Question: How Can we Teach Kids the Way They Learn?
Answer: Include MI into their Lessons

This page was most recently revised on Monday, 11 December, 2006 

Spatial	Bodily kinesthetic	Musical
Naturalist		Interpersonal
Intrapersonal	Logical mathematical	Linguistic

Here are seven (7) assumptions about Howard Gardner that I have observed over his past 30 years of writings on the nature of human intelligences (MI).  First, he defines intelligence i) as a set of skills that enable all of us to solve problems encountered in our daily lives, ii) as the ability to create an effective product or to offer a service that is valued in the culture, and iii) as the potential for finding or creating novel problems which enable us to acquire new knowledge.

Second, I view MI an another way of describing the distinctness in students and why they often grasp, understand, and acquire information differently. Perhaps the time is ripe to use MI to teach students the way they learn, not the way we want them to learn. For the special education student, I like to call this other way of learning, the positive side of the LD coin. To sum and to restate this second assumption in the form of a question, would 80% of the learning disabled (LD) problems in our schools gradually disappear if more classroom teachers and school administrators conducted public schooling according to MI? As you will see in all of what follows, I argue strongly in the affirmative.

I guess what I am trying to say is that, whenever possible, it is important to teach anyone according to their more dominant intelligences, abilities, and strengths. Speaking as a public school educator, I feel that we are currently doing a very poor job at this. The time appear ripe for us to change. To sum, I 'see' the term LD as learning differently, in addition to its mainstream title, learning disabled.

Third, the Gardner MI is based on the assumption that every one of us has (at least) eight intelligences or eight distinct cognitive abilities, each ability possessing an almost separate locus, somewhere in the brain. Fourth, while Gardner views the intelligences as semi-autonomous cognitive entities, they nevertheless work together, not in isolation. Fifth, some of his intelligences will demonstrate more cognitive "promise" than others within us. And even within one area of an intelligence, one may show a range of weaknesses and strengths. Sixth, other cultures and segments of other societies place very different emphasis on the intelligences.

Finally, and perhaps as important as all of the above, MI integrates well with what many strong classroom teachers have been doing for years. When I first heard Gardner speak, he was the first to admit that many excellent educators have been teaching to his eight intelligences since the earliest of time.

Copyright © by Clifford Morris, 2006