Introduction Why is it so important to define the concept of « intelligence » in education ? Education is dedicated to the fostering of intelligence, and students are evaluated as future members of the workforce on the basis of their intelligence, but how is this possible if we can’t even seem to agree on what ‘intelligence’ is? To this day, we do not have an official definition of intelligence. Even ‘beauty,’ another famously elusive concept, is better defined than ‘intelligence’. However, there are multiple theories about intelligence out there that are well-known and in some cases even used by schools to evaluate students. So I ask the question, « Which current theory of intelligence is most comprehensive and most relevant to education today? » When I first started researching the topic, I became more or less convinced that Gardner’s Multiple intelligences theory was most comprehensive and most relevant to education today, because it was useful to teachers and provided an alternative to the idea of a global intelligence factor, which I strongly disagreed with, and that combined with Carol Dweck’s notion of fixed and fluid intelligence, it would be more or less ideal. In this paper, I will evaluate the MI theory and try to determine whether it is, in fact, the most comprehensive intelligence theory out there, and the most relevant to education. Body Intellectual Quotient (IQ): a global intelligence factor Scientific study of human intelligence started off with the
Ever since Spearman proposed the intelligence theory with G factor, there were several other intelligence theories proposed in response or as an alternative to Spearman’s. Among those, Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence and Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory would be the most influential ones as they are widely accepted and used in real life. Both of the theories share a critical view towards the unitary perspective which is the traditional definition of intelligence. However, the two theories differ in which they don’t agree with what factors should be the measures of intelligence, as well as the emphasis of the two theories.
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.
What is intelligence to you? Intelligence to me is someone who is able to be creative and can think outside the box. There are many different ideas of intelligence, depending on the person you speak to. Many traits can go into being intelligent; therefore, there is no single underlying factor. Some simple traits are: creative, thinker, knowledge, the ability to set a goal and achieve it, and able to think outside the box. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, intelligence is “the ability to learn or understand things or to deal with new or difficult situations.” (www.merriam-webster.com) Our textbook says intelligence is “the ability to solve problems and to adapt and learn from experiences.” (Ch. 8, Pg. 247, Santrock)
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.
Flynn’s sub-claim that there are seven different types of intelligence: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, self-oriented personal, and other-directed personal, supports Warwick’s idea that intelligence is a multi-dimensional entity because it provides an explanation of the multi-dimensions that Warwick is talking about when referring to intelligence and increase the strength of his argument. By addressing the seven types of intelligence, Flynn is able to further support his main claim by showing that there is more to intelligence than having an avid knowledge in math and being able to read. By using this as evidence, Warwick would be able to show how measuring intelligence through a “one-dimensional single value” (202) is inaccurate, thus strengthening his argument by showing a credible source and example and further extending on Flynn’s idea of the role that sociological imagination plays when defining
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
It is practically impossible for a nation’s intelligence community to detect and prevent every attack on its soil. However, the American failure to uncover the 9/11 plot should be considered a massive failure considering the scope of the attack which involved careful planning, training many perpetrators, and a high profile target with many victims. Furthermore it can be demonstrated that there were many signals and opportunities to discover the plot that the intelligence machinery missed. “Hindsight is 20/20” and there needs to be an understanding of how easy it is to look back at how the intelligence gathered before the attacks should have signaled a serious threat, and thus provoked the unraveling of the 9/11 plot had the intelligence community picked up on and discriminated the signals from the noise. . However, there is evidence that the US intelligence community’s failure to link the information they had differentiated from the “background noise” as representing a possible terrorist threat points to the entire failure of the intelligence system. Therefore, while a nation’s intelligence system and the communities supporting it cannot be expected to succeed 100% of the time, this incident pointed at a 100% failure of the American intelligence community. Although it is recognized that many factors contributed to this failure, there is evidence that the organizational structure and culture both within the individual intelligence agencies and amid the intelligence
Howard Gardner was a Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for almost thirty years as a codirector of Harvard’s Project Zero program. (Jacobus 619) The program was dedicated to improving education in school. While Gardner was determined to improve education, he earned many awards and recognition along the way. Some of the awards he earned were MacArthur Foundation Award in 1981 and Grawemeyer Award in Education in 1991 but his most recognized work was the Theory of Multiple Intelligence. In this theory he objects to the idea that we can measure intelligence with a standardized test. Gardner is more interested in the mastery of thinking and less of the mastery of tests. (Jacobus 620) He believes that
Every students has a different levels of intelligence and a very distinct styles of learning. Some preferred hands on experience and others are visual or auditory learners. No matter what it may be, our learning process help us retain information much easier. In Gardner’s Theory of multiple intelligences, he explains the seven intelligences, while Freire’s Banking concept of education views the educational system as a negative way to educate students. Both article contradicts each other. Gardener’s idea that humans have seven intelligences, connects to Freire's argument that the intelligences mentioned in Gardner's theories are not used effectively and not being challenged. Students are encouraged to conform and not questions what
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
Some common misconceptions about the multiple intelligences theory are the belief that students that fall under one type of intelligence cannot benefit from another and that multiple intelligences and learning styles are the same thing. Addressing the first issue, it is incorrect to think that someone who has a certain intelligence will not find value from utilizing an intelligence outside of their own. In fact, Gardner says it’s the opposite, the occasional use of other intelligences can strengthen one’s learning because it forces them to think
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 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).
When a person utters the word “intelligence,” people tend to think of a genius like Albert Einstein developing some obscure equation that the great majority of the population will never understand. The problem with the definition of intelligence is that people relate intelligence to words like “genius” which require intelligence but do not have the same definition as intelligence. Often, people try to use related words to define intelligence, but these words are unable to define intelligence since many are only different levels of intelligence. While many definitions try to encompass the meaning of intelligence and various definitions describe a small part of intelligence, no definition completely explains intelligence, because