Multiple Intelligences

The Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Supporting the new paradigm of intelligence, Howard Gardner of Project Zero at Harvard
University has determined that intelligence is a pluralistic phenomenon, rather than a
static structure with a single type of intelligence. Gardner defines intelligence as:

• the ability to solve problems that one encounters in real life;

• the ability to generate new problems to solve;
• the ability to make something or offer a service that is valued within one's culture.
In his cross-cultural exploration of the ways in which people are intelligent, he has
identified seven distinct types of intelligences:
o Verbal/Linguistic
o Logical/Mathematical
o Musical
o Visual/Spatial
o Body/Kinesthetic
o Interpersonal
o Intrapersonal

According to Gardner's theory, one form of intelligence is not better than another; they
are equally valuable and viable (Gardner, 1983). Yet, he discovered that different
cultures are biased towards and against certain types of intelligences. Our western,
North American culture, for instance, favors verbal/linguistic and logical/mathematical
intelligences and tends to undervalue others, such as body/kinesthetic intelligence.
These biases, added to the traditional theory of intelligence, have limited our
development of curricula, instructional strategies, and current methods of assessment-
including how we measure intelligence.

Recent brain/mind research and new theories of human intelligence redirect our
attention in three specific areas-first, on the environmental conditions and messages we
provide children; second, on the kind of support and relationships we develop between
caregivers, educators, and children; and third, on the need to match what we know
about the ways kids are intelligent and learn with teaching strategies designed to
maximize the full development of each individual child.

A Useful Model

Gardner's Multiple Intelligences theory is a very useful model for developing a

systematic approach to nurturing and teaching children and honoring their individual
needs and strengths within a classroom setting. The theory of Multiple Intelligences
includes the notion that each person is smart in all seven types of intelligence. Every
person is smart to varying degrees of expertise in each of the intelligences, stronger in
some ways and less developed in others. Heredity and genetics influence the way the
brain is neurologically "wired" before birth and are contributing factors that determine the
strongest and/or most favored types of intelligence. This is often seen in children with
very strong and overt talents demonstrated at very young ages, such as Mozart, who
had started to play and compose music by age five.

Because research now shows that we can become more intelligent in more ways, both
students and teachers can become more adept in all seven intelligences. This is
possible by providing a planned cycle of experiences and opportunities which foster
each and every intelligence, and by making these opportunities available to every child
in our classrooms. By broadening our view of intelligence, and valuing and nurturing
abilities other than mathematics and reading, we can open doors by using the strengths
of children as a means of complementing their less developed areas.

Here are Gardner's seven 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).
• 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).
• 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).
• 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).
• 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.
• Interpersonal Intelligence: The ability to perceive and make distinctions in the
moods, intentions, motivations, and feelings of other people.
• Intrapersonal Intelligence: Self-knowledge and the ability to act adaptively on
the basis of that knowledge.

Note: When Howard Gardner wrote Frames of Mind in 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.
 Multiple Intelligences Chart
How do you ensure all of your students' intelligences are being tapped? Here is a list of
activities that speak to each intelligence.

Verbal- Logical-Mathematical Visual-Spatial Bodily-Kinesthetic

Linguistic

choral problem solving graphing hands on experiments

speaking
measuring photographing activities
declarizing
coding making visual changing room
storytelling metaphors arrangement
sequencing
retelling making visual creative movement
critical thinking analogies
speaking going on field trips
predicting mapping stories
debating physical education
playing logic games making 3D projects activities
presenting
collecting data painting crafts
reading aloud
experimenting illustrating dramatizing
dramatizing
solving puzzles using charts using cooperative
book making groups
classifying using organizers
nonfiction dancing
reading using manipulatives visualizing

researching learning the scientific sketching

model
listening patterning
using money
process writing visual puzzles
using geometry
writing journals
 Musical Interpersonal Intrapersonal Naturalistic

humming classroom parties personal response reading outside

rapping peer editing individual study cloud watching

playing background cooperative personal goal setting identifying insects

music learning
individual projects building habitats
patterns sharing
journal log keeping identifying plants
form group work
personal choice in using a
playing instruments forming clubs projects microscope

tapping out poetic peer teaching independent reading dissecting

rhythms
social awareness going on a nature
rhyming walk
conflict mediation
singing build a garden
discussing
studying the stars
cross age tutoring
bird watching
study group
collecting rocks
brainstorming
making bird
feeders

going to the zoo

 Key Points in Multiple Intelligences Theory
Beyond the descriptions of the seven intelligences and their theoretical underpinnings,
certain points of the model are important to remember:

1. Each person possesses all seven intelligences. Of course, the intelligences

function together in ways unique to each person. Most of us fall somewhere in
between two poles -- being highly developed in some intelligences, modestly
developed in others, and relatively underdeveloped in the rest.
2. Most people can develop each intelligence to an adequate level of
competency. Although an individual may complain about his deficiencies in a
given area and consider his problems innate and intractable, Howard Gardner
suggests that virtually everyone has the capacity to develop all seven intelligences
to a reasonably high level of performance if given the appropriate encouragement,
enrichment, and instruction.
3. Intelligences usually work together in complex ways. Gardner points out that
no intelligence exists by itself in life (except perhaps in very rare instances in
savants and brain-injured individuals). Intelligences are always interacting with
each other. To cook a meal, one must read the recipe (linguistic), possibly divide
the recipe in half (logical-mathematical), develop a menu that satisfies all
members of a family (interpersonal), and placate one's own appetite as well
(intrapersonal). Similarly, when a child plays a game of kickball, he needs bodily-
kinesthetic intelligence (to run, kick, and catch), spatial intelligence (to orient
himself to the playing field and to anticipate the trajectories of flying balls), and
linguistic and interpersonal intelligences (to successfully argue a point during a
dispute in the game).
4. There are many ways to be intelligent within each category. A person may not
be able to read, yet be highly linguistic because he can tell a terrific story or has a
large oral vocabulary. Similarly, a person may be quite awkward on the playing
field, yet possess superior bodily-kinesthetic intelligence when she weaves a
carpet or creates an inlaid chess table. MI theory emphasizes the rich diversity of
ways in which people show their gifts within intelligences as well as between
intelligences.