Spearman Vs Gardner Essay

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.

Gardner's theory consisted of seven intelligences the first is linguistic ability, which enables us to read, write, and speak well. The second is logical/ mathematical ability which

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence theory challenged traditional beliefs in the field of education and cognitive science. He is a psychologist professor at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education. According to a traditional definition, intelligence is a uniform cognitive capacity people are born with. Simply put, intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences proposes that all human beings possess each of the nine intelligences in varying amounts. In addition, he claims that these intelligences are located in different parts of the brain which can work together or independent of each other, and that the multiple intelligences can be strengthened or weakened depending how you treat each intelligence. The nine intelligences are as follows:

Charles Spearman’s theory (1904) also takes the psychometric approach that there is a general intelligence. Spearman maintains that intelligence is hereditary and an individual is born with their maximum mental ability. This suggests that intelligence cannot be changed or strengthened. The concept of ‘general intelligence’ suggests that an individual has an underlying intelligence, in which their performance in one type of cognitive task is often similar to their performance in another (Boundless 2013). Spearman demonstrated this through the correlations between tests, where individuals who performed well in one test, often performed well in others. This led Spearman to the conclusion that intelligence is defined as a single factor. However, critics refute Spearman’s conclusions, as they argue that one cannot reduce all factors of intelligence to an indefinable “g” (Neisser et al. 1996).

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.

Intelligence tests even in these days remain somewhat controversial, from its interpretations, to their classifications in scoring on bell curves. So is the magnitude of debate, that many professionals in assessments question the value of these tests. One aspect of much controversy is the use of a single or multiple scores to determine intelligence. Some general intelligence assessments only use a score, g. This apparently reflects the variance underlying shared in different series of tests performance. Nevertheless, recent theories have suggested that human intelligence can be better measured in terms of multiple types of intelligence rather than a single score. One of those theories is the gf-gc; this theory indicates that there are two types of intelligence: f = fluid and c = crystalized.

"Gardner's original Theory of Multiple Intelligences consists of three components, seven "intelligences," and eight supporting criteria of what comprises an "intelligence." The Three Components include: a definition of intelligence, a challenge to the notion of a general intelligence (g), and a challenge to the conviction that g can be reliably measured." (Helding,

This theory agreed with the multiple intelligence theory on intelligence being a much broader general ability, but the latter’s intelligences were better perceived as individual talents. This theory explains successful intelligence as involving factors including analytical intelligence which is the problem- solving abilities, creative intelligence which involves the capacity of dealing with new arising situations by using current skills and past experience as well as practical intelligence which is the ability of adapting to change in one’s environment. The third theory is that of multiple intelligences by Howard Gardener which proposes that human intelligence’s numerical expressions are not an accurate depiction of the people's abilities. This theory describes several distinct intelligences which are based on the abilities and skills which are valued in the different cultures including visual-spatial intelligence where thinking is in terms of physical space, verbal-linguistic intelligence where words are used effectively, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence where the body is used effectively, logical-mathematical intelligence where abstract, conceptual and calculations are used, interpersonal intelligence which entails one’s understanding of their goals and interests, musical intelligence where sensitivity to sound and rhythm is shown, intrapersonal intelligence which involves interaction and understanding of others as well as naturalistic intelligence. These differences related to strengths of intelligence are said to challenge the educational system which assumes that every individual can learn similar materials in a similar manner and that a universal, uniform measure does suffice in testing student

This brings us to Howard Gardner who is the Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Boston, MA. Mr. Gardner’s educational philosophy is that there is a relationship between intelligences and how the person learns the information being taught. Gardner broke this down into eight separate intelligences: linguistic intelligence, musical intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, and naturalist intelligence.

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.

Howard Gardner of Harvard has identified seven distinct intelligences. This hypothesis have emerged from recent cognitive research and "documents the extent to which students possess different kinds of ideas and therefore get a line, remember, perform, and understand in different ways," according to Gardner (1991). According to this theory, "we are all able to know the world through language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, the use of the body to solve problems or to make things, an understanding of other individuals, and an apprehension of ourselves.

Musical Intelligence, Intrapersonal Intelligence, Spatial Intelligence, to name just a few. These are examples of Howard Gardner’s understanding of the unconscious mind. Gardner believes that all humans exhibit a range of different intelligences, that can not necessarily be discovered by the use of standardized intelligence quotient testing. His theory of Multiple Intelligences is one that details the possibilities of those few whom we can safely call prodigies. Gardner believes that schools should adapt curriculums to support his theory.

Throughout the years, psychologists have been discussing what exactly is intelligence. Is intelligence your ability to perform well on analytical tests, or is it something more common, like your ability to survive on your own? If one person scores high in english, and another in math are they both still intelligent? This is the debate that had been on going the past few decades, and while we still have no concrete answer, we do have a variety of theories.

The first factor is the general intelligence or g, which refers to the mental capacity that influences performance on cognitive ability measures, and specific abilities or “s” which means that another component different than g, influences abilities on a particular task (notes, 10/24). In contrast to Spearman’s theory, I believe that specific abilities influence different things depending on the task, this being the reason why I think I can’t be good math but I can be good at other things. Another psychologist was Sternberg, who came up with the triarchic theory of intelligence, which include analytical intelligence, creative intelligence, and practical intelligence. I accept Sternberg’s explicit theory of intelligence, since I consider these three factors to be related. For example, in order for a test to efficiently assess your knowledge, you have to pull on your creative intelligence so you can combine the information you know and use them in different ways to solve problems. Since you are engaging with the information learned, you will be able to apply your practical intelligence to solve issues in everyday life (Arnett, 2016). Finally, Howard Gardner proposed the theory of multiple intelligences, which include eight types of intelligence, these are linguistic, musical, logical/mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal,

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).