Module in Facilitating Learning

MODULE 17. STERNBERG’S SUCCESSFUL INTELLIGENCE THEORY AND WISC

MODEL

Overview:

The triarchic theory of intelligence is based on a broader definition of intelligence than is

typically used. In this theory, intelligence is defined in terms of the ability to achieve
success in life based on one's personal standards–and within one's sociocultural
context. The ability to achieve success depends on the ability to capitalize on one's
strengths and to correct or compensate for one's weaknesses. Success is attained
through a balance of analytical, creative, and practical abilities–a balance that is
achieved in order to adapt to, shape, and select environments.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Explain Sternberg’s Successful Intelligence Theory and WISC Model.

2. Demonstrate enjoyment of working on WISC-based tasks and activities
3. Prepare a lesson guide that is based on WISC model.
According to Robert Sternberg's proposed theory of human intelligence, a
common set of universal mental processes underlies all aspects of intelligence.
Although the particular solutions to problems that are considered "intelligent" in one
culture may be different from those considered intelligent in another, the mental
processes needed to reach these solutions are the same.

Metacomponents, or executive processes, enable a person to plan what to do,

monitor things as they are being done, and evaluate things after they are
done. Performance components execute the instructions of the
metacomponents. Knowledge-acquisition components are used to learn how to solve
problems or simply to acquire knowledge in the first place. For example, a student may
plan to write a paper (metacomponents), write the paper (performance components),
and learn new things while writing (knowledge-acquisition components).

Aspects of Intelligence

1. Analytical Intelligence.
Analytical intelligence is involved when the components of intelligence are
applied to analyze, evaluate, judge, or compare and contrast. It typically is involved
in dealing with relatively familiar kinds of problems where the judgments to be made
are of a fairly abstract nature.

 In one study, an attempt was made to identify the information-processing

components used to solve analogies such as: A is to B as C is to: D1, D2, D3, D4
(e.g., lawyer is to client as doctor is to [a] nurse, [b] medicine, [c] patient, [d] MD).

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There is an encoding component, which is used to figure out what each word
(e.g., lawyer) means, while the inference component is used to figure out the
relation between lawyer and client.

 Research on the components of human intelligence has shown that although

children generally become faster in information processing with age, not all
components are executed more rapidly with age. The encoding component first
shows a decrease in processing time with age, and then an increase. Apparently,
older children realize that their best strategy is to spend more time in encoding
the terms of a problem so that they later will be able to spend less time in making
sense of these encodings. Similarly, better reasoners tend to spend relatively
more time than do poorer reasoners in global, up-front metacomponential
planning when they solve difficult reasoning problems. Poorer reasoners, on the
other hand, tend to spend relatively more time in detailed planning as they
proceed through a problem. Presumably, the better reasoners recognize that it is
better to invest more time up front so as to be able to process a problem more
efficiently later on.
1. Creative Intelligence.

In work with creative intelligence problems, Robert Sternberg and Todd Lubart
asked sixty-three people to create various kinds of products in the realms of writing,
art, advertising, and science. For example, in writing, they would be asked to write
very short stories, for which the investigators would give them a choice of titles, such
as "Beyond the Edge" or "The Octopus's Sneakers." In art, the participants were
asked to produce art compositions with titles such as "The Beginning of Time" or
"Earth from an Insect's Point of View." Participants created two products in each
domain.

Sternberg and Lubart found that creativity is relatively, although not wholly, domain-
specific. In other words, people are frequently creative in some domains, but not in
others. They also found that correlations with conventional ability tests were modest
to moderate, demonstrating that tests of creative intelligence measure skills that are
largely different from those measured by conventional intelligence tests.

2. Practical Intelligence.

Practical intelligence involves individuals applying their abilities to the kinds of

problems that confront them in daily life, such as on the job or in the home. Much of
the work of Sternberg and his colleagues on practical intelligence has centered on
the concept of tacit knowledge. They have defined this construct as what one needs
to know, which is often not even verbalized, in order to work effectively in an

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environment one has not been explicitly taught to work in–and that is often not even
verbalized.

Sternberg and colleagues have measured tacit knowledge using work-related

problems one might encounter in a variety of jobs. In a typical tacit-knowledge
problem, people are asked to read a story about a problem someone faces, and to
then rate, for each statement in a set of statements, how adequate a solution the
statement represents. For example, in a measure of tacit knowledge of sales, one of
the problems deals with sales of photocopy machines. A relatively inexpensive
machine is not moving out of the showroom and has become overstocked. The
examinee is asked to rate the quality of various solutions for moving the particular
model out of the showroom.

Sternberg and his colleagues have found that practical intelligence, as embodied in
tacit knowledge, increases with experience, but that it is how one profits, or learns,
from experience, rather than experience per se, that results in increases in scores.
Some people can work at a job for years and acquire relatively little tacit knowledge.
Most importantly, although tests of tacit knowledge typically show no correlation with
IQ tests, they predict job performance about as well as, and sometimes better than,
IQ tests.

3. Memory Intelligence.
Help us recall facts and pieces of information. It helps us retain the knowledge
we acquire.

Sternberg believed that traditional views of intelligence focused heavily on

memory and analytical skills. This traditional view led to teaching strategies that focused
mainly on memory and analytical skills as well. It naturally followed that assessment of
learning likewise concentrated heavily on these two skills.
Memory and analytical skills are very much necessary. Being able to recall
information or have knowledge which he cannot remember. Analysis is important before
one can think of new and better ideas. However, memory and analytical skills should
not be the only focus of education.
Sternberg also emphasized creative and practical intelligence. Creativity is what
moves people forward. Creativity gives birth to new and better solutions to problems.
Without creativity we will be trapped in things and ways that don’t work anymore.
Practical intelligence, on the other hand, makes us apply what we have learned. It gets
us to actually do what needs to be done,
According to Sternberg, successful intelligence is the “ability to succeed in life,
given one’s own goals, within one’s environmental contexts.” It is maximizing one’s own
strengths not only to adapt to one’s environment, but to also contribute significantly to
society.

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Each person may have his/her own unique way of practicing the four skills
because each has different strength. The idea is to further develop one’s unique
strengths in the context of the four skills rather than simply making it the goal of the
school to just develop memory and analytical skills. The theory of successful
intelligence points “ that some students who do not do well in conventional course may,
in fact, have the ability to succeed, if they are taught in a way that better fits their
patterns of abilities,”
The balanced combination of the four skills of memory, analytical, creative and
practical skills is what leads to successful intelligence. It is vital that we remember what
we learn (memory); use critical thinking to evaluate the things we learn (analytical); be
innovative in finding better ways of doing things and solving problems (creative); and
apply and put to action what we learn (practical).

The WISC Model

The overall model for liberal education is called WICS, which is an acronym for
Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized. The basic idea is that citizens of the
world need creativity to form a vision of where they want to go and to cope with change
in the environment, analytical intelligence to ascertain whether their creative ideas are
good ones, practical intelligence to implement their ideas and to persuade others of the
value of those ideas, and wisdom in order to ensure that the ideas will help achieve
some ethically based common good, over the long and short terms, rather than just
what is good for them and their families and friends.
Sternberg presents a model for education that is relevant to the need of the
times. Tim and again the world has seen leaders in countries, corporations, religious
groups and other institutions who have been considered intelligent. They were capable
of serious analysis of issues and problems. They were good at coming with new ideas.
However, some of these leaders lacked the moral and ethical “muscles” to really act for
the good of their people and not just for their own. Your role as a teacher is not to
educate the mind alone, but to educate the soul as well. Accept this not just as a job
but embrace it as a mission.
Sternberg proposed that while education develop analytical and practical
intelligence as well as creativity, wisdom should be an integral part of the whole
process. Whatever topic you will be teaching, it is important to integrate questions, tasks
or activities that target the development of wisdom. You should also come up with
creative ways for your learners to put together or synthesize intelligence, creativity and
wisdom.

Applying the WISC Model

The uses of the WICS model include admission, instruction, and assessment.
One way the you can apply the WICS model in instruction is when you reflect and make
choices on the tasks and activities that you will give to teach and assess your students.
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You may choose to teach analytically, creativity, practically as well as teach for wisdom.
Your choice can be based on the preferences and strengths of your learners. This is
useful for any level, from preschool to higher education. Sternberg described each of
these. Some examples relevant to education in the Philippines are also provided below

How do you teach analytically? Make your students use critical thinking. Design
tasks and activities that provide opportunity for your learners to:
1. Analyse
2. Critique
3. Judge
4. Compare and contrast
5. Evaluate
6. Assess

Here are some examples for analytical intelligence:

A. Analyse the development of the character of Ibarra in Noli Me Tangere.

B. Critique the design and features of the latest cell phone.
C. Judge the artistic merits of Filipino cartoonist , Larry Alcala’s “Slice of Life.”
D. Compare and contrast prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell.
E. Evaluate the validity of the Theory of Spontaneous Generation. Write a term
paper on this.
F. Assess the strategy of the Iloilo City government to improve the traffic
situation around the city.

How do you teach Creativity? It is important for you to encourage and sustain
your students’ creative ideas. Remember to be an example to them by taking the risk to
share your own creative ideas. Think out of the box. Design tasks and activities that
help students to:

1. Create
2. Invent
3. Discover
4. Imagine if….
5. Suppose that…
6. Predict

Here are some examples for creative intelligence:

A. Create and alternative ending to Florante and Laura (Literature)

B. Invent a dialogue that would transpire if Jose rizal and Ninoy Aquino met (Araling
Panlipunan)
C. Discover a way to explain why heavy ships float at sea (Science)

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D. Imagine if the EDSA Revolution did not happen in 1986. What do you think our
country will be like at present and 10 years later? (Araling Panlipunan)
E. Suppose that you were to design a computer game to help children learn about
love and sacrifice. Describe the game you will create. (Computer Education)
F. Predict changes that will happen if humans have a third eye at the back of their
heads. Choose an appliance or gadget that would need to be changed in order to
be useful. Propose a new functional design (HELE)

How do you teach practically? Have in mind real life situations where students can use
what they learn to meet their own and also others’ practical needs. Design tasks and
activities that allow your students to:

1. Apply
2. Use
3. Put into practice
4. Implement
5. Employ
6. Render practical what they know

Here are some examples for practical intelligence:

A. Apply addition concept in determining the number of boys and girls in the
classroom. (Mathematics)
B. Use the knowledge of Excel to keep track of daily household expenses
(Computer Education/Mathematics)
C. Put into practice what you learn about classroom rules in making you own
classroom rules poster (Classroom Management)
D. Implement a lesson plan that one has made (Principles of Teaching)
E. Employ the formula of computing the area of one’s living room to determine the
number of 12” x 12” tiles needed to cover the floor.
F. Render practical a proposed assembly design for a computer PC.

How do you teach for Wisdom? One of the goals is for learners to learn to see
and to understand the point of view of others. It is important for your learners to balance
one’s own needs with the needs of other people and also that of the world or the
environment. It is developing your learners to consistently act based on positive ethical
values. You teach for wisdom when you are able to move your students to”

1. Try to find a common good

2. See things from other’s points of view
3. Balance your own interests with those of others and of institutions.
4. Look at the long term as well as the short term.

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5. Reflect about how one can base his everyday decisions on positive ryhical
values
6. Appreciate that in life what is seen as true and effective may vary over time and
place

Here are some examples for wisdom:

A. What might be a solution for the common good in the Philippines and China
claim on Spratly Islands (Araling Panlipunan)
B. Think of a person you had a conflict or fight with. Put yourself in the person’s
place. Write down her point of view and concerns as detailed as possible. What
can you do or say to express that you understand the person now (Edukasyon sa
Pagkakatao, General Psychology)
C. Should parents expect their children to take care of them when they are old?
Why? (Edukasyon sa Pagkakatao)
D. How is global warming going to affect the world, and the Philippines in particular?
What can you do? (science, Geology, Edukasyon sa Pagkakatao)
E. Is it ever ethical to shoot down a plane with civilians and terrorists on board if the
terrorists plan to slam the plane to a building with thousands of people?
(Edukasyon sa Pagkakatao)
F. How does parenting change over time? What would you say are different now
than before? What are the constant things that should be present to make the
parent-child relationship work? (Edukasyon sa Pagkakatao)

The WICS Model has been used not only for instruction but also for admission
and assessment. Sternberg and his colleagues proposed, tried out and studied creative
ways of doing student admission as well as assessing students’ learning. Based on their
studies, the WICS model was successful for teachers and their learners because it

1. Celebrated the differences of learners through a supportive learning environment

2. Made students remember better what they learned
3. Build on the strengths of the learners
4. Strengthened the motivations of the learners.

Exercises/Drills:

1. Explore one of the tasks/activities given as examples in the discussions of

teaching analytically, practically, creativity and teaching for wisdom. Try to do or
answer it. Share your experience to the class.

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Evaluation:

1. Explain Sternberg’s intelligence Theory

2. What is WICS Model

Please watch this video for additional information

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqgkz9yBICU

References:

Maria Rita, D. L. (2014). Facilitating Learning: A Metacognitive Process: Lorimar

Publishing

Brawner, D.G. (2018). Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching. Adriana Publishing Co.

Inc.

https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2104/Intelligence-TRIARCHIC-THEORY-
INTELLIGENCE.html

https://www.aacu.org/publications-research/periodicals/wisdom-intelligence-and-
creativity-synthesized-new-model-liberal

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