Multiple Intelligence (Habara, 2003, 297-301)

Key points in Multiple Intelligence theory are (Armstrong, 1994: 11-15):

1. Each person possesses all the seven intelligences

• Linguistic Intelligence
• Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
• Spatial Intelligence
• Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence
• Musical Intelligence
• Interpersonal Intelligence
• Intrapersonal Intelligence

2. Virtually everyone has the capacity to develop all seven intelligences to a reasonably high level of performance. Although an individual may consider his deficiencies in a given area intractable.

3. Intelligences usually work together in complex ways. Each intelligence as described bellow is actually a “fiction”. Intelligences are always interacting with each other.

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 stories orally. Similarly, a person may not dance, yet possess superior bodily-kinesthetic intelligence when he cleans or builds things.

5. Gardner points out the number seven is just tentative; after further investigation, some intelligences on his list may not meet certain of the eight criteria. Amstrong points others categories of intelligence

· Spirituality

· Moral sensibility

· Sexuality

· Humour

· Intuition

· Creativity

· Cooking ability

· Olfactory perception

Recently, Karl Albrecht (2006 and 2007) wrote books named Social Intelligence and Practical Intelligence, pointing senses of the intelligence related to the use of what we call common sense.

MI theory is a cognitive model that seeks to describe how individuals use their intelligences to solve problems. There are other theories that deal with the notion of intelligence. There are some who tie to the senses, others are personality theories based on Carl Jung or Gurdieff (eneagrams) and related to popular traditions like numerology and astrology. (Habara, 2003, 18-21)

Many people look at the 7 Gardner categories of intelligence and wonder why he insists in calling musical, spatial or bodily-kinesthetic intelligences, and not talent or aptitudes . He is deliberately provocative. We tend to put in on a pedestal only one variety of “talent” and call it “intelligence” (Amstrong, 1994:4). In the "Question of the Truth" exhibition in the Ontario Science Centre (Toronto/Canada), the visitor can see the South Sea Islands example which shows that this classification is culture framed. In those islands, the spatial intelligence is highly prized because of its use in navigating the seas. The ability to recognize the constellations, figures on the horizon and different texture on the surface of the water have great value in this culture. They train their children from a very early age to do it.

In Nigeria, the Anang children are expected to learn hundreds of dances and songs by the time they are five years old. In Hungary, children are expected to learn to read musical notation. There are also cultures that place a greater emphasis upon connectedness between peoples (interpersonal intelligence) than upon the individual going his own way (intrapersonal intelligence). (Armstrong,1994: 162)

In second chapter, Armstrong says that before applying any model of learning in a classroom environment, we should first apply it to ourselves as educators. In his Figure 2.1 he does an MI Inventory for Adults, listing the kind of things we say if we are in each one of the intelligence categories. Perhaps you avoid drawing pictures on the blackboard because your spatial intelligence is not particularly well developed in your life. Or perhaps you gravitate toward cooperative learning strategies because you are an interpersonal sort of learner - teacher yourself. He suggests how to develop your multiple intelligences in this chapter. While you are developing them, you may ask for collaboration from colleagues and students as well as use available technology (like tape recording music and using computer programs) to offer the students a good class experience. (Amstrong 1994: 16-21)

In the third chapter, he points out how to describe intelligences in students. The figure 3.1 is a table with what each one of the 7 intelligences think, love and need. And in chapter 5, he presents the figure 5.1 summarizing the seven ways of teaching. Presented bellow there are what kind of activities we may use to each kind of intelligence.

	Instructional Strategies	What they need	Sample educational movement (primary intelligence)	Sample teacher presentation skill	Sample activity to begin a lesson
1	Read about it, write about it, listen to it	books, tapes, writting tools (journal writting), paper, diaries, dialogue, discussion (journal reading), debate, stories, choral reading , etc	Whole language	Teaching through storytelling	Long word on the blackboard
2	Quantify it, think critically about it, conceptualize it	things to explore and think about (brain teasers, problem solving, number games), science materials, manipulatives, trips to the planetarium and science museums, etc	Critical thinking	Socratic questioning	Posing a logical paradox
3	See it, draw it, visualize it, color it, mind-map it	Visualization, art, LEGO, video, movies, slides, imagination games, metaphor, mazes, puzzles, illustrated books, trips to art museum, etc.	Integrated arts instruction	Drawing/mind-mapping concepts	Unusual picture on the overhead
4	Build it, act it out, touch it, get a “gut feeling” of it, dance it	role play, drama, movement, things to build, sports and physical games, tactile experiences , hands-on learning, relaxation exercises, etc.	Hands-on learning	Using gestures and dramatic expressions	Mysterious artifact passed around the class
5	Sing it, rap it, listen to it	sing-along time, trips to concerts, music playing at home and school, musical instruments, opportunity to deal with music (rapping, songs to teach) etc	suggestopedia	Using voice rhythmically	Piece of music played as students come into class into class
6	Teach it, collaborate on it, interact with respect to it	friends, group games, social gatherings, peer tutoring, mentors/apprenticeships, opportunity to participate in community and social events etc	Cooperative learning	Dynamically interacting with students	“turn to a neighbor and share...
7	Connect it to your personal life, make choices with regard to it	Independent study, secret places, time alone, self-paced projects (self-esteem building), choices (option in course of study, etc	Individualized instruction	Bringing feeling into presentation	“close your eyes and think of a time in your life when...”

Linguistic Intelligence (1), Logical-Mathematical Intelligence (2), Spatial Intelligence (3), Bodily-Kinesthetic (4), Musical Intelligence (5), Interpersonal Intelligence (6), Intrapersonal Intelligence (7)

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 .