IPT 301 Week 4

Reading Questions

1. In order to promote intelligence within my classroom, I would make sure that I helped my students develop the skills of good positive communication. This would include helping them practice statements such as “I feel frustrated when…” so that we could develop emotional understanding in our classroom. Another thing I would do would be to model ways to be caring and considerate of other peoples’ feelings. I would be a positive example of how we can recognize and respond to other and hopefully my class would try this themselves and positively encourage and support each other. A third thing I would do is provide training in conflict resolution and problem solving. It is important for kids to learn skills of coping with difficult situations so that when they arise, the kids will be able to respond in an emotionally healthy way. Lastly, I would always encourage students to keep trying their best. I would always believe in my students and teach them to believe in themselves.

2. As a teacher, I see Gardner’s theory as more applicable. It has more to do with the different kinds of intelligences that could influence my students’ success in all areas of the school curriculum. It would also explain my some students excel in math but have trouble in reading and various other combinations of strengths and weaknesses in different areas. This theory will also be more useful in reflecting upon the intelligences of individual students if necessary and use different strategies of teaching. On the other hand, I also see that Sternberg’s theory could be useful to me as a teacher because it defines success as meeting personal goals and in the elementary classroom, a child’s goals would be related to succeeding in school, learning to read, and learning the curriculum because that is the cultural context that would define their success.

3. I don’t think that IQ testing would be very useful in the classroom. It can predict certain types of intelligence but I don’t think it is the best predictor of students’ achievement or future academic achievement. Also, because IQ doesn’t predict very much of success in the workplace, why should it predict success in school. There are many different aspects of intelligence depending on culture and other factors that an IQ test cannot measure.