Seven Intelligences by Howard Gardner

Seven Intelligences
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EXP 105: Personal Dimensions of education
Prof. Jonathan Sharpe
October 8, 2012

Seven intelligences Howard Gardner proposed a theory in which he suggests that a high IQ, without productivity, does not make someone intelligent. In order for someone to be intelligent they need to be able to use their are of expertise to solve everyday problems or make something productive out of it. He states that everyone has their own unique mind and therefore will learn, understand, and perform things differently from everyone else. This also means that just because someone is strong in an area of performance it does not mean they’re strong in another also, that everyone learns specific subjects in many different ways. His theory of the “Seven Intelligences” says that intelligence is not a single thing but different independent abilities and in order for them to be an intelligence they have to meet eight of the following criteria. The potential for brain isolation by brain damage meaning that someone that loses an ability still has a type of intelligence left in them. The existence of savants, prodigies and other exceptional individuals who make up for their disabilities with any other intelligence. An identifiable core operation or set of operations which is how the intelligence works. A distinctive developmental history is basically tracing the intelligence where it began all the way until the expert level was reached. An evolutionary history is finding the place in history where the intelligence was developed . Support from experimental psychological tasks means testing two capacities and finding out wether they’re different or actually relate to each other. Support from psychometric findings is basically the results or a standardized test. Finally, the susceptibility to encoding in a symbol system means that the intelligence can be expressed into symbols, numbers, or pictures that human beings can understand. Gardner uses seven intelligences to describe different learning styles. The first one is logical-mathematical intelligence meaning that the person learns better with reasoning, calculating, analyzing problems, mathematical thinking, and numbers. Second is linguistic intelligence which is spoken and written language. The learner learns languages and uses them to accomplish goals and remember information. Third is spatial intelligence in which people recognize and use wide and small spaces. Fourth is musical intelligence where a song, rhythm, or tone can be used to learn or memorize something. Fifth is the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence in which people have body awareness and learn better by doing something instead of reading about it. The sixth is interpersonal intelligence which is the interaction we have with other people and the ability to recognize the intentions, feelings, and motivation of others. Finally, the last one is intrapersonal intelligence in which we understand ourselves, our motivation, feelings, strengths, weaknesses, etc. This defines why some people are just really good at what they do and how they do it. Everyone has something that helps them retain information and, by researching these seven intelligences, I understand why it is that I learn things the way I do. Ever since I was a kid I loved music and the loved the way it was easy to remember rhythms, beats, and words. I have never thought about myself as an intelligent individual but I always knew that if I made a song of what to memorize it would work for me. That is what worked for me then and continues to help me when I cannot find a way to remember some things. The second one is the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence which, in the back of my mind, I always knew helped me with whatever I did. I’m a hands on learner and that means that I don’t really like to learn things from a book or a computer. I like to have someone teach me by showing me what it is that I need to do just like when I placed my first intravenous catheter on a person. These types of intelligences are something that have worked for me but might not be working for someone else because, just as Gardner said, we all have different kinds of mind and they will also have ways to learn things.