The term Multiple Intelligences refers to a framework for considering the strengths and weaknesses of children. These intelligences are broken into eight categories; spatial, math/logic, naturalist, music, interpersonal, intrapersonal, kinesthetic, & linguistic. We all have some degree of each intelligence, though there are those who are more gifted in certain areas, or in combinations of areas, than others. After taking the multiple intelligences assessment, I wasn't very surprised at the results because I've never excelled in something drastically more than others. Most of my numbers were all in the same ballpark. Does that make me a jack of all trades... or a master of nothing? Regardless, taking this quiz made me really think about the different ways children learn. Depending on the student, different strengths need to be sharpened to encourage the development of well rounded individuals. Do certain intelligences work together and increase as other specific strengths do, or are they less intertwined than that? I took a look at the correlation of the music & intrapersonal scores of my classmates to see if those two intelligences were closely related. My results concluded that there really isn't any huge relation between the music intelligence and intrapersonal intelligence. While the scores for music fluctuated from 1.5 to 4.5, intrapersonal scores stayed relatively consistent around 3-3.5, fluctuating only slightly.
I believe the use of multiple intelligence quizzes is extremely important for the classroom, especially among younger students. This allows teachers to gauge the learning styles of her students while appealing to each child's strengths and weaknesses individually. This would be an excellent tool to break the classroom into groups based on their strongest intelligence area in order to teach in a way that is specifically designed for each intelligence, and also groups based on their weaker intelligences in order to strengthen those as well. This would encourage a higher retention and understanding in our students since we'd be teaching them in ways we know are tailored to their needs, but also in strengthening the areas which scores were lower. I look forward to the use of these types of assessments to gauge my students at the beginning of the school year, and then again at the end to see what areas have improved!!
