The Use of Multiple Intelligences

The seven Multiple Intelligences were first published in the book Frames of Mind by Howard Gardner in 1983. It focused mainly on seven Multiple Intelligences that people identified themselves with concerning the way they prefer to learn and develop skills and information. The seven intelligence types are Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Musical, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Spatial-Visual, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal. I will only be explaining the intelligences that I personally connect to: Musical, Linguistic and Logical/Mathematical. Beginning with being a part of the Musical intelligence type, I enjoy listening to and appreciating the rhythms of music. In turn, this can help me memorize words or song lyrics easily. Incorporating vocabulary words or certain topics/subjects into my music would help me hone in on that Musical intelligence. My second intelligence is Linguistic. This means that I have a keen eye and ear for words. Reading aloud text and writing summaries of what I’ve read are useful to me with my Linguistic intelligence. Finally, I have the Logical/Mathematical intelligence. I like understanding and seeing how things work in a logical sense. I’m good at critical thinking as well as puzzle solving and getting the hang of math concepts. Everyone has a bit of every intelligence within themselves as a learner, but some are stronger than others. In brief, I have a pretty well rounded bunch of intelligences that suits who I am as a person and as a learner.

“We learn 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what is discussed with others, 80% of what we experience personally, and 95% of what we teach someone else.”

- William Glasser (Glenn, 1999)

This quote by Glasser, from my own personal experience as both a student and a mentor, is accurate. We can all collectively learn from Glasser’s quote, whether as a first time student or a wise teacher. As a student, we can learn and apply different study methods to be more efficient and successful. Not all students click with one particular way they study and they might not be achieving the results they want by doing so. As soon as they realize what works best for them, like their Multiple Intelligence can describe out, they will be much more successful. Take for instance my way of studying. If I have to memorize vocabulary, I need to say the words out loud to myself over and over again in order to remember them. This is my way of connecting to my Linguistic Intelligence. I know that my other friend sings a tune or a song to help her memorize words, connecting her to her Musical intelligence. Each study method isn’t either right or wrong, they are effective for the both of us. As a mentor, the first way of teaching students might not be the best way for everyone. I experience that lesson first hand every day in the achievement centre. It’s important to be patient and open-minded of how other students learn individually. Like today, I was teaching a student how to calculate slope. Usually, I do an example on paper with them while explaining. Mrs. Fernando asked me if I would like to observe how she taught a lesson to them and I saw that her teaching style was different from mine. She related the equation to something they see in real life, like the slope of a hill and how hard it would be to trek up it depending on how slanted it was. She made the example personal. That’s an aspect of teaching I would like to pick up and learn from, since as Glasser said, 80% of what we learn is what we experience personally. Creating those relationships between the content they’re learning and the real world is much more effective. Without a doubt, this quote by William Glasser is right and has implications towards students and mentors alike.

Throughout my time as a student within Canada’s education system for about 77% of my life, I’ve had a lot of teachers. Most were good, others were not so good, but there were rare ones that you get along with and learn a lot from. The difference between a good teacher and a great one was the way they appealed to all of the Multiple Intelligences. My favourite teachers were always the ones who taught me the most from the subject through showing videos, music, telling stories about real life, and explaining examples with diagrams and with in depth explanations. Of course, no teacher is perfect at doing/showing all of these, but each took into account the different learning styles of students. For example, one of my math teachers liked to stand in front of the class and give us lessons paired with diagrams and drawings, explaining every detail that confused us and answering questions. She occasionally told us stories that related to the content, which kept us entertained and helped us remember the lessons more clearly. Another example would be my english teacher from a year or so ago. She used videos, music, and texts to help us understand the content of Shakespeare. She helped us draw connections between real life and what we were learning right there in class. She told us stories and even brought us outside to visualize what the experience of being on a deserted island (like Lord of The Flies style). Needless to say, I did get a fair amount of good examples of teachers making use of the Multiple Intelligences within their classroom.

I found the topic of this week pretty interesting and I felt that I could talk about my experiences with my different teachers that I adored learning from. I want to apply these different skills within the achievement centre and improve and be mindful of how I teach the kids through the use of Multiple Intelligences.

Attached below are the descriptions of the intelligences that I identify with. Without further ado, the meme of the week as well as the quote are attached below!