Yolanda U. Trapp
The theory of Multiple Intelligences presents the idea that there are many ways in which students use symbol systems in composition. Those who are non-verbal are allowed to approach composition different from those who are verbally inclined. The multiple intelligence theory is that children possess seven types of intelligences; linguistic, logical, spatial, musical, motor ability, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Traditionally, schools only reward linguistic and logical skills, but they should reward "all intelligences".
Teachers can develop their student's intelligences by applying Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory, which suggest that approaches other than classroom based education can develop or enhance children's multiple intelligence's.
Linguistic Intelligence: According to Gardner means the ability to retain information like lengthy verbal lists. The recollection of large amounts of information is a tremendously important gift in preliterate cultures.
Musical intelligence: This gift nobody knows why it emerges so early, and what the nature of this gift might be. It remains uncertain. The aural imagination is simply the working of the composer's ear, fully reliable and sure of its direction as it must be, in the service of a clearly envisaged conception.
The musical mind has a creative portion, operates selectively, and works with the mechanisms of tonal memory. This tonal memory has been compounded with remembered emotional experiences.
Logical mathematical Intelligence: In contrast to linguistic and musical capacities, "logical-mathematical intelligence" does not have its origins in the auditory-oral sphere. Instead, this form of thought can be traced to a confirmation with the world of objects. For it is in confrontation with the world of objects, in ordering and reordering them, and in assessing their quantity, that the young child gains his or her initial and most fundamental knowledge about the logical-mathematical realm. (Gardner)
In Piaget's view all knowledge - and in particular, the logical -mathematical understanding which constituted his primary focus - derives in the first instance from one's actions upon the world.
What characterizes the individual as a mathematician is a love of dealing with abstractions. It is undeniable that a gift for mathematics is one of the most specialized talents and that mathematicians as a class are not particularly distinguished for general ability or versatility. Piaget noted long time ago that the evolution of science displays certain intriguing parallels with the development in children of logical-mathematical thought.
Spatial intelligence: As a definition it is the capacity to perceive the visual world accurately, to perform transformation and modifications upon one's initial perceptions, and to be able to re-create aspects of one's visual experience. Even in the absence of relevant stimuli. Spatial intelligence merges as an amalgam of abilities.
Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence: there are languages other than words, language of symbols, and languages of nature. There are languages of the body. A description of use of the body as a form of intelligence may at first jar.
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Skilled use of one's body has been important in the history of the species for thousands of years. The Greeks revered the beauty of the human form. They sought a harmony between mind and body , with the mind trained to use the body properly, and the body trained to respond to the expressive powers of the mind.
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Bodily use can itself be differentiated into a variety of forms. Fine motor movements of grosser moor actions. The ability to use one's hands and fingers, or carrying out delicate movements involving precise control.
The Personal Intelligences: There are two sides of development in human nature. One is the development of the internal aspect of a person or intrapersonal intelligence. This form allows us to detect and to symbolize complex and highly differentiated sets of feelings. The other form turns outward and the core capacity here is the ability to make distinctions among other individuals, and in particular, among their moods, temperaments, motivations, and intentions. These forms of intelligence, according to Howard Gardner are of tremendous importance in all societies in the world, - forms that have been tented to be ignored or minimized. The evidence, now, is that will eventually understand a great deal about the phylogenic origin of these intelligences. The capacity to know oneself and to know others is part of the human intellectual repertoire.
