AM I REALLY SMART IF I can’t do  math, remember names…..?

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DEF: Intelligence is a combination of the ability to:  (from several authors)
1. Learn – which includes all kinds of informal & formal learning, via any combination of experience, education & training
2. Pose problems – which includes recognizing problem situations, & transforming them into more clearly defined issues
3. Solve problems – which includes outlining solutions, accomplishing tasks, creating products, & doing complex projects

 

Human Intelligence is the singular, collective ability to act & react in an ever-changing world. Our brain is an ‘equal-opportunity’ organ. The more opportunities it has to develop & apply its many but distinct functions, the better we learn, which can make us complete individuals & better citizens. The brain can go from the practical to the most remarkably creative, from the concrete to the abstract, from detached reason and logic to emotion and attachment – all of which we can draw on as we negotiate our way through life.

BRAIN HEMISPHERES
When talking about Intelligence it makes sense to start by looking at the 2 halves of the brain – the Right giving us our Creativity & the Left our Analytical abilities. This chart suggests the 2 sides contribute to the various types of Intelligences (I.) listed in the next few posts.

However, scientific consensus is that intelligence depends not only on the efficiency or power of various brain regions, but also on the strength of the connections that link them.
Researchers Haler & Jung (New Mexico) attribute our I. to a circuit that links the Frontal Lobes, involved in organization, planning & other highly developed abilities, with the Parietal region farther back in the brain, which integrates information from the eyes, ears & other senses.

They believe this Parieto-frontal Integration Theory (P-FIT) best accounts for the evidence that I. depends on several brain regions tightly linked by axon tracks that form super-highways of info. (Brain basis for Multiple.I.? – gives YES/NO points)

Learning Styles: “Characteristic cognitive, effective & psycho-social behaviors that serve as relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with, & respond to the learning environment.”
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« CHART  ▲
Applying this info to eLearning – some dimensions are :
– being cooperative vs competitive
– learning independently vs from an instructor
– more or less introverted vs extroverted
– learn verbally vs visually vs aurally
– perceive or processes concretely vs abstractly, actively or reflectively
– make decisions or judgements by deliberation vs intuition
– learn sequentially or bottom-up vs global or top-down

2 TYPES – from Psychologist Raymond Cattell (1963)
FLUID (Gf) Intelligence
The ability to recognize & identify unfamiliar complex relationships / patterns, make inferences about them & use logic to solve new problems

CRYSTALLIZED (Gc) Intelligence
The ability to use learned knowledge & experience. Consists of: Comprehension, Cultural influence, Experience, Judgement, Learning  (MORE….scroll to 1/18/14)

3 TYPES
IQ – HEAD smarts
Ian Lawton showed that people with high IQs aren’t automatically good at everything, by using a ‘simple’ math problem = Bat & Ball problem :
“A bat & a ball cost $1 and 10 cents. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?”
— Did you say the ball cost 10 cents? That is incorrect, but that’s OK, since more than 50% of Harvard, Princeton and MIT students also got it wrong.
SOLUTION — Consider that the bat is a dollar more than the ball, which costs .05 cents. Since the difference between the two has to be $1 ($1 -.10 = $.90) then the bat is $1.05. ($1.05-$.05=$1)

EQ – EMOTIONAL / HEART smarts
Understand feelings & instincts behind the facts. It’s used by 90% of top performers for success in business, & 58% of job performance is based on it.
People with a hi EQ make almost $29K more a year.  We BUY ‘stuff’ using EQ, but most will deny it, insisting their choices were totally logical

SQ – SPIRITUAL / INTUITIVE smarts
Combines IQ and EQ. It’s where moral intelligence comes from, giving us a sense of purpose & wisdom. It has its own way of ‘knowing’, gathered from all our years of experience, combining the best of our emotions, skills & knowledge needed for each occasion   (True Leadership)

ADULTS learn differently from younger students (MORE…)
Malcolm Knowles, Adult Educator identified 6 assumptions about adult requirements. LEARNERS :
Need to know Why – what’s the value of  this info, how will it be a direct benefit
Self-Concept – believing they’re responsible for their own lives, adults need to be seen & treated as capable & self-directed, be independent, but not isolated
Experience – individuals come with many differences in background, goals, interests, learning style, motivation, needs

Readiness – they’re ready to learn because they need or want to know how to effectively cope with real-life situations
Orientation – being mainly task-oriented & problem-centered, adults look for practical info which can be applied to everyday issues. They learn best through problem-based approaches & actual experience
Motivation – they respond to some external motivators (better job, higher salaries….), but the strongest motivators are internal (desire for increased job satisfaction, self-esteem….)

NEXT: Multiple Intelligences (Part 2)