Advantages And Disadvantages Of Specific Intelligence Theory

Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence’s (MI theory) is a valuable resource for teachers, if they understood how they could apply this in the classroom (Snowman & McCown, 2012). In this class, there are multiple intelligences observed amongst the students; however, there is minimal differentiated instruction to allow the students the best opportunities for success. It is critical that teachers understand that their teaching methods may not be wrong, but they

In “A Rounded Version: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences”, Howard Gardner illustrates how there are a variety of intelligences. Gardner starts off with an example how IQ tests may predict achievement in school but may not predict achievement in life. After finding out certain parts of the brain are responsible for certain functions, such as “Broca’s Area” which is responsible for sentence production, Gardner proposes the existence of multiple intelligences. Multiple studies later led him to propose seven distinct intelligences; Musical, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Each intelligence has certain classifications. According to Gardner’s classifications, I realized my intelligences are bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, and intrapersonal.

In Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences there are eight main intelligences of varying degrees in every person. In schools today linguistic and logical intelligences are most strongly stressed leaving the other intelligences to be used outside the classroom. Sometimes even scheduled time for the usage of other intelligences is ignored: “Often teachers even let pupils do their homework in the periods that are assigned to class music while they occupy themselves with other activities such as completing the attendance register,” (Van der Lind 610). Music is one of these six intelligences, left to being used outside the classroom, and forgotten within, with the ability to connect students to

Learning had been widely discussed among the researchers. It had become the subject matter that interests psychologists, educationists, scientists and came up with a number of learning theories. There are many different theories that attempt to describe the learning process. The theorists came out with some methods and approaches to be applied in the language teaching in the classroom. Approaches consist of specific principles in the language teaching and to apply these approaches, methods are needed which include various procedures and techniques. In this coursework, I would discuss on two theories, methods and approaches, two of their strength and limitations. In addition, I would further discuss on the implementation of one of the theories in the English language classroom.

‘‘Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory can be used for curriculum development, planning instruction, selection of course activities, and related assessment strategies. Instruction which is designed to help students develop their strengths can also trigger their confidence to develop areas in which they are not as strong. Students’ multiple learning preferences can be addressed when instruction includes a range of meaningful and appropriate methods, activities, and assessments. Gardner’s early work in psychology and later in human cognition and human potential’ led to the development of the initial six intelligences. Today there are nine intelligences and the possibility of others may eventually expand the list. These intelligences (or competencies) relate to a person’s unique aptitude set of capabilities and ways they might prefer to demonstrate intellectual abilities’’ ( (Armstrong, T., 2010). Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

This theory helps us understand learning because it explains how children development their language at such a high rate. It is also helpful because it lets educators know that challenging students above their level of knowledge is the best way to support students’ growth.

Intelligence as defined by the Cambridge dictionary is the ability to learn, understand, and make judgments or have opinions that are based on reason.1 There is much debate and controversy on this subject and psychologists do not all agree upon a standard definition. Yet, one of the very first definitions of intelligence was developed by the psychologists responsible for the development of the first intelligence test, Binet and Simon (1905) who argued that the essence of intelligence is: ‘to judge well, to comprehend well, to reason well’.2 Another sample definition was provided later by Heim, in 1970, who argued that ‘intelligent activity consists in grasping the essentials in a situation and responding appropriately to them’.3 There are also arguments surrounding how many different types of intelligence there are, as well as the intelligence theories of psychology. However elusive, we can ascertain that all psychologists have universally agreed upon general intelligence (g), an expression devised by the English psychologist Charles Spearman and defined as ‘a mental attribute called on for virtually any task’.4 This essay will inform the reader of the different methods proposed and used by psychologists to assess ability and discuss their evaluations.

Howard Gardner introduced the theory Multiple Intelligence where he believes every person has the capacity to hold a unique set of “intelligences”. Growing up, I was taught that a person who was intelligent held a lot of knowledge. However, Gardner includes the importance of other capacities of intelligence. These intelligences include linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial-visual, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist talents. As teachers, it is crucial to let every child know they are special and hold a unique place in the world. Just because one student is not as good at solving mathematical problems than the other students, it does not mean he/she is less intelligent than the others. That

Intelligence is a hard concept to define. The Oxford dictionary defined intelligence as “the ability to acquire knowledge and skills”. This loosely defined topic has caused great debate in psychological studies. People argue whether intelligence is measured as one general ability or a variety of abilities including aptitudes, skills, and talents. Others may debate over whether a single topic of intelligence actually exists. As a result of this controversy, researchers have proposed definitions of their own called theories. This has created a variety of ___ theories to be evaluated.

The Communicative Language Teaching method, or CLT, is a product of the theory of communicated competence in language teaching. Communicative competence focuses on the ability of learners to comprehend and be comprehensible with a certain degree of fluency. The advent of communicative competence signaled a change from the prevailing theory of linguistic competence which focused more on the form and structure of language. However, although CLT heavily focuses on communication with the belief that the purpose of language is the ability to use it, it does not do this to the exclusion of the form and function. In CLT, grammar and vocabulary are learned as a result of the communication rather than through direct instruction.

Overall, Gardner came up with nine types of intelligences. However, this essay will only cover three of them: verbal/linguistic, body-kinesthetic, and logical/mathematical. This essay will also cover several examples of each type of intelligence. Gardner also had some critics criticizing his research which will also be included throughout the essay.

This approach was very advanced for the time. It revolutionised the strategies of language learning and also changed the role of the language teachers as well as the language learners. In contrast with some of the methodologies previously adopted, its main goal is to teach the scholars the ability to communicate. Thereby, Communicative Language Teaching bases itself upon the concept of language competence, which is considered the actual basis of proficiency in a language. Hence, teaching activities involve students in real-life communicative situations in which the communicative task is of more importance than the grammatical accuracy. Other exercises such as games, songs, problem solving and role-plays also are used in classrooms. It must be said that each of these activities are sowed on the learners needs, therefore, if the class

The theory of multiple intelligences was developed by Dr. Howard Gardner in 1983. The Theory of Multiple Intelligences is a critique of the standard psychological view of intellect: there is a single intelligence, adequately measured by IQ or other short answer tests. Instead, on the basis of evidence from disparate sources, the theory claims that human beings have a number of relatively discrete intellectual capacities. IQ tests assess linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence, and sometimes spatial intelligence; they are a reasonably good predictor of who will do well in school. This is because humans have several other significant intellectual capacities (Harvard University).

In the end, choices have to be made and some students turned away, preferably on fair and “objective” grounds. Even though commonly used, there are still numerous criticisms of widely practiced methods of intelligence testing. Many believe that the available measures do not actually test overall intelligence, but just some of the mental processes of a person. According to the supporters of this criticism, intelligence is constituted of many other abilities such as “wisdom, creativity, common sense, social skills, and practical knowledge. However, other psychologists either believe that these are derivative from, or a consequence of, the basic processes that the intelligence tests measure. It is also possible that these abilities are immeasurable because they are intuitive and too subjective to be tested for using an objective measure. Others looking at the same pattern of findings have concluded that the degree of development in the areas that are tapped depends largely on the environment that the subject has been exposed to which creates a large number of variable

Students are more positive about each other when they learn co-operatively than when they learn alone, competitively, or individualistically. Students are more effective interpersonally as a result of working together (Johnson and Johnson, 1984). My two lessons reflect good practice primarily because of the use of group work and the consideration of students’ differing learning styles. Good practice – Multiple Intelligences Howard Gardner is an American psychologist who came up with the theory of Multiple Intelligences. Multiple Intelligences are different ways to demonstrate intellectual ability. Gardner proposes seven different intelligences: linguistic, logic-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal (http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm). Seven kinds of intelligence allow seven ways to teach, rather than one. Teachers, therefore, should to attend to all intelligences. Students should have opportunities to work on tasks where their style of intelligence can be utilised best.