What is Instructional Intelligence?
Perhaps one of the easiest access routes into it is by relating it to your own
personal professional practice.
Whether or not we consciously think about the how, what and why of what we do
each day, the business of teaching and learning is one of the most demanding,
composite and important professions in the world. It means juggling on a minute
by minute basis an array of competing demands and integrating them into a
seamless series of events that constitute the image of a competent trainer.
Take a moment to reflect upon how complex and challenging training in the VET
sector is. As a trainer, consider all the variables you may have to manage in an
hour, let alone a day, week or even a year in your profession:
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Students come from diverse backgrounds defined by their culture,
ethnicity, age, learning styles, multiple intelligence profiles, gender,
physical and sensory abilities, their past life and educational experiences.
Some of your learners may have learning disabilities others may display
behaviour management problems. Some may not attend class at all or
when present not engage with learning or actively disrupt it.
You are provided with a set of standards or competencies which you have
little or no control over, you then have to deliver and assess in a defined
timeframe which is often beyond your control.
You also work within systems, structures and policy frameworks which
you have little of no control, but must adhere to.
Now consider what you do to engage students in this environment, what
instructional choices do you make to ensure you maximise student learning whilst
simultaneously managing the demands of the context?
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What do you do to ensure all students are actively engaged in their work?
How do you hold students accountable for their own learning?
How do you ensure students feel safe and non threatened in your learning
environment?
What tactics and strategies do you put in place to minimise disruptive
student behaviour?
Do you have a range of techniques to respond to disruptive or aggressive
students?
How do you motivate students?
How do you foster trust?
Do you use a range of instructional tactics and strategies such as graphic
organisers, collaborative learning techniques and demonstration to engage
students?
How do you select one tactic or strategy over another?
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Do you have a variety of assessment methods to meet the individual
needs of learners?
How do you integrate the research and theory on multiple intelligences,
learning disabilities, learning styles and gender into your practice?
The result of raising all this to a conscious level can be quite overwhelming, but
that is exactly what this II program is designed to do. Instead of accepting
that what occurs in a leaning environment as an enigma, the program seeks to
identify, classify and deconstruct the multidimensional act of training. From
this position we then aim to put it all back together like a giant jigsaw puzzle,
seeing how each individual piece is constructed and interlocks with others; from
this emerges the big picture.
The Journey of Consciousness
Unconscious Incompetence
Conscious Incompetence
Conscious Competence
Unconscious Competence
The journey through this conscious skill development can be likened much to
what our own students go through as they acquire new skills and knowledge.
We move through:
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Unconscious incompetence - not knowing what we don’t know, to
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Conscious incompetence – being aware of how much we don’t know, to
Conscious competence - being aware of our actions as we competently
perform a task or skill and to finally reach,
Unconscious competence – completing tasks automatically without having
to think about it.
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We all operate at different points of this continuum in our practice at various
times in our careers, we frequently transit in and out as we learn and adapt to
changes as they emerge within our environment.
Is it acceptable for us as professionals to accept that some of us are just ‘good
at what we do’, without analysising exactly what it is that we do that makes us
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successful, skilled and competent trainers? By the same token, if a colleague is
experiencing difficulty, are we able to deconstruct and classify their practice to
discover exactly where things are going amiss, to be then able to assist them to
reconstruct in a more effective manner?
In order to grow and develop professionally Bennett and Rolheiser (2001) argue
that conscious skill development is essential:
“Designing learning environments for students is too complex and important for
teachers not to be thoughtful (consciously skilled) in their decisions and actions”
(p15).
Why is it important for us to become
consciously skilled?
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It allows us to work automatically
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Allows time to reflect, plan and respond to learners’
needs
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Allows us to deconstruct the teaching and learning
process
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Allows us to communicate effectively about our
practice and what happens in our learning
environments
What does a competent instructionally intelligent trainer look like?
II is about the wise integration of multiple instructional processes to create
more effective learning environments for students and ourselves. The focus of
II is on our instructional competency as practitioners, not just on what we teach
but arguably more importantly how we teach.
II as an instructional program, provides a language for practitioners to talk
about their instructional methodology so they can share expertise as well as
assess and refine their own practice.
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Barrie Bennett
Barrie is an associate professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in
Education (OISE) of the University of Toronto, where he works with both
graduate and undergraduate students. His teaching and research focus is
instructional intelligence. He is currently working with several school districts
in Canada, Australia and the United States on the integration of multiple
instructional processes in the design of more powerful learning environments.
Barrie has taught at the elementary, junior high and high school levels. He was
also a school district instructional consultant working with both exceptional and
at ‘risk teachers’.
He is the co-author of Classroom Management – A Thinking & Caring Approach,
Cooperative Learning: Where Heart Meets Mind and Beyond Monet: The Artful
Science of Instructional Integration.
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