Understanding Student Differences

Chapter 4 Summary

Differentiated Instruction- the practice of using different learning materials, instructional tactics, and learning activities with students who vary along such dimensions as intelligences, learning style, gender, ethnicity, and social class

The Nature and Measurement of Intelligence

1. Intelligence test scores are closely related to school success, not job success, marital happiness, or life happiness. So it is asked to do something that it was not meant or designed to do. (Some say should have been called test of scholastic aptitude instead of IQ test)
2. "g" factor- general factor affects performance on all IQ tests; "s" factor- specific factors affects performance on only specific IQ tests (2-factor theory of intelligence)
3. There are limitations to IQ tests (what we test is only a sample of IQ capabilities, scores can change with experience or training)
4. Wechsler's defines intelligence as the global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, think rationally, and deal effectively with the environment
5. Assessment of intelligence in everyday setting would be highly subjective and would take a great deal of time.
6. Robert Sternberg believes that most of the researhc evidence supports the view that intelligence has many facets and that traditional mental ability tests measure just a few of these facets. Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence (theory of successfull intelligence) has 3 main parts: practical ability (applying knowledge to everyday situations, using knowledge and tools, and seeking relevance), creative ability ( inventing, discovering, imagining, and supposing), and analytical ability (breaking ideas and products into their component part, making judgments, evaluating, comparing and contrasting, and critiquing). Also big part is how they use practical intelligence to adapt to their environment.
7. Students who complete homework and assignments that use analytical, creative and practical abilities outscored students who just used recall and learning factual info.
8. Howard Gardner's Mulitple Intelligences theory- logical mathematical, linguistic, musical, spatial, bodily kinesthetics, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. (Individuals with a high level of a particular intelligence may use it in different ways)

Using the New Views of Intelligence to Guide Instruction

1. Triarchic theory suggests that instruction and assessment should emphasize all types of ability. ( Teaching and testing can be designed to emphasize the 3 abilities: analytical, creative, and practical--as well as memory) Figure 4.2 p. 117
2. Gardner believes that teachers should use MI theory as a framework for devising alternative ways to teach subject matter. (It is a mistake to think that every lesson has to be designed to involve all 8 intelligences) Neat example p.118
3. Using technology to develop intelligences can allow children to "think outside of the box". Various technology tools may strengthen different intelligences.
4. Hypermedia -a marriage of multimedia (a communication format integrating several types of media such as text, graphics, animation, sound, images, and video) and hypertext (a system of linking text in a nonlinear way, thereby enabling users to jump from one section of text to another section of the same document or to other documents, often through highlighted words).

Learning Styles

1. A learning style can be defined as a consistent preference over time and subject matter for perceiving, thinking about, and organizing information in a particular way.
2. These styles are referred to as preferences. They are set in stone.
3. Reflectivity and Impulsivity: Impulsive students prefer quick action; reflective students prefer to collect and analyze information before acting
4. Field Dependence and Field Independence: Field-independent students prefer their own structure; field-dependent students prefer to work within existing structure.
5. Mental Self-Government Styles: Legislative style prefers to create and plan; executive style prefer to follow explicit rules; judicial style prefers to evaluate and judge (5 categories of Sternberg's theory: function, forms, levels, scope, and leaning) Figure 4.3 p. 123 describes these styles
6. Teachers should use various instructional methods to engage all styles of learning at one time or another (good ideas p.122)
7. Teachers should also use various test formats to expand students' repertoire of learning styles and measure accurately what students have learned. This may also stimulate students to expand their own repertoire of learning styles.
8. Amy Benjamin has written many books on differentiated instruction and argues that technology not only is an effective tool for accommodating student differences but also offers a unique opportunity for collaboration among novice and veteran teachers.

Gender Differences and Gender Bias

1. Males tend to outscore females on the following tests: visual-spatial ability, mathematical reasoning, college entrance.
2. Females tend to outscore males on the following tests: memory and language use.
3. The Mathematical acheivement differences between boys and girls was nonsignificant in most countries.
4. No one knows for sure why gender differences in cognition and achievement exist. There is hormonal differences, differences in brain structure, differences in cognitive processes, and socialization differences are all thought to play a role in it.
5. Duckworth and Seligman found that females demonstrated more self-discipline than males
6. You should be aware of the gender differences, but we should take steps to try to reduce them.
7. Gender Bias- responding differently to male and female students without having sound educational reasons for doing so.
8. Gender Bias can affect course selection, career choice, and class participation of male and female students
9. Loss of voice- students suppress true beliefs about various topics in the presence of parents, teachers, and classmates of opposite sex
10. P. 131 gives great examples of how to work toward gender equity in the classroom
11. There is not a real difference in which gender has access to computers, but what they use those computers for. Females use more for word processing and completing school assignments and males playing games.

Suggestions for Teaching in Your classroom p.133-135 GREAT EXAMPLES

1. Design lessons and test items that call for memory, analytical, creative, and practical abilities.
2. Design lessons that emphasize different intelligences
3. Recognize that different styles of learning call for different methods of instruction
4. Help students become aware of the existence of gender bias
5. Encourage girls to consider pursuing a career in science
6. Recognize that you will not be able to address the various abilities and cognitive styles of all of your students all of the time.

Comparison:

This chapter just insured what I already knew about learning styles. In every education class I have taken, the teachers always instruct us to think about these learning differences and make sure and take them into consideration when developing our lessons. Each lesson needs to have multiple learning styles incorporated into each one if possible. We will never be able to use all of them, but we can use some.

Discussion Boards:

This week's discussion boards were great ones to find new ideas for our teaching careers. I intend on going back through everyone's posts and saving all the different ideas. Everyone did such a great job developing lessons using multiple intelligences.

Blog:

Every week we learn more and more important ideas to help us to be better teachers in the future. I think continued education is a very important part of being a great teacher. We can never stop learning new ideas and new information. By keeping this blog we are able to place all those great ideas that we see, hear or read about in a safe place for future reference. I save everything from every education class and any other class that I think I might use in the future. One day I am going to go back through that stuff and add it to my blog so that it is all together. When we finish we might have enough information to write a book, who knows.

Question of the Week: We have looked at the different theorist, the age-level characteristics, and now student differences. Putting these concepts together, how is your "classroom" being built in your mind? Are you beginning to form an idea of how you might want it to look? What does it look like? What other information do you need before you start instructing?

Everytime I think I have an idea of what I want my classroom to be like, I find something else that I want to add. I do know that I want my classroom to be a fun but educational place for children. I want it to have different areas for children to work while I work with others individually. I want to be able to incorporate the different learning styles into these areas. My time with students is so limited that I have to be able to get the most out of a small amount of time. I like using things that allow children to get up and move around. Most of the children that I see are also students that have problems in school (behavior or educational) so they need something different. I want to be able to have a classroom that is very organized where the students know exactly where things are and what they are responsible for when they come in. I already incorporate student notebooks. When my students come in they are responsible for finding their notebook. These notebooks contain all the information about them (when they were last evaluated, when they are to be re-evaluated, what their disability is, and notes that I take during each session showing what we worked on). These notebooks give them something to bring them right in and get busy instead of wandering around the classroom. After I have been given their notebooks then we begin our activities for the day. These notebooks also give me something to show parents at conferences giving them information about their progress and what we have been doing. We save some worksheets and projects inside their notebooks too. I use this for all age levels because all children even 3 year olds know what their name looks like even if they can not read it. I try to also develop a theme for my classroom. Right now we are using "Charlotte's Web". All activities and projects revolve around this theme. I have also been reading this story to them throughout our sessions when time allows. At least by Christmas we will change themes to something else. I have been thinking about caterpillars and butterflies. (But who knows)