Terra Reed
English 123
2nd April 2007
Paper
Multiple Intelligences:
In the Classroom
In today’s society there are many different ways to teach in the classroom. One way is to teach towards the student’s multiple intelligence. Each person has one or a couple of the multiple intelligences. Multiple intelligences are one of the many ways that people learn. Many teachers do want to integrate multiple intelligence into their classroom, but there are many ways to figure out what intelligence the students have, loads of activities the teacher can do to incorporate it into the classroom, and many benefits for the teacher and the students.
There are many different multiple intelligences. Howard Gardner came up with eight different intelligences, but in this paper I will be talking about seven of them: verbal/linguistic, musical/rhythmic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, intrapersonal, and interpersonal. The last one Gardner talked about was the naturalist intelligence. I was trying to figure out how to teach that in the classroom but I could not find a way, so I decided just to stick with the main seven intelligences. Every book explains each intelligence a little differently, but they all have the same premise.
Linguistic learners are people that tend to have a great understanding of words. They are usually great at writing, reading, memory games, and public speaking. Emily Giles, Sarah Pitre, and Sarah Womack, from the University of Georgia College of Education stated that linguistic learners “learn best through hearing and seeing words, speaking, reading, writing, discussing, and debating” (Multiple Intelligence and Learning Styles). They love to read, write, tell stories, and play word games. (Armstrong)
People that have a very high musical intelligence are usually skilled in practicing and performing using musical instruments. They also have the ability to identify musical tunes very quickly. Musical people, “Learn best through rhythm, singing, listening to music, and melodies” (Giles, Pitre, Womack). They love singing, whistling, taping feet, and listening (Armstong).
Logical learners are very good at mathematical problems and figuring out their solutions. They are great at working out logical problems, functions, and proportions. Logical people “learn best through working with relationships and patterns, classifying, [and] categorizing [things ]” (Giles, Pitre, Womack). They love experimenting, questioning, figuring out logical puzzles, and calculating (Armstong).
Interpersonal learners are able to work with other people very well. They are also very good at understanding people’s moods, resolving conflicts and communicating. Interpersonal learners “learn best through comparing, relating, sharing, interviewing, [and] cooperating” (Giles, Pitre, Womack). They love leading, organizing, relating, manipulating, and partying (Armstrong).
Kinesthetic people love working with their bodies. They are good at using tools, acting, and crafts. They “learn best through touching, moving, knowledge through bodily sensations, [and] processing” (Giles, Pitre, Womack). They love to dance, run, jump, touch, and gesturing (Armstong).
Intrapersonal learners are very aware of themselves. People with this intelligence are good at setting goals, understanding themselves, and knowing their strengths and weaknesses. They “learn best through comparing, relating, sharing, interviewing, [and] cooperating” (Giles, Pitre, Womack). They love setting goals, meditating, dreaming, planning, and reflecting (Armstrong).
Spatial people are great at visualizing and mentally working with objects. These kinds of people have excellent visual memory, artistic work, and are great at visualizing ideas. Spatial learners “learn best through working with pictures, colors, visualizing, using the mind's eye, [and], drawing” (Giles, Pitre, Womack).
A lot of teachers do not want to use these seven different intelligences in their classroom. They think that it will not help the student learn any better than they already are. They also think it takes too much time and effort to try and figure out what each student’s intelligence is, and how to fit that into their lesson plan. This may be true for the untrained instructor. On the other hand, with the proper training it can be performed quickly and efficiently.
To test what multiple intelligence someone has, one could just give them a test and look at the results. A couple of different tests are on the internet; they usually consist of around eighty to one hundred different questions, and at the end of the test, it will tell the different intelligences in which the person scored the highest on. “No test can accurately determine the nature or quality of a person’s intelligence” (Armstrong 12). One can take into account a multiple intelligence test, but they also need to look at other factors. One of the best ways to figure out what multiple intelligence the student has is to watch them in the classroom. Thomas Armstong states in his book, Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom: 2nd Edition:
I’ve often humorously suggested to teachers that one good way to
identify students’ most highly developed intelligences is to observe how they misbehave in class. The strongly linguistic student will be
talking out of turn, the highly spatial student will be doodling and daydreaming, the interpersonally inclined student will be socializing, the bodily-kinesthetic student will be fidgeting […]. (21)
Another good point that Armstrong makes about how to figure out a students multiple intelligence is how they spend their free time:
[…] If you have a “choice time” in class when students can choose from a number of activities, what activities do students pick? Highly linguistic students might gravitate towards books, social students toward group games and gossip, spatial students towards drawing, bodily-kinesthetic students towards hands-on building activities […] Observing kids in these initiated activities can tell a world 4 about how they learn more effectively. (22)
These are only a couple of the ways to find out what multiple intelligence each students has. There are many other ways to find out, but one of the easiest is to just observe them.
After the teacher has figured out what the student’s multiple intelligence is, the best thing to do is to figure out what is the main intelligence, what intelligence is represented most in the classroom. Then the teacher would want to focus mainly on that intelligence. That does not mean that all other intelligences would be ruled out. Some of the teaching should still be geared towards those intelligences, just not as much as the main ones.
After the teacher has a good understanding of what the students’ multiple intelligences are, they can than begin to make a lesson plan. Now it is almost nearly impossible to incorporate each intelligence into every activity that is done in the classroom. Instead, it is good to try to incorporate every intelligence into each subject that is taught. For example, if the teacher is teaching science, they should try to have one activity or lesson centered around kinesthetic intelligence and another with the interpersonal intelligence in mind.
The book If the Shoe Fits… by Carolyn Chapman talks about some good activities to do with each intelligence. For a linguistic learner they can do computers, films, games, hands-on experiments, and manipulatives. For a person with kinesthetic intelligence, have them do projects, simulations, cooperative learning, field trips, and role playing. An interpersonal learner could learn by creative tasks, CD-ROMs, textbooks, videos, and graphic organizers. Intrapersonal students could learn from problem solving, reflections, journals, and independent assignments. Spatial people could learn from drawings, pretending, demonstrations, props, and posters. Logical people could benefit from puzzles, research, formulas, games, and mathematical operations. Lastly, rhythmic people could learn from songs, musical environment, and background noises/music. (21)
A couple of other activates the students can do are, career day, field trips, biographies, and board games. Career day is when you bring in different people from around the community to talk about there jobs. If you want to tie this into multiple intelligence you could have each of the speakers talk about the different intelligences that are represented in theire job. For field trips students could go to the library where linguistics in represented or a science lab where mathematical intelligence is displayed. When students are told to write a biography they could write it on someone that is very good with the students multiple intelligence. A student with high rhythmic intelligence could write a biography on George Gershwin who is musical artist. For the board game, the teacher could create a game that is based on the seven different intelligences. Each square could be a different color and each color would be a different intelligence, and when you land on a color you have do a little thing that represents that intelligence. (Armstrong 36)
The website Teaching to the Seven Multiple Intelligence by Sarah Brenne and Bill Potter gives some samples of things teachers can do with math and science classes. If one is teaching math, and the subject is exploring polyhedrons, the teacher can have the students “[…] use tables to compare faces, vertices and edges of polyhedrons.” If the teacher is having the students build crystals using unit cell and have them “Pair up and build the seven unit cells using lattice model kits (or popsicle sticks) and work together with the other pairs of students to make a large crystal for each of the seven systems. Construct three dimensional polyhedrons using various materials.” This will benefit logical, spatial, musical, kinesthetic, and interpersonal learners.
Once the teacher has all this information about how to figure out the students’ multiple intelligences, and what activities can help them learn better, the teacher may still be asking themselves, “People have told me integrating multiple intelligence into my classroom is good, but I still don’t understand what the benefits are.” For the answer we turn to the article “Multiple Intelligence Theory.” The first thing to look at is the benefits for the students. “[The benefits are] valuing and nurturing individual differences, a challenging comprehensive […] curriculum, notable improvement in academic achievement, thinking, problem solving, […] and equal access to learning for all students […]” (Simcoe County District School Board). However, the students are not the only ones that benefit from having multiple intelligences integrated into the classroom, teachers may benefit from them as well. “[The benefits for teachers are] a positive climate that supports, motivates and promotes success for all students and staff, improved and expanded repertoire of instructional strategies, increased teacher/parent collaboration, and increased involvement in school-wide decisions” (Simcoe County District School Board).
To really convince teachers that multiple intelligences work in the classroom, look at the facts. These facts came from the article “Multiple Intelligences: From the Ivory Tower to the Dusty Classroom--But Why?” These facts came from a ten year research study. They were trying to figure out if multiple intelligence really helped in the classroom.
“Nearly 80% of the schools reported improvements in standardized test scores, of which nearly half of the schools associated the improvement with MI. 80% reported improvements in student behavior, with slightly more than half associating this improvement with MI. 80% reported increased parent participation, with 60% associating the increase with the school’s adoption of MI. 80% reported a range of improvements for students with learning disabilities […], with all but one of the schools associating this improvement of MI.” (Kornhaber, 72)
Not all of this data will be true for the school that is trying to integrate multiple intelligence, but it should help them make an informed decision on whether or not to teach towards multiple intelligences.
From all this one can conclude that to teach towards multiple intelligences in the classroom would greatly benefit the students. There is a variety of way to figure out what intelligence each of the students has. Once it is figured out what intelligence everyone has, then a lesson needs to be designed. The teacher needs to set up a bunch of different activates that incorporate the main intelligences. If all else fails and you are still not convinced that multiple intelligence will work for the teacher and the students look at either the benefit of multiple intelligences or the different data that people have collected to show the different percentages of school that have integrated multiple intelligence into the classroom and look at if it has worked for them or not.
Work Citied
Armstrong, Thomas. Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom: 2nd Edition. Virginia: ASCD 2000.
Chapman, Carolyn. If the Shoe Fits: How to Develop Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom. Illinois: IRI/Skylight 1993,
Giles Emily, Sarah Pitre, Sarah Womack. “Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles.” The University of Georgia: College of Education 2003 <http://www.coe.uga.edu/epltt/mi-ls.htm>.
Kornhaber, Mindy L, “Multiple Intelligences: From the Ivory Tower to the Dusty Classroom--But Why?” Teachers College Record Jan. 2004: 67-76.
Reingold, Eyal. "Multiple Intelligence Theory." Simcoe County District School Board. 1996. <http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/~reingold/courses/intelligence/cache/mi.htm>
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