Multiple Intelligences

 

Multiple Intelligences: An Overview

Via TeacherVision.com

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/intelligence/teaching-methods/3678.html

The Eight Intelligences Described

Almost eighty years after the first intelligence tests were developed, Howard Gardner challenged the view that something called "intelligence" could be objectively measured and reduced to a single number or "IQ" score. In his book Frames of Mind (Gardner 1983) he proposed the existence of at least eight basic intelligences. In his theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI theory), Gardner sought to broaden the scope of human potential beyond the confines of the IQ score and suggested that intelligence has more to do with the capacity for (1) solving problems and (2) fashioning products in a context-rich and naturalistic setting.

Here are Gardner's eight comprehensive categories or "intelligences":

Linguistic Intelligence:  The capacity to use words effectively, whether orally (e.g., as a storyteller, orator, or politician) or in writing (e.g., as a poet, playwright, editor, or journalist).

Does your child:

  • Enjoy listening to other people talking?
  • Get annoyed with people who use improper English? (for example,He don't know the answer.)
  • Like to learn new words?
  • Give good directions to others so that they understand the first time?
  • Like to tell stories?
  • Enjoy reading books?
  • Have a good memory for names, dates, and trivia?

If this sounds familiar, then your child might someday write a bestseller or become fluent in four languages.

Logical-Mathematical Intelligence:  The capacity to use numbers effectively (e.g., as a mathematician, tax accountant, or statistician) and to reason well (e.g., as a scientist, computer programmer, or logician)

Does your child:

  • Enjoy listening to other people talking?
  • Get annoyed with people who use improper English? (for example,He don't know the answer.)
  • Like to learn new words?
  • Give good directions to others so that they understand the first time?
  • Like to tell stories?
  • Enjoy reading books?
  • Have a good memory for names, dates, and trivia?

If so, then your child could one day design sky-scrapers or program computers.

Spatial Intelligence:  The ability to perceive the visual-spatial world accurately (e.g., as a hunter, scout, or guide) and to perform transformations upon those perceptions (e.g., as an interior decorator, architect, artist, or inventor).

Does your child:

  • Prefer to draw pictures rather than tell stories?
  • Find her way around a new place easily?
  • Like to take things apart and then try to figure out how to put them back together?
  • Read maps, charts, or diagrams more easily than text?
  • Daydream more than peers?
  • Build interesting three-dimensional constructions (like LEGO buildings)?
  • Doodle a lot on notebooks?

If this is your child, then she could grow up to paint a masterpiece or fix car engines.

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence:  Expertise in using one's whole body to express ideas and feelings (e.g., as an actor, a mime, an athlete, or a dancer) and facility in using one's hands to produce or transform things (e.g., as a craftsperson, sculptor, mechanic, or surgeon).

Does your child:

  • Find activities like riding a bicycle, skating, or walking on a balance beam easy?
  • Use a lot of hand gestures and body movement when talking to friends?
  • Run, swim, and exercise without getting tired?
  • Learn to play new sports easily and quickly?
  • Like to touch something she has just seen?
  • Report different physical sensations while thinking or working?
  • Cleverly mimic other people's gestures or mannerisms?
  • Move, tap, or fidget while seated for a long time in one spot?

If yes, then your child could develop into an expert skier or someone who amuses her friends with hilarious impersonations.

Musical Intelligence:  The capacity to perceive (e.g., as a music aficionado), discriminate (e.g., as a music critic), transform (e.g., as a composer), and express (e.g., as a performer) musical forms.

Does your child:

  • Enjoy playing a musical instrument?
  • Listen to music a lot?
  • Hum or sing a lot?
  • Cheer herself up with songs when she is sad?
  • Tell you when music sounds off-key?
  • Have a good singing voice?
  • Remember the melodies of songs?

If this is your child, then she may one day conduct a symphony or play in a steel drum band.

Interpersonal Intelligence:  The ability to perceive and make distinctions in the moods, intentions, motivations, and feelings of other people.

Does your child:

  • Like to work and play with other kids?
  • Understand how friends are feeling by looking at their faces?
  • Have two or more close friends?
  • Give advice to friends who have problems?
  • Have a good sense of empathy or concern for others?
  • Seem to be street-smart?
  • Seem to be a natural leader on teams?

If you answered yes to most of these, your child might become someone's favorite teacher or the CEO of a big company.

Intrapersonal Intelligence:  Self-knowledge and the ability to act adaptively on the basis of that knowledge.

 

Does your child:

  • Often need a quiet place to work or just be alone?
  • Like to make collections of things that have special meaning to her?
  • Remember her dreams?
  • Display a sense of independence or strong will?
  • Have a realistic sense of her strengths and weaknesses?
  • Have an interest or hobby that she doesn't talk much about?
  • Accurately express how she is feeling?

Sound familiar? Then your child could someday write great poetry or resist negative peer pressure and do the right thing for herself.

Naturalistic Intelligence:  The ability to easily recognize and classify plants, animals, and other things in nature.

Does your child:

  • Enjoy collecting bugs, flowers, or rocks?
  • Like to closely examine what she finds in nature?
  • Keep detailed records of her observations of nature?
  • Like to watch natural phenomena like the moon and the tides and hear explanations about them?
  • Become fascinated with one particular thing from nature and want to learn about it thoroughly?
  • Want to become a geologist, biologist, or some other type of scientist?

If your answer is yes, then your child could become an expert on paleontology or discover new ways to save the whales.

Read more on TeacherVision:http://www.teachervision.fen.com/intelligence/teaching-methods/3678.html#ixzz1fDdB6tbc

Note:When Howard Gardner wroteFrames of Mindin 1983, he deliberately limited his examination of human capacities to seven intelligences. Are there more? Yes. In fact, after this book was published Gardner added an eighth intelligence to the list. The Naturalist Intelligence is the ability to recognize plant or animal species in one's environment.

               

Click on Howard Gardner's picture to watch him explain his theory.