But if you ask what is the good of education in general, the answer is easy:
that education makes good men, and that good men act nobly.
- Plato

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    Multiple Intelligences Learning Theory

    In Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intellegences,  Howard Gardner describes several ways in which
    people learn.(1) He describes these pathways to learning as follows:

    1. Linguistic (word smart)
    2. Logical-mathematical (number/reasoning smart)
    3. Spatial (picture smart)
    4. Bodily-Kinesthetic (body smart)
    5. Musical (music smart)
    6. Interpersonal (people smart)
    7. Intrapersonal (self smart)
    8. Naturalist (nature smart)

    Law enforcement officers, due to the nature of their training and work, use several of Gardners styles.
    Training academies require academic, physical fitness, and firearms qualifications. These skills require
    linguistic, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. At the training academy level,
    less emphasis is given to logical-mathematical skills, and no emphasis to musical, and naturalist learning
    styles.

    In the field, daily community contacts require officers to hone linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic and interpersonal
    skills. Complex investigations require the development and use of logical-mathematical skills.

    Concepts involving ethics focus on linguistic and logical-mathematical functions, requiring the application of
    reason towards determining right from wrong. Arguably then, police training and field experience is strong in
    the ethics-oriented area of linguistics but less so regarding logical-mathematical functions.


    Reference

    (1) Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic.  Retrieved
    August 22, 2002, from www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm

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    Collaborative / Facilitative Learning Theory

    Ethics teachers often use a collaborative or facilitating style of instruction. The joint-inquiry method of
    learning removes the instructor from the prophetic role of seer and master of all ethical knowledge and
    works to inspire students towards discovering their own paths towards ethical conduct. (1)

    For some instructors, the collaborative approach attempts to accomplish three educational goals:

    1. Heighten the student's ethical awareness
    2. Provide a means to identify ethical issues
    3. Help develop tools to clarify and resolve ethical issues

    According to Daniel Callahan and Sissell Bok (1980), ethics instructors must be careful to guard against
    using a "telling" approach. In their book, Ethics Teaching in Higher Education, (2) they state:

    No teacher of ethics can assume that he or she has such a solid grasp on the nature of         
    morality as to pretend to know what finally counts as good moral conduct....It is the time and
    place to teach them [students] intellectual independence, and to instill in them a             spirit
    of critical inquiry. (ibid.)

    In The Managing of Police Organizations, (1996), Whisenand and Ferguson (3) say,

    Moralizing about ethics is not very effective in sustaining or changing attitudes and behavior. "No one likes
    to be "should" upon!" Traditional lectures on ethics should be scrapped and replaced by group discussions
    (ibid.).


    References

    (1) Jones, J. R., & Carlson, D. P. (2001). Reputable Conduct: Ethical Issues in Policing and Corrections,  
    New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 47-48.

    (2) Bok, S. & Callahan, D. (ed.). (1980). Ethics Teaching in Higher Education, Cambridge, MA: Perseus,  
    71.    http://www.addall.com/Browse/Detail/0306405229.html

    (3) Whisenand, P. M., & Ferguson, R. F. (1996). The Managing of Police Organizations, (4th ed.).Upper
    Saddle, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 51.
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LEARNING THEORY
- GARDNER -

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
- Malcolm Forbes

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Dr. Frank Kardasz  P.O. Box 45048 Phoenix, AZ 85064
e-mail: kardasz@kardasz.org
blog: www.kardasz.org/blog/
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