Power point bio

 Howard Gardner was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania in July of 1943, and became interested in Psychology after reading works by Piaget and studying under the famous Erik Erikson at Harvard College (Cherry, n.d.).

 After receiving his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1971, Gardner went on to work with many different kinds of children – both gifted and non – and began to develop a theory that would soon gain him national recognition and a place in school textbooks; the theory of multiple intelligences (Cherry, n.d.).

 Apart from this very famous theory, Gardner has gone on to write over 20 books about the mind and intelligence, has won five prestigious awards, and works as an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Harvard University (Cherry, n.d.).

 Suggests that each human has his or her own unique set of intellects which are made up from eight particular intelligences, rather than just the standard reading, writing, and mathematics intelligences (Estes & Krogh, 2012).

 Recently, a ninth intelligence has been considered, which is Existential Intelligence, although not technically an Intelligence yet, as it does not meet the criteria to be an actual “intelligence” (LeFrancois, 2011).

 These eight include:  Logical-mathematical intelligence  Linguistic intelligence  Musical Intelligence  Spatial Intelligence  Bodily kinesthetic Intelligence  Interpersonal Intelligence,  Intrapersonal Intelligence  Naturalistic Intelligence

 Logical –Mathematical – Intelligence with numbers and reasoning.  Linguistic – Intelligence with words and language.  Musical – Intelligence with everything pertaining to music; rhythm, pitch,

etc.  Spatial Intelligence – Intelligence when it comes to understanding through

pictures and charts.  Bodily-Kinesthetic – Intelligence using the body; good with hand-eye

coordination and body strength/control.  Interpersonal – Intelligence with “reading” people; people smarts.  Intrapersonal – Intelligence when it comes to knowing thyself; self-smarts.  Naturalistic – Intelligence when it comes to nature and understanding

nature’s laws.  ADDITIONAL CONCEPT: Existential – Intelligence dealing with spiritual

things and life after death. (LeFrancois, 2011)

 A common argument is that MI is not based on research and holds no empirical evidence, as there is no hard proof showing that applying this theory in a classroom is effective ; it is almost impossible to truly test this theory (Klein, 1998).

 Because of MI’s lack of support/evidence, it is almost impossible to individualize education for each student as it would be almost impossible to capture the differences among each student and where, exactly, it is that they shine (Klein, 1998).

 MI is extremely vague, and often repetitive, as many of the eight intelligences’ defining terms can mean one thing to one person and another to the next; each intelligence tends to be relative (Klein, 1998).

 MI makes each student believe he/she is smart because it creates a curriculum around each student and their intelligence rather than teaching the student a new set of lessons and modules that he/she has to understand without exception (Armstrong, 2009).

 I Agree:  I believe whole-heartedly that each person is unique in his or her ability

to accomplish lessons and tasks, and understand the world around him/her.

 Because we are all such different creatures in the way we learn and apply our learning, it would only make sense that we would have these different intelligences – be them musical, interpersonal, linguistic, and so on – to make up each unique person. It makes sense – as both a parent and future teacher – that Gardner’s theory would apply well in the classroom and at home to cater to these unique children.

 When children are able to understand any lesson in their own unique way of learning, not only does that help them improve in school, but it builds their confidence, which will satisfy many areas within their life, even outside of school.

 Personally, I get it. I’ve always been one of those “kids” who did not learn the conventional reading/writing/arithmetic kind of way. I have always needed hands-on learning to fully grasp a subject, and things like musicals and talking in group time was always more helpful to me than pen to paper.

 This theory will help me, as an educator, differentiate between children and the ways in which they learn and view the world around them. I will be able to distinguish certain areas in which one child may excel while another child does better learning from a different means.

 I will be able to decipher how each student learns and communicates their learning by observing and assessing different qualities and where they shine. I will be able to cater to each individual child as they grow in the environment around them with the different tools at their disposal for learning in each one of their individual ways.

 Example 1: To implement the theory of multiple intelligences into my classroom, I will have eight learning centers – one for each of the intelligences. For one lesson a day, I will talk to and teach the students the lesson, engaging them in conversation about the lesson, and then have them go off, in small groups, to one of the eight centers for about 15 minutes each. This will help each student gain a strong grasp on what may normally have been a difficult concept for them to learn.

 Example 2: Since using centers will primarily be available for one main lesson throughout the school day, other lessons may require further explanation and more diverse ways of teaching to enhance the lesson at hand. Therefore, I will incorporate several different activities into each lesson that involves several of the intelligences. For instance, if I am teaching my students about Christopher Columbus, I could have them watch a puppet show to a story being read about him and his journey, and afterward, draw a picture about what they had just learned. This is using at least three of the eight intelligences and helps the students to fully capture the lesson at hand.

 Armstrong, T. (2009). Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, 3rd Edition. Chapter 15. MI Theory and Its Critics. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109007/chapters/MI-Theory- and-Its-Critics.aspx

 Cherry, K. (n.d.). Howard Gardner Biography. About Education. Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesal/p/howard-gardner.htm

 Estes, L.S., & Krogh, S. L. (2012). Pathways to Teaching Young Children: An Introduction to Early Childhood Education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUECE101.12.2

 Klein, P. D. (1998). A response to howard gardner: Falsifiability, empirical evidence and pedagogical usefulness in educational psychologies. Canadian Journal of Education, 23(1), 103. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/215372867?accountid=32521

 LeFrançois, G. (2011). Psychology for teaching (11th ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/