Assignment 2

You will be designing a slide show along with presentation notes on what intelligence(s) is/are and the factors that are believed to influence a person's intelligence, and what this means for teaching/learning practice. There are three issues that you will focus on:

  1. What are the major intelligence theories?
  2. What are believed to be the main determinants that affect a person’s intelligence according to each theory?
  3. What implications do the intelligence theories have on educational practice?

More details from this document available to download.


I've also posted up two slide shows, although I've put them up in pdf format. Sorry they are large, I tried scrunching down the size but I'm still left with megabytes. If you cannot get it directly, maybe ask a class colleague who can, and put it on a USB memory stick for you.

  • The first shows you how the format of the assignment can be done as a slide show, but using the topic of assignment 1 (about 3MB). In other words there's a bit of revision there for you. I've posted it as a pdf so that you can see the comments that go with it.
  • The second is another file that I've posted both as pdf (about 800K), and as a powerpoint file, since many of you will be using it (about 6MB - sorry, that's powerpoint for you). 

Sending your Files

Some of you will have problems sending me your powerpoint, word of pdf files. I suspect that this is because your files are too large. Here are some strategies that I recommend:

  • Strategy 1: In the Powerpoint preferences (when I used to use it) there was an option to DISABLE 'fast saves'. A 'fast save' doesn't actually save the file in it's entirety but instead only records the differences compared to the last save. So what this does it actually 'add' to the file size. You can get very dramatic decreases in file size. 
  • Strategy 2: slim down all your photos. Sorry I don't know how to do that in the PC world, but you need to get a photo manipulator (must be free versions) and then slim down any pictures of photos from MBs to about 300K per picture (largest) but normally you want to aim for about 100K per picture.
  • Strategy 3: If you still need to get the file across, and you'd like to do it in powerpoint, why not send the file in smaller chunks. Save from slide 1-10, then save from slide 11-20 etc. Tell me in your email what the sequence is of the files is and I'l be able to reconstruct the file.
  • Strategy 4: If you are tech savvy, you upload your file to the 'cloud' such as if you have a Google account. Tell me the details of how to download your file (eg how to get to your space) and then I can download it from there.
  • Strategy 5: Bring your file along to class on a 'clean' flash drive and I'll upload it onto my computer. If it's not clean and infected with computer viruses I'll not look at it. Sorry.

For those of you Doing Summer School

Here are some observations that we've noticed from students that completed the assignment 1, so bear it in mind when you're doing yours.

  • Many students interpreted the section on giving the main determinants of the theories as being limited to only Multiple Intelligence Theory. However, the instructions quite clearly state that it’s supposed to be for ‘each of the theories’. So many of the students missed out on marks from there. The main thing I’m looking for here is a broad overview of whether it’s believed to be mainly nature or nurture or an identified combination of the two. Psychometric theory for the most part believes that it’s the ‘nature’ that is the most important (ie the genetic input) even though in lectures I’ve argued that this is a false understanding of the heritability. MI theory for instance has a strong biological basis as in natural dispositions are the natural neuronal wiring that allows some of us to work in an intelligence far easier than others. An intelligence is partly defined on there being an identifiable neuro-anatomical structure associated with it.
  • Many students (despite the instructions) did not understand that graphics pasted into a document do not look great if they are allowed to go out of proportion (perhaps to fit a page) or if they are expanded so much it becomes pixellated (jaggy). I mean check out these bugs, the first one is correct. The others is not whad should be placed on the slide show 'just to fit'.

  • Many students also didn’t focus on the ‘impact’ that the theories have had on educational practices. This means to what extent does the theory inform, or change the way that education is conducted? For instance, psychometric theories that stressed the heritability side of intelligence, led directly to the idea of streaming children into different ‘intelligence’ streams both within a school and between schools. A secondary school focussing on academia (for instance) is considered to be full of students how are ‘brighter’ than their counterparts in a vocational non-formal school.
  • A number of students spoke about Piaget’s theory of intellectual development, which I have to say is not relevant to this essay (or I cannnot see it) as we’re talking about how development is supposed to occur over the course of a child growing up. I know that this sounds counter-intuitive as  you may be saying ‘but Robin we’re talking about children who are developing’, however this is not about so much about what intelligence is (so we know what we’re looking for) but simply how the progression occurs over time. For the most part by the time that children have reached secondary age (according to Piaget) the development cycle is complete. So at best this theory would be most relevant for early childhood education and then somewhat in the first or second year and last year of primary school. For those that did talk about this theory, you still didn’t provide any information about how this theory has impacted educational practice (because it hasn’t really).
  • A number of students also spoke about intra-personal intelligence as meaning to be a ‘loner’ and to not want the company of others (shy away from them). This isn’t the definition of someone with high intra-personal intelligence. Intra-personal intelligence means someone who knows themselves very well. It is true that someone who has the time and opportunity to explore their own lives, because say they don’t like to be with other people, have a better chance of developing good intra-personal intelligence. That is not quite the same though as saying that a person high in intra-personal intelligence is by definition a ‘loner’ and, or shuns crowds. Take for instance either the Prophet Mohammed, or Jesus Christ, aside from their existential intelligence, they clearly had/have huge amounts of intra-personal intelligence. Nothing in the historical record suggests that they were ‘loners’ even though they clearly got on with ‘themselves’ very well. In fact if they had been loners, it’s unlikely that they could have shown the significant empathy that they did actually show their fellow human beings.
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