Multiple Intelligences

I’ve been interested in the best ways to help children learn and teachers teach since college and becoming Learning and Teaching co-ordinator at my current school has allowed me to really focus on it. Over the next few months I’m going to share some of these ideas and methods with you. My wife, Helen, who was lucky enough to go to Australia on a TIPD trip with her school, further fuelled my passion for experimenting with different learning styles and hopefully, when she has time, will add some articles herself!

This short article is a quick introduction on Howard Gardener’s multiple intelligences and will lead you to a simple but very revealing website (not in a rude way!) which can almost create an instant classroom display for you. As well as this, and more importantly, if you take note of the results for your class, it will increase the quality of your teaching and your classes learning.

Howard Gardener claims that our intelligence or ability to understand the world around us is much more complex than we think. For some of us it is relatively easy to understand how a flower grows but it is immensely difficult for us to understand and use a musical instrument. For others music might be easy but playing football is difficult. Instead of having just one intelligence Gardner states that we have multiple intelligences. He calls these intelligences:

Kinaesthetic or Body Smart. This is the ability to use your body skilfully to solve problems, create products or present ideas and emotions. These type of people will tend to enjoy sports more and are good at swimming, athletics, gymnastics and other sports.

Linguistic or Word Smart. This is the ability to read, write and communicate. These type of people will tend to enjoy reading, writing and talking about things.

Logical or Number Smart. This is the ability to reason, calculate and think in a logical manner. These type of people will tend to be good at mathematics and other number activities; they are also good at solving problems.

Interpersonal or People Smart. This is the ability to work effectively with others. These type of people will tend to like to mix with other people and you will belong to lots of clubs. They like team games and are good at sharing.

Intrapersonal or Myself Smart. This is the ability for self analysis and reflection. These type of people will tend to know about themselves and their strengths and weaknesses. They will probably keep a diary.

Musical or Music Smart. This is the ability to make or compose music or understand and appreciate it. These type of people will tend to enjoy music and can recognise sounds, and timbre, or the quality of a tone.

Visual/Spatial or Picture Smart. This is the ability to think in pictures and visualise a result. These type of people will tend to be good at art and also good at other activities where you look at pictures like map reading, finding your way out of mazes and graphs.

Naturalistic or Nature Smart. This is the ability to recognise flora and fauna. These type of people will tend to like the world of plants and animals and enjoy learning about them.

Gardner actually links this to teachers. He states that:

"(I)t's very important that a teacher take(s) individual differences among kids very seriously … The bottom line is a deep interest in children and how their minds are different from one another, and in helping them use their minds well."

Having used this in my classroom I do honestly think that it makes a difference. For instance one child asked if they could use a highlighter whenever he had any text to look at, not just in literacy. Just allowing him to highlight text whenever he wants has made a big difference to the work that he is producing. Before he was often unable to follow instructions on a sheet or in a book – now he highlights each instruction in yellow and is able to get on with the work without needing constant reassurance about what to do next.

So how do you find out what your strengths and weaknesses are and create this great display? The answer is a great webpage on the Birmingham Grid for Learning which allows you to view your intelligences in a bright and colourful wheel.  Why not print one out one of these Multiple Intelligence Wheels for each child in your class to make a great display? Let me also tell you that parents, headteachers, advisors and OFSTED are also very impressed with the fact that you have identified each child’s strengths and weaknesses and plan your lessons accordingly. 

If you want to see my Multiple Intelligence Wheel use the code tf2tkp4gm3564g in the results page.

Don't foget that you can collate all the results of the children in your class into one wheel using the class results page.

This was just a quick introduction to Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. There is plenty more information on the internet for those that wish to look further into this topic. Try Google for multiple intelligences or Howard Gardner.

Please feel free to comment on this post and share your Multiple Intelligence Wheels codes. I look forward to hearing from you.

Comments

[Deb]

I have posted a couple of pictures of the display I made based on this suggestion on http://littlemissteacher.blogspot.com

Thanks Andrew, it is a great idea and is getting a lot of positive comments!

Deb

[Matt]

kvx2lqd77147 shows my results.

I agree with the music smart and interpersonal smart - not too sure about kinaesthetic smart (I don't really enjoy sport) but I class myself as a kinaesthetic learner as I enjoy learning through physical activity etc.

I love that idea of making a display - hope to try that in the future. Thanks