Reflection on MI Theory

MI After Twenty Years
Howard Gardner

“Multiple” intelligences should not be in and of itself by an educational goal. Educational goals should reflect ones own values, and these can never come simply or directly from a scientific theory. Once one states one’s educational goals, however, then the putative existence of our multiple intelligence can be very helpful.

If we know what we wanting to teach, then knowing that learning occurs in many different way and on different levels will help us to develop teaching methods that will allow us to teach a specific subject/idea more effectively. By using multiple teaching methods, we can cater to multiple intelligences, getting our specific point across to a greater range of students. It effectively levels the playing field as more individuals have access to academic knowledge through multidimensional instruction.

Multimedia and Multiple Intelligences
By Shirley Veenema and Howard Gardner

“According to multiple intelligences theory, not only do all individuals posses numerous mental representations and intellectual languages, but individuals also differ from one another in the forms of these representation, their relative strengths, and the ways in which (and ease with which) these representations can be changed.”

Also the way an individual learns is set very early in that individual’s cognitive development and trying to change the way an individual learns is, at best, very hard, and probably a waste of learning time. With this in mind, to be optimally successful as teachers we need to understand our student’s individual cognitive approaches and try to use multidimensional teaching methods to cover as many expressions of learning for optimal and more universal achievement.

“The idea that there exists a singular perspective is surprisingly hard to change.” As the field of “experts” increases exponentially with ongoing exposure to ICT, the role of the teacher as a guide becomes crucial. Teaching of filtration and analysis, takes over from the dispensing of information as the primary teaching mode.