1 Teaching for Successful Intelligence Robert J. Sternberg Yale University.

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Teaching for Successful Intelligence

Robert J. Sternberg

Yale University

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Contact Information

Robert J. Sternberg, Director

PACE Center

Department of Psychology

Yale University

Box 208358

New Haven, CT 06520-8358 USA

E-mail: [email protected]

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Collaborators John Antonakis, Cynthia Berg, Donald Bundy, Anna Cianciolo, Pamela

Clinkenbeard, Janet Davidson, Martin Dennis, Michel Ferrari, P. Wenzel Geissler, George Forsythe, Peter Frensch, Michael Gardner, Joyce Gastel, Guillermo Gil, Elena Grigorenko, Martin Guyote, Pamela Hartman, Jennifer Hedlund, Joseph Horvath, Linda Jarvin, Jennifer Jordan, James Kaufman, Daniel Kaye, Smaragda Kazi, Jonna Kwiatkowski, Jacqueline Leighton, Delci Lev, Jerry Lipka,Todd Lubart, Gerry Mohatt, Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, Diana Marr, Timothy McNamara, Akundaeli Mbise, Adam Naples, Tina Newman, Damaris Ngorosho, Wei-Hua Niu, Catherine Nokes, Linda O’Hara, Renate Otterbach, Lynn Okagaki, Frederick Okatcha, Janet Powell, Jean Pretz, Ruth Prince, Judy Randi, Carol Rashotte, Scott Snook, Robert Sternberg, Erasto Tuntufye, Sheldon Tetewsky, Bruce Torff, Margaret Turner, Richard Wagner, Wendy Williams, Shih-Ying Yang, Wen-tao Yuan

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Acknowledgments

The research described in this presentation was supported under the Javits Act Program, as administered by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement of the U. S. Department of Education; the National Science Foundation; the U. S. Army Research Institute; the Partnership for Child Development, which is funded in part by the James C. McDonnell Foundation; the National Council for Eurasian and Eastern European Studies; the National Center for Educational Statistics; the U. S. National Science Foundation; and the World Bank. This presentation does not necessarily represent the positions or policies of these supporting agencies.

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A Problem with Traditional Education

• Traditional education tends to “shine the spotlight” on certain children almost all of the time, and on other children almost none of the time.

• The result is that some children are placed in a much better position to achieve than are others.

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But…

• The children who are not placed in an optimal position to achieve may be just as able to achieve at high levels as the students placed in a position to achieve. Moreover, the advantaged children will not necessarily be more successful later in life.

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A Problem with Traditional Education

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: The Vicious Cycle

Low Expectations

Low Achievement

Reward

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Global Mission of Presentation

• To demonstrate how to teach and assess students using the theory of successful intelligence—to help all children achieve at an optimal level.

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The Concept of Successful Intelligence

We need a concept of intelligence that is broader than the conventional concept. Successful intelligence is such a concept.

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Successful intelligence is

• the ability to achieve success in life, given one’s personal standards, within one’s sociocultural context;

• in order to adapt to, shape, and select environments;

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Successful intelligence is

• via recognition of and capitalization on strengths and remediation of or compensation for weaknesses;

• through a balance of analytical, creative, and practical abilities.

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Motivation for “Triarchy of Abilities”

• Alice:

–A student high in analytical abilities

• Barbara:

–A student high in creative abilities

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Motivation for “Triarchy of Abilities”

• Celia:–A student high in practical abilities

• Paul:–A student high in analytical and

creative abilities but low in practical abilities

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The Triarchic View of Intelligence

There are three aspects of intelligence:

• analytical

• creative

• practical

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Conventional (Analytical)

Intelligence

Creative Practical

Intelligence Intelligence

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Thought Question

• Think of a learning experience that was really valuable to you. What made it valuable?

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Instructional and Assessment Techniques

• Balanced use of instruction and assessment that is

–Memory-Based

–Analytically-Based

–Creatively-Based

–Practically-Based

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Teaching/Assessing for Memory-Based Learning

• Remember

–Recall

–Recognize

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Teaching/Assessing for Memory-Based Learning

• Remember

– Who?– What?– Where?– When?– Why?– How?

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An Example from My Classroom

• The cerebellum is in the

–*A. hindbrain

–B. midbrain

–C. left brain

–D. right brain

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Thought Exercise

• What would be some examples of teaching/assessing for memory in your classroom?

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Analytical intelligence is evoked when we

• analyze• compare and contrast• evaluate• explain• judge• critique

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Applications of the Concept of Successful Intelligence: Triarchic Teaching

Analytical• ANALYZE (a literary plot, a theory in the

sciences, a mathematical problem)• COMPARE AND CONTRAST (two

characters in a novel, two systems of government, the styles of two artists)

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Analytical• EVALUATE (a poem, a cultural custom,

a strategy in tennis)• EXPLAIN (the use of grammar in a

sentence, your interpretation of an historical event, the solution to a scientific problem)

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Outcomes of Teaching for Analytical Intelligence

• Analytical instruction and assessment should enable students to:

–Identify the existence of problems–Define the problems–Allocate resources for solving the

problems

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Outcomes of Teaching for Analytical Intelligence

–Mentally represent the problems–Formulate strategies for solving the

problems–Monitor their strategies while

problem solving–Evaluate their solutions after they

are done

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Evaluation of Analytical Products

• To what extent is the product

–Informed?

–Logical?

–Organized?

–Balanced?

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• Critique the ethics behind Stanley Milgram’s studies of obedience, discussing why you believe that the benefits did or did not outweigh the costs of the research.

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Thought Exercise

• What would be some examples of teaching/assessing for analytical thinking in your classroom?

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Creative intelligence is evoked when we:

• create

• design

• invent

• imagine

• suppose

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Creative• CREATE (a poem, a sculpture, a new

game)

• DESIGN (a new system of government for the classroom, a scientific investigation, a comfortable home)

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Creative• IMAGINE (what life would be like in another

country, what it would be like to be president of a country, how bees communicate with each other)

• SUPPOSE (worldwide temperatures increased 5 degrees on average…, people were paid to inform on neighbors who do not support the political party in power…, the ozone layer were completely depleted)

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Outcomes of Teaching for Creative Intelligence

• Creative instruction and assessment should enable students to– Redefine problems– Ensure that they are solving good

problems and have good solutions– Sell their ideas– Realize that knowledge is a double-

edged sword

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• Creative instruction and assessment should enable students to

–Attain self-efficacy

–Persevere to surmount obstacles

–Tolerate ambiguity

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• Creative instruction and assessment should enable students to–Continue to grow–Develop a sense of perspective

on themselves and their work–Defy the crowd

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Evaluation of Creative Products

• To what extent is the product:

–Informed?

–Novel?

–Compelling?

–Task-appropriate?

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• Suppose you gave the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III) to children growing up in a remote African village in Kenya (whose school language, but not home language, is English). What kinds of results might you expect in comparison with results from a large middle-American U.S. city such as Minneapolis? Why?

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Thought Exercise

• What would be some examples of teaching/assessing for creative thinking in your classroom?

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Practical intelligence is involved when we:

• Use• Apply• Implement• Employ• Contextualize

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Practical

• USE (a lesson that a literary character learned in your life, a mathematical lesson in the supermarket, a lesson learned on the playing field in everyday life)

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Practical

• APPLY (what you learned in a foreign-language class to an interaction with a foreigner, a lesson from history to the present, a scientific principle to everyday life)

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Outcomes of Teaching for Practical Intelligence

• Practical instruction and assessment should enable students to

–Use what they learn

–Put problems in real-world context

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Evaluation of Practical Products

• To what extent is the product:–Informed?–Feasible with respect to time and

place?–Feasible with respect to human

resources?–Feasible with respect to material

resources?

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• How do gambling casinos employ reinforcement techniques to keep people gambling at slot machines?

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Thought Exercise

• What would be some examples of teaching/assessing for practical thinking in your classroom?

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Principles of Teaching for Successful Intelligence

• The goal of instruction is the development of expertise through the creation of a well and flexibly organized, easily retrievable knowledge base

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• Instruction should involve teaching for analytical, creative, and practical thinking as well as for memory learning

• Assessment should also involve analytical, creative, and practical as well as memory components

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• Instruction and assessment should enable students to:

–Identify and capitalize on strengths–Identify and correct or compensate

for weaknesses

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Sample Course Requirements

• Examinations–Multiple-choice or short-answer

items–Choice of 2 out of 3 (or 4 out of 6)

essays (which are, respectively, primarily analytical, creative, or practical)

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Sample Course Requirements

• Examinations–Term paper/project (assigned or

unassigned topic)

–Oral presentation (assigned or unassigned topic)

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Advantages of Triarchic Teaching

• Enables students to capitalize on strengths and remediate or compensate for weaknesses

• Enables students to encode learning material more deeply

• Enables students to encode learning material more elaborately

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Advantages of Triarchic Teaching

• Enables students to encode learning material in multiple ways

• Motivates students more strongly• Prepares students better for actual job

requirements

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Potential Objections to Teaching for Successful Intelligence

• Test scores will suffer

• It does not fit current standards

• It’s just another fad

• It’s too hard to do

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Potential Objections to Teaching for SI

• It takes too much time

• It is only for gifted students

• It is only for weak students

• Teachers should teach only in ways that are comfortable for them

• It’s for other teachers

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Applications of the Concept of Successful Intelligence

When we teach for successful intelligence, student achievement increases

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The Triarchic Aptitude-Instruction Interaction Study

• When high-school students are taught in a way that matches their pattern of strengths at least some of the time, they perform better than when they are not so taught

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The Triarchic Science-Social Studies Main-Effects Study

• Students (in grades 3 and 8) who are taught triarchically (for social studies and science) outperform students who are taught either primarily for critical thinking or primarily for memory, regardless of how the students are assessed (I.e., for memory or for analytical, creative, or practical achievement)

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The Triarchic Reading Study

• When working-class middle school and high school students are taught reading across the curriculum, triarchically taught students outperform students taught conventionally in vocabulary and reading-comprehension measures, regardless of the form of assessment used

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The Triarchic Mathematics Study

• When Alaskan Yup’ik (Native American) high school students are taught geometry concepts triarchically, they outperform students who are taught the same concepts conventionally, regardless of the form of assessment used

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Applications of the Concept of Successful Intelligence

Successful intelligence can be developed:

• Analytical– The Learning-from-Context Studies

• Creative– The Insight-Training Study

• Practical– The Practical-Intelligence-for-Schools Study

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A Caveat

• People can be intelligent, or even successfully intelligent, but foolish:

–The egocentrism fallacy–The omniscience fallacy–The omnipotence fallacy–The invulnerability fallacy

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For Further Information…

– Sternberg, R. J. (1997). Successful intelligence. New York: Plume.

– Sternberg, R. J., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2000). Teaching for successful intelligence. Arlington Heights, IL: Skylight

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– Sternberg, R. J. (1997). Successful intelligence. New York: Plume.

– Sternberg, R. J., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2000). Teaching for successful intelligence. Arlington Heights, IL: Skylight

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–Sternberg, R. J., & Spear-Swerling, L. (1996). Teaching for thinking. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association

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Web Sites

• www.yale.edu/pace

• www.yale.edu/rjsternberg

http://www.yale.edu/pace

http://www.yale.edu/rjsternberg

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Final Conclusion

• Individuals are better recognized for and are better able to make use of their talents

• Schools teach and assess children better with better results

• Society utilizes rather than wastes the talents of its members

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Invitation to Collaborate

• We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with individuals and institutions all over the world. If you are interested in collaborating with us in one of our ongoing projects or in a new project, please contact me at

• [email protected]

1 Teaching for Successful Intelligence Robert J. Sternberg Yale University.

Documents

based slide

concept of intelligence

successful intelligence

right brain slide

judge critique slide

aspects of intelligence

wentao yuan slide

creative abilities