The Standford-Binet Intelligence Test is the most commonly used standardized test to measure intelligence. Schools are using these standardized tests as a benchmark to place a child’s cognitive ability but these tests have been highly criticized for failing our children. These tests are both biased and subjective and teachers are being forced to “teach to the test”. Standardized tests are an unreliable form of measurement because the standards were originally based on educated white men. They were ethnically biased towards those that are non-white and non-English speaking. For example, when African Americans were first integrated into the school system during the 1950’s, they were looked down upon because they did not meet the standards set forth by the “white man”. From the sample of the population tested, a normal curve is used to determine where a child measures within the linear symmetry. Most children, approximately 50%, will fall within the median of the curve which is normal distribution. The issue is that not everyone can be linearly measured and such measures then act as a disservice towards children that do not fit the mold. The children that score below the norm are commonly labeled with a disease or are identified as special needs. It is not fair to use a “cookie cutter approach” to determine a child’s strengths and …show more content…
The nine abilities that Gardner focused on were Linguistic, Spatial, Logical, Musical, Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Naturalistic, and Spiritual. Each child has the ability to possess all the intelligences and one intelligence can be stronger while weaker in another. The benefit of multiple intelligences is that it allows educators to acknowledge several talents as oppose to measuring a child’s intelligence with an IQ
Gardner’s 8 intelligences, with the 8th one just recently being added to the intelligences, stated as “nature smart’. The core of this intelligence is the ability to recognize parts of the natural world such as plants, animals, clouds and rocks. He believes that this is not an intelligence that only certain nature girls or nature boys can achieve. This is an intelligence that all humans innately have. Although is hikjacked by the need to deal with the world of man-made objects. In the first chapter of this book this theory is supported by a statement from a research project that was conducted by the author in the 1980s; the author interviewed over three thousand children and parents throughout the country in urban, suburban and rural areas. One of the comments that stuck out to him the most was from a fourth grade boy that stated, “I like to play indoors better, ‘cause that’s where all of the electrical outlets
Howard Gardner used to define intelligence as “the ability to solve problems or to create products that are valued within one or more cultural settings” (Gardner 33). The modern day human being would most likely include the words “smart” and “dumb” in their definition of intelligence. Gardner questioned the belief of only one intelligence so he created his own theory that involved seven different discoveries. He didn’t want to call these discoveries “skills” or “talents” or gifts” because those all suggested a drawback so he decided on the word “intelligence,” creating his theory of multiple intelligences (Gardner 33). Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences including, linguistic, logical/mathematical, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, intrapersonal and interpersonal, has many implications for modern education and culture.
The Bell Curve is a book originally published in 1994. It was written by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray to explain the variations of intelligence in American Society. They accomplished this by using statistical analysis, for the purpose of raising warnings regarding the consequences of the intelligence gap. This was also made to propose a national social policy with the goal of mitigating bad consequences that have been attributed to this intelligence gap. Much of the information is widely considered controversial. An example of this is the low African-American scores compared to whites and Asians, and genetic factors in intelligence abilities. The introduction of the book starts with a brief history of intelligence theory and recent developments in intelligence thought and testing. The author creates six assumptions that has to do with the validity of the “classical” cognitive testing techniques.
Everyone goes through different experiences in life, just as everyone has different types of intelligences and skills. In total there are nine types of intelligences but there is only 2 listed using 3 paragraphs. These examples come from “Flowers for Algernon” or “Dakota Fullest Earns Nation’s Highest Folk Honor”. Some ways in which people demonstrate their knowledge and skill is through Howard Gardner’s Logical/ Mathematical , Bodily/ Kinesthetic , and Intrapersonal intelligences.
According to Howard Gardner (1991), every individual is born with a certain intelligence or potential intelligence. It is unfair to teach and/or assess an individual with a standard guideline or benchmark. This is mainly because every individual possess a different intellectual strength and different kinds of mind that learn, perform and understand in a different ways which is difficult to be changed. If an individual cannot understand the way we communicate, we should communicate in the way they can understand. Howard Gardner (1983), in his Multiple Intelligence Theory, proposes that human intelligence has seven dimensions that should be acknowledged and developed by the encouragement of learning and self-development and
Standardized tests have been used to see how much a child has learned over a certain period of time. These tests have been a highly debated issue with many parents and just people in general. In the article “Opting out of standardized tests? Wrong answer,” the author Michelle Rhee argues that people should not be trying to opt out of standardized tests because it allows the country to see how much a child has learned and the things they need to improve. On the other hand, in the article “Everything You’ve Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong,” the author Kristina Rizga argues that standardized tests are not an efficient way to measure a student’s intelligence.
Howard Gardner’s theory contains eight main multiple intelligence. As the years have progressed there have taken one out and is left with the main seven. These seven are: Linguistic, Mathematical, Spatial, bodily, Musical, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal. These are found in everyone; however, each person will excel in one or two. Once teachers can determine what intelligence the students will exceed on and teach to their strengths the student will learn much more.
The Unconscious Bias of Intelligence Tests In the chapter entitled “The Hereditarian Theory of IQ: An American Invention” in The Mismeasure of Man (New York: Norton, 1996), Stephen Jay Gould analyzes the reasoning behind intelligence tests. Gould begins the chapter by stating how Alfred Binet, who studied the measurement of intelligence, began this endeavor in order to institute special education for learning-disabled and other disadvantaged children. Gould continues his analysis by reporting that three of Binet’s followers, H. H. Goddard (who brought Binet’s scale to America), Lewis M. Terman (who developed the Stanford- Binet scale), and Robert M. Yerkes (who persuaded the army to test the intelligence of 1.75 million men in World War I), corrupted Binet’s work and used his tests to measure an element they called “intelligence,” which ultimately resulted in peoplebeing labeled as either “intelligent” or “stupid.”
Overall it is evident that standardized testing has affected the education in the United States negatively. The main flaw is that policymakers made standardized testing the center of our education system, which intern led to vast changes in curriculum where educators were forced to teach to test rather than teaching materials that fosters creativity, and enhances knowledge. Howard Gardner, famous for his work on multiple intelligences, stated he was unconcerned that American children were ranked last among the major industrial nations in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. He reported that tests measure exposure to facts and skills not whether or not kids can think (Ritter 5).
In reality, people are a combination of most every single one of the intelligences and certain intelligences blend into one another. For instance, there is a reason people connect with actors, they not only are they strong with their own bodily-kinetics, they also can connect with an audience showing that they have a great intrapersonal intelligence. Even though Gardner says you can have a combination of the intelligences, the problem comes at drawing the line of which intelligences are greater in a person or which intelligence is more dominant in
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence focuses more on how numerical expressions of human intelligence are not a full and accurate depiction of people’s abilities (McFarlane, 2011). He includes and describes eight intelligences that are based on skills and abilities that are valued within different cultures. The eight intelligences include visual-spatial (e.g. sailor navigating with no navigational systems), verbal-linguistic (e.g. poets, writers, orators, and communicators), bodily-kinesthetic (e.g. dancers, athletes, surgeons, craftspeople), logical-mathematical (e.g. mathematicians and logicians), interpersonal(e.g. salespeople, teachers, clinicians, politicians, and religious leaders), musical (e.g. musicians and
The definition of intelligence becomes even more complicated when one considers the work of Howard Gardner. Gardner claims that intelligence can not be defined with one definition because intelligence is not one thing. Gardner purports that there are eight different categories of intelligence: musical, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. He is currently considering adding a ninth category of intelligence: existential (Carvin).
In 1983, Howard Gardner a Harvard professor proposed the theory that individual can have multiple ways of learning and processing information. The multiple intelligences consist of 9 different ways and these include: verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, existential, musical, naturalistic, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Every individual has a different amount of each intelligence but each intelligence is at a varying level. With the help of a multiple intelligences assessment, I found that my top three multiple intelligences are Intrapersonal, logical, and interpersonal. Within his research Gardner says that “Intrapersonal intelligence refers to people’s ability to recognize and assess those same characteristics
From this research Gardner’s multiple intelligence therapy was created. The multiple intelligence theory is based on the belief that everyone succeeds in at least one of the eight types intelligence, linguistic, mathematical, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalist. Each intelligence different from the other, however one person can strive at multiple intelligences or simply strive at one intelligence. Once Gardner released his book “frame of minds” in 1983 (Gardner’s multiple intelligence) the educational outlook on student’s success started to transform. With a new understanding that each student is different educationally then it became clear that students obtain education differently as well, the modern day class room transformed to fit each
Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard, introduced his theory of multiple intelligences in 1983. Multiple intelligence’s is a theory about the brain that says human beings are born with single intelligence that cannot be changed, and is measurable by a psychologist. Gardner believes that there are eight different intelligences in humans. The eight are verbal linguistic, visual spatial, bodily kinesthetic, mathematical logic, musical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist. Understanding these intelligence’s will help us to design our classroom and curriculum in a way that will appeal to all of our students. We might also be able to curve discipline problems by reaching a student in a different way. One that will make more sense to them and more enjoyable. We can include all of the intelligences in lessons to accommodate all of the students’ different learning styles at once. By reaching each students intelligence we can assume that a student will perform better which, could mean students retaining more important information. A students learning style can also help lead them into a more appropriate career direction. As a teacher you can also learn your own personal learning style or intelligence to help improve the way you learn and teach.