Action Research Study: Effects of Multiple Intelligences Based Instruction on Students’ Attitudes and Achievement?--Method

Method

American schools have traditionally favored those students who excel in the linguistic and analytical arenas because these skills are highly valued in our culture. Unfortunately, this traditional approach leaves certain students behind to stumble blindly through an educational system that ignores their unique abilities. This action research study seeks to show that instructional activities that incorporate the multiple intelligences can improve students' attitudes toward learning and students' academic achievement in English class.

by Michele R. Acosta

Multiple Intelligences Based Instruction: Part 2

During the six week unit, the researcher employed the following multiple intelligences activities designed to improve students' attitudes and academic achievement...

During the course of the study, students were taught using lessons, activities, and projects based on the multiple intelligences. (See Figure 2 for a schedule of instruction.) Early in the study, the Realism unit was introduced using a scenario called "The Soldier's Dilemma" (Johannessen, 1997) (see Appendix H). The scenario was read out loud to the students, then they were asked to work in groups to answer questions about the scenario. (See Appendix H for the questions to which each group responded.) Each group was asked to come to a consensus about their opinions.

Once they had sufficient time to debate the issue, they were asked to return to their seats for a whole class discussion. (See Appendix I for the whole class discussion questions.) Students were required to use their interpersonal skills to defend their positions, first with their group members, then with the entire class. Students also needed to use their intrapersonal intelligences because the emotional level of this discussion required a sense of self-awareness and self-understanding. Students also needed to use their logical-mathematical and verbal-linguistic intelligences for analysis and their verbal-linguistic intelligence for communication.

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The author is a writer, a former English teacher, and the mother of three boys. She spends her time writing and teaching others to write. Visit articles.TheWritingTutor.biz for more articles or TheWritingTutor.biz for other writing and educational resources for young authors, teachers, and parents. Visit writing_editing_service.TheWritingTutor.biz for a description of writing and editing services provided by the author.

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Multiple Intelligences Action Research

Method

Multiple Intelligences Based Instruction: Part 2