If you plan on attending this seminar please contact Terri Lavorgna or call the Academic Affairs Office at 471-7995 at least one day before the seminar.
The Muscular Mind: Enhanced learning through metaphors of intelligence.
PRESENTED BY:
Scott V. Anderson, Doctoral candidate (ABD) in the Department of Communication
Studies
OVERVIEW:
The Motivating students to learn is a central challenge for many teachers,
particularly in subjects students commonly perceive as “impenetrable,” such as
statistics. One line of motivation research has found that when students believe
their intelligence is malleable (i.e., a growth mindset) and that their learning
outcomes are a function of effort, they show greater motivation, accept more
learning challenges, and have improved performance outcomes as compared to
people who believe their intelligence is hard-wired (i.e., a fixed mindset) and
incapable of change (e.g., “I don’t have a math brain”). My current research is
about how metaphors of the growth mindset (e.g., the mind is a muscle) can be
integrated into multi-media teaching materials to encourage students to
implicitly adopt the assumptions of the growth mindset. Come and join us in a
discussion about how metaphors of intelligence can encourage our unmotivated
students to work harder, accept more difficult learning challenges, improve
their learning outcomes, and move toward becoming motivated life-long learners.
BIO:
Scott V. Anderson is a doctoral candidate (ABD) in the Department of
Communication Studies at UT. His primary research interests are persuasion and
social influence, and in particular, how multi-media technologies can be used to
promote positive changes related to socially-significant issues. His current
research is about motivating non-math major undergraduate students to learn
statistics through metaphors of the malleability of the mind. He plans to
continue his research to address how metaphors can be integrated into various
multi-media platforms, and how metaphors of intelligence can be used to address
disparities in educational attainment (e.g., females and math), to encourage
mental acuity among aging populations, and to benefit underserved populations
(e.g., English as a Second Language learners, returning veterans).