Teaching Students With A Wide Array Of Abilities

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

Howard Gardner introduced the theory of multiple intelligences stating that each person possesses a blend of at least eight different kinds of intelligence: verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and environmental/naturalistic (Bruno, 2009).

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.

     A renowned professor of education and psychology at Harvard University, Howard Gardner has radically changed the way we look at intelligence. In 1983 Gardner published the first of two books that theorize that there are multiple intelligences. Gardner believes “that human cognitive competence is better described in terms of a set of abilities, talents, or mental skills, which we call “intelligence” (378). Gardner’s theory dismisses the idea that intelligence is a single attribute of the mind and suggests that there are different types of intelligences that account for different human

Dr. Seuss once said “it is better to know how to learn than to know.” My main goal as a teacher is not to make them learn the subject, although that is essential, but to teach them how to learn. My 8th grade class is a diverse group that comes from a complex society. There are differences among the district, state, learning styles of the students, home structure, and the readiness of the students all that need to be addressed within my classroom.

Students have their own best way in effectively learning the lesson. With the diversity of students, the problem is each student has a preferred learning style. It becomes undeniably one of the reasons that make it difficult to achieve the best expected outcome out of teachers’ effort. However, teachers try to incorporate various teaching techniques to make every learning opportunity become productive, meaningful, and relevant for the learners.

Albert Einstein stated that “everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid”. At Highland Middle School, we understand that each student contain personal strengths and weaknesses in aspects of education. For this reason, we place a high amount of focus on incorporating Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences concept in our classrooms, lesson plans, assessments, and learning objectives. Essential elements that are conducive to implementing Gardner’s concept include allows students to have choices and let their curiosity direct their learning, incorporating technology that increases student learning outcomes, and incorporating hands-on learning opportunities throughout the school day.

‘‘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

A child has special educational needs if he has learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for him to learn than most other child of about the same age.

She was faced with the challenge of teaching a wide range of learner pathways while striving to maximize the learning for all her students grades first through eighth. While what my grandmother faced over eighty years ago is an obvious exaggeration in differentiation; the reality is that each class room in our schools is a microcosm of that environment. Each student learns through different pathways and it is the role of each teacher to maximize their learning potential by differentiating their instructional practices. Hence, the teachers of my school must strive to connect students and academic content through a responsive instructional practice that is reflective of the needs of their students (Tomlinson, C., Brimijoin, K., & Narvaez, L.,

A strategy to be implemented in the classroom will be by including multiple opportunities for students to take in the core information or concepts and utilising Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory in learning centres. The students’ interest and developmental needs dictate their learning, as they are able to draw on prior experiences. To implement Gardner’s Theory in my classroom, seven learning centres will be organised, each dedicated to one of the seven intelligences. The students will spend time moving through the centres, dedicating fifteen to twenty

Everyday, teachers are faced with the challenge of teaching students new information that is valuable to their future. Teachers are responsible to determine what and how information is taught. How this information is taught to students is pertinent to their success; therefore, teachers must be able to use effective teaching methods in the classroom. Students have diverse learning styles; therefore, teachers need to determine how students learn best and pattern their teaching to accommodate these differences. During elementary school, children learn to read and write, acquire a basic understanding of content areas, and develop dispositions toward

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).

Howard Gardner recognizes that intelligence is more than the single logical-mathematical processing of stored facts that intelligence tests assess. He views intelligence as problem-solving, problem-creating, and problem-finding across a range of situations. There are a total of eight Multiple Intelligences: Logical-Mathematical, Linguistic, Musical, Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and lastly, Naturalist Intelligence. These Intelligences allow educators to carefully integrate several content areas within a specific curricula.

Teaching students with different levels of academic talents can be a very difficult task because there are students who can be really smart and others who are really challenged in the classroom. To be a “poster teacher” for teaching academically diverse students is a great honor. You have to be able to challenge the gifted students as well as help to educated the students who are struggling. They have to learn how to ask the correct questions instead of questions that are demeaning. They have to focus on positive aspects of eduction challenges instead of the negatives. They have to focus on the needs of each student as an individual. They also have to have principles that promote success and achievement.