive revolution in the 1950's, Chomsky argued that children will never acquire the tools needed for processing an infinite number of sentences if the language acquisition mechanism was dependent on language input alone. Consequently, he proposed the theory of Universal Grammar: an idea of innate, biological grammatical categories, such as a noun category and a verb category that facilitate the entire language development in children and overall language processing in adults.
Universal Grammar is considered to contain all the grammatical information needed to combine these categories, e.g. noun and verb, into phrases. The child’s task is just to learn the words of her language. For example, according to the Universal Grammar account, children instinctively know how to combine a noun (e.g. a boy) and a verb (to eat) into a meaningful, correct phrase (A boy eats). This approach to language acquisition has inspired hundreds of scholars to investigate the nature of these assumed grammatical categories and the research is still ongoing.
TEACHER TALK 2
As you will read in your lesson 3 notes, it is hard to define intelligence. There is a long history of disagreement about what actually constitutes intelligence. And, like most concepts we have covered so far in psychology, intelligence theories abound. The simplest definition is “the capacity to acquire and apply knowledge.” Intelligence includes the ability to benefit from past experience, act purposefully, solve problems, and adapt to new situations. Intelligence can also be defined as “the ability that intelligence tests measure.”
When you hear the word intelligence, the concept of IQ Testing may immediately come to mind. Intelligence is often defined as our intellectual potential; something we are born with, something that can be measured and a capacity that is difficult to change. In recent years, however, other views of intelligence have emerged. One such conception is what you learned in the lesson today: the theory of multiple intelligences proposed by Harvard psychologist Howard Gardener.
This theory suggests that traditional views of intelligence are too limited. Gardner suggested that all people have different kinds of "intelligences." Gardner proposed that there are eight intelligences, and has suggested the possible addition of a ninth known as "existentialist intelligence". In order to capture the full range of abilities and talents that people possess, Gardner suggests that people do not have just an intellectual capacity, but have many intelligences including musical, interpersonal, spatial-visual and linguistic intelligences. While a person might be particularly strong in a specific area, such as musical intelligence, they most likely possess a range of abilities. For example, an individual might be strong in verbal, musical and naturalistic intelligence.
Gardner’s theory has come under criticism from both psychologists and educators. These critics argue that Gardner’s definition of intelligence is too broad, and that his eight different "intelligences" simply represent talents, personality traits and abilities.
Many of your teachers may utilize multiple intelligences in their teaching philosophy and work to integrate Gardner’s theory into the classroom.
SHOUT OUT
CONTACT ME
E-mail: christopher.watson@ncpublicschools.gov
Text anytime between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.
NCVPS Psychology
CITATIONS
Today's Assignments (Book Icon Orange, David Peters, Wikpedia Education Program Case Studies.pdf, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Teacher Talk (Red Silhouette - Teacher, Ben from Openclipart, Openclipart, Creative Commons CCO 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication license)
Shout Out (callout-quote-bull-speaking-bubble, Pixabay, Pixabay, CCO Public Domain license)
Important Dates This Week (Blank Calendar Page Icon, Jackaranga, Jackaranga, GNU Free Documentation License)
Contact Me (Smart phone mobile phone, Pixabay, Pizabay, CCO Public Domain)