Multiple Intelligence
Please contact Dr. Swindler for ideas of how to incorporate the Multiple Intelligences Inventory into your program or curriculum. Details to charting the inventory can be included into mathematics curriculum when presenting lessons on charts, graphs, decimals, percentages, etc.
The Multiple Intelligences Inventory © 1999 Walter McKenzie, The One and Only Surfaquarium
Educational systems currently focus on learners who use only two intelligences, linguistic and logical. Howard Gardner, a professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Senior Director of Harvard Project Zero, espouses a theory of multiple intelligences that incorporates several types of learners, instilling a cry for a more balanced system of instruction that could benefit all types of learners. The possible impact on education is huge, providing the multiple intelligences theory is accepted. Gardner is the author of more than twenty books. Here is a brief description of the intelligences in his theory:
IT'S NOT HOW SMART YOU ARE - IT'S HOW YOU ARE SMART!
VISUAL/SPATIAL: learning visually and organizing ideas spatially; seeing concepts in action in order to understand them. This intelligence is the ability to "see" things in one's mind in planning to create a product or solve a problem.
VERBAL/LINGUISTIC: learning through the spoken and written word. This intelligence was always valued in the traditional classroom and in traditional assessments of intelligence and achievement.
MATHEMATICAL/LOGICAL: learning through reasoning and problem solving. This intelligence is highly valued in the traditional classroom where students were asked to adapt to logically sequenced delivery of instruction.
BODILY/KINESTHETIC: learning through interaction with one's environment. This intelligence is not the domain of "overly active" learners. It promotes understanding through concrete experience.
MUSICAL/RHYTHMIC: learning through patterns, rhythms and music. This includes not only auditory learning, but the identification of patterns through all the senses.
INTRAPERSONAL: learning through feelings, values and attitudes. This is a decidedly affective component of learning through which students place value on what they learn and take ownership for their learning.
INTERPERSONAL: learning through interaction with others. Not the domain of children who are simply "talkative" or "overly social." This intelligence promotes collaboration and working cooperatively with others.
NATURALIST: learning through classification, categories and hierarchies. The naturalist intelligence picks up on subtle differences in meaning. It is not simply the study of nature; it can be used in all areas of study.
EXISTENTIAL: learning by seeing the big picture: "Why are we here?" "What is my role in the world?" "What is my place in my family, school, and community?" This intelligence seeks connections to real world understandings and applications of new learning.