2. INTELLIGENT BEHAVIOR
• What is Intelligent Behavior to me?
• Intelligent behavior is the ability to use your knowledge and skills in
everyday use in order to achieve optimal outcomes.
• Why Intelligent Behavior matters to teachers?
• Teachers use methods to test students thinking skills by assessing how
they apply what they have learned.
3. CHARACTERISTICS OF INTELLIGENT
BEHAVIOR
• Listening with understanding and empathy
• Sense of humor
• Questioning and problem posing
• Drawing on knowledge and applying it to new situations
• Managing impulsivity
4. LISTENING WITH UNDERSTANDING AND
EMPATHY
• Believed by some to be one of the highest forms of intelligent
behavior
• The ability to empathize is an important skill for conflict
resolution
• Classroom examples: brainstorming sessions, think tanks,
sharing thoughts
• Supported in classroom: small group discussion with listening
time followed by constructive discussions of ideas and
thoughts while ensuring all students know their input is
5. SENSE OF HUMOR
• A foundational stone of happiness and fulfillment making it a great
tool for building a learning environment for students
• Humor helps the body’s physiological functions: pulse rate, oxygen
levels, immune responses
• Humor unshackles creativity and promotes high level thinking skills
• Classroom examples: fictional stories, comics, jokes, riddles, song,
dance
• Supported in classroom: use of songs to remember math formulas,
encouraging student involvement in above examples
6. QUESTIONING AND PROBLEM POSING
• By promoting questioning it allows students to develop
problem solving strategies to investigate and answer their own
questions
• Classroom examples: open question/answer sessions, group
discussion, open ended questions
• Supported in classroom: positive reinforcement for engaging
discussions, modeling thinking out loud, posing questions that
require higher level thinking
7. DRAWING ON KNOWLEDGE AND APPLYING
IT TO NEW SITUATIONS
• The ability of the student to use their learnings to problem solve with
new situations
• Utilizing this skill to approach real-world situations
• Classroom examples: problem recognition, problem solving, project
based learning
• Supported in classroom: activities that use real-life situations, use of
lesson plans that build upon each other, use of projects that require
students to problem solve
8. MANAGING IMPULSIVITY
• Allows students to think before acting
• Impulsive behavior creates conflict and inhibits effective problem
solving
• Pausing before answering often times prevents premature
conclusions
• Classroom examples: waiting to be called on, raising hands to
respond, avoiding interrupting others
• Supported in classroom: clear expectations of learning environment,
praise students that take time to process thoughts before replying
and disregarding those students that shout out impulsively
9. REFERENCES
• Kellough, R.D. , & Kellough, N.G. (2011). Secondary School
Teaching: A Guide to Methods and Resources (4th Ed.). Upper
Saddle River, N.J.: Allyn & Bacon.
• Lemov, D. (2010). Teach Like a Champion. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass Teacher.
