This document discusses theories of multiple intelligences, behavioral approaches to learning, gifted learners, and learners with disabilities. It covers Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences including the eight types. It also discusses classical and operant conditioning. For gifted learners, it describes their characteristics and strategies like identification and challenging work. The document outlines learning disabilities, ADHD, and emotional/behavioral disorders and strategies for working with children with these disabilities.

1. Educational Psychology
EDU-202
Spring -2022
Dr. Fouad Yehya
fyehya@aust.edu.lb
1

3. Big goals
In this session, you will:
• Discuss theories of multiple intelligences
• Compare classical conditioning and operant
conditioning.
• Define what gifted means and discuss some
approaches to teaching children who are gifted.
• Describe the various types of disabilities and
disorders.

4. THEORIES OF MULTIPLE
INTELLIGENCES

5. THEORIES OF MULTIPLE
INTELLIGENCES
• Is it more appropriate to think of a student’s
intelligence as a general ability or as a
number of specific abilities? Explain

6. Thurstone intelligent
• According to Thurstone intelligent can be
recognized in three broad areas.
1- Abstract Intelligence: manage ideas and
symbols.
2- Mechanical Intelligence: understand and
manage things and mechanisms
3- Social Intelligence: act wisely in human
relations

7. Sternberg’s Theory
• According to Sternberg’s theory of intelligence,
intelligence comes in three forms: analytical,
creative, and practical.
- Analytical intelligence involves the ability to
analyze, judge, evaluate, compare, and contrast.
- Creative intelligence consists of the ability to
create, design, invent, originate, and imagine.
- Practical intelligence focuses on the ability to
use, apply, implement, and put into practice.

8. Gardner’s Eight Frames of Mind
• Gardner argues there are eight types of
intelligence, or frames of mind:
1- verbal
2- mathematical
3- spatial
4- bodily-kinesthetic
5- musical
6- intrapersonal
7- interpersonal
8- naturalist.

9. Gardner’s Eight Frames of Mind

10. • Verbal skills: The ability to think in words and
to use language to express
• Mathematical skills: The ability to carry out
mathematical operations (scientists, engineers,
accountants)
• Spatial skills: The ability to think three-
dimensionally (architects, artists, sailors)
Gardner’s Eight Frames of Mind

11. • Bodily-kinesthetic skills: The ability to
manipulate objects and be physically adept
(surgeons, craft s people, dancers, athletes)
• Musical skills: A sensitivity to pitch, melody,
rhythm, and tone (composers, musicians, and
music therapists)
• Intrapersonal skills: The ability to understand
oneself and effectively direct one’s life
(theologians, psychologists)
Gardner’s Eight Frames of Mind

12. • Interpersonal skills: The ability to understand
and effectively interact with others (successful
teachers, mental health professionals)
• Naturalist skills: The ability to observe
patterns in nature and understand natural and
human-made systems (farmers, botanists,
ecologists, landscapers)
Gardner’s Eight Frames of Mind

13. • There is no reason to assume that every subject
can be effectively taught in eight different
ways to correspond to the eight intelligences,
and attempting to do this is a waste of effort.
• Don’t assume that it is enough just to apply a
certain type of intelligence. For example, in
terms of bodily-kinesthetic skills, random
muscle movements have nothing to do with
cultivating cognitive skills
Misuses of Gardner’s approach

14. • There is no reason to believe that it is helpful
to use one type of intelligence as a background
activity while children are working on an
activity related to a different type of
intelligence. For example, Gardner points out
that playing music in the background while
students solve math problems is a
misapplication of his theory.
Misuses of Gardner’s approach

15. Applications of Gardner’s
theory
• How can you implement each of Gardner’s
Multiple Intelligences in education?

16. • Verbal skills: Read to children and let them
read to you, visit libraries and bookstores with
children, and have children summarize and
retell a story they have read.
• Mathematical skills: Play games of logic with
children, be on the lookout for situations that
can inspire children to think about and
construct an understanding of numbers, and
take children on field trips to computer labs,
science museums, and electronics exhibits
Applications of Gardner’s
theory

17. • Spatial skills: Have a variety of creative
materials available for children to use, take
children to art museums and hands-on
children’s museums, and go on walks with
children. When they get back, ask them to
visualize where they have been and then draw
a map of their experiences.
Applications of Gardner’s
theory

18. • Bodily-kinesthetic skills. Provide children with
opportunities for physical activity and
encourage them to participate, provide areas
where children can play indoors and outdoors,
and encourage children to participate in dance
activities.
Applications of Gardner’s
theory

19. • Musical skills: Give children an opportunity to
play musical instruments, create opportunities
for children to make music and rhythms
together using voices and instruments, and
take children to concerts.
• Intrapersonal skills: Encourage children to
have hobbies and interests, listen to children’s
feelings and give them sensitive feedback, and
have children keep a journal or scrapbook of
their ideas and experiences.
Applications of Gardner’s
theory

20. • Interpersonal skills. Encourage children to
work in groups, help children to develop
communication skills, and provide group
games for children to play.
• Naturalist skills. Create a naturalist learning
center in the classroom, engage children in
outdoor naturalist activities, such as taking a
nature walk or adopting a tree, and have
children
Applications of Gardner’s
theory

21. Emotional Intelligence.
• The interpersonal and intrapersonal
intelligence in Gardner’s theory and the
practical aspects of intelligence in Sternberg’s
theory emphasize what is called emotional
intelligence.

22. • Peter Salovey and John Mayer conceptualize
emotional Intelligence
• The ability to perceive and express emotion
accurately and adaptively, to understand
emotion and emotional knowledge, to monitor
one’s own and others’ emotions and feelings,
to discriminate among them, and to use this
information to guide one’s thinking and action.
Emotional Intelligence.

23. BEHAVIORAL APPROACH TO
LEARNING

24. BEHAVIORAL APPROACH TO
LEARNING
• The behavioral approach emphasizes the
importance of children making connections
between experiences and behavior. It includes
two views: classical conditioning and
operant conditioning.

25. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
• To fully understand Pavlov’s theory of
classical conditioning, we need to understand
two types of stimuli and two types of
responses: unconditioned stimulus (UCS),
unconditioned response (UCR), conditioned
stimulus (CS), and conditioned response (CR).

26. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

27. OPERANT CONDITIONING
• Operant conditioning (instrumental
conditioning ) is a form of learning in which
the consequences of behavior produce changes
in the probability that the behavior will occur.
• A reinforcement (reward) is a consequence
that increases the probability that a behavior
will occur. In contrast, punishment is a
consequence that decreases the probability a
behavior will occur.

28. • Positive reinforcement: Reinforcement based
on the principle that the frequency of a
response increases because it is followed by a
rewarding stimulus.
• Negative reinforcement: Reinforcement
based on the principle that the frequency of a
response increases because an aversive
(unpleasant) stimu lus is removed.
OPERANT CONDITIONING

29. LEARNERS WHO
ARE EXCEPTIONAL

30. Activity
At 2 years of age, Alexandra Nechita colored
in coloring books for hours and took up pen
and ink. She had no interest in dolls or
friends. By age 5 she was using watercolors.
Once she started school, she would start
painting as soon as she got home. At the age
of 8, in 1994, she saw the first public exhibit
of her work. In succeeding years, working
quickly and impulsively on canvases as large
as 5 feet by 9 feet, she has completed
hundreds of paintings, some of which sell for
close to $100,000 a piece. As a teenager, she
continues to paint—relentlessly and
passionately. It is, she says, what she loves
to do. What you can say about Alexandra?

31. What are the characteristics of
children who are gifted?

32. CHILDREN WHO ARE GIFTED
• Children who are gifted have superior talent in
some domain such as art, music, or
mathematics.
• Educators described five areas of giftedness:
- intellectual (logical)
- academic,
- creative,
- visual and performing arts
- leadership.

33. CHARACTERISTICS
• Precocity. Children who are gifted are
precocious when given the opportunity to use
their gift or talent.
• Marching to their own drummer. Children
who are gifted learn in a qualitatively different
way than children who are not gifted.
• A passion to master. Children who are gifted
are driven to understand the domain in which
they have high ability.

34. Strategies for Working with
Children Who Are Gifted
• Identification: Intelligence and achievement
tests may be part of the identification process.
(They should not be the only means by which
gifted students are identified. Some gifted
students also have learning disabilities)
• Remember that gifted students often learn
material faster and retain more than other
students

35. Strategies for Working with
Children Who Are Gifted
• Think in terms of student readiness rather than
ability
• Provide your gifted students with challenges
based on their readiness.
• Continue to assess the students’ readiness for
advanced material

36. CHILDREN WITH
DISABILITIES

37. • Children with disabilities are no longer
referred to as “handicapped,” although the
term handicapping conditions is still used to
describe the weaknesses to the learning and
functioning that have been imposed by society.
CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES

38. LEARNING DISABILITIES
• Learning disability is the struggle in learning
that involves understanding or using spoken or
written language, and the difficulty can appear
in listening, thinking, reading, writing, and
spelling (Yehya, 2018).
• A learning disability also may involve
difficulty in doing mathematics.

39. LEARNING DISABILITIES
• To be classified as a learning disability, the
learning problem cannot be primarily the result
of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities; mental
retardation; emotional disorders; or due to
environmental, cultural, or economic
disadvantage.

40. • Children with a learning disability are more
likely to show poor academic performance
throughout their schooling.
• Children with a learning disability who are
taught in the regular classroom without
extensive support rarely achieve the level of
competence of even children who are low
achieving and do not have a disability
LEARNING DISABILITIES

41. • Diagnosing whether a child has a learning
disability is often a difficult task. How do you
identify learners with disabilities?
LEARNING DISABILITIES

42. • Initial identification of a possible learning
disability usually is made by the classroom
teacher.
• If a learning disability is suspected, the teacher
calls on specialists.
• Individual psychological evaluations (of
intelligence) and educational assessments (such as
current level of achievement) are required
• tests of visual-motor skills, language, and
memory may be used.
LEARNING DISABILITIES

43. Reading, Writing, and Math
Difficulties
• The most common academic areas in which
children with a learning disability have problems
are reading, writing, and math.
- Dyslexia: a severe deficiency in the ability to
read and spell.
- Dysgraphia: involves difficulty in handwriting
- Dyscalculia (developmental arithmetic
disorder), involves difficulty in math
computation.

44. What are the strategies for
Working with Children Who
Have Learning Disabilities?

45. Working with Children
Learning Disabilities
• Take the needs of the child with a learning
disability into account during instructional
time: Clearly state the objective of each
lesson. Present it visually on the board or with
an overhead projector as well. Be sure
directions are explicit. Explain them orally.
Use concrete examples to illustrate abstract
concepts. Provide clear, written directions for
assignments and projects so students can refer
to them later if needed

46. • Provide accommodations for testing and
assignments: This refers to changing the
academic environment so that these children
can demonstrate what they know.
• Reading instructions to children, highlight
important words in directions (such as by
underlining), answering two of the three
questions, use/give untimed tests, test in a
place with fewer distractions, and allow extra
time on assignments
Working with Children
Learning Disabilities

47. • Make modifications: This strategy changes
the work itself, making it different from other
children’s work in an effort to encourage
children’s confidence and success. Asking a
child with dyslexia to give an oral report while
other children give written reports is an
example of an appropriate modification.
Working with Children
Learning Disabilities

48. • Improve organizational and study skills: Many
children with learning disabilities do not have
good organizational skills. Teachers and parents
can encourage them to keep long-term and short-
term calendars and create “to-do” lists each day.
Many teachers use assignment notebooks for this.
• Projects should be broken down into their
elements, with steps and due dates for each part.
Apprising parents of important due dates is also
helpful. One way to do this is via a Web-based
calendar
Working with Children
Learning Disabilities

49. • Work with reading and writing skills: As
indicated earlier, the most common type of
learning disability involves reading problems.
• Challenge children with a learning
disability to become independent and reach
their full potential: It is not only important to
provide support and services for children with
a learning disability but to also guide them
toward becoming responsible and independent
Working with Children
Learning Disabilities

50. • Work closely with a special educator to design
appropriate accommodations for your
individual students.
Working with Children
Learning Disabilities

51. ATTENTION DEFICIT
HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER
• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) is a disability in which children
consistently show one or more of these
characteristics over a period of time:
(1) inattention,
(2) hyperactivity
(3) impulsivity.

52. • Inattentive children have difficulty focusing on
any one thing and may get bored with a task
after only a few minutes.
• Hyperactive children show high levels of
physical activity, almost always seeming to be
in motion.
ATTENTION DEFICIT
HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER

53. • Impulsive children have difficulty curbing
their reactions and don’t do a good job of
thinking before they act.
ATTENTION DEFICIT
HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER

54. Diagnosis
• Unlike learning disabilities, ADHD is not
supposed to be diagnosed by school teams
because ADHD is a disorder that appears in
the classification of psychiatric disorders with
specific diagnostic criteria.
• Although signs of ADHD are often present in
the preschool years, children with ADHD are
not usually classified until the elementary
school years

55. • Elementary school teachers typically report
that this type of child has difficulty in working
independently, completing seatwork, and
organizing work.
Diagnosis

56. Strategies for Working with
Children Who Have ADHD
• Monitor whether the child’s stimulant
medication is working effectively. Teachers
are in a unique position to observe behavior
over a long period of time. Make notes about
times when the student is restless,
nonattentive, or impulsive. Look for patterns.
Share these data with the special educator
and/or with parents.

57. • Repeat and simplify instructions about in-class
and homework assignments. Provide written
directions to which students can refer later.
• Involve a special education resource teacher.
• State clear expectations and give the child
immediate feedback. Many older students can
benefit from simple, agreed-upon cues to get
them back on task.
Strategies for Working with
Children Who Have ADHD

58. • Use proven, effective behavior management
strategies, such as providing positive feedback for
progress.
• Provide opportunities for students to get up and
move around
• Break assignments into shorter segments with
interim due dates to ensure that students are
staying on track. Give feedback on each piece.
• Allow students to take tests in a distraction-free
environment
Strategies for Working with
Children Who Have ADHD

59. EMOTIONAL AND
BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS

60. EMOTIONAL AND
BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS
• Emotional and behavioral disorders consist of
serious, persistent problems that involve
relationships, aggression, depression, fears
associated with personal or school matters, and
other inappropriate socioemotional
characteristics

61. • Aggressive, Out-of-Control Behaviors: Some
children classified as having a serious emotional
disturbance engage in disruptive, aggressive, or
dangerous behaviors and are removed from the
classroom.
• When these children are returned to the regular
classroom, both the regular classroom teacher and
a special education teacher or consultant must
spend a great deal of time helping them adapt and
learn effectively.
EMOTIONAL AND
BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS

62. • Depression, Anxiety, and Fears: Some children
turn their emotional problems inward, in which
case their depression, anxiety, or fears may
become so intense and persistent that their
ability to learn is significantly compromised
(Austin & Sciarra, 2010).
EMOTIONAL AND
BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS

63. • All children feel depressed from time to time,
but most get over their despondent, down
mood in a few hours or a few days. For some
children, however, the negative mood is more
serious and longer lasting. Depression is a type
of mood disorder in which the individual feels
worthless, believes that things are not likely to
get better, and behaves lethargically for a
prolonged period of time
EMOTIONAL AND
BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS

64. • If you think that a child has become depressed,
have the child meet with the school counselor.
• Anxiety involves a highly unpleasant feeling of
fear and apprehension. It is normal for children to
be concerned or worried when they face life’s
challenges,
• Some children also have personal or school-
related fears that interfere with their learning. If a
child shows marked or substantial fears that
persist, have the child see the school counselor
EMOTIONAL AND
BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS