Applying multiple intelligences theory

Applying Multiple Intelligences Theory | | |
| |In Preservice and Inservice TEFL Education Programs | |

| |by Mary Ann Christison | |

| |My interest in the theory of multiple intelligences (MI) and its application to the second and foreign | |
| |languageclassroom began in the early part of this decade. Ever since my first year of teaching in 1970,| |
| |I have been troubled greatly by the concept of intelligence as a static construct. It didn't seem to | |
| |make sense when I applied it to my students. My students demonstrated so many different individual | |
| |strengths and skills, and they were constantly changing, learning, andgrowing. If someone had asked me | |
| |to select my most intelligent student, I couldn't have done so. My experiences as an educator were | |
| |teaching me that intelligence was not just one form of cognition that cut across all human thinking. | |
| |Rather, intelligence comprised quite possibly different intelligences. It took me almost 20 years to | |
| |find the theory thatsupported my beliefs and experiences. | |

| |Gardner's theory (1985) proposes different and autonomous intelligence capacities that result in many | |
| |different ways of knowing, understanding, and learning about our world. As an L2 educator, it has been | |
| |important for me to get away from defining intelligence in terms of tests andcorrelations among tests | |
| |and begin to look more seriously at how people around the world develop skills important to their lives.| |
| |I am reminded of a wonderful book titled The Education of Little Tree (Carter 1991), which deals with | |
| |the difference between the skills that are considered intelligent and valued in the Native American | |
| |Indian culture and the culture ofthe "white man" in the United States. Both groups valued a different | |
| |set of skills and judged intelligent behavior in different ways. As Gardner (1993:15) states: It is of | |
| |the utmost importance that we recognize and nurture all of the varied human intelligences, and all of | |
| |the combinations of intelligences. We are all so different largely because we all have different| |
| |combinations of intelligences. If we recognize this, I think we will have at least a better chance of | |
| |dealing appropriately with the many problems we face in the world. | |

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| |What exactly is intelligence? | |

| |There is probably no aspect of contemporary psychology that is more misunderstood by the general public | |
| |than intelligence. We seem awed by our perception of it in others. The notion of intelligence has a | || |profound effect on one's social status, educational opportunities, and career choices. Even though great| |
| |importance is attached to intelligence, most of us are unable to define exactly what intelligence is. | |
| |There is no objective, agreed-upon referent either among the general public or contemporary | |
| |psychologists. Most commonly, people accept a definitionof intelligence that is synonymous with a score| |
| |on the traditional intelligence test-a test originally designed by Alfred Binet to predict which | |
| |youngsters in Parisian primary grades would succeed and which would fail. Binet's discovery became known| |
| |as the "intelligence test" and has enjoyed great success the world over. Traditional IQ tests predict | |
| |school...