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Multiple Intelligences Action Research
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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