MI-SIG Newsletter

Greetings, MI-SIG Members!

I hope this finds you wrapping up a successful year both professionally as well as personally. Believe it or not, it is now time to begin thinking about attending the annual AERA conference to be held in Chicago, April 9–13. It has been a good year for the MI-SIG and the board has been busy on a number of important activities.

The Program Chair, Ken Martin, has worked hard on putting together an interesting and thought provoking set of sessions. I hope you will attend as many sessions as possible and encourage your colleagues to do so as well.

I want to extend heartfelt welcomes to Ilknur Eginli as our newsletter editor and Nithya Iyer as the manager of our MI database. These are both important jobs and I'm delighted that they have taken them on. Please lend them your support and assistance.

Our Business Meeting at the conference should be exciting and interesting. We'll be electing a new set of officers as well as hearing from a panel of teachers from the Key Learning Community, Indianapolis, IN. Have you heard of it? It is well known as the first MI-inspired school anywhere in the world. We are fortunate to have a few of their teachers willing to travel to Chicago to speak with us.

We will also discuss ideas for commemorating the 25th anniversary of the publication of Howard Gardner's landmark book, Frames of Mind, at the 2008 conference in New York.

I hope that you have received the notice from our Membership Chair-Treasurer, Marjorie Hall Haley, about nominating someone (or yourself!) for an officer's position. It is through your active participation and support that we are able to accomplish our goals.

I wish you an MI-inspired New Year!

Branton Shearer

MI-SIG member Beth Olshansky, Director of the Center for the Advancement of Art-Based Literacy at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH has spent the past 16 years developing, testing, and assessing innovative, art-and-literature based approaches to literacy. The Center for the Advancement of Art-Based Literacy (CAABL) in partnership with the Manchester School District recently was awarded a 4-year Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) grant from the US Department of Education Office of Innovation and Improvement. The research that results from this grant will be of national significance. It will provide school districts across the country with hard data and explicit art-infused methodologies which can be applied toward improving the literacy skills of all students, particularly those who are currently targeted by No Child Left Behind.

“Image-Making Within The Writing Process” (Image-Making), one of the CAABL’s earlier programs, was validated by the US Department of Education as an innovative and effective literacy program in 1993. This approach to writing integrates visual and kinesthetic modes of thinking at each and every stage of the writing process. Students begin by creating their own portfolio of hand-painted textured papers. These papers not only spark story ideas but also become the raw materials for constructing stunning collage images.

As students literally give shape to their ideas through cutting and pasting, they are able to rehearse, draft, and revise their stories long before setting pencil to paper.

Image-Making is a comprehensive, field-tested, proven model which provides a compelling example of how MI theory can be applied to the teaching of verbal skills such as reading and writing to insure the success of all learners.

To learn more about the Center for the Advancement for Art-Based Literacy, please call 603-862-3691, email eja@cisunix.unh.edu, or visit www.image-making.org.

Dr. Jihan AbuRashid Alumran, associate professor of Educational Psychology, published an article entitled “Multiple Intelligences for Bahraini Students at the University Level According to Gender and Academic specializations: Are the Right Students in the Right Specialization?” in the 7th Volume of the Journal of Educational and Psychological Sciences issued by Bahrain University in September 2006. The researcher investigated the differences in multiple intelligences among students at the University of Bahrain according to gender and the field of specialization.

A Multiple Intelligences Scale developed by the researcher was administered to a randomly selected sample of 238 students majoring in thirteen different specializations (Engineering, Mathematics, Science, Law, Business Management, Languages, Socio-psychological Sciences, Instructional Technology, Physical Education, Islamic Studies, Computer Science, Arts, Information). There were 118 male students and 120 female students. Their ages ranged between 17 and 34 years with an average age of 21 years.

Her results showed that: 1) The most prevalent intelligences among the students were social intelligence and personal intelligence; 2) Males excelled over females in kinesthetic intelligence and spatial intelligence; 3) Students specialized in Math excelled over those specialized in sciences, computer science, media, linguistics, business and social sciences on measures of logical mathematical intelligence; 4) Students specialized in media excelled over those specialized in engineering, science, law, Islamic studies, and educational technology on measures of music intelligence; and 5) The majority of the students were in the right specialization.

The researcher suggests the following recommendations:

1. The necessity of investigating the intelligences of students at the university level to match their preferences of intelligences to their majors when applying for admission.
2. Conducting experimental studies to investigate the effectiveness of a teaching method based on multiple intelligences on students’ achievement.

Note: For further information, please contact Dr. Loori.