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As any newly certified teacher searching for a job will attest, the field of education seems routinely programmed by buzz words. These buzz words interspersed throughout an interview send a signal to potential employers that you are “up to speed” on current research topics considered to be important for education. Let’s take a brief look at the current topics buzzing around, and their implications for the child with AD/HD.
Multiple Intelligence Theory
The theory of Multiple Intelligences, developed by Howard Gardner of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is based on the theory that individuals have multiple ways of thinking and approaching life. Initially, Gardner believed there were seven intelligences.
Since the publication of his book, Frames of Mind, in 1985, he has added an eighth intelligence, and is working on researching yet another. Realizing that everyone has all seven (now eight) intelligences but does not have the same strengths in each one, educators are faced with the need to provide instruction that will meet these strengths and assist students in learning how to use their strengths to help them learn. This critical element is of great importance when developing curriculum, planning lessons, and supervising instruction.
As more and more educators become knowledgable of Multiple Intelligence Theory (and more educators are receiving instruction in this area), greater hope arises for the child with AD/HD. Instructors are becoming aware of the need for presenting information in a wider variety of ways, realizing that children have different ways for learning. While MI is not a learning style per se, it does have an impact on how children acquire information. The parents of a child with AD/HD know that their child is fully capable of learning, but in a way that may be different from other children.
Constructivism
The theory of constructivism centers around the understanding that learners of all ages use knowledge, beliefs and skills they already have (prior knowledge) to make sense out of new information. It stresses that individuals possess a readiness to learn, and that the point at which an individual is ready to learn is largely individualized based on experience. Teachers basing instruction on Constructivist Theory provide their students with raw data and information, then challenge them to actively use this information. To give an example, in a unit on weather, the second grade Constructivist teacher may show several videotaped examples of local meteorologists doing a forecast on the evening news. Teachers will guide students in a discussion of changes in the weather, how a cold front moves across the country, and how the dew point works. After students have thought about and discussed what they already know about weather, and after they have been given some new information, the teacher might challenge them to work in small teams to prepare and present a daily school weather forecast. The students might communicate by email with second graders in schools around the world, graphing and comparing their weather set up a weather center on the playground for all students to use.
Constructivism is somewhat similar to Experiential Education.
Experiential Education
Experiential Education is a belief that the development of knowledge and the acquisition of skills belong as partners in education, where each can transform the other. It is based upon the premise that we remember 20% of what we hear, 50% of what we see, but 80% of what we do. As you can see, it is rooted in active learning.
Whether it is Constructivist or Experiential Education, such hands-on, knowledge-based instruction appeals to the need for stimulating learning in the child with AD/HD. It acknowledges that children learn best by experiencing learning, rather than being passive listeners.
Brain-based Learning
Educators are becoming more actively aware of current research on the structure and function of the brain. Knowledge of how the brain processes information is important to teachers in planning instruction for children. As more is learned about brain function, educators are recognizing that the traditional classroom methods of instruction actually prohibit rather than promote learning.
Based on current brain research, educators are focusing on three areas:
1. Orchestrated immersion — Educators create a classroom that will fully immerse students in the educational experience. This includes lots of hands-on activities, experiments, graphics and text on the walls, etc.
2. Relaxed alertness — Teachers will make every attempt to help their children feel comfortable about their learning, working to eliminate fear of failure and promote excitement for learning in a safe environment.
3. Active processing — Recognizing that learners of all ages have a need to use information they have acquired so that the information will become internalized and not forgotten.
Often, the child with AD/HD is made to feel uncomfortable in his or her classroom surroundings, as many classrooms across America still look and feel the way they did in the early 1900s. Such a style of education clashes with the need for a child with AD/HD to have physical and visual stimulation, freedom to explore, and a compassionate understanding for individual differences.
As I progressed through school in the ‘60s and ‘70s as a child with undiagnosed ADD, my mother recognized a teaching style used by most of my teachers. Mom’s theory is that there are two kinds of children: children who have their learning nicely wound up in a circle, and children who have their learning in a square. Most kids are circles, and as teachers instruct, they teach as if all children are circles. They go round and round in their teaching, teaching to the needs of the circles. But some kids have their smarts tucked into the corners, and as teachers are going round and round, they miss out on those children. These children are the creative kids, the children who think differently and have different learning needs.
While Mom’s theory might be a little rough, she can clearly see that the kids with their smarts tucked in the corners are the kids like me, the kids with AD/HD. Finally, teachers are starting to buzz about these kids. If your child’s school is not yet abuzz with current research, I challenge you to do some investigating of your own into these areas. Share your newly gained knowledge with your child’s school. Perhaps they need to be stung!
About the author: Caron L. Mosey, Ed.S., an elementary teacher from Michigan , is an adult with ADD. She has a master’s degree in Reading Education and is currently working on a specialist’s degree in Educational Leadership at Eastern Michigan University .
Resources for Buzzing:
How Do People Learn? Brain-Based Learning. (1998). Retrieved from Funderstanding. Website: http://www.Funderstanding.com/learning_theory_how5.html
Checkley, K. (1997). The First Seven...and the Eighth: A Conversation with Howard Gardner. Educational Leadership, 55(1). Website: http://www.ascd.org/pubs/el/sept97/gardnerc.html
Carvin, A. The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI). Retrieved from EdWeb: Exploring Technology and School Reform. Website: http://edweb.gsn.org/edref.mi.intro.html
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. (1995).Classroom Compass, 1(3). Website: http://www.sedl.org/scimath/compass/v01n03/construct
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