Involvement Amplifies Learning

A group of forty-four students of the Certificate of Teaching (CT) course during a two weeks workshop for their teaching practicum were provided with an opportunity to participate in a session on Multiple Intelligence (MI) given by Howard Gardner. The input was given to the students through a presentation on a multimedia projector. Then a group task was assigned to design brief learning activities to be implemented in classrooms of elementary schools. Later on, they were provided with opportunities to present their designed learning activities to the whole class. Students’ performance was assessed through observation during group work and presentation of their produced work. It was found that the active involvement of students in group work helped them produce some meaningful and relevant activities.

The session was initiated by posing a question: Are you smart? The students according to their experience and prior knowledge responded to the questions. Initially, they responded to the posed question while tending towards apparent smartness in the form of dress and outlook. The facilitator gradually brought them towards multiple intelligences. Then the formal presentation was delivered using the multimedia projector in order to give them input on the topic. During the presentation, the students were involved in the discussion through frequently asked questions. They were provided with opportunities to share examples regarding each type of intelligence. After the presentation, a group task was assigned to students to design learning activities looking at each type of intelligence in each group.

At first, they seemed reluctant to carry out the assigned task. However, the facilitator’s support in groups made the students get actively involved in the assigned tasks. They got their heads together to design learning activities on the given type of intelligence in each group. Active involvement of students was observed in groups. Some creative ideas were found to be discussed among the students. Upon completion of the group tasks, students were provided with an opportunity to share their products work with the whole class. 

During group presentations, it was observed that in each group meaningful and relevant learning activities were designed by the students. After each presentation, the rest of the students provided feedback to further improve the designed learning activities. Students passed valued arguments and challenged each others’ arguments followed by providing suggestions. At the end of the presentation, the facilitator provided collective feedback in order to clarify the misconceptions that prevailed among the students.

From the analysis of the above-mentioned observation, it can be found that the active involvement of students maximizes learning in them. At the engaging start of the session, Prior input on the topic and practice work results in the active involvement of the students leading to enhanced learning. It is recommended that in professional development courses, plan the session well, start with posing an engaging question, equip the participants with relevant content, involve them in practice and application work and support them so that the set objectives could be achieved.