It is soon time to travel again to Montreal, Canada for the AERA conference, April 12 - 16 and the MI-SIG meeting / program. Our SIG continues to grow in both membership and range of activities. It is interesting to note that the first organizational meeting of the MI-SIG was held in Montreal in 1999. I think that we have accomplished a lot over the course of the past 6 years. I have been gratified by the positive response and all the effort put forward by our wonderful members to make SIG activities worthwhile and engaging.
There will be two main activities during our Business Meeting. First, I am happy to announce that Christine Kunkel, Ph.D. the principal of the Key Learning Community in Indianapolis, Indiana will be our invited guest speaker. Christine recently completed her dissertation entitled, "A Study of Community Participation and Leadership Development in an Urban Public School." Christine was assistant principal and then replaced Patricia Bolanos as the Key school principal following her death last year. The Key Community is known internationally as the first MI-inspired school in the world. We look forward to hearing about the results of her doctoral research and life in an MI-inspired school after 20 years.
Our second Business Meeting activity will be a brief review of our SIG? strategic plan and goal setting for the next few years. It will be useful in the city of our birth to reflect on our accomplishments as well as future goals in the wake of the MI symposium in 2003 and the recent publication of the special MI issue of Teachers College Record. Where shall we focus our energy and efforts? How can we best serve our members interests and research in the field of multiple intelligences? Shall we make greater efforts to support graduate student MI research? Shall we focus on issues such as MI and neuroscience, classroom efficacy or theory development? How might we respond to recent criticisms of the validity of multiple intelligences?
I look forward to seeing you at our Business Meeting as well as at our sessions that have been put together by Program Chair, Ken Martin. I'm sure that you will find them to be very interesting and well worth your time.
See you in Montreal, eh?
Branton Shearer
1. Reframing the Study of "Intelligence": Looking More Closely at Human Abilities
Tue, April 12 - 12:25pm - 1:55 pm, Invited Session
Building: Le Centre Sheraton Montreal
Room: Joyce
Chair: Jane Shore, Educational Testing Service.
Discussant: Steve Stemler, Yale University.
This invited panel session will address the study of intelligence from a variety of angles. The panel will provide an overview of the research and current issues that influence our study of "intelligence." The focus will be on how we must reframe our questions, investigations, and measurement of intelligence, in order to bridge the gaps between theory and research, with the goal of ultimately influencing learning environments.
Dylan Wiliam, senior research director, R&D at ETS, is the author of over 150 articles, books, and papers on education, including several foundational pieces about formative assessment, some with Paul Black, an earlier colleague at King? College.
Richard D. Roberts, senior research scientist, R&D at ETS, and an honorary senior lecturer in the School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Australia., has a specialization in individual differences. He has conducted research and published on the topics of human cognitive abilities, emotional intelligence, self-confidence, sensory processes, aging, processing speed, and human chronotype.
Mindy Kornhaber, assistant professor at Penn State and earlier a researcher for over a decade at Harvard University, is concerned with testing policies and their influence on educational equity and students' intellectual development. Her research and teaching has focused are on assessment, educational equity, how theories of intelligence influence school practice, and school reform.
Measuring "Intelligence": What Can We Learn and How Can We Move Forward?
Dylan Wiliam, Educational Testing Service
Assessing Practical, Social, and Emotional Intelligence: New Directions
Richard Roberts, Educational Testing Service
Studying Intelligence: MI as Drosophila Fly
Mindy Kornhaber, Pennsylvania State University
2. Probed Dimensions of Multiple Intelligences
Thu, Apr 14 - 12:25pm - 1:55pm, Paper Session
Building: Le Centre Sheraton Montreal
Room: Hemon
Chair: Ken Martin, University of Cincinnati
Discussant: Mary Henderson, Anchorage School District and Fielding Graduate Institute
Conceptual Definition and Empirical Validation of Spiritual Intelligence Scale
Kirsi Tirri, University of Helsinki; Petri Nokelainen, University of Tampere
Values and Visions: How Ornithological Illustrators Exemplify the Development of the Naturalist Intelligence
Vanessa Hunt, Louisiana State University
Can Existential Thinking Ability Be Assessed?
Branton Shearer, Multiple Intelligences Research & Consulting
3. Multiple Intelligences SIG Business Meeting; Christine Kunkel on "Using a MI Curriculum: Student Leadership Development"
Thu, Apr 14 - 6:15pm - 7:45pm
Building: Le Centre Sheraton Montreal
Room: Salon 6
Chair: Branton Shearer, Multiple Intelligences Research & Consulting
4. Selected Characteristics: Multiple Intelligences
Fri, Apr 15 - 10:35am - 11:15am, Paper Discussions (Roundtables)
Building: Marriott Montreal Chateau Champlain
Room: Salle de Bal Ballroom & Foyer
Discussant: Brenda Romanoff, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Preference for Distributed or Condensed Instruction Based on Dominant Multiple Intelligence Trait
Lyn Howell, Milligan College
Pre-Service Teachers' Multiple Intelligences: Talents for All
Marilyn Verna, St. Francis College; James Campbell, St. John's University; Kirsi Tirri, University of Helsinki
5. Challenges of Teachers and Students: Multiple Intelligences
Fri, Apr 15 - 12:25pm - 1:55pm, Paper Session
Building: Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth
Room: Richelieu
Chair: April Andrien, Pepperdine University
Discussant: Sue Teele, University of California?iverside
On Motivational Foundations of the Multiple Intelligences: Evidence from Adolescents in Three School-Based Programs
Howard Smith, Queen's University; Ann Marie Hill, Queen's University
Student Attitudes about Learning and Intelligences
Jane Shore, Educational Testing Service; Alyssa Walters, Philadelphia School District
A Study on the Bridge of Music Intelligence to Chinese Writing
Wei-Yu Liu, National Hualien Teachers College
As of February, Marjorie Hall Haley reports that there are currently 108 members.?Of that number, approximately 78 are paid members who belong to AERA. Members are basically well distributed throughout the U.S.?Two other countries, Taiwan and Canada, each have 4 members, South Korea has 2 members, and Australia, Chile, Iceland, and Sweden each have 1 member.
All members: please keep your membership renewed! Here is the place to sign up for AERA membership and also for SIG membership. Do them together!