The theory of multiple intelligences was developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University. It suggest that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, is far too limited. Instead, Dr. Gardner proposes eight different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults.
These intelligences are:
• Linguistic intelligence (word smart)
• Logical mathematical intelligence. (Number/reasoning smart)
• Spatial intelligence (picture smart)
• Bodily Kinesthetic intelligence (body smart)
• Musical Intelligence ( Music smart)
• Interpersonal Intelligence (people smart)
• Intrapersonal intelligence (self smart)
• Naturalistic intelligence (nature smart)
• Existential Intelligence
Linguistic Intelligence
Linguistic intelligence is the
use of spoken or written language. Giving regular opportunities for achievement
in both is important because some auditory learners need to hear information,
which helps the learners who need to speak the information in order to learn
it.
Because reading and writing is
the key to success in most lives, the linguistic must not be neglected, and A
Core tools make a linguistic link, visual link, and help student get the
learning through the fingers. These tools take the student through the entire
cycle:
They show how to Log
assignments, analyze information individually and in groups, and how to
synthesize information into personal and group projects, and finally how to
evaluate the process of learning. The tools guide the learner in reflection and
goal setting.
Logical/Mathematical Intelligence
The logical intelligence is naturally used in conjunction with all types of intelligence. The organization of thought and movements play a large part In all human activity. Categorizing, sequencing, comparing and reaching conclusion are functions of logical intelligence. Even the new idea or invention that is a result of creativity (lateral thinking) can be viewed as a logical end product to the creative person. Most students find the exclusion of their particular multiple intelligence quotient (MIQ) illogical, so to gain credibility teachers must honor all intelligence by developing them. The activities and assignment used to develop skills in all types of intelligence must seem logically connected.
Spatial Intelligence
We use spatial intelligence whenever we move through space: sports, dancing or just walking around. An expert, however, can create with space. A gifted student can create astounding feats with the body, perhaps judging direction, proximity, and movement, and create alternative plans and make midair adjustments.
Others can manipulate an imaginary object in space. Spatial creativity may also enable student to draw, make up dances, stories, and invent new things. Weekly assignment of visualizations stories and other projects develop spatial intelligence.
Lateral creative thinking is
used in creating, inventing and in understanding the big picture. Those who
possess genius in spatila intelligence may develop wisdom or the ability to
learn from experience and have a strong sense of “where they are.”
Bodily Kinesthetic Intelligence
Kinesthetic
intelligence is the kinetic movement of the body in space and the inner space
movement of the emotions. A wide range of abilities, from the broad motor
skills of sport to the fine motor skills needed for writing, awaits
development.
Communication of emotions through the body or, just as important, the control of the emotions can be developed.
Acting, and other forms of
presenting ideas or emotions through movement of the body areas important to
kinesthetic development as are getting ideas and emotions through the fingers
in writing or the manipulation of other tools or machines. A student might need
to use movement in order to understand, while others might benefit from seeing
movement to understand. Diverse kinesthetic approaches create learning
opportunities.
Musical Intelligence
All people possess musical
intelligence if only to navigate their environment. We detect many kinds of
environmental sounds. Some people hum or drum to the rhythm of sounds they
hear. Most are able to detect patterns in the music they enjoy. Some can
develop their musical intelligence to recognize the patterns individual
performers and composers use.
The expert can create patterns, recognizable by others. Some musical experts create notes, some create words, some create rhythms with movement such as dance and drumming. Student possess differing degrees of expertise, but all are affected, usually positively, by the addition of music to the environment, activities, assignments, projects, and evaluations in a Core Classroom. When all assignments and activates are cored, music gets connected.
Interpersonal Intelligence
How well we connect to our communities and keep a sense of where are in relation to others reflect how much our interpersonal intelligence is developed. This skill is prized above all others in the business of the world; many classify it as the key to success in the future.
This skill enables us to form meaning ful personal relationships. Working toward common goal and learning to share tasks develops interpersonal skill. A Core classroom provides training in interpersonal skills as students work towards common goals and share task equitably.
Regular team building activities and meaningful group projects allow leaders to emerge. Those gifted should be given the chance to help create a sense of community in the classroom; they will practice for their future personal, work, and global communities.
Intrapersonal Intelligence
A sense of self is the basic aspect of intrapersonal intelligence. Those with intrapersonal skill learn to cope with the world around them. Knowledge of self through reflection is especially important to help student mature in social context. Therefore intra personal skill helps develop inter-personal skill.
Knowing and accepting self is the first step in understanding and accepting others, which is essential in learning to cope. Time to reflect on the process of interacting is important in gaining self-knowledge. Students need ample reflective time to develop intrapersonal skills.
They need time to reflect on the usefulness of what they have learned and to set meaningful long and short term goals to use their new learning. Those who understand their own motivations and needs excel in intrapersonal skills.
Naturalistic Intelligence
The naturalist intelligence involves the full range of knowing that occurs in and through our encounters with the natural world including our recognition, appreciation, and understanding of the natural environment. It involves such capacities as species discernment, communion with the natural world and its phenomena, and the ability to recognize and classify various flora and fauna.
If the naturalist intelligence
is one of your strengths you have profound love for the outdoors, animals,
plants and almost any natural object. You are probably fascinated by and
noticeably affected by such things as weather, changing leaves in the fall, the
sound of the wind, the ward sun or lack thereof, or an insect in the room.
At a young age you were likely
nature collectors, adding such things as bugs, rocks, leaves, seashells, stick
and so on to your collections. You probably brought home all manner and kinds
of stray animals and today you may have several pets and want more. You tend to
have an affinity with and respect for all living beings.
Existential intelligence
Existential
intelligence is concerned with ultimate issues, and is next to be possibility
considered by Gardner as he argues that it scores reasonably well on the
criteria. However empirical evidence is sparse – and although a ninth
intelligence might be attractive, Gardner is not disposed to add it to the
list.
He said that he finds the
phenomenon perplexing enough and the distance from the other intelligences vast
enough to dictate prudence – at least for now.
NOTE:
Moral
intelligence is the final and obvious candidate for inclusion in Gardner’s
list.
In his exploration, he begins by asking whether it is possible to delineate the moral domain. He suggest that it is difficult to come to any consensual definition, but argues that it is possible to come to an understanding that takes exploration forward.
Central to a moral domain, Gardner suggests, is a concern with those rules, behaviors and attitudes that govern the sanctity of life in particular, the sanctity to human life and, in many cases, the sanctity of any other living creatures and the world they inhabit.
Gardner contends that, if man accepts the existence of a moral realm is it then possible to speak of moral intelligence? If it connotes the adoption of any specific moral code then Gardner does not find the term moral intelligence acceptable. Furthermore, he argues researchers and writers have not as yet captured the essence of the moral domain as an instance of human intelligence.
He construed that the central component in the moral realms or domain is a sense of personal agency and personal stake, a realization that one has an irreducible role with respect to other people and that one’s behavior towards others must reflect the result of contextualized analysis and the exercise of one’s will.
The fulfillment of key roles certainly requires a range of human intelligences – including personal, linguistic, logical and perhaps existential – but it is fundamentally a statement about the kind of person statement about personality, individuality, will, character- and in the happiest cases, about the highest realization of human nature. (Gardner 1983).
One of the
components of Gardner’s definition of intelligence is that there be a
particular representation for that ability in the brain. Garner’s theory of
multiple intelligence radically altered the global community’s view of human
intelligence.
The standard view of
intelligence has been that intelligence is something you are born with; you
only have a finite amount of it and there are tests that tell you how smart you
are. “The theory of multiple intelligences challenges that view. It asks,
instead, “Given what we know about the brain evolution, and the differences in cultures,
what are the sets of human abilities we all share? An interesting sidebar is
that not everyone is strong in the same areas. Just as we look different on the
outside, internally we learn differently.
Prior to his proposal, schools were predominantly emphasizing two of the eight intelligences cited by Gardner – the Linguistic and Logical-Mathematical. If we consider the traditional teaching styles practiced in the classroom and the tests that are given to measure the knowledge gained by an individual student, it is clear that those students who are naturally strong in the Linguistic and Logical Mathematical intelligences will perform well on standardized tests.
It is reasonable to assume also that those students who do well on such tests will perform well overall in school because the tools used (logically constructed text books) and the mode by which they are taught to students (mainly lecture) are geared toward the two previously mentioned intelligences.
To assume that all children – individuals are the same would be to deny a huge segment of the population a proper education. Is great for those who are part of the Linguistic and/or Logical intelligences but detrimental to those who are not.
The fervor with which educators embraced his premise that we have multiple intelligences surprised even Gardner himself. “It obviously spoke to some sense that people had that kids weren’t all the same and that the tests we had only skimmed the surface about the differences among kids “Gardner said.
In terms of IQ and measuring IQ with standardized tests, those tests were designed to weed out individuals who would perform poorly in school. Tests, it should be added that only measure Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, and occasionally spatial abilities, do not allow for the quantification of a person’s creativity for example or any other strength of their character.
Gardner believes that the SAT’s and IQ tests do not necessarily predict one’s success in college and in life. A high IQ result is not even good predictor of success in life. Nor does it correlate with ones level of happiness, of economic success, of success in relationships.
Gardner’s theory and its implications within the realm of education certainly help to explain why some people are better at certain things than others. An interesting offspring of Gardner’s theory is the exploration of the role that an individual’s environment has in his/her success and or survival in that environment.
If, for example, an individual grew up in the wilderness without significant bodily- kinesthetic intelligence, that facet of intelligence would either have to be developed or that individual may not survive. Gardner’s theory allows room for development of the various intelligences through biological and social means.
He stresses the need for a combination of the eight intelligences so that each individual may learn about and understand the world around them. Gardner says, “What I argue against is the notion that there’s only one way to learn how to read, only one way to learn how to compute, only one way to learn about biology. I think that such contentions are nonsense”.
Gardner claimed that his theory was conceptualized when he observed brain damage and what could happen to people when they had strokes. When a person has a stroke, certain part of the brain gets injured, and that injury can tell you what that part of the brain does. Individuals who lose their musical abilities can still talk.
People who lose their linguistic ability still might be able to sing. That understanding not only brought me into the whole world of brain study, but it was really the seed that led ultimately to the theory of multiple intelligences. As long as a person can lose one’s ability while others are spared, he cannot just have a single intelligence, he has to have several intelligences.
Intelligence remains a primary attribute of the human race and Gardner’s views shed light not only on social constructions but also on theories of biological survival within the human race. We will undoubtedly use these insights, along with advancements in the studies of neuroscience to better understand the world around us and our role in that world.
Gardner’s
work has been marked by a desire not to just describe the world but to help
create the conditions to change it. The scale of his contribution can be gauged
from following comments in his introduction to the tenth anniversary edition of
Howard Gardner’s classic work Frames of Mind: The theory of multiple
intelligences.
In the heyday
of the psychometric and behaviorist eras, it was generally believed that
intelligence was a single entity that was inherited; and that human beings –
initially a blank slate – could be trained to learn anything, provided that it
was presented in an appropriate way. Nowadays an increasing number of
researchers believe precisely the opposite; that there exist a multitude of
intelligences, quite independent of each other that each intelligence has its
own strengths and constraints that the mind is far from unencumbered at birth;
and that it is unexpectedly difficult to teach things that go against early
“naïve” theories of that challenge the natural lines of force within an
intelligence and its matching domains. (Gardner 1993)
Gardner’s
work around multiple intelligences has had a profound impact on thinking and
practice education- especially in the United States. Here we explore the theory
of multiple intelligences; why it has found a ready audience amongst
educationalist; and some of the issues around its conceptualization and
realization.