Multiple Intelligence

Each student is entirely unique from all other students. They have their own cultural histories, experiences, and learning styles. Many school curriculums are designed to fit students into the curriculum instead of designing the curriculum to fit the uniqueness of students. Multiple Intelligence teaching takes each individual’s strengths and weaknesses into account and presents all eight intelligences to be used by all students. This method of instruction encourages students to use their strengths and to develop and strengthen their weaknesses.

I struggled throughout my years in primary and secondary education. The way that I was taught was not conducive to my learning style. I am strongest in intrapersonal and interpersonal as well as special/visual. Linguistic, mathematical and musical intelligence are my weakest areas and I struggled to read and do math in my head. I have always had problems with interpreting information and expressing what is in my head. It was hard to keep up in school. I was have always been active and keep myself busy doing many things at once so sitting at a desk being lectured did not increase my learning. I loved science labs, group projects and any activity that let me move and use my hands. In college it took many years to decide what my career should be and I had a hard time with the amount of reading that was assigned. I am a very slow reader and get distracted very easily so I try to allow more time for assignments that involve reading and writing. It has been a struggle and I never imagined that I would graduate from high school let alone Graduate School.



I have spent a long time in the education system and sometimes I feel trapped by the way things are done. Students are all expected to fit into the same curriculum and produce the same answer/project/etc. even though they are each so different from one another. I enjoy the concept of multiple intelligence because it fits with student centered learning which is how I plan to teach. As a student teacher I tried to incorporate activities that met the needs of all learners and felt that I really struggled for a variety of reasons. I lacked the experience and the teacher that I was with was very set in her teaching style. She allowed me to be creative but would often veto my ideas and lessons. I hope to succeed when I have my own classroom. I feel that multiple intelligence is crucial in education because it recognizes the differences in all people and caters to many learning styles. It helps students to advocate for their own learning, to depend on each other and to be active participants in their education.

MI has been difficult for many teachers to incorporate into their classrooms because assessing the different learning styles is different then the traditional tests which focus on linguistic and mathematical learners. Creating a curriculum that incorporates MI will automatically create a form of assessment for each lesson. All objectives for each lesson will be measurable because that is one rule for writing objectives. Therefore the real problem is facing the standardized tests that have become part of the school routine. The culture around teaching and learning must change in order to truly teach students to be independent free thinkers. This change will take place classroom by classroom and teacher by teacher. It is already happening but it will take time and effort.