preferred learning environment of student teachers in relation to their multiple intelligences

8/10/2019 Preferred Learning Environment of Student Teachers in Relation to Their Multiple Intelligences

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Pillai Journal of Educational Research and Technology (PJERT)Volume 03, No. 2, July 2014, ISSN 2249-4367

Preferred Learning Environment of Student - Teachers in Relation to theirMultiple Intelligence

Dr. Shaharas Sharafudeen P.V,Abstract

Multiple intelligence provides a theoretical foundation for recognizing the different abilitiesand talents of student-teachers. An understanding of multiple intelligence of student -teachers is essential, for providing a conducive environment to the student- teachers as pertheir preference. In the present investigation, an attempt has been made to study the

preferred learning environment of student- teachers in relation to their multiple intelligences. Preferred Learning Environment Scale and Multiple Intelligence Scale were administered on503 student - teachers pursuing B.Ed. in colleges of education of greater Mumbai. Studyrevealed that there is a significant relationship between preferred learning environment andmultiple intelligences of student - teachers.

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Teachers teach as they are taugh t, not as they are told to teach Teachers place in society is of vital importance. Teacher acts as the point of the transmissionof intellectual tradition and technical skill from generation to generation. The best system ofeducation may fail to achieve the desired ends in the absence of inspiring teachers. Hence, theteacher education institutions have taken these as a challenge, and introduced many

programmes like microteaching, simulated teaching, innovative teaching, community work,workshops, projects etc to face these challenges.A B.Ed. class is composed of multi-age and multi- status groups. According to Piaget, thecognitive structure of an individual is the result of continuous interaction between anindividual and environment. Student -teachers coming from different faculties like Arts,Science and Commerce, could have different needs for varied types of environment. Theirintelligence is the product of the experiences they have undergone. Hence the student-teachers are expected to have different types of intelligences. Depending upon their

intelligences, they are expected to excel in language, music, dance, communication and so on.In order to adopt a student centred pedagogy, the teacher-educators should understand thedifferent intelligences of student-teachers and the extent to which, these are related to their

preferred learning environment. This would enable them to create a conducive learningenvironment as per the preferences of student teachers. Thus, the present study is a humbleattempt to study the preferred learning environment of student-teachers, in relation to theirmultiple intelligences.Concept of Preferred Learning Environment

Learning environment is a general term that refers to the feel, atmosphere, tone, _____________________________ Assistant Professor, A.I.K.C College of Education, Mumbai


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ideology, or milieu of a college. Just as individuals have personalities, so too do institutions,a learning environment may be thought of as the personality of an institution. Thus, learningenvironment is a relatively enduring character of an institution that is experienced by its

participants, that affects their actions, and that is based on the collective perceptions of behaviour in the institution.Learning environment has been measured in terms of the following dimensions:i) Student Cohesiveness : It measures the extent to which students make friends with otherstudents, know other students , work well with them and help other students in the classroom.ii) Teacher Suppor t : It measures the extent to which a teacher takes personal interest in thestudents, is concerned with student- teachers feelings, talks with the students and is interestedin their problems.iii) I nvolvement : It measures the extent to which the students discuss their ideas in the class ,give their opinion, ideas and suggestions during class discussion , asks the teacher questions,and explains his/her ideas to other students.iv) Task Ori entation : It measures the extent to which the students know the goals of theirclass, are ready to start the class on time, pay attention during class and understand the workin the class v) I nvestigation : It measures the extent to which the students carry out investigations to testtheir ideas, to answer questions coming from discussions, and to answer the teachersquestions.vi) Co-operation : It measures the extent to which the students cooperate with each other

when doing assignments work on class activities, on projects, and to achieve class goals.vii) Equity : It measures the extent to which the students get the same amount of help, havethe same amount of help, have the same amount of say in class activities , receive the sameencouragement, the same opportunity to contribute to the class discussions , and receive asmuch praise as do the other students.

viii) Differentiation : It measures the extent to which the students work at their own speed ,are given a choice of topics , are given work suiting their ability , set task that are differentfrom each other, and use different materials from those used by the other students.ix) Computer Usage : It measures the extent to which the students use the computer to typetheir assignments, to email assignments to their teachers, to ask questions to teachers, to findout information about the course, to read lesson notes prepared by the teacher, to take part inon-line discussions with other students, and to obtain information from their internet.

x) Young A dult Ethos : It measures the extent to which the students are treated like youngadult, are given responsibility, are dealt with as grown up, are expected to think forthemselves, are given an opportunity to be independent, and are regarded as reliable andmature.Concept of Multiple IntelligencesHoward Gardner claims that all human beings have multiple intelligences. These multiple

intelligences can be nurtured and strengthened or ignored or weakened.In the present study, following types of intelligences are included:


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i) Verbal/Linguistic: The ability to use language to describe events, to build trust andrapport, to develop logical arguments and use rhetoric, or to be expressive and metaphoric.ii) Logical/Mathematical: The ability to use numbers to compute and describe, to usemathematical concept to make conjectures, to apply mathematics in personal daily life, to

apply Mathematics to data and construct arguments, to be sensitive to the patterns, symmetry,logic and aesthetics in Mathematics.iii) Musical/Rhythmic: The ability to understand and develop musical technique, to respondemotionally to music and to work together to use music to meet the needs of others, tointerpret musical forms and ideas, and to create imaginative and creative performances andcompositions.iv) Visual / Spatial: The ability to perceive and represent the visual spatial worldaccurately, to arrange colour, line, shape form and space to meet the needs of others, tointerpret and graphically represent visual / spatial ideas, to transform visual /spatial ideas intoimaginative and expressive creations.v) Bodily/Kinesthetic: The ability to use the body and tools to take effective action or toconstruct or repair, to build rapport to console and persuade and to support others, to planstrategically or to critique the actions of them body, to appreciate the aesthetics of the bodyand to use those values to create new forms of expression.vi) Intrapersonal: The ability to assess ones own strengths, weakness, talents and interestsand use them to set goals, to understand oneself to be of service to others, to form anddevelop concepts and theories based on an examination of oneself, and to reflects on onesown inner moods, intuitions temperament and to use them to create or express a personalview.

vii) Interpersonal: The ability to organize people and communicate clearly what needs to bedone, to use empathy to help others and to solve problems, to discriminate and interpretamong different kinds and interpersonal clues, and to influence and inspire others to worktoward a common goal.viii) Naturalistic: The ability to recognize and classify plants, minerals and animals,including rocks and grass and all variety of flora and fauna; and to recognize culturalartefacts like cars and sneakers.Statement of the Problem

A study of the preferred learning environment among student - teachers , in relationto their multiple intelligences. Objective

To find out the relationship between preferred learning environment and itsdimensions with each of the independent variables selected for the study, namely, LinguisticIntelligence , Logical/Mathematical Intelligence , Spatial Intelligence , Inter personalIntelligence , Intra personal Intelligence , Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence , Musicalintelligence and Naturalistic Intelligence for the total sample of student teachers. Hypothesis

There will be a significant and positive correlation between preferred learning

environment and its dimensions with each of the independent variable selected for the study,namely, Linguistic Intelligence, Logical/Mathematical Intelligence, Spatial Intelligence,


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Inter personal Intelligence, Intra personal Intelligence, Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence,Musical intelligence and Naturalistic Intelligence for the total sample of student teachers. Methodology of the StudyThe present study has adopted the descriptive method of the co relational type.

Sample

The study was conducted on a sample of 503 student teachers of both boys and girls, fromB.Ed colleges situated in Greater Mumbai. A three-stage sampling technique was used forselecting the sample.

Tools of the study

Data collection was done by using Preferred Learning Environment Scale by Mc Robbie andFisher (1996) and Multiple Intelligence Scale by Reardon and Dyke (2006). Preferred LearningEnvironment Scale consists of 10 dimensions and each dimension consists of 8 items. MultipleIntelligence Scale consists of 8 dimensions and each dimension consists of 8 items.

Scope of the StudyThe study was conducted on student teachers of aided and unaided colleges of educationaffiliated to University of Mumbai. The study did not include student teachers from otheruniversities.Statistical AnalysisThe collected data was analyzed with the help of coefficient of correlation. The coefficient ofcorrelation was used to find out the relationship between preferred learning environment andmultiple intelligences of student teachers. Results

Correlation of preferred learning environment and its dimensions with multipleintelligences for student teachers

Variables LinguisticIntelligence

LogicalMathematical Intelligence

SpatialIntelligence

InterpersonalIntelligence

Intrapersonal

Intelligence

BodilykinestheticIntelligence

MusicalIntellige

nce

NaturalisticIntelligence

PreferredLearning

Environment (Total)

0.46 0.49 0.41 0.47 0.48 0.45 0.34 0.40

studentcohesiven

ess

0.31 0.32 0.29 0.39 0.39 0.38 0.21 0.24

teachersupport

0.38 0.38 0.30 0.37 0.32 0.33 0.31 0.27

involveme

nt

0.43 0.44 0.35 0.40 0.40 0.35 0.29 0.34

task 0.41 0.42 0.33 0.40 0.40 0.36 0.22 0.26


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The above table shows the coefficient of correlations obtained between preferred learningenvironment and multiple intelligences of student-teachers.As per the table, the values of r for preferred learning environment (total) , studentcohesiveness, teacher support, involvement, task orientation, investigation, co-operation,equity, differentiation, computer usage and young adult ethos with multiple intelligences aregreater than the 0.115. Hence all the rs are significant at 0.01 level. The relationship ofthese variables can therefore be considered as real and not due to chance or measurement orsampling error. Positive sign of all the obtained rs denote that these variables increase or

decrease together.DiscussionsThe r s of total preferred learning environment and its dimensions with multipleintelligences are found to be positive and direct in nature and ranges between negligible tomoderate in magnitude which implies that if the multiple intelligence of student-teachers arehigher, higher will be their preference for learning environment and lesser the multipleintelligence, lower will be the preference for learning environment.ConclusionsThe implications of multiple intelligences are enormous, for both teaching and learning.Just because some people have trouble in learning, in the logical-mathematical sense, there isno reason to assume they are not intelligent. They could be strong in one or several otherareas. They could become more intelligent in that area through practice and special study.Also, they could probably compensate for their weakness in one area by using other areas ofintelligence they are strong in or naturally prefer to use, providing the learning environment

permits them to do so. A conducive learning environment is must for student teachers professional training, support and their progression. Therefore the teacher educators should plan the activities in the B.Ed colleges according to the multiple intelligences of studentteachers so that the learning environment will become as per their preferences.ReferencesDillon, W.R. and Goldstein, M. (1984) Multivariate analysis method and applications . New

York: John Wiley and Sons, p.433

orientation

investigation

0.44 0.49 0.38 0.39 0.44 0.47 0.32 0.43

co-operation

0.31 0.34 0.30 0.45 0.41 0.38 0.18 0.32

equity 0.31 0.33 0.28 0.35 0.41 0.32 0.21 0.29

differentiation

0.28 0.33 0.31 0.30 0.36 0.30 0.25 0.30

computerusage

0.20 0.23 0.16 0.15 0.14 0.14 0.21 0.24

youngadultethos

0.16 0.15 0.15 0.15 0.15 0.15 0.14 0.12

For df = 501, tabulated r = 0.088 at 0.05level

= 0.115 at 0.01level

All the r s are significant at 0.01 level


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Fraser, B.J. (1986). Classroom environment . London: Croom Helm. p.16.Krishnamacharyulu, V. (2006). C lassroom dynamics . New Delhi: Neelkamal Publications.

p.28Lapp, D. (2000) Teaching all children: Strategies for developing literacy in an urban

setting . New York: Guilford Press. p.211Sivarajan, K. and Faziluddin, A. (2007) S cience education (5 th ed.) Calicut: University ofCalicut. 2007 p.301.

Wilkinson, T.S.& Bhandarkar, P.L.(1984) Methodology and Techniques of Social Research .Bombay: Himalaya Publishing House. 1984 p.283

Unnisa, N. (March, 2007) Role of teachers in the emerging indian society . Edutracks,Volume 6. No.7, pp.5-9.

preferred learning environment of student teachers in relation to their multiple intelligences

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