Multiple Intelligences Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Multiple Intelligences - Essay Example Multiple intelligences developed by Howard Gardner have a great impact on education process explaining the ways of thinking, problem-solving and logic. Typically these skills cross the disciplines and include such things as communication, collaboration, information management, and higher-order thinking skills such as problem solving. These types of outcomes cannot be measured by written tests; they require performance measurement. Educators who assess by performance believe that being able "to do" is parallel to saying that a student has really learned something, rather than simply memorized it. The impact and role of intelligences in education was widely discussed in the literature during 1980s. The first attempts to define and explain this process made by Alfred Binet (1900) who tried to create a measure to predict which youngsters would do well in the primary grades of Parisian schools (Kagan and Kagan 1998). In the mid-1980s, Howard Gardner challenged the belief that IQ was fixed with his work at Harvard University, which was explained in his book Frames of the Mind (1985). He hoped to see society move from testing people to growing people, by focusing on the diverse ways people develop skills important to their lives. He redefined intelligence as the ability to solve problems and fashion products that are valued in a culture or community. His research showed intelligence as more complex, more diverse, and less fixed than originally thought. Garner (1985, 1997) and Sternberg (1985) have argued for specific, multiple domains of intelligence. Today, intelligence is being more broadly conceptualized and defined (Kagan and Kagan 1998). At the beginning of the 21st century, researchers applied Gardner's Theory to instructional technology and distance-based education, to different learning strategies and learning environments. For instance, Milheim and Osciak (2001) examine advantages and benefits of multiple intelligences within online learning environment and come to conclusion that it "can provide multiple avenues for learning based on an individual's preferred style regardless of the discipline or the geographic dispersion of the intended learners" (4). Another layer of literature examines practical application of multiple intelligences in different fields including leadership and employees training, physical education and gifted children. For instance, Kernodle and Mitchell (2004) analyze the benefits of multiple intelligences in teaching tennis at the secondary level or in a college. They find that "offering a variety of activities that enhance different intelligences also helps students who are weak in certain intelligences by giving them the opportunity to improve themselves in those areas" (32). Some researchers examine the role of multiple intelligences in development of gifted and talented children (Fasko 2001); identify sex difference in learning process and perception in children (Furnham and Ward 2001). They find that the role of the teacher is acknowledged in this perspective but only in the context of co-constructing meaning for content and skills. Thus, Kagan and Kagan (1998) admit that this is still the realm of procedural thinking. The