Module Response: Multiple Intelligences (Part I)

At a recent conference, Howard Gardner indicated that his theory of multiple intelligences cannot be accomplished in the face of No Child Left Behind and standards-based education. In some of his writing he has also said, "to the surprise of many, including me, the theory of multiple intelligences has become influential in educational circles. It is often assimilated, inappropriately, in my view, into work on cognitive or learning styles. Educators have sought to determine the intellectual strengths (the intelligence profiles) of their students through a variety of informal, jerry-built methods. They have also drawn a multitude of often inconsistent inferences about practice from the theory. These range from teaching seven or eight different subjects, each centering on a particular intelligence; to organizing groups of students based on their favored intelligences; to building curricula that focus on specific intelligences; to teaching subjects in seven or eight different ways." Discuss your reaction to each of the statements.

It is interesting to learn that an educational theorist, like Howard Gardner, was able to recognize the inappropriate application of his theory and although he strongly believes in the presence of multiple intelligences, it cannot be the magic solution to be poured upon the current education system. According to Gardner, everyone possess all nine of the intelligences outlined in his theory and each of the intelligences can be “nurtured and strengthened, or ignored and weakened”. This is the reason why grouping all the musical learners together and have this group write and perform a song about every lesson is not the correct approach to applying the theory of multiple intelligences. Most of our students are still in the process of developing their different intelligences, which makes it difficult to label them right away. Moreover, what is the purpose of labeling each student with one intelligence when Gardner clearly stated that we all possess all the intelligences? So why not grant students the chance to develop all of their intelligences? Students will have the rest of their adult life to pick their learning style preferences – high school electives, college majors and minors, career paths, etc. As a middle school teacher, I believe in affording my students a variety of experiences as part of the development of their personality, preferences and intelligences. Lastly, it would be impossible for educators to create lessons that accommodate the specific needs of all the intelligences listed by Gardner. I think the most important application of this theory is awareness of the various intelligences. It would be a nightmare for educators to design lessons that embrace all the educational theories out there!