Cognitive approach to learning and MI theory (Habara, 2003, p.297-301)

How Multiple Intelligence theory applies to the areas most often emphasized by educators espousing a cognitive approach to learning

The seven intelligences are themselves cognitive capacities. Hence, to develop them is to facilitate the cultivation of students’ ability to think. It may be helpful, however, to look more specifically at how MI theory applies to the areas most often emphasized by educators as espousing a cognitive approach to learning: memory,

problem solving,

deep world understanding and

Bloom’s levels of cognitive complexity.

Memory

MI theory suggests that the notion of a “pure” memory is flawed. Memory, according to Howard Gardner, is intelligence-specific. And you can facilitate memorization. For example, spelling: spelling words can be a song like Happy Birthday; it can be drawings in an “inner blackboard” for help; spelling words can be “digitalized”, that is, reduced to a series of 0s and 1s (consonants=1 and vowels=0) or coded as numbers (a=1, b=2); spelling words can be translated to sign language or modeled in clay; words can be spelled by a group of people; students learn to spell words that have an emotional charge (organic spelling) or do developmentally spelling (they do it the way they think it is).

Problem solving

More and more educators are looking for ways to help students think more effectively when confronted with academic problems. Unfortunately, the bias in the recent critical-thinking movement has been in the direction of logical-mathematical reasoning abilities and in the use of linguistic strategies. By studying how many thinkers have described their problem-solving process, we see many other ways of thinking, combining the following elements:

Linguistic Intelligence : self-talk or thinking out loud (see Perkins, 1981)

Logical-Mathematical Intelligence: Logical heuristics (see Polya 1957)

Spatial Intelligence: Visualization, idea sketching, mind-mapping (see McKim 1980)

Bodily-Kinesthetic: Kinesthetic imagery, using one’s hands, fingers or whole body to solve problems ( see Gordon and Poze, 1996)

Musical Intelligence: using music to unlock problem solving capacities (see Ostrander and Schroeder, 1979)

Interpersonal Intelligence: Bouncing ideas off other people (see Johnson, 1984)

Intrapersonal Intelligence: Identifying with the problem, accessing dream imagery, personal feelings, deep introspection (Harman 1984)

Deep understanding of the world

Gardner points out that supposedly well-educated students, who can spout algorithms, rules, laws, and principles in a variety of domains, still harbour a mine field of misconceptions, rigidly applied procedures, stereotypes, and simplifications. (Gardner 1991: 155)

He proposes an approach to education that challenges naive beliefs, provokes questions, invites multiple perspectives, and ultimately stretches a student’s mind to the point where it can apply existing knowledge to new situations and novel contexts. Gardner suggests to expand student’s mind through the use of “Christopherian encounters”, just as Christopher Columbus challenged the notion that the earth is flat by sailing “beyond the edge” and thereby showing its curved shaped. Gardner suggests that educators challenge students’ limited beliefs by taking them “over the edge” into areas where they must confront the contradictions and disjunctions in their own thinking.

Armstrong points to the following suggestions (Amstrong, 1994: 152-153):

Linguistic Intelligence: moving students beyond the literal interpretation of a piece of literature (for example, Moby Dick is more than a sea yarn about a whale)

Logical-Mathematical Intelligence: devising science experiments that force students to confront contradictions in their thinking about natural phenomena (for example, asking students to predict how a ball rolled straight from the center of a rotating merry-go-round will move as it reaches the edge and then discussing the outcome. (In a Toronto downtown, the bar, and in the Ontario Science Centre , at the Science Exhibition, there is a display where the visitor can see a ball defying gravity by rolling up hill)

Spatial Intelligence: Helping students confront tacit beliefs about art that might, for example, include the prejudice that paintings should use pleasant colors and depict beautiful scenery and attractive people (for example, showing students Picasso’s painting Guernica)

Bodily-Kinaesthetic: Moving students beyond stereotypical ways of using their bodies to express certain feelings or ideas in a dance or play (for example, helping students explore the wide range of body postures and facial expressions for expressing Willy Loman’s sense of defeat in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman)

Musical Intelligence: Assisting students in undoing stereotypes that might suggest that good music should be harmonious and have a regular beat (for example, playing Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, a piece that clashed with the listeners’ beliefs about what is good music)

Interpersonal Intelligence: Helping students go beyond the simplistic motivations in studying fictional or real characters in literature, history or other fields (for example, problems in transferring technology is motivated by more than a money craving or Adolf Hitler’s rise to power was motivated by more than a “thirst for power”

Intrapersonal Intelligence: deepening students’ understanding of themselves by relating different parts of the curriculum to their personal life, experience and backgrounds.

Bloom’s level of cognitive complexity

Since 1950's, educators have ensured that instruction stimulates and develops students’ higher order thinking capacities. The six levels are:

Knowledge: rote memory skills (knowing facts, terms, procedures, classification systems)

Comprehension: ability to translate, paraphrase, interpret, or extrapolate material

Application: capacity to transfer knowledge from one setting to another

Analysis: discovering and differentiating the component parts of a larger whole

Synthesis: Weaving together component parts into a coherent whole

Evaluation: Judging the value or utility of information using a set of standards.

Using the MI theory and Bloom theory, it may become apparent, for example, that there are no opportunities for students to evaluate experiences – something that can be easily remedied. MI theory doesn’t take out the validity of Blooms levels. It represents a model that can enable you to move beyond heavily linguistic thinking activities into a broad range of complex cognitive tasks that prepare students for life. (Armstrong 1994: 154-155)

The main problem of applying MI theory is fighting our bias. When we read the Armstrong figure 12.1 it surprises us because it shows we are supposed to foster and check very different levels of knowledge for the different intelligences of the student. It surprises us because we are frozen in our traditional bias of considering linguistic and logical-mathematical issues as all the valid knowledge. We will need to look far from the traditional standardized tests to evaluate students’ learning progress.

Armstrong says authentic assessment covers a wide range of instruments, measures and methods. The most important prerequisite to authentic assessment is observation, which requires much more than just correct answers written on paper .