Teaching Toward Multiple Intelligences Part VIII (The Arc of Learning)

  Imagine students in an art class lying flat on their backs under a table where paper-covered cardboard is mounted. The lesson is not just about art. It is about art history, church history, and the painting of the Sistine Chapel (Nuzzi, 1996). This third-grade class is studying Michelangelo, and the teacher uses Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences theory. "Many educators realize that effective teachers should not be measured by the silence of their classrooms or by attentive students facing front, arranged in rows, taking notes as the teacher lectures"(Nuzzi, 1996). Catholic school teachers are applying Gardner's principles to their way of teaching. By appealing to the students' intelligences, the teacher not only gains a student's attention but also their interests.

   "Creativity thrives in the soil where two or more intelligences mix. Here, individuals can shuttle back and forth between different symbol systems, media, and modes of self-expression as best suits their personal, social, and cultural idiosyncrasies" (Marks-Tarlow, 1996). Terry Marks-Tarlow is the author of Creativity Inside Out. In her article, she presents activities for developing the seven intelligences. One such activity is having students create animal figures out of clay. The students then combine their animals to make hybrids. The students then debate the pros, cons, and ethics of genetic engineering in creating new life forms.

      Ninth-grade students create a tableau of a scene from To Kill A Mockingbird. The students use their bodies to represent a moment in the story. The students "negotiate decisions, comment on key scenes in the book, gesture, sing, argue, joke, imagine,"...and share their tableaux with the rest of the class (Rogers, 1995). In doing this activity, the students use a range of intelligences. The students move, visualize, and verbally negotiate. The students use drama as a form of literary response instead of question answer routines. The tableaux "freeze frame" is a drama technique. An image of some key moment from the text is prepared by students working in small groups and shared with the rest of the class (Rogers, 1995). Tableaux can be used to discover and display what students already know about a topic or theme, develop a chronology of moments in a story, or predict outcomes. "The use of tableaux will not automatically result in reflection, interpretation, or elaboration. Without the teacher's encouragement and questioning, and the deliberate adoption of an interpretive stance, the task will not necessarily modify or extend the student's thinking (Rogers, 1995).

      "Children's learning styles are as different as the colors of the rainbow.  All people have different, distinct personalities, preferences, and tastes. When we understand the various ways in which children learn, we are better able to 1) prevent discipline problems, 2) communicate with parents, 3) reduce teacher burn-out and parent frustration, 4) organize the classroom and 5) help children reach their potential" (Reiff, 1996). In Reiff's article entitled Bridging Home and School Through Multiple Intelligences, she stresses that information about the intelligences should be shared with parents. Parents should be involved in the learning process and they should be recognized and valued as "collaborators" in their children's education. Reiff also says that parents should be encouraged to provide different activities to discover and nurture their child's intelligence. Listed below are instructional strategies provided by Reiff for teachers to use in their classrooms. The strategies are geared towards the seven intelligences.

      *LINGUISTIC LEARNERS

            Reading/Writing   Workshops

            Dialogue Writing

     *LOGICAL-Mathematical LEARNERS

            Problem-Solving and Patterning Activities

            Computer Instruction and Syllogism

            Use Graphic Organizers

    *SPATIAL LEARNERS

     Use Color in Activities

     Provide Manipulatives

     Guided Imagery

     Mind Mapping

  *MUSICAL LEARNERS

     Use Descriptive and Rhythmic Words

     Listening Centers

     Use Variety of Music in the Classroom

*BODILY-KINESTHETIC LEARNERS

     Provide Physical Exercise

     Hands-On Activities

     Manipulatives

*INTERPERSONAL LEARNERS

     Arrange for Students to Be Peer Tutors or Peer Buddies

     Debates

     Cooperative Learning

*INTRAPERSONAL Learners

     Provide Quiet Area for Independent Work

     Journal Writing

     Metacognition Techniques

     Independent Projects

According to Reiff (1996), children should not be "tracked" according to specific intelligence, nor should they be excluded from enjoying activities in other intelligences. All children should be provided with an equal opportunity for succession within the classroom.

       "Many of today's schools will never get the chance to exercise their intellectual areas of expertise" (Evans, 1995). These students will never get to exercise their intellectual abilities because they are tracked. They are put into categories of the able and less abled. Evans believes that to build upon the mixture of ideas and values in the classroom regarding culture, we must first recognize that our system of segregating students is "morally wrong and academically unsound".

Project Spectrum Continued VII- Domain Specific, Correlation, and Strength (The Arc of Learning)

Howard Gardner and the research team were interested in the following questions:

      1.   Do young children have domain-specific as well as more general strengths?

      2.   Is there any correlation between performances in different activities?

      3.   Does a child's strength in one domain facilitate or hinder performance in other domains?

In Question  #1, the majority of the children's strengths and weaknesses were identified in relation to the group. In all cases, areas of strength and weakness were identified for each child. In Question #2 the results indicated little correlation between the activities. In Question #3 there was some evidence that a child's strength in one area might facilitate performance in another. In regards to a child's working style Gardner and his colleagues were interested in two issues:

      1.   Do children utilize distinctive working styles when solving

           problems from different domains? (And if so, what is the

           nature of the differences in a child's areas of strength and

           weakness?)

      2.   Are some working styles more effective than others in

           particular domains?

With the first issue "...the majority of children, while one or two working styles were usually obtained across domains, other working styles depended more on the content of the area being explored."  In the second issue, "some of the children who exhibited a consistent working style were clearly helped by their content - Neutral Style, whereas others were probably hindered by it. Project Spectrum revealed outstanding strengths that had not otherwise been identified in eight out of the seventeen children, all together Spectrum identified twelve strengths that had not been identified by parent or teacher. The domains of strength included science, visual arts, music, and social understanding.

The Seven Multiple Intelligences

*MUSICAL INTELLIGENCE

      Parts of the brain play important roles in perception and the

      production of music.

*BODILY-KINESTHETIC INTELLIGENCE

      Control of the body's movement is localized in the motor cortex.

      "Body movement undergoes a clearly defined developmental

      schedule in children."

*LOGICAL-MATHEMATICAL

      Problem-solving abilities

*VISUAL-SPATIAL INTELLIGENCE

      Ability to create visual-spatial representations of the world.

*INTERPERSONAL

      The ability to work effectively with others, to understand them,

      and to notice their goals, motivations, and intentions.

*INTRAPERSONAL

      The ability to be deeply aware of inner feelings, intentions, and

      goals.

*VERBAL

      Reading and writing skills. Sensitivity to nuances, order, and

      rhythm of words.

Working Styles - Project Spectrum Continued Part VI (The Arc of Learning)

Howard Gardner and his colleagues wanted to determine how a child approached a task. To do this, they had to look at cognitive or working styles and intellectual capacities. The working styles describe how a child interacts with the materials of a content area. An example would be planning an activity, reflecting on a task, and the level of persistence. At the time, fifteen areas of cognitive ability and eighteen stylistic features are stressed.

      The fifteen areas of cognitive ability examined in Project Spectrum are:

NUMBERS:

            Number Concepts

            Counting Skills

            Use of Strategy etc.

 SCIENCE:

            Measure a child's mechanical ability

            Logical Inferences

            Generation of Hypothesis etc.

 MUSIC:

            The child's ability to maintain accurate pitch

            Discrimination

            Song recognition

 LANGUAGE:

            Vocabulary and Sentence Structure

            Descriptive Language

            Dialogue

            Level of detail etc.

 VISUAL ARTS:

            Portfolios

            Detail

            Representation

            Drawing etc.

MOVEMENT:

            Dance

            Creative Movement

            Expressiveness

            Body Control

            Responsiveness to music etc.

 SOCIAL:

            Observe and Analyze

            Interaction with Peers

            Patterns of Behavior

            Social Roles etc.

      In a Project Spectrum classroom, the children are surrounded by rich and engaging materials that provide for the use of a range of intelligences. Materials are used that embody valued societal roles or end states, they draw on relevant combinations of intelligences. In the naturalist corner students examine and compare specimens to other materials. Sensory capacities and logical analytical powers are used here. In the story-telling area, students create imaginative tales using props and storyboards. In this area, they use their linguistic, dramatic, and imaginative facilities. In the building corner, students make models of their classrooms and "manipulate small-scale photographs of the students and teachers in the room". This area makes use of spatial, bodily, and personal intelligence. It is said that children need to observe competent adults or older peers at work or play in these areas.

      With observation, children come to appreciate "the reasons for the materials as well as the nature of the skills that equip a master to interact with them in a meaningful way. (Gardner, 1993). Over a year, children have ample opportunity to explore the learning areas and for the most part, teachers can readily observe a child's interests and talents during the year. At the end of the year, the research team summarized the information obtained on each child in a brief essay called a Spectrum Report. The Spectrum Report describes each child's strengths and weaknesses and gives information about what might be done at home, in school, or in the community to build on the child's strengths and weaknesses.

    The analysis presented is based on data collected during the 1986-87 and 1987-88 school years.