MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES AND LEARNING STYLES

THE EIGHT INTELLLIGENCE

1. Verbal/Linguistic

Verbal/Linguistic intelligence refers to an individual’s ability to understand and manipulate words and languages. Everyone is thought to possess this intelligence at some level. This includes reading, writing, speaking, and other forms of verbal and written communication. Teachers can enhance their students’ verbal/linguistic intelligence by having them keep journals, play word games, and by encouraging discussion. People with strong rhetorical and oratory skills such as poets, authors, and attorneys exhibit strong Linguistic intelligence. Some examples are T.S. Elliot, Maya Angelou, and Martin Luther King Jr. Traditionally, Linguistic intelligence and Logical/Mathematical intelligence have been highly valued in education and learning environments.

2. Logical/Mathematical

Logical/Mathematical intelligence refers to an individual’s ability to do things with data: collect, and organize, analyze and interpret, conclude and predict. Individuals strong in this intelligence see patterns and relationships. These individuals are oriented toward thinking: inductive and deductive logic, numeration, and abstract patterns. They would be a contemplative problem solver; one who likes to play strategy games and to solve mathematical problems. Being strong in this intelligence often implies great scientific ability. This is the kind of intelligence studied and documented by Piaget. Teachers can strengthen this intelligence by encouraging the use of computer programming languages, critical-thinking activities, linear outlining, Piagetian cognitive stretching exercises, science-fiction scenarios, logic puzzles, and through the use of logical/sequential presentation of subject matter. Some real life examples people who are gifted with this intelligence are Albert Einstein, Niehls Bohr, and John Dewey.

3. Visual/Spatial

Visual/Spatial intelligence refers to the ability to form and manipulate a mental model. Individuals with strength in this area depend on visual thinking and are very imaginative. People with this kind of intelligence tend to learn most readily from visual presentations such as movies, pictures, videos, and demonstrations using models and props. They like to draw, paint, or sculpt their ideas and often express their feelings and moods through art. These individuals often daydream, imagine and pretend. They are good at reading diagrams and maps and enjoy solving mazes and jigsaw puzzles. Teachers can foster this intelligence by utilizing charts, graphs, diagrams, graphic organizers, videotapes, color, art activities, doodling, microscopes and computer graphics software. It could be characterized as right-brain activity. Pablo Picasso, Bobby Fischer, and Georgia O’Keefe are some examples of people gifted with this intelligence.

4. Bodily/Kinesthetic

Bodily/Kinesthetic intelligence refers to people who process information through the sensations they feel in their bodies. These people like to move around, touch the people they are talking to and act things out. They are good at small and large muscle skills; they enjoy all types of sports and physical activities. They often express themselves through dance. Teachers may encourage growth in this area of intelligence through the use of touching, feeling, movement, improvisation, “hands-on” activities, permission to squirm and wiggle, facial expressions and physical relaxation exercises. Some examples of people who are gifted with this intelligence are Michael Jordan, Martina Navratilova, and Jim Carrey.

5. Naturalistic

Naturalistic intelligence is seen in someone who recognizes and classifies plants, animals, and minerals including a mastery of taxonomies. They are holistic thinkers who recognize specimens and value the unusual. They are aware of species such as the flora and fauna around them. They notice natural and artificial taxonomies such as dinosaurs to algae and cars to clothes. Teachers can best foster this intelligence by using relationships among systems of species, and classification activities. Encourage the study of relationships such as patterns and order, and compare-and-contrast sets of groups or look at connections to real life and science issues. Charles Darwin and John Muir are examples of people gifted in this way.

6. Musical Intelligence

Musical intelligence refers to the ability to understand, create, and interpret musical pitches, timbre, rhythm, and tones and the capability to compose music. Teachers can integrate activities into their lessons that encourage students’ musical intelligence by playing music for the class and assigning tasks that involve students creating lyrics about the material being taught. Composers and instrumentalists are individuals with strength in this area. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Louis Armstrong are examples.

7. Interpersonal

Although Gardner classifies interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences separately, there is a lot of interplay between the two and they are often grouped together. Interpersonal intelligence is the ability to interpret and respond to the moods, emotions, motivations, and actions of others. Interpersonal intelligence also requires good communication and interaction skills, and the ability show empathy towards the feelings of other individuals. Teachers can encourage the growth of Interpersonal Intelligences by designing lessons that include group work and by planning cooperative learning activities. Counselors and social workers are professions that require strength in this area. Some examples of people with this intelligence include Gandhi, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.

8. Intrapersonal

Intrapersonal Intelligence, simply put, is the ability to know oneself. It is an internalized version of Interpersonal Intelligence. To exhibit strength in Intrapersonal Intelligence, an individual must be able to understand their own emotions, motivations, and be aware of their own strengths and weaknesses. Teachers can assign reflective activities, such as journaling to awaken students’ Intrapersonal Intelligence. Its important to note that this intelligence involves the use of all others. An individual should tap into their other intelligences to completely express their Intrapersonal Intelligence. Those who are often associated with this intelligence are Sigmund Freud, Plato, or Virginia Woolf.

9. Existential 

There is a ninth intelligence that has yet to experience full acceptance by educators in the classroom. This is Existential intelligence, which encompasses the ability to pose and ponder questions regarding the existence — including life and death. This would be in the domain of philosophers and religious leaders.

LEARNING PREFERENCES

Learning preferences focus on how students process information using their senses to absorb and retain what is being taught. While many people may say they have a “learning style,” they really have learning preferences, or ways they prefer to have lessons delivered to them. Students actually learn and retain more educational content when it is delivered – or taught – to them in a variety of different ways as opposed to only one way, even if that way is their preferred way to learn.  

Below are three different types of learning preferences to keep in mind when building online school or homeschool lessons. If your student is struggling with a difficult concept, you can also use these preferences as a guide to find a different way to deliver the learning content to them to help make things click.  

• 1. 1. 1. Visual learners: Those who prefer to learn through images, graphs, maps, and drawings 

        2. Auditory learners: Students who prefer to learn by hearing and speaking new information  

        3. Tactile/kinesthetic learners: The student who prefers to learn by experiencing, touching, and performing tasks