Teachers as "Situation-Makers"

This evening I read an article entitled: Eight Ways of Looking at Intelligence, by Annie Murphy Paul.  In this article, Annie referenced eight factors that contribute to making people smarter, or eight ways of looking at intelligence, as determined by the science of learning.  The eight perspectives listed as making people smarter were as follows: situations, beliefs, expertise, attention, emotions, technology, our bodies, and relationships.

Much of the information listed seemed pretty obvious, or perhaps just reinforced some of my beliefs/past research I have read.  For example, in the section "Our Bodies Can Make Us Smarter," it was noted that an adequate amount sleep is an important contributor to learning.  I believe most, if not all, teachers would agree with this.  Proper nutrition and exercise were also noted as being important contributors to learning.

The article also discussed how two minds are stronger than one, so working with another person can make your smarter.  Technology was described as a tool to make one smarter if used appropriately.  To quote the author, "The problem is that our devises so often make us dumber instead of smarter...we need to help them [students] understand when to take full advantage of their devises, and when to put them away."  I believe this is a crucial point.  I fully support creating technology rich learning environments for students, but students also need to learn how to survive without the constant use of devises. 

The author noted that teachers can be "situation-makers."  This made a lot of sense to me.  People can become smarter in certain situations.  If teachers create an environment filled with positive learning situations then children will be more likely to learn.  On the other hand, if students are regularly faced with negative situations within a classroom, then their learning may be hindered.  Students are faced with situations throughout every part of their day, not just at school.  As educators, we can do our part to create positive learning situations for our students and hope that the rest of their days are filled with that as well.