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Bloomin' Onions





Assignments

  • Survey = 50 points
  • Article = 50 points

  • Survey
    • Fulfill all three parts of the survey in this section (The part of the survey assignment that YOU take can only be done in class; the other two parts need to be done and submitted before the next class meeting)
    • If you are not in class to do this survey, you cannot obtain these 50 points.
  • Article
    • Choose one of the articles on this page
    • Read the article
    • Know the ideas and information well enough to discuss the article in 3-5 minutes of talking.
    • You must find an incorporate into your discussion one other source concerning that same subject.
    • That talk can only be delivered at the next class meeting
    • No reading at us unless it is to read a quote that does ot exceed 50 words
    • This is not a formal presentation
    • If you are not in class next week in time to talk about your chosen article, you cannot obtain these 50 points.

Why are we doing these assignments

  • The survey assignments are to have you earnestly engaging with the subjects of the course without you pre-guessing what you think you should think. To do philosophy, you must know where your bias is concerning any subject, allowing you to then, temporarily, set aside personal preferences in order to critically think about a subject.
  • The article-reading/talk is to elevate your reading from consumption and comprehension to understanding and apprehension. In our click-baity, social media banality, we are losing the ability to read and learn for ourselves. Comprehension is knowing something by being able to regurgitate exactly whhat some source said, which does nto mean the perosn knows anything except how to be a human parrot. Apprehension is grappling with an idea until it is understood well enough that you can teach a source's subject to others.



    Bloom's Taxonomy

    Blooms Taxonomy Color coded

    EFSC Blooms taxonomy





    Gardener's Multiple Intelligences

    Eight Intelligences

    Description of Each Intelligence

    1. Linguistic
      • People with strong linguistic skills can use their native language, and sometimes other languages, to understand people and express their thoughts. Examples of professionals with above average intelligence levels in this area include writers and orators.
    2. Logical-mathematical
      • Scientists are examples of people strong in the logical-mathematical intelligence because they can manipulate numbers the way mathematicians do. They tend to have above average logical-mathematical skills also because of their knowledge of causal systems.
    3. Visual/Spatial
      • Spatial intelligence involves the skills people have to represent the spatial world, especially intheir mind's eye. Spatially intelligent people tend to become painters, sculptors, and architects. Spatial intelligence is used more often in certain sciences like anatomy and topology.
    4. Bodily-kinesthetic
      • This intelligence relates to the ability to use whole or certain body parts to create something, solve a problem, or display skills involving bodily movement at an event. Examples of professionals strong in this intelligence include athletes and dancers.
    5. Musical
      • People with enhanced musical intelligence have a heightened ability to hear, recognize, and remember patterns. They think in music and cannot get it out of their minds. In Frames of Mind, Gardner indicated that musical intelligence emerges earlier than other intelligences.
    6. Interpersonal
      • The interpersonal intelligence involves one’s ability to understand others. People strong in this intelligence can detect other people’s moods, intentions, and desires. This intelligence is especially important for individuals who deal frequently with people like teachers, clinicians, and salespeople.
    7. Intrapersonal
      • An enhanced understanding of oneself is a characteristic of someone strong in the intrapersonal intelligence. A developed intrapersonal intelligence enables people to anticipate how they would react to experiences and how to choose the experiences that can be beneficial. It also helps people be aware of the diffi- culties they might encounter.
    8. Naturalist
      • The naturalist intelligence was added to the original seven. It relates to an individual’s ability to differentiate among living things. People strong in this intelligence are good at classifying plants, minerals, and animals as well as rocks and grass.
      This table is taken from Morgan, H. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory and his Ideas on Promoting Creativity.


    Argument against Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

    • "Learning styles don’t exist: A teaching approach that is based on students’ preferences sounds laudable. But this misunderstands how learning happens" (article)
      • "There has been an ‘utter failure to find that assessing children’s learning styles and matching to instructional methods has any effect on their learning’. And yet, the numbers of educators who still believe in learning styles as an appropriate teaching method makes for a depressing picture. Among some advocates, there is an almost cultish devotion, with one researcher interviewing a teacher who claimed that ‘even if the research says it doesn’t work, it works.’ This statement is a damning one for a profession in which so much is at stake, and it is emblematic of a wider malaise in education, which is still hugely prone to faddism and pedagogical snake oil."



    Take a survey test to help determine your Intelligences.

    • We gauge others by their behaviours and words, and we gauge ourselves by our intentions and thoughts.
    • 1st, you take the test.
    • 2nd, have a friend or close loved one take it in lieu of you.
    • 3rd, have a few others take the survey test with you in mind.
    • Take the survey test
    • Keep in mind this is not astrology. The aim here is determine which of your intelligences needs strengthening. Realize that the intelligences at the lower end of the results is what you must work on to improve your ability to think.


    Meanings of Multiple Intelligences




    Body, mood, motivation, and disposition




    Body

    • The Yogi masters were right – breathing exercises can sharpen your mind
      • "The research shows for the first time that breathing – a key element of meditation and mindfulness practices – directly affects the levels of a natural chemical messenger in the brain called noradrenaline. This chemical messenger is released when we are challenged, curious, exercised, focused or emotionally aroused, and, if produced at the right levels, helps the brain grow new connections"
    • First step: Diaphragmatic breathing



    Mood (aka, Attitude)

    1. How to foster Shoshin (article)
      • "In one pertinent study in 2015, researchers at Yale University asked graduates to estimate their knowledge of various topics relevant to their degrees, and then tested their actual ability to explain those topics. The participants frequently overestimated their level of understanding, apparently mistaking the ‘peak knowledge’ they had at the time they studied at university for their considerably more modest current knowledge."
    2. Expecting a stressful day may lower cognitive abilities throughout the day (article)
    3. Psychologists find a mindset that can foster positive feelings amid interpersonal conflict (article)
    4. Embodied cognition is not what you think it is (article)



    Motivation

    When considering the lists below, think about who gains from having a world based on performance and who gains from a world based on mastery

    Performance Mastery
    Reason to put forth effort Obtain high scores/grades/accolades/awards Learn to explore and understand something new; develop one’s sense of self, one’s self-efficacy, one’s total skill set
    focus of attention on effort One’s own performance relative to others’ abilities: Negative "motivation", Shame, insecurity, identity, ego Stages: Initiate, Awkward, Conscious-use, Naturalized-use (Go here for the explanation of the stages of learning
    Reasons for satisfaction Publicly praised working hard, overcoming challenges, figuring out complexity
    teacher oriented toward how students perform to a metric how students learn: cognitively, psychically, and physically
    error/mistake viewed as a source of anxiety part of learning
    focus of attention own performance relative to others process of learning
    Reason to put forth effort Obtain high scores/grades Learn/understand something new
    How learners are evaluated normative, relative to others individual progress improvement



    Disposition (one's usual mindset and emotional state)


    Know no know

    • Stop using the word "know"
    • When you ask if someone "knows something," you inadvertently are asking about their level of their intelligence.
    • Instead, ask someone if they've "heard" of something.
    • If they have heard of that thing, you can ask what they've heard.
    • If not, they won't feel lessened by your question.

    Fuhgeddaboudit

    Worldviews can limit cognition



    Area Articles

    1. Is Philosophy Simply Harder than Science?
      • "The worth of philosophy lies in the process, not the product"
    2. Integrative complexity is a measure of the intellectual style . . .
      • Complexity has two components, differentiation and integration. Differentiation refers to the perception of different dimensions when considering an issue. Integration refers to the recognition of cognitive connections among differentiated dimensions or perspectives.










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