Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences was recently featured on a hit ABC television show. Abbott Elementary is described as a workplace comedy featuring “a group of dedicated, passionate teachers and a slightly tone-deaf principal.” They work in an underfunded public school in Philadelphia where, “despite the odds stacked against them, they are determined to help their students succeed in life.” More information on the show can be found at this link.
In the episode, teachers experiment with a gifted program for select students. They encounter problems when students excluded from the gifted program feel left out. One teacher argues, “There’s more than one way to be gifted” citing Howard Gardner and the theory of multiple intelligences. It is then decided that all students will participate in the gifted program considering the different intelligences they might have.
The show correctly represents MI theory which states that humans have several distinct intelligences and that there is no single intelligence adequately measured by an IQ, or other test. For educators, there are two main implications:
Individuation (also termed personalization) – Since each human being has her own unique configuration of intelligences, we should take that into account when teaching, mentoring or nurturing. As much as possible, we should teach individuals in ways that they can learn. And we should assess them in a way that allows them to show what they have understood and to apply their knowledge and skills in unfamiliar contexts.
Pluralization – Ideas, concepts, theories, skills should be taught in several different ways. Whether one is teaching the arts, sciences, history, or math, the seminal ideas should be presented in multiple ways. If you can present the art works of Michelangelo, or the laws of supply and demand, or the Pythagorean Theorem in several ways, you achieve two important goals. First of all, you reach more students, because some students learn best from reading, some from building something, some from acting out a story, etc. Second, you show what it is like to be an expert—to understand something fully, you should be able to think of it in several ways.
Photo credit: ABC.com