TEACHER PAGE
RATIONALE AND OVERVIEW
We all learn differently. As learners, it is beneficial to understand and develop the numerous ways in which our mind works in order to create meaningful knowledge. As teachers, it is our responsibility to allow students to be able to be aware of, and develop, those learning processes. According to the National Research Council, in their book How People Learn, “learner-centered teachers present students with “just manageable difficulties” – that is, challenging enough to maintain engagement, but not so difficult as to lead to discouragement. They must, therefore, have an understanding of their students’ knowledge, skill levels, and interests” (24). Teaching students the processes by which they obtain meaningful knowledge as well as the ways in which meaningful knowledge, for each individual student, is essential in affording each student the opportunity to maximize their learning potential.
These lessons represent an exercise rooted in Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences. In Frames of Mind, he states that “those who have difficulty developing in certain divisions of intelligence should be given means by which to circumvent those areas that have not sufficient skill sets to be of maximal use in assisting learning for those that do” (25). In other words, teachers must constantly seek out students best learning styles based on their own individual abilities, as well as those processes which suit their own needs.
Intelligence, then, cannot simply be seen as a single component of one’s capacity to learn. In his article, Multiple Lenses on the Mind, Howard Gardner stated that “individuals have different human faculties and their strength (or weakness) in one intellectual sphere simply does not predict whether a particular individual will be strong or weak in some other intellectual component. I developed a definition of intelligence—a biopsychological information-processing capacity to solve problems or fashion products that are valued in at least one community and culture” (7). In realizing both cultural and personal strengths and weaknesses within individuals, teachers will be better equipped to serve the needs of each student.
Gardner also explicitly described the existence of nine different intelligences in which students may be more, or less, proficient. These intelligences include “linguistic intelligence, logical mathematical intelligence, musical intelligence, spatial intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, naturalist intelligence, and existential intelligence” (8-10). In recognizing and dissecting these different intelligences, he is attempting to make teachers aware of the ways in which they can, and must, differentiate instruction for their students. Is it possible to deliver instruction to students one way and expect all of them to obtain high levels of achievement? The notion that any two students can learn the same way is outdated and unrealistic. In order to allow students to access any kind of meaningful knowledge, teachers must be aware, and make their students aware, of the processes and means through which that knowledge is obtained.
These lessons engage students within these different intelligences in that they ask students to interact with different media. For example, the readings engage their linguistic intelligence, the concentration on time and its implications within this is representative of logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence is evident in student’s engagement with video, giving students metacognitive processes through which they have to think about their own thinking helps them access their intrapersonal intelligence, and collaborating with other students allows them to function within the realm of interpersonal intelligence. In accessing as many different intelligences within the puzzling of the historical circumstances surrounding the Arab-Israeli Conflict, teachers are giving students the best way in which to create meaningful knowledge.
LESSON TWO ... PUZZLING THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT
Back to ... THE HISTORICAL PUZZLE OF THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT
Back to ... UNIT TWO ... THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT