"To
design and deliver relevant curriculum and instruction that addresses the needs
of the learner, that is infused with the faith and values of the Gospel, is
today's pedagogical challenge." (Click here
to see entire letter)Ok! I now know about permeation? Now
what?
How do I design instruction to reflect the Catholic dimension?
"To
design and deliver relevant curriculum and instruction that addresses the needs
of the learner, that is infused with the faith and values of the Gospel, is
today's pedagogical challenge." (Click here
to see entire letter)
As noted in the first three modules, the "distinctive feature"
of a Catholic school is to be found in the "integration of the religious
dimension into curricular areas." As Shimabukuro (2000) writes:
 |
"This does not imply that every subject become doctrinal.
However, it does mean that the teacher be alert, in his or her instructional
planning, to opportunities that connect the religious and spiritual with
the secular." |
In
Module 1 (Defining Philosophy), we learned
that in the Catholic educational sense "all truth is one." It
is not in the best interests of Catholic education to dismiss the secular dimension
of curriculum any more than it is to dismiss the religious or spiritual dimension.
In other words, the Provincial curriculum is just as important as the Catholic
curriculum. They both are integral in teaching God's truth, therefore, in the
Catholic view of education, it is wrong to take apart or separate one dimension
of truth from another.
Secularization for the Catholic can mean the persistent use of all knowledge and skills to explore the ultimate mystery of the human and the divine. Perhaps the best illustration of this fact is to be found in science. A Catholic view of curriculum sees all scientists, including the non-Christian scientists, as living in God's universe and using all their God-given capacities to discover the total of God's truth. The Catholic view is what guides the thinking and the spirit for how to best utilize the knowledge and insights that we derive from science. Without a spiritual and values based dimension to instructional planning, the curriculum may lack moral integrity.
| |
When planning instruction, our greatest challenge is to reconcile the secular and the sacred, as well as faith and reason. The same type of planning that teachers use in designing instruction from the provincial curriculum also applies when designing instruction that reflects a Catholic dimension. |
Designing a Distinctive Curriculum
The challenge for Catholic teachers is to take our excellent secular curriculum and imbue it with a sacramental consciousness which perhaps can best be described by using the words of St. Ignatius of Loyola who spoke of "seeing God in all things" a fundamental tenet of Jesuit theology. As Father Stephen Wojcichowsky so eloquently states:
 |
Not limited to the seven rituals called "sacraments" in the Catholic tradition, the sacramental dimension of the curriculum, as the word sacrament implies, is seeing "signs" of God in all things. It is what the Catholic educator Thomas Groome calls "the more in the midst." Groome maintains that Catholic teachers can assist their students to notice the design, pattern, consistency and intricacy of what they are studying and the beauty, goodness, truth, mystery and infinity in what they are studying. |
Designing Instruction Around Multiple Intelligences
There is no educational philosophy that is more supported in the secular research
than that put forward by Howard
Gardner and his theory of Multiple Intelligences
. This theory,
with all its impact in the world of secular education, could just as easily
have been born in the mind of St. Paul who wrote about the variety of God's
gifts to human beings:
"There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit that gives them. There are different ways of serving, but the same Lord is served. There are different abilities to perform service, but the same God gives ability to everyone for their service. The Spirit's presence is shown in some ways in each one, for the good of all" (1 Corinthians 12: 4-7).
Doreen Jones (1997) draws a further correlation between the Paul of old and Gardner of modern times when she writes:
| |
"St. Paul understood the importance of differences…. He knew that God's gifts were many, bestowed generously on different people for various reasons. He realized that diversity was essential to Christian living and that God willed its existence…. MI theory belongs in Catholic education because it safeguards the individual dignity of each student while enhancing the development of the whole child. It honors the variations in student learning, and it celebrates the infinite ways in which students can leave their mark on the world. Most of all, it confirms a Catholic truth which St. Paul proclaimed two millennia ago." |
Catholic priest and theologian, Ronald Nuzzi asserts that Multiple Intelligences theory "is more theology than psychology." Nuzzi (1997) writes:
 |
"My thesis is simple: Multiple intelligence theory is congruent with many religious values and supportive of the basic tenets of Christian faith. Primary among these is our Catholic conviction in the goodness of creation. The very beginning of Scripture repeatedly makes the claim that creation is good (Genesis 1:18; 21; 25; 30)…. In short, MI theory offers us a pedagogical tool that is intrinsically theological…. The tenets of Christian faith, the stories of the bible, the Sacraments, the life of Jesus, the history of the Church, all of these topics, standard elements in the Catholic religion curriculum, can be taught with MI theory in mind" (Nuzzi, 1997). |
What Are These Gifts of the Spirit That We Call Multiple Intelligences?
Modern day proponent and expert of Multiple Intelligences, Howard Gardner, who first articulated seven intelligences, has now added two more. These additional intelligences are Naturalist Intelligence and Spiritual Intelligence. The entire list of nine appears here:
| Intelligence | Attributes | Likes to |
| Verbal/Linguistic | thinks in words and uses language to creatively express meaning | read, write, speak, interpret, information |
| Mathematical/Logical | natural ability as a problem solver | reason, enjoys numbers, uses timelines and graphs |
| Visual/Spatial | perceives the world visually | see patterns, recognize relationships, design, draw, map |
| Bodily/Kinesthetic | communicates using body | participate in sport, games and other activities using body to express image |
| Musical/Rhythmic | perceives facts in a musical, creative way | sing, listen to music, create rhythms, songs |
| Interpersonal | sensitive to the feelings of others | work in groups and be with people, co-operates well, shows care for others |
| Intrapersonal | sensitive to the feelings of themselves | work independently, reflect, follow own interests |
| Naturalist | sensitive to the natural world | appreciate nature, sees patterns in living environments |
| Spiritual | displays a keen interest in religion, has a deep personal faith and is in touch with their inner life | reflect on what is happening in regard to their understandings of life and gospel values |
To see the source of this adapted list of Multiple Intelligences,
click on:
Theory of Multiple
Intelligences.
Scripture on Multiple Intelligences
In the Catholic educational sense, all of the intelligences contain elements of the spiritual. The scriptures contain many references to the many different ways that people have experienced God and explored their faith through various intelligences. Examine each of the scripture passages and reflect on how each of the multiple intelligences provided faith experiences for early Christians.
Understanding Our Spiritual Identity Through Higher Order Thinking
Sister Clare Fitzgerald from Boston College made a profound impact on Saskatchewan Catholic educators during her whirlwind speaking tour in 2000 and 2001. One of Sister Clare's trademark quotes is:
"To be Catholic is to be intellectual."
 |
Sister Clare's assertion is very defenceable from a Catholic education perspective. The cultivation of the Catholic mind was the directive ideal of Catholic education during the first half of the last century. It is the ideal of Christian education proposed by Pius XI in his encyclical Divini illius magistri. Indeed, Catholic theologians and philosophers have written much through the ages on the importance of developing the human mind through education. Higher order thinking and intellectual pursuits are central to the mission of Catholic education. |
| Shimabukuro (2000) and Jones
(1997) both speak of the need to develop each and every child's higher
order thinking in accordance with their God given potential. While Multiple
Intelligences theory provides the context, higher order thinking tools such
as Bloom's
Taxonomy provides the way.
Click on any of the following sites and choose one higher level thinking strategy that would allow for a religious dimension in a secular curriculum:
|
 |
Instructional Design for "Affective" Learning
As the previous discussion has indicated, Catholic schools must indeed teach to the whole child in a manner that addresses their Multiple Intelligences and their Higher Order Thinking potential. These include the physical, the intellectual and the spiritual. However, none of these pursuits are value neutral and all have an emotional aspect which research refers to as the affective domain. Dr. Robert Kealey, who currently serves as the executive director of the NCEA Department of Elementary Schools writes:
"A school
that has the most excellent reading skills program, but does not foster appreciation
of reading good literature is stifling the growth of students. A social studies
program that results in all students being able to recite facts related to civil
rights, but does not result in students treating one another differently, is
a sham. A science program, in which the children can replicate all types of
experiments, but does not produce students concerned with the environment, is
useless. The affective growth of students… leads students to make a commitment
to a certain way of acting…. It is an integral part of all subjects and all
lessons…. The affective becomes the basis for the cognitive and the motivation
for further cognitive learning. And at the same time, the cognitive supplies
the information needed to form attitudes, values, and appreciations."
"If we don't have the affective, we'll never be effective."
This one sentence from the pen of Father Ronald Nuzzi perhaps says more about the challenge of Catholic curriculum design and effectiveness than more lengthy dissertations on the same topic. If we want to effectively design instruction around affective learning, we need to be clear on what exactly it is. A useful device for teachers is this pyramid model which defines five distinct levels of affective learning (Krathwol, Bloom, Masia, 1964):
Taxonomy in the Affective (Feeling) Domain
|
 |
St. Thomas Aquinas: Pioneer of Cognitive and Affective Learning
 |
While we often like to think that our knowledge of higher order thinking is a development of the last century, it was St. Thomas Aquinas who identified that there is both a cognitive and affective dimension to faith and learning. He spoke of the faith I believe, and the knowledge by which that faith develops. That faith, according to Thomas, involves the formalization of our understanding of God in creeds and doctrines, and an act of assent or will to God that causes us to feel and believe in a certain way. Knowing God, therefore, is not just a process of the intellect, but also a process of faith, which is informed by both the cognitive and affective domains. Faith knowing is a deep and intimate recognition and awareness of the revelation of God. |
Resources:
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind. Basic Books. New York.
Jones, Doreen F. (Jan./Feb, 1997). "Multiple Intelligence and Assessment". Today's Catholic Teacher. Vol. 30, no. 4.
Kealy, Robert J. (1985). Curriculum in the Catholic School. NCEA Keynote Series, No. 9. National Catholic Educational Association.
Krathwol, D.R., B.S. Bloom, and B.B. Masia (1964). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in The Classification of Educational Goals. Handbook II: Affective Domain. New York: David McKay.
Nuzzi, Ronald. (Nov./Dec., 1997). "Many Ways: Multiple Intelligences Theory". Today's Catholic Teacher. Vol. 31, no. 3.
Nuzzi, Ronald (April/May 1997) "A Multiple Intelligence Approach". Momentum. Vol. 28, no. 2.
Shimabukuro, Gini. (2000). "Teaching and Learning in the Catholic School". Catholic School Leadership: An Invitation to Lead. Falmer Press. London and New York.
Excellent Sites On Multiple Intelligences
