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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".
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.
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