As another of the practitioners who participated in the AMI study, I  
have been following the discussion on this listserve with a lot of  
interest.  I think Silja stated the view of the AMI study that  
captures the work we did very well.  One of the most salient parts of  
that study for me, as a teacher, was the reaction of my students as  
they grew to know more about how they learned.  Though the reactions  
and observations are "only" anecdotal, there were changes in students  
that I have seen endure over the years that resulted from the  
activities and understandings we explored in class.

As an adult ed teacher whose background is in the field of  
bacteriology and life sciences I personally had a bit of a learning  
curve when it came to field-based practitioner research, but realized  
that the procedures  of the laboratory could not be duplicated with  
human beings, nor probably should it be, but that an equally effective  
model was available to us.  We realized that as we were working, our  
"subjects" were changing, and we could never go back to "square one"-  
there are no fresh petri dishes to pour, these are real people  
participating in this study.

And I clearly remember our group being cautioned that MI as a theory  
was never intended by Gardner to be the basis of educational practice,  
and that he was not comfortable with how the theory had been used by  
some in terms of structuring curriculum and so on.  If memory serves  
me, I believe that most of the practitioners in our study felt MI was  
more generally instructive, along the lines of the way Wendy explained  
it in an earlier posting.

Personally, I believe I was more "changed and improved" in my practice  
for knowing more about learing and my own strengths and weaknesses  
than perhaps any of my students were, though I am pleased to report  
that one of my former students told me recently that she felt the  
class we had was a real turning point for her and that she would not  
have gone on to earn two associate's degrees if she had not had the  
experience. It's only hearsay, but it's the kind that matters.

Respectfully,

Bonnie Fortini, Machias Adult & Community Education, Machias, Maine