from complex backgrounds (field dependent vs. field independent), or their affinity for analytic, abstract perspectives as opposed to more integrated, comprehensive ones (analytic vs. global) .
Awareness of different intelligences and learning styles, and individuals' preferences for them can help teachers create positive learning experiences . By varying instructional activities to accommodate learners'
preferences (lectures, visuals, hands-on activities, songs) or by offering options for responses to instruction (write a paper, create a model, give a demonstration), teachers can support learners' access to and understanding of content.
Practitioner Inquiry, Reflective Teaching, and Action Research
Practitioner inquiry, reflective teaching, and action research refer to a teacher-centered approach to professional and staff development. Like the learner-centered approach to instruction, which focuses on the needs of the learners and respects them as partners in the learning process, these approaches to professional development put practitioners at the center of the process defining, investigating, and addressing issues
in their own teaching .
These models require practitioners to become researchers and take a questioning stance towards their work. Rather than focusing on their deficits, teachers concentrate on their strengths and interests as means for enhancing their knowledge and teaching skills . The following steps are usually part of the process: reflecting upon practice as a means of identifying a problem or question; gathering information on that problem or question; examining and reflecting on the data gathered; planning some action based on the information; implementing the action planned; monitoring and evaluating the changes that may or may not result
from the action; and collaborating or sharing with colleagues . These
terms and similar variations are often used interchangeably, their differences typically illustrating the elements emphasized, in other words, reflective teaching highlights ongoing self-assessment while action research focuses on planning, implementing, and evaluating actual changes in the classroom.
Project-based Education
Project-based education is an instructional approach that seeks to contextualize language learning by involving learners in projects, rather than in isolated activities targeting specific skills. Project-based learning activities generally integrate language and cognitive skills, connect to real-life problems, generate high learner interest, and involve some cooperative or group learning skills . Unlike instruction where content is organized by themes that relate and contextualize material to be learned, project-based learning presents learners with a problem to solve or a product to produce. They must then plan and execute activities to achieve
their objectives.
Projects selected may be complex and require an investment of time and resources, or they may be more modest in scale. Examples of projects include a class cookbook, an international food bazaar, a folktale-based story hour at a local library, a neighborhood services directory, or a class web page . In the selection of projects and activities, it is important to include learners' input, as well as to consider carefully how the project will fit with overall instructional goals and objectives .
Chapter 2. Theory of Multiple Intelligences.
2.1. Gardner’s Theory.
Arguing that "reason, intelligence, logic, knowledge are not synonymous...," Howard Gardner (1983) proposed a new view of intelligence that is rapidly being incorporated in school curricula. In his Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Gardner expanded the concept of intelligence to also include such areas as music, spacial relations, and
interpersonal knowledge in addition to mathematical and linguistic ability.
This research discusses the origins of Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, his definition of intelligence, the incorporation of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences into the classroom, and its role in alternative assessment practices.
Definition
According to Howard Gardner, as presented in his book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, human intelligence has the following characteristics:
-A set of skills that enable a person to resolve genuine problems encountered in life.
-The Ability to create an effective product or offer a service that is valued in a culture.
-The Potential for recognizing or creating problems, thereby establishing the necessity for the new knowledge.
Howard Gardner said in his book: “it becomes necessary to say, once and for all, that there can never be, a single irrefutable and universally accepted list of human intelligences.
Though an exhaustive list of every intelligence may not be possible, identifying intelligences is important for at least two reasons:
-Classification of Human Intellectual Competencies which will allow a better understanding of humanity.
-Identification of Intellectual Strengths which will enable researchers to communicate more accurately about the concept of Intellect.
Seven Intelligences
Gardner defines intelligence as "the capacity to solve problems or to fashion product that are valued in one or more cultural setting". Using biological as well as cultural research, he formulated a list of seven intelligences. This new outlook on intelligence differs greatly from the traditional view which usually recognizes only two intelligences, verbal and computational. The seven intelligences Gardner defines are:
2.1.1 Linguistic Intelligence
Linguistic intelligence (or verbal-linguistic) is the ability to use with clarity the core operations of language. It involves having a mastery of language. This intelligence includes the ability to effectively manipulate language to express oneself rhetorically or poetically. It also allows one to use language as a means to remember information.
People with linguistic intelligence have a sensitivity to the meaning of words--the capacity to follow rules of grammar, and, on carefully selected occasions, to violate them. At a somewhat more sensory level--a sensitivity to the sounds, rhythms, inflections, and meters of words--that ability which can make even poetry in a foreign tongue beautiful to hear. And a sensitivity to the different functions of language--its potential to excite, convince, stimulate, convey information, or simply to please.
People such as poets, authors, reporters, speakers, attorneys, talk-show hosts, politicians, lecturers, and teachers may exhibit developed linguistic intelligence.
2.1.2 Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
Logical-Mathematical intelligence is logical and mathematical ability as well as scientific ability. It consists of the ability to detect patterns, reason deductively and think logically. This intelligence is most often associated with scientific and mathematical thinking.
Abstraction is fundamental, reasoning is complex, and problem-solution is natural.
Order and sequence are significant. There is a drive to know causality as well as the explication of existence.
People such as mathematicians, engineers, physicists, esearchers, astronomers, and scientists may exhibit developed logical-mathematical intelligence.
2.1.3 Intra-Personal Intelligence
Intra-Personal intelligence is the ability to form an accurate model of oneself, and to use that model to operate effectively in life. At a basic level, it is the capacity to distinguish feelings of pleasure from emotional pain and , on the basis of such discrimination, to become more involved in or to withdraw from a situation. At the most advanced level, interpersonal intelligence is the capacity to detect and to
symbolize complex and high differentiated sets of feelings.
People such as some novelists, therapists, sages, psychologists, and philosophers may exhibit developed intra-personal intelligence.
2.1.4 Inter-Personal Intelligence
Inter-personal intelligence is the ability to notice and make distinctions among other individuals and, in particular, among their moods, temperaments, motivations, and intentions. Examined in its most elementary form, the inter-personal intelligence entails the capacity of the young child to detect and discriminate the various moods of
those around them. In an advanced form, it permits a skilled adult to read the intentions and desires--even when those desires have been hidden--of many other individuals and, potentially, act upon this knowledge.
People such as politicians, religious leaders, and those in the helping professions may exhibit developed inter-personal intelligence.
The last two intelligences are separate from each other. Nevertheless, because of their close association in most cultures, they are often linked together.
2.1.5 Musical Intelligence
Musical intelligence (or Musical-rhythmic) is the ability to use the core set of musical elements--pitch, rhythm, and timbre (understanding the characteristic qualities of a tone). Auditory functions are required for a person to develop this intelligence in relation to pitch and tone, but it is not needed for the knowledge of rhythm. There may be a hierarchy of difficulty involved in various roles--composition, performance, listening.
People such as singers, composers, instrumentalists, conductors, and those who enjoy, understand, use, create, perform, and appreciate music and/or elements of music may exhibit developed musical intelligence.
2.1.6 Spatial Intelligence
Spatial intelligence (or visual-spatial) is the capacity to perceive the world accurately, and to be able to recreate one's visual experience. It gives one the ability to manipulate and create mental images in order to solve problems. This intelligence is not limited to visual domains--Gardner notes that spatial intelligence is also formed in blind children. It entails a number of loosely related capacities: the ability to recognize instances of the same element; the ability to recognize transformations of
one element in another; the capacity to conjure up mental imagery and then to transform that imagery; the ability to produce a graphic likeness of spatial information; and the like. A person with a good sense of direction or the ability to move and operate well in the world would indicate spatial intelligence.
People such as sailors, engineers, surgeons, sculptors, painters, cartographers, and architects may exhibit developed spatial intelligence.
2.1.7 Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence
Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence is the ability to use one's mental abilities to coordinate one's own bodily movements and the ability to handle objects skillfully. This intelligence challenges the popular belief that mental and physical activity are unrelated.
People such as actors, dancers, swimmers, acrobats, athletes, jugglers,
instrumentalists and artisans may exhibit developed bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.
2.1.8 Naturalistic Intelligence
The following definition is an abbreviation and adaptation by J. Keith Rogers and based upon his study of Howard Gardner's theory:
Naturalistic intelligence is the ability to understand, relate to, categorize, classify, comprehend, and explain the things encountered in the world of nature.
People such as farmers, ranchers, hunters, gardeners, and animal handlers may exhibit developed naturalistic intelligence.
Although the intelligences are anatomically separated from each other, Gardner claims that the seven intelligences very rarely operate independently. Rather, the
intelligences are used concurrently and typically complement each other as individuals develop skills or solve problems. For example, a dancer can excel in his art only if he has
1) strong musical intelligence to understand the rhythm and
variations of the music,
2) interpersonal intelligence to understand how he can inspire or emotionally move his audience through his movements, as well as
3) bodily-kinesthetic intelligence to provide him with the agility and coordination to complete the movements successfully.
Basis for Intelligence
Gardner argues that there is both a biological and cultural basis for the multiple intelligences. Neurobiological research indicates that learning is an outcome of the modifications in the synaptic connections between cells. Primary elements of different types of learning are found in particular areas of the brain where corresponding transformations have occurred. Thus, various types of learning results in synaptic connections in different areas of the brain. For example, injury to the Broca's area of the brain will result in the loss of one's ability to verbally
communicate using proper syntax. Nevertheless,this injury will not remove the patient's understanding of correct grammar and word usage.
In addition to biology, Gardner (1983) argues that culture also plays a large role in the development of the intelligences. All societies value different types of intelligences.
The cultural value placed upon the ability to perform certain tasks provides the motivation to become skilled in those areas. Thus, while particular intelligences might be highly evolved in many people of one culture, those same intelligences might not be as developed in the individuals of another.
2.2. Psychological analysis of Gardner’s Theory
Despite swings of the pendulum between theoretical and applied concerns, the concept of intelligence has remained central to the field of psychology. In the wake of the Darwinian revolution, when scientific psychology was just beginning, many scholars became interested in the development of intelligence across species. The late 19th and early 20th centuries were punctuated by volumes that delineated levels of
intelligence across species and within the human species . Francis Galton (cousin of Charles Darwin) was perhaps the first psychologically oriented scientist to try to measure the intellect directly. Though
Galton (1870) had a theoretical interest in the concept of intelligence, his work was by no means unrelated to practical issues. A committed eugenicist, he sought to measure intelligence and hoped, through proper "breeding," to increase the overall intelligence of the population.
During the following half century, many of the most gifted and influential
psychologists concerned themselves with the nature of human intelligence. Although a few investigators were interested principally in theoretical issues, most seasoned their concerns with a practical orientation. Thus, Binet and Terman developed the first general-purpose intelligence tests in their respective countries; Yerkes and Wechsler created their own influential instruments. Even scientists with a strong
theoretical bent, like Spearman and Thurstone , contributed either
directly or indirectly to the devising of certain measurement techniques and the favoring of particular lines of interpretation.
By midcentury, theories of intelligence had become a staple of psychology textbooks, even as intelligence tests were taken for granted in many industrialized countries.
Still, it is fair to say that, within scientific psychology, interest in issues of intelligence waned to some extent. Although psychometricians continued to perfect the instruments that purported to measure human intellect and some new tests were introduced , for the most part, the burgeoning interest in cognitive matters bypassed the area of intelligence.
This divorce between mainstream research psychology and the "applied area" of intelligence might have continued indefinitely, but by the late 70s, there were signs of a reawakening of interest in theoretical and research aspects of intelligence. With his focus on the information-processing aspects of items in psychological tests, Robert
Sternberg was perhaps the most important catalyst for this shift,
but researchers from a number of different areas of psychology have joined in this rediscovery of the centrality of intelligence .
The Theory of Multiple Intelligences
A decade ago, Gardner found that his own research interests were leading him to a heightened concern with issues of human intelligence. This concern grew out of two disparate factors, one primarily theoretical, the other largely practical.
As a result of his own studies of the development and breakdown of cognitive and symbol-using capacities, Gardner became convinced that the Piagetian view of intellect was flawed. Whereas Piaget had
conceptualized all aspects of symbol use as part of a single "semiotic function,"
empirical evidence was accruing that the human mind may be quite modular in design. That is, separate psychological processes appear to be involved in dealing with linguistic, numerical, pictorial, gestural, and other kinds of symbolic systems .