| Parents & teachers have recognized for years that different children learn in different ways. We all know of children that excell in very specific areas while that same child can be challenged to complete other activities. The theory of Multiple Intelligences was developed by Howard Gardner of Harvard University in 1983. This theory has particularly strong implications in the classroom, because if we can identify children's different strengths among these intelligences, we can accomodate different children more successfully according to their orientation to learning. So far Gardner has actually identified nine intelligences. He speculates that there may be many more yet to be identified.
The Multiple Intelligences are:
VISUAL/SPATIAL - children who learn best visually and organizing things spatially. They like to see what you are talking about in order to understand. They enjoy charts, graphs, maps, tables, illustrations, art, puzzles, costumes - anything eye catching.
VERBAL/LINGUISTIC - children who demonstrate strength in the language arts: speaking, writing, reading, listening. These students have always been successful in traditional classrooms because their intelligence lends itself to traditional teaching.
MATHEMATICAL/LOGICAL - children who display an aptitude for numbers, reasoning and problem solving. This is the other half of the children who typically do well in traditional classrooms where teaching is logically sequenced and students are asked to conform.
BODILY/KINESTHETIC - children who experience learning best through activity: games, movement, hands-on tasks, building. These children were often labelled "overly active" in classrooms where they were told to sit and be still!
MUSICAL/RHYTHMIC - children who learn well through songs, patterns, rhythms, instruments and musical expression.
INTRAPERSONAL - children who are especially in touch with their own feelings, values and ideas. They may tend to be more reserved, but they are actually quite intuitive about what they learn and how it relates to themselves.
INTERPERSONAL - children who are noticeably people oriented and outgoing, and do their learning cooperatively in groups or with a partner. These children may have typically been identified as "talkative" or " too concerned about being social" in a traditional setting.
NATURALIST - children who love the outdoors, animals, field trips. More than this, though, these students love to pick up on subtle differences in meanings.
EXISTENTIALIST - children who learn in the context of where humankind stands in the "big picture" of existence. They ask "Why are we here?" and "What is our role in the world?"
Multiple Intelligences Links
Learning StylesMultiple Intelligences from 2Learn
Multiple Intelligences & Technology
MI resources from Teach-nology
Multiple Intelligences by Dr. Armstrong
AuthorQuest for Grade 5 |
Updated
Monday, February 2, 2009
C.
Pearl-Hodgins
|
