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The Theory of Multiple Intelligences with a grain of salt

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 Last night we continued our professional development program and explored the role of the 21st century professor. We thought about what it means to teach (transmit, share, guide, inspire, communicate) and what it means to learn (internalize and reproduce, appropriate something, make it your own). 

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For someone to really learn something and internalize the information, the learning must be memorable, or significant. It must be connected with some kind of emotion. But not everyone has the same emotional reaction to everything.

Some students love math, and some can't stand it. Some kids excel in gym class, and for others it seems like torture. Some people find history fascinating and others couldn't care less what treaty was signed in what year by some guy in a wig. But maybe it's not the content, or the subject, that are really causing these emotions but the way in which they are presented, the context in which we encounter them. Math isn't always numbers and memorizing formulas. Physical education doesn't always need to be competitive. History doesn't need to imply memorizing dates and names.

In order to reach all of our students, we need to get to know them and how they learn. Dr. Howard Gardner proposed the theory of multiple intelligences, which states that we all learn differently, but we all learn. No more can we think of students as good or bad, smart or slow. There is a whole spectrum of abilities of which the traditional education system only recognizes, nurtures and rewards very few. Gardner's observations change the question from "how smart are you" to "how are you smart."
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With this idea of the need for personalized learning (keeping in mind that it is not a completely new idea, but one that many teachers had already taken into account though perhaps never given a name), the role of the teacher seems to become more complicated, but also much more rewarding. It means that the teacher really must become a guide, coach and facilitator, so that each student can reach their full potential in any given subject using their own strengths. 

The theory of multiple intelligences is a wonderful introduction into the idea that students learn differently and connect in different ways. However, it also presents the risk of labeling students as one thing when in reality they are capable of all kinds of intelligence, though one may be stronger than the others. Thinking of a student as solely "logical-mathematical" or "kinesthetic" may limit them to thinking of themselves in the same one-dimensional way. We must be careful to celebrate the strengths that our students have while challenging them to develop in all directions. 

Here is one example of a school in Georgia who is working to nurture the different kinds of "smarts" that their students have: Smartville


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