OK!! So, with drafts of chapter one and chapter two out of the way, I am now looking at evaluating some research. Most interestingly, I have finally finished evaluating the TIMI tests I administered to my little ones about a month back (I've been busy, ok?). I don't know how many of you are familiar with the TIMI test, but it's basically a bunch of pandas doing different things, and kids choose their favorite. I opted to make it into a booklet so my first graders could circle one panda, and flip the page (28 times). I, then, had to take those booklets and transfer them to the scoring page, so this took some time. Now I am looking at their dominent intelligences. My topic is on Music and Movement helping ELs learn academic vocabulary, so I felt it would be important to have information on how my students learn best. What I have found is that there are many ties between their first and second dominent intelligences. For example, the Musical intelligence is just as dominent as the Logical intelligence. I am trying to figure out how best to enter this information when it comes to evaluating it statistically.
I have also collected parent surveys on their perceptions of how their child learns best. So I am looking to evaluate the data I have gathered so far in the following ways:
* I want to see how the parent surveys match up to the student TIMI tests.
* I want to see how my L1s, L2s, and maybe L3s match up with their dominent intelligences. Is their a majority here?
* I want to see how my "at risk" students (many of them also EL) match up with dominent intelligences. Do many "at risk" students learn the same way (and is this dominent intelligence out of the mainstream teaching style of direct instruction?).
From here, I need to design a unit using music and movement and another one not. I expect both units will show an improvement from pre- to post-assessment, as that is just simply the nature of learning and being six years old. I'll need to measure the amount of growth in each unit. So that will be my next step.
=) Thanks for reading!
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I think it is quite significant that Musical Intelligence and Logic are in the same realm of thinking. What a plug for more music in school!!! Hello Mozart! Goodbye white-noise, or no noise! Goodbye to sitting for hours on end trying to "learn". The brain does not work that way. I would look into Dr. Spencer Kagan's work on the brain. He talks a lot about how energizing the mind and body opens up the pathways for learning. PLUS, when there is a good safe feeling, which music and movement would provide for young children, this also helps children to relax, and they are more likely to remember what they have been taught. Go to his website. You can find information in his research and articles section. He once bantered with Howard Gardner...he won. :0)
Dr. Kagan is at
kaganonline
Very exciting to be forward such as you are. I have collected data but haven't time to analyze it formally. Reading your post encouraged me to get moving more on my project. Good luck and I want to hear about the results of the Panda tests =).
I think that this TIMI test sounds interesting. I think I might look into that because I would like to learn more about my students.
One of my coworkers gave me a set of Ron Brown CDs. He sings songs about different academic subjects. I have two math CDs and two language arts CDs. My students really like one of the math CDs that teaches them how to count by 2's, 5's, 10's as well as money and time. My students are starting to remember these songs and I really think it will help them learn these skills that they do need to know.
Your results should reveal very interesting information. I'm wondering if the parent responses will be very similar to their children's responses on the TIMI. You'd guess that they would in fact be almost identical, right?
As far as what would be the best way to quantify your data, I'd guess that you could run some kind of correlational tests on SPSS to see if their first intelligence positively influences their less dominant intelligence, or you could create somekind of double line graph that depicts their performance through both intelligences on a particular task? Emailing Dr. Tracz is also an excellent strategy too!
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