Howard Gardners MI

Multiple Intelligence

As a teacher it will always be my responsibility to keep up to date on new research done on learning theories. That way I am able to provide a fun and exciting learning environment for my students. After learning about Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences I now realize how important it is to make sure I work hard to include every child into my curriculum. Gardner’s theory is that everyone is able to recognize a student that does scores great on an exam is smart, that does not mean that a student that falls short of doing good on the same test is not as brilliant as the other student. Howard Gardner’s, theory opposes traditional methods that view intelligences as unitary, and perceives intelligence to contain eight domains. Gardner believes there is several different intelligences that each person embodies in certain magnitudes. Having more of a particular intelligence than another will change has each person retain information. As a child growing up in public elementary schools, I was taught from a traditional methods. These methods focused mainly on verbal and mathematical skills. If a student is anyone of the other six proposed intelligences, he or she would most likely do unsatisfactorily in school. Howard Gardner’s eight intelligences are: body/ kinesthetic, naturalist, visual/ spatial, musical/ rhythmic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, verbal/ linguistic, and logical/ mathematical.

Body/ kinesthetic is one of the first intelligences we’ll explore. This kind of learner has the skill to manipulate body motion and manage things with skill. Also the body/ kinesthetic learner obtains great hand eye coordination and has an excellent sense of balance. Interacting with the space around them is the way in which this learner processes information. The body/ kinesthetic learner can be a handful in a classroom, and as a student it may be difficult for this type of person to sit still. A teacher needs to give this student breaks and let them move around. Also, as part of the curriculum a teacher could include activity centers and allow the students to act out stories. The second intelligence is the naturalist student. This student has an understanding of the natural world around them. The naturalist thrives when learning about plants, animals, science. They have an understanding for animals behaviors and needs. ...

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...nguist enjoy writing poetry, stories and letters. The traditional curriculum appeals to this learner. They are very good at reading and writing which is already the main method of teaching in most classrooms. A teacher can use a story to introduce a math problem in order to tap into this style of learning. Finally, logical/ mathematical is the proposed eighth intelligence. This style is heavily implemented in the traditional curriculum. This student will be able to do very complex math problems. Children who use logic and math as a primary way of learning will be very obvious in the classroom. This student will ask many questions and loves doing experiments. The logical/ mathematical learner will excel if they are help to place information into categories.

If a teacher assesses their students at the beginning of the school year, he or she can create lessons to incorporate each student. This will allow children to have fun in school and they will be excited about learning. Recognizing your students learning method will allow the teacher to balance the weaknesses and benefit from strengths.

Gardner, H. (1988). Frames of mind. New York: Basic Books.