MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

            Howard Gardner revolutionized the social and education world with him multiple intelligences theory. In this theory Gardner insures that intelligence is a set of multiple intelligences, different and independents. He defines intelligence as “mental capacity to resolve problems and to make valuable products in one or more cultures”.

            This theory had an incredible impact in the school and transform educational system. For Gardner, the main school function is “it should develop all intelligences and helps people to reach goals appropriate for each intelligence”. This theory challenges teachers to find new and different ways to teach that help students to learn in a significant way, like ludic-didactic activities.

            However, anyone better than Gardner could tell us so in this link we can see an amazing review with Eduard Punset. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS7bZLxLV9g

Do you dare to dream?

This is an incredible explanation about people’s reality in our societies, above all young people and students. Through this video we can extract the importance of move abroad and know other cultures and languages to become in an independent and self-sufficient that is able to live anywhere with his own capacities and skills.

Normal is not always right so…do you dare to dream? You need to out of your comfort zone!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhFxQlDPjaY

TRAINING COURSES AND WAYS TO SHARE GOOD TEACH PRACTICE

Education’s world is big and full of opportunities to share and improve our knowledge. Teachers need to know other cultures to can offer the major quantity of experiences and knowledge to their students. These students grow up in a holistic way of education, to become an intercultural citizen and they could move around the world without problems. Obviously the language is one of the main factors, without communicative skills the students can’t involve in this new world. So teachers play an incredible and important role and they must work to improve day to day to form the future citizens.

One of the best ways to improve it’s moving around the world, knowing new cultures and different ways to teach, improving language and communication skills. So training courses for teachers are a very good option to reinforce all that I have said. However, government in Spain don’t have a strong and structured system of education, and this kind o programs are reduced or private, and a lot of teacher don’t have access.

In my point of view, teachers should have more opportunities and possibilities to involve in this kind of programs to get high quality teachers with the major number of teaching education skills. Investing in this is investing in future, because the education of our child will be a complete and integral education that will benefit everybody.

To make this possible, teachers need to share their knowledge and experiences to be better and best way for this is that all teachers work in a common education mark, with the same aims and finalities, giving students the best education. The different countries should work together to create a sustainable network for teaching professionals and maximize exchanges of information and knowledge among cultures and ways to teach.

Education needs develop together with our society, so one depends on the other. This social approach involves a strong component of communication and teamwork so language is fundamental in this; learning languages is primordial as vehicle to share knowledge and experiences among teachers and students around the world. For this, the work and cultural exchanges are the best way to get competent teachers that teach and form people with knowledge and skills to work and live anywhere in the world.

The most important thing I would teach in a CLIL context. How would I assess?

If I weren’t limited by the demands of the curriculum I’m completely sure that I would reinforce and extend the body language block because I believe that these kind of activities developing the student in an integral way.

First of all, we need to know how important is body language in our society and above all in the schools, so it’s not only a kind of human communication, it’s the vehicle with people express something about them, their feelings, emotions...and to accept the individually differences and developing self-confidence. Today’s society is characterized by fast social and technological transformations that result in a new scenario for public participation that develop new ways of information and knowledge. In this socio-economic-social-technological, Body Language (BL) is a proposal great educational interest. The first task of the BL in Physical education (PE) is the development of values minimum of coexistence creating spaces and learning environments where freedom, creativity and love encourage personal development and social of our students, becoming what they are potentially. The dimensions of the BL promote the expression of the person, authentic communication, personal and collective creativity and awareness aesthetics, through the healthy game (is an holistic formation).

Body Language is vital in the field of education for its objectives, content and creative methodology and tool life skills and active participation in the construction of it. We can not forget that the BL is a pleasant and healthy physical activity, accessible to everybody, whose axis "rotates around the body, and the body is seen as <integrated person> sensory, psychological, social inseparable unit and motor. By this interactive character I believe that BL is a perfect way to work in a CLIL context so content, cognition, communication and culture are developed through the movement and body expression.

Secondly, I understand the way to assess these kind of activities like an evaluation process that helps the students learn more (and / or correct their mistakes) and for teachers to learn to work better (to improve their teaching practice). To put it another way, the purpose is not to assess the student, but to have information that allows to know how to help students improve and learn more ... and that the teacher / to improve their teaching. The evaluation must be more dialogue and mutual decision making or collective rather than an individual and tax process. Within these processes of self-assessments, assessments and dialogued ratings are more relevant techniques.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING THE ELP

Before explaining the advantages and disadvantages i`m going to do a brief explanation about the European Language Portfolio (ELP), because I believe that is important understand what important is the rol about this tool in education.

The ELP is a document in which those who are learning or have learned one or more languages can record and reflect on their language learning and intercultural experiences and it’s composed of: language Passport, language dossier and language biography.

            The ELP supports the development of learner autonomy, plurilingualism and intercultural awareness. Its main aims are:

• to help learners give shape and coherence to their experience of learning and using languages other than their first language
• to motivate learners by acknowledging their efforts to extend and diversify their language skills at all levels
• to provide a record of the linguistic and cultural skills they have acquired (to be consulted, for example, when they are moving to a higher learning level or seeking employment at home or abroad).

For all this I can say that ELP has more advantages than disadvantages, but coming up next I show you:

ADVANTAGES

           The ELP helps making the language learning process more transparent by involving the learner in the decision making, the goal-setting and the evaluation of learning achievements. In this way the ELP:

·      Helps to develop language learning and intercultural skills

·      Facilities mobility

·      Encourages lifelong learning of languages

            This kind of advantages are so adaptable in my subject (Physical Education) because it´s an interactive subject where students can work in groups, do self-assessment and in pairs, and s subject that it’s more important the process and improvement that the result. Obviously both aims are too related and the ELP permit me to work in a mainstreaming way because I can adapt my exercises an integrate in them different aspects about ELP to get that my students work of autonomously and improving their knowledge in a different language through physical education contents.

            DISADVANTAGES

            The use of ELP, however, has some disadvantages or problems when I implement in my students. The our main problem: to accustom students to work in a different way with a time of more or less rigorous delivery of the proposed activities and the subsequent corrections; perform new activities, involving in most cases more critical view and formation of thought to which they were not accustomed, following the ideas of the Council of Europe to promote education for life , tolerance and diversity. They also found it difficult to write their own reflections on their learning in the newspapers, but we can see in these opinions always manage to do so, sooner or later.

Among the negatives for the teacher, include the effort involved in preparing more activities given the weight they have in the final grade, with a further reflection of linguistic, cultural and educational objectives, on one hand, and greater planning and organizing classes on the other. We must not forget more hours of redressing daily activities, check corrections and correct the portfolio at the end of the semester or year.