Module 2_Porter

Hi everyone!

I found our readings this week to be extremely enlightening. Chapter four of our Woolfolk textbook talked a lot about intelligence and different learning styles. One thing that I found to be particularly interesting was on page 127 in chapter four in table 4.1. It shows a chart of the eight (or nine) different kinds of intelligences. It was really easy to navigate and understand. I liked how each different intelligence includes the different types of skills people might have who have that certain intelligence. It also included career fields where these types of people might succeed. Personally, I think I am a combination of Logical-Mathematical and Interpersonal. I am a math minor, so I enjoy working with numbers and equations, but I also am very good at working with others and picking up on peoples’ emotions. I really enjoyed reading about all the different types of intelligences and the strengths of each type of person.

           

As I stated earlier, I am working towards my minor in math, which brings me to my next point, hereditary versus environment, which can be found on page 132 in chapter four of our Woolfolk book. I have always found the argument of nature versus nurture to be a very difficult concept to have an opinion on. I just always seemed to have an opinion that was right in middle of the two. However, after reading this section, I seemed to lean more towards environment. I came to this conclusion after our book begged the question “Should intelligence be seen as a potential, limited by our genetic makeup?” (Woolfolk, 2019, p. 132). I found this question to be very thought provoking because I have never considered being “limited”, however, it did make me lean more towards the environment end of the spectrum. I think this because both of my parents are absolutely awful at math and can’t understand a word of anything I say related to math. If my skills were solely based on my genetics, then I would not be as good at math as I am. I think it has a lot to do with my environment and some amazing math teachers that I have had in the past. My mom always says she has no idea where I got my math skills from. So obviously, my genetics did not have much to do with my ability to do well in math.

Another aspect of this week’s readings that I found to be particularly interesting was figure 5.1 on page 182 in chapter 5. It is a little drawing and list made by a six-year-old. At first glance, you might think that this girl had bad spelling, messy handwriting, and may not know very much. In the list, she spells “tomatoes” as “tomaadoodse” and “avocados” as “avoowcadooes”. However, the caption makes you think twice about how intelligent this child is. It states that although she made spelling errors, she knew “writing goes from left to right and lists go down the page, and stories look different than shopping lists” (Woolfolk, 2019, p. 182). When you think about it this way, this child actually does know a lot and seems to be fairly intelligent, especially for a six-year-old. Even when you look back at her spelling, she got most of the letters correct and just seemed to add in too many. This section really made me think about all of the times we may get frustrated with a student and ask ourselves “Why can’t they just understand?”. We have to think about how these things may come so easily to us, but they are foreign concepts to children. We really need to appreciate everything, even the small things, that children understand, such as making a list or writing left to right.

Have a good week everyone!

Steph