Week Two: What is intelligence and does it matter?

Reflect on:

• What you already know about intelligence.  

There is more than one theory and each theorist defends & tries to show the value of each one, ie Howard Gardner believes every human being has eight. 

• How do you know if someone is intelligent or not? 

Personally by the speed a person catches and uses new things, 

• Do you consider yourself to be intelligent? Why? What is your evidence for this? 
• No really smart but pratice and experience have given me good results.  
• I may not grasp things 100% at first but in the end I do!
• My evidence, the use of excel could be a good example.

Videos

Watch Clare discussing intelligence and ability with Professor Gordon Stobart

• 2.2.1 Clare talks with Professor Gordon Stobart
• 2.2.2 Clare talks with Professor Gordon Stobart continued
• 2.2.3 Clare talks with Professor Gordon Stobart continued
• 2.2.4 Clare talks with Professor Gordon Stobart continued

Read one of these articles/blogsites:

• A guide to intelligence (and heritability) for beginners
• The myth of ability

Gordon's book is called: The Expert Learner: Challenging the myth of ability and is published by Open University Press. (pencilled in as a post MOOC)

 Good Learners Padlet Wall

THE IKEA MAN

Ingvar Kamprad was born in Småland, Sweden in 1926.  He was raised on a farm but at a very young age he knew he wanted to do business.  At the age of five he started selling matches. At seven, he expanded his business and found out that by buying matches in bulk cheaply he would re-sell them individually at a very low price but still he would make a good profit.

The 1940 to 1950 period was the time for exploration of furniture design and self assembly.  There he became involved in advertising by using two important tools: a physical catalogue and attracting showrooms.  Due to the low price, elegance and DIY, the public became interested in the POÄNG (rocking chair) and Billy (tailor-made bookshelf).

As time went by, business called IKEA expanded dramatically into foreign markets, focused on home furnishing solutions to meet the needs of families with children and became a leading company in the world that cares for the environment.  Today customers enjoy shopping at showrooms, online, have free delivery and can download an interactive catalogue.

He had determination, he had opportunities and there he is from a street seller to an experience businessman! 

Contribute to the discussion  

1  Ismérie:  Roger Federer
    Brilliant example!  It covers dedication, 10,000 hours of practice and the message is that if you           want you can do it!

2  Lisa: Anne Sullivan
    The best teacher ever, full of dedication, innovation, patience who taught Hellen Keller a blind           deaf girl how to read and move around the world.

Join a Google Hangout done

Create an entry in your reflective blog or journal

Labeled standard, earning some diplomas, having a few outstanding marks and lots low marks in Math and English.  Once I left school I gave up learning the first one.  The second got better results when I had to live in the UK for some years.  Eventually, English and I became friends!  But I remember spending long hours studying rules and doing grammar exercises.  Back at home, I decided to become an English teacher to teach L2 in a friendly way.

Thinking back the way I was taught both subjects, I can put the blame on the single sex school rules, teachers, methodology and learning/teaching styles given at an emerging country.  One of the teachers would ask the class to read out loud math rules.  How far away this teacher was from a proper teaching and learning style.  Today I can feel sorry for the whole class.  In fact, those were the teaching styles at my school. 

Has this affected the educational opportunities you have been given?  

        Everything seems difficult at the very onset but once I get to know the core of the                   subject, I find it easy to deal with.  I don´t think this has affected the educational                     opportunities.  Working for the UN in Africa gave me the chance to learn quite a lot,  I           can still feel proud of the job I did there and running a whole department at a Language         School is my second pride.  

What judgments have people made about you that have been affected by an assessment of your "intelligence"?

       We didn´t get assessed when I went to school.  I can only recall mum saying I was        a slow learner.  This comment has always triggered me to fight against the                    difficulties I find in any new subject.

Do you consider yourself to be a "learner"?  Why?

       Yes, I do cosider myself a learner!  As stated earlier, I am convinced that learning        is a never ending process.  

       Because right now I am learning how to participate in a MOOC!