Module 2: Thoughts About Theories of Intelligence

(sorry, this is the missing information in my checklist )

How do you know if a person is intelligent?

A person is intelligent if he:

1. Thinks sensibly
2. Acts with a purpose in mind
3. Knows how to effectively adapt to the environment where he lives

How does an intelligent person behave?

I believe that being intelligent is more than answering trivia correctly or getting a perfect score in a test. An intelligent person:

1. Make smart decisions. He knows that his actions have corresponding consequences. It takes great focus and mastery for one to make smart decision.
2. Learn from his mistakes. Living a better and successful life is a matter of trial and error about the decisions that we make. However if we make mistakes, we learn from it by not doing that same mistakes again and we move on.
3. Personally seek for questions that he doesn’t know the answer. Most scientists exhibit this kind of behavior. Like Newton, by asking why that apple fall onto his head, he did research and experiments and discovers gravity and later come up with the three Laws of Motion.
4. Surrounds himself with intelligent people too.
5. He is imaginative and creative in making use of his environment to accomplish tasks.
6. Reason out. Due to his genes or upbringing, he has great skills in critical thinking, logical reasoning, scientific method and even cause and effect.

I have an observation though: most intelligent people are famous, businessmen, have high educational attainment and social status.

How does an intelligent person learn? An intelligent person:

1. Learns fast with minimum guidance and likes solving challenging problems.
2. Can readily understand what he reads and could recall and retain information.
3. Recognizes relationships and pattern.
4. Organizes his thoughts systematically.
5. Thinks critically and reflectively.
6. Can speak a language fluently or can speak several languages.
7. Curious about his surroundings, a keen observer, responds quickly and accurately.
8. Creative and has great interest in different subjects of learning.
9. Has a logical and systematic way of explaining things.

Do you regard yourself intelligent?  

Yes I do.

In what ways? I believe I am intelligent in aspects of decision making. Before I make a decision, I usually study the pros and cons of the matter and then become aware of the possible consequences of both possibilities. Sometimes I argue with my own argument J for the purpose of making the right decision. Second, I am curious about things and events that happen around me and so I search information and sometimes get involved in it. Third, I tend to ask logical questions to understand things better and if I cannot find answer to my questions, I end up reading books and searching information on the internet. Fourth, since I am a foreigner in my current location, I use my knowledge and skill to adapt the foreign culture but not forget my own culture. Fifth, I am creative in my work — keep on reading and thinking innovative ways on how to improve my craft. Sixth, I am aware that everyone is unique and so I know how to deal with different types of people based from their overt behavior.  Seventh, I don’t jump to conclusion impulsively. I listen to reasons, study hard and analyze factors that cause such behaviors. Eight, I am happy to where I am right now and always think positive amidst failures (though I cry at times L) and challenges and motivates myself to move on and try again.

How have your personal views about intelligence affected the way you approach learning (and teaching if you teach)

In my own standpoint, I view intelligence as a cognitive and social tool on how people live their life. In learning, I am goal-oriented; I create a timetable, a task list and used them to organize my learning schedule and work. I’m systematic in carrying out tasks and sorting information. I also do some note taking to help me recall past information quickly. I think thoroughly before making a decision and I organize my thoughts before expressing them.

As for teaching, it’s quite a bit different. First thing is that, I view my students as unique, diverse, dynamic and interactive individual. They possess different forms and levels of intelligence, different family background and social orientation and different ways on how they study. They are many with many varying characteristics —- and I am only one. I have to see the big picture and break them down into small, feasible and simpler way of addressing this variability. That is — differentiation in teaching techniques and learning process of the learner. I need to fully understand the need and characteristics of my students; set learning goals based from their abilities and guide them towards achieving learning goals. By using different activities that caters to different forms of intelligence in every learning session I can reach out the diversity of intelligence of my students. In this way, I am giving equal opportunity for my students to succeed in their learning and also discover what they are good at. Another thing, I also inculcate in them the value of learning from mistakes and accepting their weaknesses so they can learn how to cope with failure and successfully overcome it. Lastly, I don’t judge my students’ intelligence based from the numbers that they get in the test, but rather I value the processes that they do, attitude that they show and their interaction with other students in the class so they can perform a task.