P-+Multiple+Intelligence

**Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences**
by Julie Fox, Fall 2008, ITEC 800 midterm



A brief introduction to Howard Gardner helps to explain how he arrived at his educational theories. His Jewish parents resided in Nazi Germany, and in 1938, escaped to America with their son Eric. Just before the birth of their second child, Howard, Eric died in a sledding accident. From that moment on, the Gardners encouraged intellectual, not physical, pursuits, although they never discussed either event with their son. It was only as Howard became older that he began to probe his family’s history—and discovered just how different he was from them and many of his peers. It was when he went to Harvard and began to study under individuals engaged in studying about humans that he, too, became interested in how human beings think.
 * Background**

As Gardner continued his education and research at Harvard, he became familiar with other leading theorists’ positions on human cognition. The common belief was that people had a general intelligence, often referred to as “g,” that was based upon a combination of logical and linguistic abilities.
 * Theory**

Gardner disagreed. He based his theory upon three different realms of observation. First, people suffering from brain damage typically suffer from damage only to a specific cognitive domain, such as language or physical functioning. Second, that people do not perform equally well in all skill areas found in today’s society; they may be amazing artists but show little athletic prowess, or they easily communicate with others but have difficulty keeping financial records. Finally, he looked at prodigies, savants, and others that exhibit talents in specific domains.

These observations led Gardner to believe that people have different domains of intelligence (and he did desire to call them intelligences, rather than gifts or abilities), which was explored in his 1983 book Frames of Mind. Each domain is characterized by specific capabilities people excel in if they are gifted in this specific intelligence. Each is also valued in at least one cultural setting.

Originally, he identified seven intelligences, although naturalist is commonly accepted to be the eighth: • Use language for a specific outcome • Use language to remember information || Journalists, poets, lawyers, linguists, translators || • Recognize patterns • Solve mathematical operations • Identify cause and effect || Scientists, researchers, statisticians, mathematicians || • Understands connections between sounds and feelings || Composers, singers, musicians, voice coaches || • Re-create, transform, or modify aspects of the world based on perceptions • Understands connections between images and meanings || Sculptors, architects, inventors, artists, photographers || • Use body or parts to solve problems • Hand-eye coordination || Dancers, athletes, actors, firefighters, acupuncturists || others • Respond appropriately to moods and temperaments of others || Therapists, educators, salespeople, political leaders || intelligences • Use knowledge of self to guide behavior || Doesn’t suggest specific job types—seen among those with a “mature emotional response” || world • Classify varieties of plants and animals || Biologists, anthropologists ||
 * **Intelligence** || **Capabilities** || **Exemplary Jobs** ||
 * Linguistic || • Learn languages
 * Logical-Mathematical || • Analyze problems logically
 * Musical || • Recognize pitch, melody, tone, and rhythm
 * Spatial || • Perceive visual world accurately
 * Bodily-kinesthetic || • Strong physical agility and balance
 * Interpersonal || • Understand intentions, motivations, and desires of
 * Intrapersonal || • Identify strengths, weaknesses, desires, and
 * Naturalist || • Recognize similarities and differences in the physical

Gardner believes that more intelligences exist, such as existential (ability to answer big questions); however, the difficulty lies in accurately defining them. The first intelligences are clearly illustrative in what we see and how we describe them. The “new” intelligences are not so clear-cut, and in trying to define them, must make a moral judgment about the appropriateness of a person’s beliefs. It is for this reason that no other intelligences have been added to his list thus far.

In the 1990’s, Gardner clarified his use of the term intelligence. He identified three ways in which intelligence may be used. First, he clarified that all humans have each of his intelligences; second, that each human’s strengths and weaknesses in the intelligences varies; and finally, that how people apply their intelligences is unique to their own goals—including pleasant or unpleasant uses.

Interestingly, Gardner wrote this from the standpoint of a psychologist, though he felt it necessary to include information on the educational implications of his theory. Ironically, educators, not psychologists, embraced it.
 * Testing for Multiple Intelligences**

Educators immediately clung to the idea in the hopes that they could better provide instruction for their students. Gardner (2003) “always maintained that [he] was a psychologist and not an educator, and did not presume to know how best to teach a class of young persons or run an elementary or secondary school” (p. 6).

Educators wanted a way to measure and gauge intelligence to better suit the needs of their students. This pushed Gardner in the direction of researching tasks that could accurately assess several intelligences with young children. He worked in collaboration with others on this project, termed Project Spectrum, until determined that he did not enjoy developing assessments. He has since left the discipline open for other researchers to study.

First of all, MI is NOT an educational goal. Instead, it is a tool, a way of thinking about where people’s intelligences lay. It opens the idea that there is not one way to teach and one way to learn, but several ways. It encourages methodology that allows students to grasp the material best.
 * Implications for Instruction**

In the past, intelligence has been based on student scores on intelligence tests. These tests gauged a student’s aptitude to acquire knowledge but focused on specific domains—typically, the equivalent of Linguistic and Logical-Mathematical Intelligences under MI. This test labeled students as smart or not smart. Students who tested as “smart” typically did well in school because they were strong in the intelligences valued in schools. The rest of the students tended to struggle in school, earning such nasty labels as “stupid” and “dumb.”

MI allows students and teachers to change the way they think about these individuals. Instead of labeling these students based upon one particular score, teachers can look at students’ other intelligences. Under MI, these students may be highly intelligent under Music, Spatial or Interpersonal Intelligences.

Outside of the traditional classroom, they are very successful. MI takes away the stigma a struggling student achieves; that just because individuals struggle academically, they are not condemned to a life of failure.

Gardner suggests that most people’s strengths lie within three intelligences. People prefer to learn in a manner consistent with their strong intelligences simply because it is easier to acquire knowledge.

When students are expected to learn material through an intelligence that they are weak in, they become stressed. They encounter difficulty when trying to understand the material through a poorly developed intelligence. The resulting stress results in an overall reluctance to learn.

The best way to counteract this effect in reluctant learners is to develop a positive response to learning by tailoring instruction to their strong intelligences. Slowly, the reluctance to learn is replaced by a positive association with learning. With this accomplished, students are more apt to risk learning through and strengthening their weak intelligences.

An important implication concerning MI is the idea that instruction and assessment should be tailored to address as many different intelligences as possible. This allows multiple learners to benefit from their strong intelligences as much as they are able. For this to be successful, however, Gardner suggests that students learn to understand their strengths and weaknesses in each of the different intelligences.

In so much as they are able, Gardner also suggests that everyone should try to develop EACH intelligence. Even though he believes that each person will continue to have three dominant intelligences, there are times in life where it is necessary to have skills in a specific intelligence. For example, when a person is travelling, it is important to have good Interpersonal Intelligence even though back home the person is an artist (strong Spatial Intelligence) and works in a studio alone.

It is important to note, however, that each intelligence is not adaptive to every topic or subject taught, and teachers need to be wise in how they utilize MI in instruction. It would be ridiculous to expect students to learn to play musical notes (to focus on Musical Intelligence) in order to learn the alphabet, because of the simple fact that notes are named with letters A-G—one has NOTHING to do with the other. A wise and common use of MI is to teach the alphabet through song, which also focuses on Musical Intelligence.

One final implication for instruction is the amount of content taught. Gardner asserts that it is important to cover some material in depth rather than try to cover a huge breadth of topics poorly. His position is that students need to become knowledgeable about a topic before they are able to understand and interpret that content. For students to have the time to develop a deep understanding on a particular topic, time is taken away from something else. Thoughtful planning must occur so that necessary content is not neglected.

One positive result of making important decisions about what to cover in depth results in teachers having the necessary time to adapt their instruction to meet their students’ needs. In any classroom, one finds a variety of MI among students, and proper time must be taken to develop instruction to help all learners be successful. In addition, after proper time has been allocated for students to deeply understand material, sufficient time should be allocated for development of assessment. Students should be allowed to develop creative assessments that display a synthesis of their understanding in ways that reflect their strong intelligences.

One article by Veenema and Gardner (1996) gave an example of utilizing the “new” technology of CD-Roms to address MI. It discussed a particular battle called the Battle of Sharpsburg during the Civil War. Textbooks are notorious for trying to present an impartial historical view. However, there are two sides to every event, and this battle was particularly vital to the outcome of the war for both sides.
 * Role of Technology**

The CD-Rom was an interactive tool that allowed students choice in how the content was presented. It shared primary source material (photos, drawings, news, and other reports), took students to the location of the battle, and displayed historical artifacts for students to study. There was both pictorial and textual content on the CD. Through these various methods, students of varying MI could get a true understanding of the causes and effects of the battle.

Twelve years later, we have even more tools available to us through the World Wide Web. These tools can be used in the classroom in order to effectively convey content to learners with a variety of strong MI. It just takes creative thinking and time in order to make sure they are properly utilized.

Gardner recognizes that others have suggested additional intelligences. His take on the matter is that one must make a judgment call about what constitutes and intelligence. For this reason, he believes that in the future, others may add to the list or even combine two or more of the aforementioned intelligences.
 * The Future of MI**

He also lays forth ideas in where he believes future studies should focus. First, he suggests that there should be systematic study into how intelligences have helped shape important disciplines of study, or vice versa. Gardner also suggests that study into the biological nature of MI be examined with today’s technologies.

This is my fifth year teaching middle school. I teach reading and computers presently, and have taught Language Arts and Social Studies in the past. I have always worked with struggling students who are behind in their learning. My students are often uninterested in school and the work they are given. They find school difficult and have met with so much failure in the past that it is easier to not try anymore rather than fail again and again.
 * MI in My Life**

MI theory is a way of looking at my students in a new way. Traditional intelligence and success in school is based on strengths in the Linguistic and Logical-Mathematical domains—the domains in which my students tend to be weak. However, when I look at MI, I discover that my students are intelligent under this theory—though I don’t assess them based on any test, simply through casual conversation and informal observations. My students are often successful artists (Spatial Intelligence), accomplished athletes (Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence), and talented musicians (Musical Intelligence).

If I am able to find ways to incorporate their strengths in these other intelligences in my classroom teachings, I have a much better chance at helping my students be successful. This is not to say that in order to teach my students to read better, I’m going to have them throw a football around, because this doesn’t make sense. Not all intelligences are able to be utilized to teach every idea and concept. However, it does mean that I may teach poetry through the lyrics in popular songs or ask students to sketch out the plot of a story.

Differentiation is a big topic for discussion in education these days in order to teach students and assess their learning. Differentiation is a big word that simply means to personalize the learning for students who learn in many ways. It acknowledges that each child is a unique learner, and that in order for education to be successful for all students, we need to help students learn in the ways they can be most successful. Basically, it gives credence to the theory of MI.

As a result of this push toward differentiation, teachers are expected to modify their teachings in a classroom so that each student can be successful. We are taught that we may modify how we teach the content as well as how we assess students. The suggestions for how to teach and assess under the differentiated instruction model, or DI, align with Gardner’s theory on MI. A third modification under DI, I should mention, is to make the topic of interest to students.

For me, trying to reach students who are turned off by school already, I typically find success in making gains with students the more I am able to personalize their learning. When I tune my instruction into their dominant intelligences, students try because they are more confident they will be successful. When students have choices with regards to their assessment, they typically opt for what they think will be easiest for them—which correlates to what their dominant intelligences are.

It was for this reason that I chose to examine MI on my midterm. I have studied it briefly in a variety of settings and have used that information in my classroom from time to time. I figured that the more knowledge I had on this topic, the more likely I was to be able to successfully apply it with my students over time. This much closer look at MI has certainly helped me become more familiar with the theory and its implications for my classroom teaching.

Berk, L. E. (2002). Infants, children, and adolescents. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
 * Bibliography**

Chapman, A. (2008). Howard Gardner's mutliple intelligences. Retrieved November 3, 2008, from Businessballs Web site: http://www.businessballs.com/howardgardnermultipleintelligences.htm.

Eggen, P. & Kauchak, D. (2004). Educational psychology: Windows on classrooms. Columbus, OH: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.

Gardner, H. (2000). Can technology exploit our many ways of knowing?. //The Digital Classroom//, pp. 32-35.

Gardner, H. (2003). Multiple intelligences after twenty years. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, April 21, 2003. Available for download at http://www.howardgardner.com/Papers/papers.html.

Smith, M. K. (2002). Howard Gardner, multiple intelligences and education. Retrieved November 1, 2008, from The Encyclopedia of Informal Education Web site: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm.

Veenema, S. & Gardner, H. (1996, Nov/Dec). Multimedia and Multiple Intelligences. //The American Prospect//, pp. 69-75. Based on a presentation at M.I.T., Cambridge, MA, June 4, 1996. Available for download at http://www.howardgardner.com/MI/mi.html.