Finding Your PassionSir Ken Robinson, PhD

The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

Gillian Lynne (dancer & choreographer) Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons) Paul McCartney (Beatle and songwriter) Did not finish high school

Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac drummer) Gordon Parks (self-taught photographer & film-maker) Richard Branson (Virgin Records/Atlantic)

Creative Individuals Who Struggled in School

The Element The meeting point between natural aptitude &

personal passion Features

Aptitude (I get it) Passion (I love it)

Conditions Attitude (I want it) Opportunity (Where is it)

Narrow View of Intelligence History begins with Aristotle and Plato

Fixed trait Demonstrated by talent with numbers and/or words

Contributions of the Enlightenment Importance of logic and critical reasoning Importance of evidence in support of scientific ideas

Mass Public Education during Industrial Revolution Need for quick & easy forms of selection & assessment Most important ideas can be conveyed via words or

mathematical expressions We can quantify intelligence & rely on IQ and

standardized tests to determine who is intelligent

History of Standardized Testing Alfred Binet – one of creators of IQ test

intended it to be used to determine what students had special needs so they could get appropriate schooling

Did not believe intelligence was fixed Lewis Termin – Stanford University

1916, revision of Binet’s test (Stanford-Binet Test) Eugenicist

argued poverty & criminality were inherited traits and that they could be identified via IQ testing

argued entire ethic groups inherited these traits, so their children should be given less rigorous education & discouraged or deterred from reproduction

SAT Test Carl Brigham, inventor

Eugenicist Conceived test for military Rejected both the SAT and eugenics 5 years later By then, Harvard and other Ivy League schools were

using it to measure applicant acceptability Been used for nearly 7 decades

John Katzman, founder of Princeton Review Does not measure intelligence Does not verify high school GPA Is very poor predictor of college grades

Multiple IntelligencesHoward Gardner

Linguistic Musical Mathematical Spatial Kinesthetic Inter-personal (relationships with others) Intra-personal (knowledge & understanding

of self) Intelligences are

mostly independent of each other None is more important, though some are

dominant, while others are dormant

Robert SternbergProfessor of Psychology at Tufts University

Argues there are 3 types of intelligence Analytic: the ability to solve problems using academic

skills and to complete conventional IQ tests Creative: the ability to deal with novel situations and to

come up with original solutions Practical: the ability to deal with problems and

challenges in everyday life Daniel Goleman

Psychologist and best-selling author Argues there is emotional and social intelligence, both of

which are essential for working with others Robert Cooper

Author of The Other 90% Argues we have a “heart” brain and a “gut” brain

Three Features of Intelligence

Diverse: expresses itself in numerous ways Dynamic: growth comes to highly

interactive brain via seeing new connections between events, ideas, and circumstances

Distinctive: unique as a fingerprint The right question to ask is: How are you

intelligent? Robinson: “We think about the world in all

the ways we experience it, including all the different ways we use our senses. We think in sound, movement, and we think visually.”

Putting your imagination to work by making something new, coming up with new solutions, or identifying new problems or questions.

Involves a process: new ideas, considering different possibilities and alternative options

Tapping into your talents to create something original

Working with media that you love. The media help creators think in different ways. This illustrates diversity of intelligence and ways of thinking.

Creativity: “the process of having original ideas that have value.”

Open Mind General Creativity

Non-linear thinking Make fresh connections See things in new ways and from different perspectives Involves intuition, heart and feelings

Personal Creativity - Being in “The Zone” or in the state of flow Can be periods of intense physical effort Can be contemplative or meditative Very personal and authentic Sense of time differs while in the Zone – a meta-state You channel ideas, are in harmony, ignore everything else

and just concentrate, and the sensation is keenly delightful. It is an life-giving and powerful state.

What puts you in the Zone? If left to your own devices (without

worrying about making a living or what others thought), what are you most drawn to doing?

What activities do you engage in voluntarily?

What aptitudes do these activities suggest?

What absorbs you most? What sort of questions to you ask, and

what type of points do they make? What do you feel born to do?

Circles of Influence

Tribes of like-minded people working in the same field

Provide mutual inspiration and drive innovation Community of shared values Communities Differ

Re-Wiring of Brain Studies of Visual Perception & Cultural Sculpting

of the Brain Westerners see Object in the foreground East Asians see the background Culture May Make an Impression

http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8008

Global Education Reform Efforts Economic: challenge to educate people to find

work and create wealth in changing world Identity: countries want to take advantage of

globalization, but not lose their identity in the process & education can help control the rate of change

Reform Efforts 3 processes in education: curriculum, pedagogy

& assessment. Reform efforts focuses on curriculum & assessment.

Policymakers think the best way to face the future is to improve what they did in the past Try to control curriculum & reinforce the old hierarchy

of subjects, pushing some disciplines and the students that excel at them to the margins

Put greater emphasis on assessment (currently standardized, which inhibits innovation and creativity for both teachers and students)

Penalize “failing” schools Standardized tests have gone from tool of

education to focus of education

Transform (not reform) Education Focus on Pedagogy Key is not to standardize education, but to

personalize education Build achievement on discovering individual

talents Provide environments where kids where want to

learn and can naturally discover their true passions

RecommendationsEd is supposed to be the process that develops all resources

Eliminate the existing hierarchy of subjects & treat them equally

Question the entire idea of subjects & focus on disciplines and interdisciplinary education

Personalize the curriculum Invest in teachers Rethink assessment & include projects and

performances Reconsider the Western worldview of making

distinctions & seeing differences, to include seeing synergies & making connections