What is Instructional Intelligence?

1. Exploring Instructional Intelligence and its application in the classroomDavis College/ MCFE staff presentation27th August 2010

2. What is Instructional Intelligence? • Promoting excellence in teaching and learning • Major research indicates that best means of improving student achievement is improving the instructional practices of teachers • Learning from up-to-date research • Continuous Professional Development • Professional status of educators • Co Cork VEC/IVEA/University of Ontario

3. What is Instructional Intelligence? • The art and science of teaching • Focus on how knowledge of instruction can help to create powerful learning environments • The importance of “deep understanding” • Avoiding “the inevitable implementation dip”

4. Some research conclusions • Teacher knowledge about the teaching and learning process is the most powerful predictor of student success (content knowledge and process knowledge) • Spending money on teacher learning is the best investment in terms of student learning • (Marzano, 1998; Greenwald, Hedges, Laine, 1996)

5. Some research conclusions Characteristics of expert teachers: • Use knowledge about students and how they learn to fashion lessons • Connect ideas to students’ experiences • Create variety of learning opportunities to make subject come alive for students who learn in different ways • Support students’ development and motivation to achieve • Create steps to help students progress towards more complicated ideas and performances • (Darling-Hammond 1998)

6. Some research conclusions Characteristics of teachers who are artful in applying the science of teaching: • Intelligence about the learner and being able to respond • Weave together a variety of concepts • Interpersonal intelligence-emotional intelligence • Ever deepening understanding of subject matter • Wisdom about use of assessment data and how to act on what data says • Bennet and Rolheiser, 2008

7. Aims for this afternoon • To deepen our understanding of what is meant by Instructional Intelligence • To explore the concept of motivation • To consider the importance of instructional organisers in designing learning environments

8. Instructional Intelligence involves awareness of… • Instructional concepts • Instructional skills • Instructional tactics • Instructional strategies • Instructional instructional organizers • Collectively, these concepts are known as pedagogy

9. Instruction can be classified into 5 areas • Instructional concepts • Instructional skills • Instructional tactics • Instructional strategies • Instructional organizers The red guide; you enact and integrate the green

10. David Perkins (1994) “It is an everyday observation that often people do not develop robust intelligent behaviours in areas where they have a great deal of experience. We do not automatically learn from experience, even extended experiences. For instance, people play chess or bridge for years without ever getting better at it”.

11. Skills are the instructional actions of teachers that enhance learning They increase the chances that more complex instructional processes (tactics and strategies) are implemented Most teachers are tacitly or unconsciously skilled Framing questions Applying wait time Suspending judgment Discussing the purpose of the lesson Linking with students’ past experience Responding to a ‘no’ response Checking for understanding Instructional Skills

12. A tactic fits between a skill and a strategy It is an action used to enrich or strengthen the application of a strategy Can be linked to other tactics or skills Tactics make strategies less complex and more workable Tactics Think Pair Share Brainstorming Venn Diagram Flow Chart Round Robin 3 Step Interview PMI Six Thinking Hats Instructional Tactics

13. Graphic Organizers • Word Webs • Time Lines • Flow Charts • Venn Diagrams • Fish Bone Diagrams • Ranking Ladders • Mind Maps • Concept Maps

15. Strategies are usually grounded in theory May involve a sequence of steps, or number of related elements Have intended effect on student learning Skills drive tactics, tactics and skills drive strategies Strategies Concept Attainment 5 Basic Elements (of groupwork) Mind Mapping Concept Mapping Jigsaw Academic Controversy Group Investigation Reading Recovery Role play ICT use (an aspect of) Instructional Strategies

16. Concepts provide lenses to understand how, when and where to apply and integrate skills, tactics and strategies Cannot be “done” in themselves, can be enacted through application of skills, strategies, tactics For example: wait time and think/pair/share can invoke concepts of safety and accountability Concepts (only) Safety Accountability Novelty Authenticity Motivation Active Participation Instructional Concepts

17. Instructional Organisers • Organisers are frameworks or bodies of research that assist teachers in organising an array of skills, tactics and strategies into a coherent set of teaching methods • They are the lenses that clarify or enhance thought about how we instruct • They increase teacher wisdom about the teaching and learning process, based on the needs and inclinations of the learner

18. Multiple Intelligence Gender Ethnicity Culture Brain Research Critical Thinking Child Development Learning Difficulties At Risk Environment Co-operative Learning Bloom’s Taxonomy Instructional Organisers

19. Concept and skill relationship • Why do we need to be aware of the difference between concepts, skills, tactics, strategies and organisers? • Many experienced and effective teachers might not consciously realise the complexity around something as simple as asking a question so as to involve all students • Do they need to?

20. Concepts and skills • Without clear understanding, we are less able to thoughtfully meet with student needs • We can “do” skills, e.g. providing wait time for students to think about questions • We cannot “do” concepts, e.g. motivation, variety- we must do things to make these concepts come alive • These things we do are skills, tactics and strategies • We need to articulate our practice to be effective

21. Instructional concepts - safety, social justice, interest, accountability etc. • Instructional skills - wait time, framing questions, probing • Instructional tactics - Think Pair Share, Venn Diagrams, Word Webs • Instructional strategies - Concept Mapping, Academic Controversy • Instructional organizers - Multiple Intelligence, Bloom’s Taxonomy, learning disabilities, gender, culture, at risk factors The key point is to sense how the GREEN ones interact … and how the RED areas guide the teachers thinking and action of the green areas -- to create an impact.

22. Impact understood as ‘power’ • Power is a term that tells us how much of a difference an innovation makes. • Power generally increases as you shift from skills, to tactics, to strategies. • Strategies are researched based approaches supported by a theory - the most complex and powerful.

23. Our instructional task • We need to move from being tacitly skilled in a limited number of instructional methods to being explicitly skilled with a higher number of instructional methods to increase learning and to facilitate teachers differentiating their instruction to meet diverse students’ diverse needs.

24. Integrating methods • How do wait time, framing questions, think/pair/share, concept attainment, safety, accountability, active participation, Bloom’s Taxonomy, Brain Research, etc., work together? • Our conscious integration of these methods is the art of effective teaching

25. Everything a teacher does can be classified into four areas … • Information provided • Activities assigned or selected • Questions asked • Responses to students’ efforts Madeline Hunter

26. The Concept of Motivation Why investigate motivation? • To understand the factors that increase the chances students want to be involved in learning • To see that motivation is just as important as having students actively involved and accountable

27. Why integrate motivation into lessons? • When students are motivated to learn, they learn more and learn it faster. They are also less likely to misbehave. • Attribution Theory: unless students attribute their successes and failures to their own efforts, little or no long-term transfer of the motivation to learn will occur

28. What does research suggest? • There are six concepts that we as teachers can control in the classroom that increase the chances students will be motivated. However: • Students must learn that their success or failure depends on their effort • If students who work hard do not achieve success, alternative strategies must be employed • Intrinsic motivation can be affected by teacher

29. Success • If students regularly experience success and have a healthy self-concept, they need to have successful experiences 75% of the time • Students who do not experience success and who do not have a healthy self-concept need to experience success 90-95% of the time

30. How can we affect success? • Teachers need to teach at the correct level of difficulty • Teachers must actively involve the learner in meaningful learning • Skills: framing questions with learner in mind, applying wait time • Strategy: Bloom’s Taxonomy • Tactic: think pair share • Organiser as appropriate

31. Bloom’s Taxonomy • Remembering – recall, recite • Comprehension/Understanding-explain, provide examples • Application-act on understanding • Analysis-compare/ contrast, pull apart • Synthesis-reinvent, create, look at in a new way • Evaluation-judge based on criteria

32. Concern • If zero concern exists, there will probably be zero learning • Too much concern can lead students to becoming frustrated • Too little concern can lead to students becoming bored • How can we control concern?

33. How can we affect concern? • Increase accountability • Framing the question, wait time, checking homework • Increasing visibility • Moving around the room increases chances students will be involved in the lesson • Consequences • When students know they can enjoy the fruits of their effort, they are more inclined to complete the task

34. How can we affect concern? • Time • If students know how much time they have to complete a task, they are more concerned about the intensity of their effort • Help • If students know that avenues of help exist, their level of concern is reduced • Guided practice • Value of peer learning

35. Meaning • The more the learning relates to the students’ past, present or future learning, the greater the chances the students will be involved in the learning • Connecting to learning already stored in the brain

36. How can we affect meaning? • Mental Set at beginning of lesson-providing a hook to arouse students’ curiosity • Sharing/ discussing/ negotiating the purpose of the lesson increases chances students will want to participate • Drama, role plays, field trips, discussion, films/ videos/ ICT workshops etc.

37. Positive feeling tone • Making learning environment a safe one increases chance students will want to continue learning • Appropriately responding to students incorrect/ partially correct responses, silly responses, guesses is important • Impact on brain when threatened or placed under stress (Davidson and Cao, 1992) • Uncaring environment has negative impact on student learning (Soar and Soar, 1979) • Research on gifted children reports that students want teachers who care about them outside the classroom walls (Stelmaschuk, 1986)

38. Interest • People are motivated to do things that they find interesting • We attend to things that are novel, varied, vivid • Teachers who demonstrate humour and enthusiasm create interest • Enthusiasm increases student academic engaged time (Mary Collins, 1978) • Enthusiasm identified as a key characteristic of effective teachers (Ken Macrorie, 1986; William Hare, 1995)

39. Knowledge of results • When we know that what we are doing is being done well, or needs to be improved, and when we know what we must do to improve, we are motivated to continue • Monitoring students’ learning and adjusting teaching (checking for understanding) is important • Assessment and feedback

40. Motivating students • It is through our awareness of how organisers, skills, tactics, strategies and concepts can be integrated that we learn how to motivate students effectively • Being able to judge how best to integrate these factors that makes us effective teachers • Mastering “the artful science” of teaching

41. Motivation and the enthusiastic teacher • Research literature reports that when teachers are enthusiastic, students more likely to be focused on the information presented. • Humour and enthusiasm rank first in over 80% of responses by teachers asked to characterise their own great teachers (Bennet study)

42. Vocal delivery Word choice Humour Eye movement Facial expressions Gestures Movement Energy level Acceptance Variety Novelty What communicates enthusiasm?

43. Role of organisers • Relates to specific bodies of knowledge rooted in research • Each body of knowledge is a lens through which we see our students’ needs and the diverse ways in which they learn • Being aware of these bodies of knowledge helps us to make wise decisions about how we design learning environments

44. Multiple intelligences Emotional intelligence Learning styles Research on the human brain Gender Culture and ethnicity Children at risk Learning disabilities research Bloom’s Taxonomy Child development research Examples of organisers

45. Multiple intelligence • Originated with Howard Gardner in the 1960s • Reminds teachers that students bring different strengths to a learning situation • Educators focused on logical-mathematical and verbal-linguistic • We as teachers are by default socialised into not responding to the reality that students have different problem solving and creative skills • Each person possesses each of the intelligences and can develop each one

46. Linguistic Logical-mathematical Bodily-kinaesthetic Intrapersonal Musical Spatial Interpersonal Naturalistic Multiple intelligence

47. Points to consider • What are the implications of this research for educators? • Moral imperative? Legal imperative? • How can I vary my teaching practice to reflect my deeper understanding of multiple intelligence and how students learn? • Effect on student motivation?

48. Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam, 1963-1968 • Complex political issues • Need to make issues meaningful for students today • Need to arouse curiosity with a “hook” • Power of visual image

49. The Great Society