Inquiry I
Inquiry Question
What skills and intelligences do students develop in Home Economics that they can apply to cross-curricular learning?
Introduction
To introduce theories of skills and intelligences, we will turn to the father of intelligence, Albert Einstein. Einstein was quoted saying: “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” He was known for intense problem solving and persistence in his work. This work ethic Einstein shows, is one that I aspire to foster in my students so they will enter adult-hood having skills and intelligences that enhance their practical and tactile knowledge. This essay will outline which skills and intelligences students develop in all of the branching areas of Home Economics. This essay will also dive into how these skills and intelligences students develop can be applied to cross-curricular learning.
Developing my Inquiry Question
During both my undergraduate degree and currently in my Bachelors of Education degree, I have found myself in numerous occasions where I have had to fight for my profession. Knowing what I know now about both the fashion industry, and Home Economics, these applied skills have a huge role in our society. However, this role is often placed below the academics and is often seen as “frivolous”, “non-progressive”, and “very old-fashioned”. People often believe that sewing and textiles is a dying art form, and can be done now in much better ways. My inquiry proposal arose to defend Home Economics and show its’ viability in skill development, problem solving, and overall learning. I will be proving Home Economic skill development through Robert J. Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligences and Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory. Throughout this proposal I would like to show how each of these intelligences could be developed in Home Economics and later applied to cross-curricular learning.
Significance
School often views Home Economics as a very marginal class, not a “core” class, one to be left to the peripheral of the building, and most appropriate for students who are not bound for a Post-Secondary Education. (Werhan, 2004) Simple enter the words “Home Economics” into any search engine and almost all of the articles pertain to Home Economics and its’ dying or already extinct state. I believe in Home Economics because as an applied skills course, it gives students the practical and tactile skills to enter adult-hood. Home Economics’ builds critical thinking skills and decision-making skills. Stereotypes often show Home Economics as an irrelevant and gender bias course. It’s important for the people who believe these stereotypes to have physical proof that Home Economics builds multiple skills and different intelligences that will help all students (regardless of their gender) in their core courses at school and application in their life at home and for their future. This research can help the future teaching population by highlighting, which areas of Home Economics are important for cross-curricular learning. This research will also (hopefully) reduce some of the stigma surrounding Home Economics through knowledge and understanding. As a teacher of Home Economics, it’s also important for me to be able to justify what I am teaching to the students, other teachers and members of the community. Overall, I want my teaching to be relevant in the moment, and stay relevant throughout students’ lives.
Home Economics
Home Economics consist of three branches. The first, and often most popular is Food and Nutrition, the second is Family Studies, and the third branch is Clothing and Textiles. Historically, Home Economics professionals have always battled the prejudice against their field of study and pedagogical tactics in and outside the field of academics. (Werhan, 2004) As Werhan (2004) states; “Outsiders smell the cooking lab and see the products of the sewing lab, but the long standing prejudice colors their vision of what is truly going on in the classroom.” What Werhan is trying to say, is that most pupils will have an image of what a Home Economics classroom does, but because that image of the Home Economics classroom is just what they are seeing from the outside, they will often pigeonhole the program. As Home Economics teachers, it is important to not simply discard a facet of the program simply because it is “old-fashioned”, but rather adapt and modify our program so it stays relevant and promising for our modern society. (Werhan, 2004) This inquiry question hopes to dissolve some of the stigma surrounding Home Economics by identifying how it helps in student development and student learning.
Sternberg’s Intelligences
Robert J. Sternberg, now a professor at Cornell University in the College of Human Ecology; brought forward the idea of the Triarchic Theory of Intelligences, basing his idea upon Aristotle’s’ theories. (Owen-Wilson, 2015) Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligences describes the three areas of intelligence, but it also considers the various aspects and balances in which these intelligences can be used. (Owen-Wilson, 2015) Sternberg defines the three categories of intelligence as Analytical Intelligence, Practical Intelligence, and Creative intelligence. These intelligences are tabled in Appendix A. In Home Economics, we can see evidence of all of these intelligences throughout student development. During my inquiry research, I expect to see students who take Home Economics learn these intelligences through projects and problem solving. I hope to see these intelligences enhance other areas of their learning.
Gardener’s Multiple Intelligences
Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard University in the area of cognition and education at the Graduate School of Education, has coined eight different areas of intelligences that differ from Sternberg’s intelligences. (Gardner, 2006) These intelligences have been mapped out in Appendix B. Like Sternberg’s intelligences, these multiple intelligences are also often found in the Home Economics classroom. However, observers of the Home Economics profession have used the Gardner’s premise that “human intelligence occurs in a variety of ways that are not subject to human testing.”(Werhan, 2004) They have found that Home Economics students are engaged in skills such as problem solving, decision-making, and willingness to overcome obstacles through a variety of methods. (Werhan, 2004) Through my research, I hope to prove that Home Economics build problem solving and decision-making skills. Werhan (2004) tells us that in Smagorinsky’s observation of Home Economics as a subject area, he states that once assessment is decided upon, it is very hard to change. It becomes very difficult to persuade educators and their constituencies that alternative ways of learning (like Home Economics) are equally as valuable. (Werhan, 2004) Because Home Economics is an applied skills based course, I hope to find evidence that many of Gardner’s intelligences would be enhanced by the multi-modality of the course and the problem-solving skills the students are developing.
Cross-Curricular Learning
Cross-curricular learning can mean learning in a singular classroom with different methods of teaching a specific subject, or it can mean teaching a specific subject by tying it into other subject areas the students may be learning outside of your classroom. (Roundy, n.d) Home Economics can easily tie into so many different subject areas like: Social Studies, History, Physics, Chemistry, Math, Science, Drama, English, Psychology, and many other subjects. It is important for students to realize that applied skills will develop their problem solving and decision-making skills that will enhance every aspect of their life. For example, a Secondary teacher attending a national teachers’ conference was talking about teaching geometry. He wanted to take sewing lessons to teach his students about quilting and how this tied into geometry. The sewing activity supported the element of scientific inquiry by incorporating decision-making and problem solving. (Werhan, 2004) This type of research will hopefully give evidence that not only can Home Economics be used to teach other subjects, but also other subjects can be used to teach Home Economics.
Implementing my Inquiry Question
The most important aspect to my inquiry question is to justify Home Economics through the development of skills and intelligences, and apply these skills to other areas of learning. Throughout my practicum, it will be difficult to implement this type of cross-curricular learning, as I do not have the foundation to collaborate with teachers in other areas. This would definitely be seen as a potential barrier for my practicum. Another barrier would be measuring the students’ development of skills and intelligences. How can I separate the development of their skills in Home Economics compared to their overall skill development? The strongest way I can implement my inquiry question into my teaching is to teach the students about how what they are learning pertains to other subjects and why it would be relevant to their development. With my proposed cross-curricular style of learning, which I believe will relate more to the core competencies of the new curriculum, I expect to see more over-all scholastic understanding in my students. I expect to see a surge in skill and intelligence development that can be used throughout the different areas in their schooling. I will measure my inquiry question by implementing cross-curricular learning and then observing the results. This will not be hard data, but through observation, I can determine whether the students have a better understanding of learning and show more skill development. This inquiry question will be observed over a long period of time. A longer observation time will lead to stronger results.
Conclusion
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” Albert Einstein shows us that through determination to overcome the obstacles standing in our way of learning, we show significant intelligence development and develop a growth mindset. The ability to develop problem solving through learning Home Economics is my ultimate goal as a teacher. Pickard (2007) defines problem-solving as: “Problem-solving occurs when a student devises a way of achieving a goal never before accomplished, often by reformulating the problem into a more familiar form, recognizing the similarity, and applying the method in solving for the new knowledge.” Problem-solving skills are directly correlated will the different skills and intelligences outlined in Appendix A and B. My inquiry questions plans to show evidence that the skills and intelligences learned in Home Economics are expected to increase student understanding in other courses throughout high school. Home Economics teaches tactile learning through hands-on based projects and visuals cues. Through my inquiry question, this style of tactile learning is expected to enhance student engagement and student skills. I will be measuring student-learning behavior through observation of duration of the study, fluency of cross-curricular learning understanding, and rate in which students develop the skills and intelligences derived from Home Economics. My inquiry question aims to dissolve the stigma and stereotypes surrounding Home Economics by asking the question: “What skills and intelligences do students develop in Home Economics that can be applied to cross-curricular learning.”
References
Brainy Quote. (n.d.). Albert Einstein Quotes. Retrieved from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/albert_einstein.html
Gardner, H. (2006). Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory and Practice. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Owen-Wilson, L. (2015). Sternberg’s Views on Intelligence: The Second Principle. Retrieved from http://thesecondprinciple.com/optimal-learning/sternbergs-views-intelligence/
Pickard, M. J. (2007). The New Bloom’s Taxonomy: An overview for family and consumer sciences. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences Education, 25(1), 45-55.
Roundy, L. (n.d.). Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence – Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com. Retrieved from http://study.com/academy/lesson/sternbergs-triarchic-theory-of-intelligence.html
Tigner, R. B., & Tigner, S. S. (2000). Triarchic theories of intelligence: Aristotle and Sternberg.History of Psychology, 3(2), 168-176. doi:10.1037/1093-4510.3.2.168
Werhan, C., & Vollmer, J. (2004). Finding a place for tradition in the curriculum: A case study for sewing in the Ohio family and consumer sciences classroom. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences Education, 22(1), 43-57.