“The cognitive principle guiding this chapter is:
Children are more alike than different in terms of how they think and learn.”
Styles and Abilities
“The definition of cognitive ability is straightforward: it means capacity for or success in certain types of thought.”
“In contrast to abilities, cognitive styles are biases or tendencies to think in a particular way; for example to think sequentially (of one thing at a time) or holistically (of all of the parts simultaneously).”
“Abilities and styles differ in a few important ways. Abilities are how we deal with content (for example, math or language arts) and they reflect the level (that is, the quantity) of what we know and can do. Styles are how we prefer to think and learn. We consider having more ability as being better than having less ability, but we do not consider one style as better than any other style. ”
Cognitive Styles
“Remember, styles are supposed to represent biases in how we prefer to think; they are not supposed to be measures of how well we think.”
“I've mentioned that a cognitive styles theory must have the following three features: it should consistently attribute to a person the same style, it should show that people with different styles think and learn differently, and it should show that people with different styles do not, on average, differ in ability.”
Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Learners
“The visual-auditory-kinesthesia theory holds that everyone can take in new information through any of the three senses, but most of us have a preferred sense. When learning something new, visual types like to see diagrams, or even just to see in print the words that the teacher is saying. Auditory types prefer descriptions, usually verbal, to which they can listen. Kinesthetic learners like to manipulate objects physically; they move their bodies in order to learn."
“The key prediction is that students will learn better when instruction matches their cognitive style.”
“Matching the “preferred” modality of a student doesn’t give that student any edge in learning.”
“Most of the time students need to remember what things mean, not what they sound like or look like.”
“But the vast majority of schooling is concerned with what things mean, not with what they look like or sound like.”
“A final reason that the visual-auditory-kinesthetic theory seems right is a psychological phenomenon called the confirmation bias. Once we believe something, we unconsciously interpret ambiguous situations as being consistent with what we already believe.”
“The best you can say about any of them is that the evidence is mixed.”
Soooo should I stop having students do the learning styles inventory because it may give them a bias towards the assignments I post??? Could this be why my students don't read the readings I post??? This one is more of a stretch because I think they are just in the habit for not fully reading documents, they scan like they do on their phones...
I can take this one step further... I had a student today tell me she wasn't tech savvy but her boyfriend was and together they still couldn't figure out how to set up a Remote Desktop Connection on her Mac laptop. The is a 17 page document with screen prints on how to set it up. I also made an almost 5 minute video on setting it up. Theoretically, I gave her two different ways to get the information and I'm thinking because of her bias she couldn't do it. Just my rambling thoughts...
Abilities and Multiple Intelligences
“Educators were (and are) interested not so much in the particulars of the theory but in three claims associated with the theory:”
Claim 1: The list above is one of intelligences, not abilities or talents.
Claim 2: All eight intelligences should be taught in school.
Claim 3: Many or even all of the intelligences should be used as conduits when presenting new material. That way each student will experience the material via his or her best intelligence, and thus each student’s understanding will be maximized.
“He argues that some abilities—namely, logical-mathematical and linguistic—have been accorded greater status than they deserve. Why should those abilities get the special designation “intelligence” whereas the others get the apparently less glamorous title “talent”?”
I'm going to get severely politically incorrect here... Do you consider Mozart musically talented/gifted or musically intelligent? What about idiot savants? They are talented/gifted/intelligent in one specific area and severely deficient in most if not all other areas. They still have intelligence in one area and therefore shouldn't be considered deficient, imho. I had a heated argument with a religion/philosophy professor WAY back in the day regarding this issue. I was a sever/profound special ed teacher for 5 years in the late 1980's. His contention was that in the Hindu tradition, if a person was reincarnated having "mental retardation" this was a bad thing and a step down in the reincarnation process. My contention is was a step up the process because these people are the most loving and caring individuals on the planet, i.e. interpersonal - people smart. He came back the next week and admitted I had a point he had not considered before, mainly because he had little experience with "those type of people". Have we, in the Western culture, over emphasized logical-mathematical and linguistic abilities/talents/intelligences over the others Gardner proclaims are intelligences? Discuss...
“These abilities are not completely insulated from one another, but they are separate enough that you can’t take one skill you’re good at and leverage it to bolster a weakness.”
Implications for the Classroom
“When differentiating among students, craft knowledge trumps science.”
Think in Terms of Content, Not in Terms of Students
Change Promotes Attention
There Is Value in Every Child, Even If He or She Is Not “Smart in Some Way
Don’t Worry—and Save Your Money
“Cognitive processes (such as analyzing, synthesizing, and critiquing) cannot operate alone. They need background knowledge to make them work.”
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