Title: Intelligence – between human and machine

Lesson plan elaborated by: Katarzyna Maciejak

Topic:

Intelligence – between human and machine.

Target group:

7th‑grade students of an eight‑year elementary school.

Core curriculum

1. Literary and cultural education.

2) Reading literary works. Student:

6) knows the concept of irony, recognizes it in texts and defines its functions;

7) defines existential issues in the texts being studied and reflects them;

8) defines the aesthetic values of the literary texts being studied;

9) uses in the interpretation of literary works references to universal values related to social, national, religious and ethical attitudes and makes them hierarchy.

3. Creating statements.

4) Elements of rhetoric. Student:

7) agrees with other people's views or polemicizes with them, substantively justifying their own opinion.

5. Self‑education. Student:

6) reliably, with respect for copyrights, uses information.

The general aim of education

Students reflect on the basic values that distinguish people from machines.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• learning to learn;

• social and civic competences.

Operational objectives

Student:

• agrees with other people's views or polemicises with them, substantively justifying their own opinion;

• discusses the given topic;

• gathers arguments for discussion based on the text read;

• practices reading comprehension;

• characterises the types of intelligence distinguished by Gardner.

Methods / techniques

• giving: talk;

• practical: discussion, exercise exercises;

• programmed: using a computer, using an e‑manual.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• collective activity.

Before the lesson

The students will get acquainted with a fragment of Bernard Beckett's novel in the abstract.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

1. The teacher determines the purpose of the class: the students will talk about the essence of humanity. Together with students, he/she formulates success criteria.

2. The teacher encourages students to think about what intelligence is. Help questions:

• Is intelligence characteristic only to human?

• Can a machine be intelligent?

Realization

1. Listing associations with the word intelligence (interactive task).

2. The teacher talks briefly about Bernard Becket and the novel Genezis, part of which the students should have read as the preparation for the lesson.

3. Students perform interactive task No. 3 – they decide on the basis of read text whether individual information is true or false.

4. Students perform interactive task No. 6 – they arrange features in the order that best reflects the sense of humanity (example features: cognitive curiosity, mortality, morality), they can also add their ideas.

5. The teacher asks students what it means „to be alive” for the characters of the text. Then the students create their own definitions (descriptions) of this state.

6. The teacher invites the students to the debate – he divides the class into two groups (accidental – so that everyone has to defend not necessarily their opinion – or according to the actual positions represented by the students). The first group will prove the superiority of man over the machine, and the second – machines over man. The students' task is to come up with as many convincing arguments as possible (they can be supported by text). The teacher or the chosen student sums up the debate.

7. The teacher tells students about the theory of multiple intelligentsia created by Howard Gardner, and then the students watch a presentation including a description of each type of intelligence (linguistic, musical, etc.) and example professions in which these predispositions can be used.

Summary

The teacher asks questions to summarize, e.g.

• What is intelligence?

• Is there one intelligence? Or maybe there are many, as Gardner says?

• What kind of intelligence would Garner's theory have machines? What else could the intelligence identified by the researcher have?

Homework

Think about which type of intelligence dominates in you. Justify your answer and write how you can develop it.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Intelligence: between human and machine

Intelligence is an amazing, fascinating property of a human mind. Without it, it would be impossible to learn, plan and act efficiently. No wonder that intelligence is of a high importance to people. We want to develop it and we appreciate it in other people. We examine intelligence scientifically, searching the answer to questions about its essence and action. We undertake efforts to create the artificial intelligence, and this project raises new questions. Doubts and challenges connected with artificial intelligence have inspired creators of science fiction to face this issue in their literary visions. Many valuable literary works raising questions regarding the artificial intelligence have been created. Very often these questions provoke more fundamental reflection – about the meaning and essence of humanity.

In 80s Of the 20th century, an American Psychologist, Howard Gardner, created the theory of multiple intelligences. He claimed that every person has different predispositions and marking them only on the basis of the IQ tests is insufficient. The researcher distinguished 8 types of intelligence.