Intelligence Comparison

Intelligence, according to carol Bain refers to the ability to learn about, learn from, understand and interact with one's environment. In addition, it deals with all the things which should be known in advance of initiating a course of action. The other definition is by mark M. Lowenthal, who defines intelligence as "The process by which specific types of information important to national security are requested, collected, analyzed and provided to policy makers and the carrying out of the operations as requested by lawful authorities" (2002,pg.8).

Both definitions are similar in the sense that both stress informational aspects of intelligence. In addition, in both definitions, there is the interaction with one's environment in order to obtain the relevant data for processing into information thus gaining understanding and insight. Also in both definitions, the directional aspect or purpose for acquiring intelligence is brought out in that it is needed for any action or operation to be undertaken.

However, to some extent the two definitions are varying in the sense that the context in which they are brought out in is different. Whereas the definition by carol brings out intelligence as being more personal, the definition by mark brings out intelligence as being more state oriented and therefore not possessed by everybody. When intelligence is viewed as the ability to learn about, from and to interact with the environment, it implies the general means through which one can acquire knowhow whereas when intelligence is viewed in terms of the state knowledge, then restrictions come up as to who is supposed to acquire the information and who should authorize the acquisition of this information and to whom it should be reported.

Though the two definitions may be different in terms of context, to some extent both can influence ones words or actions especially in the teaching field. For instance, the definition of intelligence as the ability to learn about, learn from and interact with one's environment may influence a teacher to devise instructional methods that incorporate content that is pragmatic and also create an environment in which the learners will be able to interact and learn from one another. The second definition of intelligence, which is state oriented, may influence a teacher in his or her actions for instance when it comes to drawing up the goals and objectives of learning.  In a classroom situation, the teacher will limit him or herself to the information that is relevant to the learner at a certain point in time, thus applying the second definition as he long term goal and objective of learning.

TEACHING-LEARNING CYCLE

From the diagram on learning-teaching cycle, it is clear that teaching and learning process is an important activity which should not be done or approached without a plan. It also shows that it is a step by step process whose success and achievement of the teaching and learning objective depends on how well the process is organized. The diagram shows how a teacher is supposed to organize the material that he or she is intending to deliver to the student and it involves steps that are interdependent and the diagram also gives a starting point where a teacher should begin his or her preparations for instructional purposes. Also from the diagram, one can note that teaching-learning process involves four faces which include; assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation.

The diagram further implies that one cannot plan for instruction without first carrying out an assessment of the learners, gather the relevant materials and information that will suit the needs and interests of the learners and also to be able to come up with achievable objectives.  The importance of assessment stage in teaching and learning process is that one is able to identify strengths, needs, weaknesses, interests of the learner and ways of delivering the content to the learner. After conducting an assessment of the learners' needs and interests, then one can comfortably proceed to drawing up a plan on how to work on the information gathered so as to achieve the desired objectives. This therefore, implies that planning builds up on assessment and for a teacher to effectively plan for teaching-learning process he or she must first conduct some assessment.

Planning helps a teacher to concentrate only on the relevant material or content so that to ensure he or she does not go out of the content. It is at this stage that one should utilize the information collected from the assessment stage and determine how best to meet the needs and interests of the learner, build on his or her strengths and how best to deliver the content to the learner, which should involve an instructional method that suits the level in which the learner is. This stage is important as it is here that a teacher is able to come up with schemes of work for long term objectives and a lesson plan with specific objectives.

After coming up schemes of work and a lesson plan, then implementation can commence. This means that without planning, it would be hard to carry out instructions as one would have no objectives to work on hence ineffectiveness in teaching and learning process. In this stage, plans are put into action through various instructional methods, which is the actual teaching. This is important as it ensures that the needs and interests of the learner are taken care of and the objectives are met.

However, from the diagram, teaching cannot be said to be complete without evaluation.  This is whereby one compares the actual performance with the set or expected performance, or what the learner has been able to achieve compared to the objectives of learning and teaching. If the performance does not measure up the expected performance or the set objectives, then a teacher or the learner can take corrective measures, which takes one back to the starting point, which is assessment.

COOPERATIVE LEARNING

In teaching, there are various strategies that can be employed to learning and teaching so as to achieve the goals and objectives of teaching and learning process. However, the strategy settled on comes after a careful assessment of the learner and gathering enough information concerning the learner's needs and interests. Though various strategies can be employed, cooperative learning is one of the best teaching and learning strategies, which parents should appreciate and be aware of. That this strategy is being employed in teaching their children. Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students can work together to achieve shared goals. With this understanding, one can comfortably bring to the attention of the parents that this strategy is being employed in learning and teaching the students. This strategy has been opted due to the individual differences that have been noted in the classroom and also the benefits that are associated with it.

The strategy is theory based in that students have got an opportunity to work collaboratively. In addition, students are able to learn essential inter-personal skills such as communication skills, life skills and also develop the ability to embrace teamwork and assist one another. The strategy is also theory based because each group is given a task in which each student in every group is supposed to take a role, either as the facilitator, reporter or recorder, as the teacher monitors the progress and makes corrections and additions where necessary. The final reason why the strategy is theory based is so as to be able to determine whether the learners can be able to transform the knowledge acquired in theory into practical. This is because for one to be able to put a particular concept into practice, he or she must have understood it in theory first.

The importance of using this strategy is that students who have the opportunity to work collaboratively learn faster and more efficiently, have greater retention feel more satisfied about learning experience for instance through group discussions. Moreover, this strategy is important as it makes each group member a stronger and more motivate individual in his or her own right. Also in such a set up, students can assist and encourage each other to achieve. It also promotes accountability amongst the students through playing their roles in the group and finally, it promotes students' psychological health, self-esteem and builds more positive relationships among the students (Drs. Roger and David J., 1997).

BEHAVIORAL LEARNING OBJECTIVE STATEMENT

In order to demonstrate mastery of listening, the student will look at the speaker and keep her lips together, when taking turns sharing during circle time for 50% of the time, as measured by comparing the amount of time she listens to the 10 minutes allotted for sharing each day by November 1^st.

LESSON PLAN ANALYSIS-ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION

The 7-step lesson plan has got seven basic parts that a teacher of students in general education may follow in the delivery of the content. The seven steps include; objectives, standards, anticipatory set, actual teaching which involves input, modeling and evaluation of the student for understanding, monitoring, conclusion and finally practice exercise.

Following the first question on what the students will be able to do at the end of the lesson that they did not know or were not able to do at the beginning, it is evident that from the seven -step lesson plan on the objective part, at the end of the lesson, the student should be able to perform the practice exercises given by the teacher during the lesson accurately and in precision.

Since learning is defined as a behavior, then the behavior will be measured in terms of the observable changes on the part of the student. For instance, if at the beginning of the lesson, the student could not perform a given sum accurately and within a stipulated period of time and then by the end of the lesson he or she could do the same sum accurately and within the stipulated time, then the behavior demonstrated is measurable as the end results are observable.

The step of the lesson plan that one will find information that tells exactly what the teacher will do when teaching, is the anticipatory set step and the actual teaching step. This is because in the anticipatory set step, the teacher is supposed to prepare the student psychologically to be ready to receive the content. It is also in this step that the teacher captures the attention of the student so that they can focus on the lesson. In the anticipatory set step, which may also be referred to as set induction, a teacher can begin the lesson either by giving the student an interesting story that is closely related to the content of the lesson or even give them a small exercise that later comes to connect with the content of the lesson. The actual teaching is another step in which one will find information on what the teacher will do when teaching as it is in this step that the teacher delivers the content to the students using different resource materials. He or she will engage in modeling whereby he or she demonstrates to the students as they follow keenly. Finally, in actual teaching, the teacher will monitor the understanding of the content by the students by asking them questions and ganging how they are responding to those questions.

The steps of the lesson plan that are for the teacher and are not necessarily stated to the students are the set induction part and the actual teaching part. This is because it is only the teacher who can determine how he or she is going to capture the attention of the students and how best he or she can deliver the content to the students.

The best word that describes the lesson plan that has been selected is that the lesson plan can be said to be linear. This is because it involves a step by step approach whereby one activity follows the other and the following activity cannot be accomplished without first having to accomplish the preceding activity. For instance before deciding the anticipatory set that a teacher is going to use, he or she must have drawn the objectives of the lesson far in advance and come up with the activities that the students will be expected to perform during the lesson, then the anticipatory set is followed by the actual teaching which is then followed by monitoring the students to check what they haven been able to grasp, then the teacher will summarize the lesson and conclude and then give the student an assignments.

In order to determine whether the students have achieved the objective, one would expect the teacher to ask the students some questions related to the content that has been covered during the lesson and also determine the accuracy and precision with which they  answer the questions.

In conclusion, one can tell that the lesson comes from the behavioral systems of models of teaching since the parts covered in it includes learning that is behavior oriented and behavior that can be measurable. Also the objectives in the lesson plan are measurable and also the performance standards expected from the students are based on the observable behavior they are able to demonstrate by the end of the lesson.

LESSON PLAN ANALYSIS-COOPERATRIVE LEARNING LESSON PLAN

A cooperative learning lesson plan has got 5 phases that guide the lesson. The first thing a teacher does in the first phase is to prepare a question for discussion. In this phase, the teacher asks or prepares a question which the students are supposed to work on in groups. Then after the question is prepared, the teacher identifies specific lesson goals, which forms the objectives of the lesson. The objectives are devised by examining the curricular objectives one wishes to cover or convey. In addition, the lesson objectives are expressed as tasks that the learner will do or learn to do.

The second phase is the rubric which guides the students in a structured way through the lesson and the task. After this phase comes the third phase which is assessment. This simply involves the project product or test one will use to measure the students' progress. I and finally is reflection. Reflection allows both students and teachers to learn about improving lessons and work by considering problems encountered during the lesson and come up with ways of resolving these problems.

Therefore in relation to cooperative learning lesson plan, by the end of the lesson the learner should be able to accomplish effectively the tasks as posed in the question in groups. Also, since in cooperative learning the learner gets an opportunity to interact freely with the other students, by the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to communicate freely with the fellow students.

Since learning is defined by behavior, in the cooperative learning lesson plan, this behavior will be measured by the participatory level of each individual student in the group towards meeting the objective of the group. This is in terms of observable behavior of the learner during the group discussion, for example the way the learner contributes to the answering of the question either by participating in the role given.

The step in the cooperative learning lesson plan that one will find information that tells exactly what the teacher will do when teaching, is the rubric and the assessment phase. It is in the rubric phase because in this phase, the teacher is supposed to guide the students in groups in a structured way through the lesson and the task. Moreover, in the assessment phase, the teacher is supposed to use tools that will measure the students' progress, for example use of tests or oral questions, which he or she can pose randomly to any group.

The steps of the cooperative  learning lesson plan that are for the teacher but not necessarily for the students is the phase of come up with a task or question for discussion and also the rubric phase, which involves the teacher guiding the students through the lesson and the task.

The cooperative learning lesson plan can best be described as a disconnected lesson plan as it is organized in a manner that assessment, which is supposed to be the first thing to be accomplished in order to determine the students' needs and then come up with the objectives comes much later after the teacher has already posed the question or given the task to the students. The task or the expected activity by the students comes before the objectives of the lesson are set. In addition, the lesson plan has no closure or the conclusion part as the teacher and the students go directly to the reflection phase.

In order to determine whether the students have achieved the objectives of the lesson, one would expect the teacher ask questions related to the task given to the students. The teacher can also go to an extent of asking these questions to individual students as opposed to groups so as he or she can be able to indentify individual needs of the students.

One can tell that also the cooperative learning lesson plan comes from the behavioral systems of models of teaching as the learning that is expected to take place in groups is measured by the ability of the learner to improve the inter-personal skills such as communication and social skills such as the ability to establish positive relationships with the fellow students.

OVERPOWERING AND EMPOWERING TEACHING BEHAVIOR AND LOCUS OF CONTROL

From the class packet, locus of control refers to "where an individual believes, perceives the power over behavior, action or events. It emanates from within (internal locus of control) or from without (external locus of control)" (pg. 34). Julian B. Rotter defines locus of control as the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events that affect them (1954).

In order to understand the relationship between the locus of control, overpowering and empowering, it is also important to understand the concepts "Overpowering" and "Empowering".  Empowering is the process by which one instructs and supports another person in managing his or her own behavior without intimidating that person.  It acts to suppress the overpowering structures. Empowering behavior management approach is the expected teacher behavior whereby a teacher functions as more of a source while he or she empowers the students to direct much of the learning and behavior change. On the other hand, overpowering is whereby sometimes ones behavior is viewed as being so extreme that is considered to be out of control and therefore the person in charge of managing this behavior creates and environment that overpowers the person. This eventually brings the undesirable behavior under control but the person is left intimidated.

Empowering behavior management approach is related to the locus of control in the sense that in empowering behavior management approach, one is given an opportunity to discover and manage his or her behavior without being intimidated by overpowering structures which might be in place, thus achieving a locus of control which is internal. This internal locus of control gives a person the confidence to control his or her own life and actions.

On the other hand, the overpowering behavior management approach may be related to locus of control in terms of external locus of control. This is in the sense that in overpowering behavior approach, an individual is not given an opportunity to influence his or her own behavior change. Instead, the behavior is put under control by a higher authority or power, in which the person in question has no control of his or her behavior. This is the case evidenced in the external locus of control whereby an individual's decisions, actions and events are influenced by the external forces or environment, thus leaving the individual with no opportunity to influence his or her own decisions and life.

Higher level thinking skills, also known as higher order thinking skills, refers to a thinking that takes place in the higher levels of the hierarchy of cognitive processing. According to Dr. Wiederhord, it is a kind of thinking that is considered in Bloom's taxonomy. For instance, one starts from the knowledge level, then comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and then evaluation. Wiederhord adds that it is the ability to read beyond the lines as opposed to reading the lines and in between the lines. An example of higher order thinking skill is the application of critical and creative thinking when faced with circumstances or events which need to be resolved.

Considering Bloom's taxonomy, higher level thinking skill that can be employed is evaluation. In this level of thinking, one is faced with a situation that requires one to judge the relative merits of the content and concepts contained in the subject. This also applies in a real life situation. The other high level thinking skill is synthesis whereby one applies the previously learnt concepts to a new setting to solve any problem. Evaluation forms the highest level of thinking skill in the Bloom's taxonomy, which is achieved after one has been able to effectively achieve the other skills of thinking such as analysis, application, comprehension and knowledge.

A REVIEW OF THE 7-STEP LESSON PLAN AND COOPERATIVE LEARNING LESSON PLAN.

Just as the name suggests, the seven step lesson plan has got seven steps which a teacher should follow when preparing for the lesson. These steps include; the objectives, standards of performance to be expected from the students or the learning activities to be carried out by the students, actual teaching which encompasses the input, modeling and checking for understanding, monitoring, and conclusion and finally an independent practice which a teacher should give inform of an assignment.

Moreover, the seven-step lesson plan requires that the preceding step be accomplished first before proceeding to the next step. This is because the proceeding step depends on the preceding step. Thus, the seven-step lesson plan can be said to be linear in nature. Finally, this type of lesson plan can be used in instruction ranging from general education to special education.

On the contrary, the cooperative learning lesson plan has got five phases. These include; a Task, Objectives, a Rubric, Assessment and then finally a Reflection. These phases are not arranged in order as in the 7-step lesson plan. This is because the task to be accomplished comes before the objectives. In addition, the lesson plan is best suited for group discussions, thus cannot be relied upon for the normal class lessons.

Though the two lesson plans have got few distinctions, they have some features in common such as the objectives, assessment and monitoring.

The possible changes  that one can make for the seven-step lesson plan in order to engage the students in higher level thinking skills changes in the time allocated for the guided practice and independent practice in the seven -step lesson plan. By allowing more time, then it means a teacher has got plenty of time to give a number of exercises that require students to engage in different levels of thinking which eventually leads to achievement of higher level thinking skills on the part of the student.

On the other hand, in the cooperative learning lesson plan, one may consider changing the task given to the students more often. Being the first phase that a teacher fulfills in drawing up a lesson plan for cooperative learning, he or she can pose the question in different versions to provoke creative and critical thinking on the part of the students. This way, one is able to determine the ability of the students to utilize different levels of thinking skills, from knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis synthesis and evaluation.

In conclusion, apart from the two changes, students can be helped to engage in a higher level of thinking by making the method of instruction to be learner centered whereby the learner is given more opportunity to perform tasks independently, with minimal intervention by the teacher. In addition, the learner should be presented with different situations that require the application of different levels of thinking skills as in the Bloom's taxonomy thus eventually achieving higher level of thinking skills.