Hi Gary
Teaching multiple intelligences are being categorize in 4 parts, verbal linguistic, logical mathematical, visual and special and body kinesthetic, for a teacher it is important to be a good psychologist in the classroom teacher need to use each this method in the learning process to be able to reach each student ability of learning
Eric
Hi Gina,
Good to hear about your planning for evening students. I teach from 4 until 10 pm so I understand the challenges you face with tired students. I have to do a lot of planning to make sure I keep them engaged and focused. It is easy for them to slip away in their minds after a hard days work.
Gary
I completely agree that mixing things up in the classroom is the best way to not only appeal to different learning styles and intelligences, but also to keep the learners engaged. As a night time instructor, many of my students have worked all day, and are rather tired by 7PM. Using different methods keeps their brains active, and helps stimulate the learning process. It can however be difficult to determine if a student is confused by the topic because of their learning preference, or they are just too tired to process information.
Understanding multiple intelligences will help me see even more ways to approach my students that are struggling with a topic, and find a way to get the message across.
Hi Leslie,
You make a very good point about the difference between being "book smart" and being "application smart". We use the expression "It isn't how smart you are but how you are smart" that makes a difference in terms of success.
Gary
In the medical field, we notice that sometimes the people that are very "book smart" make the worst clinicians. I could use this knowledge of multiple intelligences to help students understand the didactic portion of their learning. Hopefully they will be able to apply this information to their patients benefit.
Absolutely. I believe that understanding these multiple intellegencies will aid us in the classroom. To often we are told to "teach them" yet we are not equipped to understanding "how" they learn.
Hi Lloyd,
Great to hear about your use of the multiple intelligence information to plan your instructional delivery. I know both your students and yourself will increase the level of involvement and progress in the course as you plan around the different intelligences.
Gary
Knowing these multiple intelligences will help me reach certain students that I could not help before so it give me help in the class room
Having an understanding of the many different learning styles will enable me to be instruct the training being provided.
By understanding each individuals' learning aproach the instructor can better filter the information needed by each individual.
The dental course i teach is performance based, so i show and demonstrate the clinical in addition to describing the project orally, this way i am sure everyone will understand the information given.
Normally I try to present material in different ways: auditory, written, visual or kinesthetic, to help students retain it. Sometimes because of personal preferences, I may overuse one method or another. By being aware that students (and teachers) process information in primarily three of seven intelligence area, I can check myself to insure I am offering enough instructional variety.
Hi Kimberly,
Good ideas of how to bring variety to the classroom while appealing to the different learning preferences of your students. These methods help to keep them engaged and focused on their learning.
Gary
There are several ways of doing multiple intelligence. One is have them read and write a overview of what they have read. Then go over it with them. Hands on is great. Make them do it instead of just read it. It work really good.
Hi Laura,
Good plan for creating instructional delivery alternatives that will enable you to attract and hold the attention of your students. Students need variety and you are offering that to them with your methods and as a result they will stay engaged in the learning process for longer periods of time.
Gary
I have taken over a course of instruction that used multiple PowerPoint presentations as the sole method of instruction. My challenge has been to slowly incorporate other methods to reach out to the students who process information differently. I have begun incorporating small group activities, music, and visual aids to stimulate learning and the results have been very positive.
Hi Samer,
Thank you for the comments about multiple intelligences and how they have been perceived over the years. I have been researching the identification and use of multiple intelligences at our university for the past thirty years. During that time I have developed a real appreciated for the learning abilities of individuals that are challenged by many of the frustrations and stresses of life.
I have had the opportunity to set up programs that operate around the use of delivery options that focus on the different intelligences. We have found that the students do stay engaged and focused as a result of being able to work within their three dominate intelligences. This information helps us with our instructional planning and delivery.
Gary
In the heyday of the psychometric and behaviorist eras, I generally believed that intelligence was a single entity that was inherited; and that human beings - initially a blank slate - could be trained to learn anything, provided that it was presented in an appropriate way. Nowadays an increasing number of researchers believe precisely the opposite; that there exists a multitude of intelligences, quite independent of each other; that each intelligence has its own strengths and constraints; that the mind is far from unencumbered at birth; and that it is unexpectedly difficult to teach things that go against early 'naive' theories of that challenge the natural lines of force within an intelligence and its matching domains. Intelligence as 'the capacity to solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural setting' there are eight criteria or signs of intelligence:
1. Potential isolation by brain damage.
2. The existence of idiots savants, prodigies and other exceptional individuals.
3. An identifiable core operation or set of operations.
4. A distinctive development history, along with a definable set of 'end-state' performances.
5. An evolutionary history and evolutionary plausibility.
6. Support from experimental psychological tasks.
7. Support from psychometric findings.
8. Susceptibility to encoding in a symbol system.
Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences has not been readily accepted within academic psychology. However, it has met with a strongly positive response from many educators. It has been embraced by a range of educational theorists and, significantly, applied by teachers and policymakers to the problems of schooling. A number of schools in North America have looked to structure curricula according to the intelligences, and to design classrooms and even whole schools to reflect the understandings that Howard Gardner develops. The theory can also be found in use within pre-school, higher, vocational and adult education initiatives.
Knowing the differnt intelligences will help in teaching to mix things up a bit. There isn't one type so to learn we must use a variety of deliery to help the differences.
Teaching to multiple intelligences is always a challenge. I really liked the analagy of the cat and dog. I have 3 cats and 2 dogs, so I can really relate to that. I often put people into cat and dog groupings when I form teams in my classrooms. I also really liked your concept of pruning. When I thought about it, it made perfect sense to me, we do it all the time.
