Multiple Intelligences

By Patricia MacCorquodale, Dean – The Honors College

Throughout human history, people have tried to predict who will create great art, write amazing novels, develop new theories, invent new technologies, and set new records. This led to the concept of intelligence and efforts to measure it (IQ, SAT, GRE). Howard Gardner decided to work backwards and to examine the creative process to see what characteristics and processes of thinking contribute. He developed the theory of multiple intelligences. His work is based on three important principles:

1. All human beings have full range of intelligences.
2. No two individuals are the same in their intellectual profile because they have different experiences.
3. High intelligence is not necessarily linked to acting intelligently, i.e. making smart choices. Intelligences can be applied to a range of objects, positive and life-affirming or negative and destructive.

For Gardner, an intelligence is a “computational ability,” an ability to solve problems, create and apply ideas. The intelligences that Gardner identified are: musical, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, naturalistic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal (self-reflective). Multiple intelligences are the ways of thinking and learning that we use daily.

Individuals vary in the strength of their intelligences. Insight into learning strategies can be gained through identifying strengths and intelligences typically used. I remember when my daughter was struggling with spelling. My strategies for learning were spelling the words out loud and imagining the letters in my mind. A friend pointed out that my daughter is highly bodily-kinesthetic; she loves dancing, soccer, and roller coasters. When I got a box of refrigerator magnets and she could manipulate the letters, she found a way of improving her spelling. I encourage students to think about how the courses they select, and specific assignments they are given, build upon strengths and develop new ways of experiencing, learning and relating.

Faculty at the University of Arizona build multiple intelligences into their teaching through student-centered instruction. This involves presenting information in multiple formats (graphs, text, lecture, webpages) and actively engaging students in the learning process (discussion, reports, team projects, application). Engaging multiple intelligences not only helps students with different learning styles to understand concepts and ideas, but also helps us to learn material more deeply. As students are more aware of their multiple intelligences, they become more active managers of their own learning and self esteem increases. One of my favorite moments in the classroom is when a student becomes the teacher by applying her or his unique strengths to an issue or problem. I just step back and learn!

Patricia MacCorquodale can be contacted via email at pmac@email.arizona.edu