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Abstract (by Jared Merrifield)
Howard Gardner was the founder of the MI theory; he claimed that intelligence quotient tests were too narrow and that there were several "intelligences" left untested. In fact, he proposed that there are at least seven intelligences a human being possesses, and he recently added an eighth. His intelligences are: linguistic (reading/writing), logical (math, some sciences), spatial (art, visual), bodily (movement, kinesthetics), musical (sound, music/musical composition), interpersonal (group work, socializing), intrapersonal (self work, self-knowledge), and, recently, naturalistic (outdoor environment, wildlife). Gardner is aware that some people would call these "aptitudes" or "skills" rather than intelligences, so he formulated a list of criteria that each skill meets, thus making it an intelligence. Those factors are potential isolation by brain damage (might hinder one intelligence without affecting the others), the existence of exceptional individuals (an example being Rain Man's gift of counting and math), a distinctive developmental history (the growth, peak, and decline of the skill), an evolutionary history and plausibility (the progress of the skill over several periods of time), support from psychometric findings (results from other standardized tests), support from experimental psychological tasks (the variance of aptitude in skills pertaining to each intelligence), an identifiable core operation(s) (the actual tasks pertaining to each intelligence), and a susceptibility to encoding in a symbol system (utilization of a representation or memory pertaining to each intelligence). There are several key points in Gardner's MI theory: each person possesses all eight intelligences (the only difference is to what degree), most people can develop each intelligence to an adequate level of competency (through repetition and dedication), intelligences usually work together in complex ways (for instance, one must know how to read in order to solve mathematical word problems), and there are many ways to be intelligent within each category (the attributes for each intelligence vary). It is quite possible that one or more intelligences have yet to be accounted for in Gardner's theory. Some propositions include spirituality, creativity, and morality, but it is possible that these propositions may not meet all eight criteria. Gardner's theory is not unique, for it is comparable to other intelligence theories. He insists that intelligence is not the same as a learning style, however, for a learning style covers a broader range of skills. Also, some claim that Gardner's model is [|comparable to the VARK model], but there is one key difference: MI is a cognitive model, whereas VARK is sensory-channel. Some compare the MI theory to the Myers-Briggs model too, although it should be known that this is a personality theory.

Synthesis (by Jared Merrifield)
Out of all the student responses, there does seem to be at least one similarity that connects them all: all of them share a particular interest in [|the nature of MI theory itself], which is of course no surprise. All the students, including myself, appeared to be thrilled and interested in the fact that everybody possesses all eight intelligences, and that it is only the degree to which the intelligence has been mastered that is different among every individual. Everyone is sure that the brief explanations of the natures of the intelligences will help them in the future, when they are formulating their own lesson plans. They hope that they can create a plan that will please and pertain to as many of the intelligences as possible, so that all their students are learning effectively. After all, all the intelligences are able to work together and coincide for more practical learning. Very few of the entries mentioned the parameters of what makes an intelligence what it is, rather than, say, an aptitude or skill, but the students who did address them seemed to possess a clear understanding and fascination with the subject. A few other posts mentioned which intelligences they have mastered, and they wish to incorporate their skills into their own lessons, hoping that this mastery will rub off on the students and build upon their own weaker intelligences.

Scott Bowden
This chapter was very interesting and captivating as a work. It laid out information in a way that made it easy to understand. In addition to what was discussed in class, I learned from reading the chapter that these intelligences work together. Unlike most of the tests/activities we can do to determine our intelligences, this chapter mentioned that they are not isolated; each plays a role in every activity we do. This information impacted me by making me think more about how I would implement lessons in the classroom involving many of these intelligences. Since everybody has all eight intelligences in some magnitude, lessons that involve most of the eight will work well for most students. I feel that this information will impact my classroom by allowing me to prepare plans and activities that address all the different ways people learn.

Mike Lawson
This chapter was so cool. I really enjoyed seeing the details and intricacies of how the multiple intelligences worked. I liked reading how the eight intelligences were created and the process of choosing what is and what is not intelligence. I never thought of all those people like Stevie Wonder and Martin Luther King Jr. as prodigies, but it’s the truth, they were all masters of their intelligences. I think this chapter will let me understand how to determine what kind of intelligence my students are. That will make it so much easier for me to teach my students.

Alicia Kenison
In 1904 Alfred Binet had the task of deciding who the “at risk” schools were in the sense of remedial attention and possible failure, so he created an intelligence test. Almost 80 years later, Gardener challenged Binet’s beliefs with 7 (now 8) basic intelligences. Through the intelligence test, I discovered that I am highly verbal, but also reserved (intrapersonal). These both made sense to me because I am going to be an English teacher and enjoy have time to think to myself before blurting out an answer. Armstrong made it clear that we will have students of all MI’s and we must learn how to meet their needs. Although we do obtain all eight, we have strong points and low points and if we have a more logical thinker, we will be forced to put the lesson into numbers and reasoning for them to understand. I want to take the key points of MI and store them in my memory bank when I become a teacher, so I can flip back and remember what I should do so that all my students will grasp the concept I am trying to demonstrate. Gardener is still adapting intelligences and is working with ideas such as: spiritual intelligence, creativity intelligence, culinary intelligences and more.

Jared Boghosian
The Multiple Intelligence Theory (MI) was developed by Howard Gardner. However Gardner is not referring to intelligences in the way we think about it. No instead Gardner thought of intelligences as a capacity to solve problems and from that problem create a product that makes sense in various contexts. I was most interested to find that the intelligences have various “trajectories.” What this meant is that they can peak high at a young age and either stay peaked, as was the example with music, or decline with age as is the tendency with mathematical capabilities. We all also have the ability to develop nearly all of the eight intelligences to a fairly high proficiency level. This gives me hope if I ever want to learn how to play guitar or become athletic. This is also a relief because unless I have a savant in my classroom, I have an opportunity to push my children to reach acceptable levels in intelligences they may be struggling with.

Diana Quinlan
Thomas Armstrong’s book, //Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom// focuses mainly on what the word intelligence means, what the different intelligences are, and how they are applied in everyday life. Howard Gardner, the man who developed the multiple intelligence theory, says that there are eight different intelligences that people posses. The first is linguistic which is using words effectively. The second is logic which involves using and manipulating numbers effectively. The other six intelligences are spatial - being able to visualize and create, kinesthetic - using the body to express ideas, musical – being able to hear, perform, and critique music well, interpersonal – having the ability to read people easily, intrapersonal – being self knowledgeable, and naturalist – being an expert in all things having to do with the environment. Intelligence is the capability to solve problems. Every one has all 8 intelligences but some are more developed than others. It is possible for everyone to further develop their intelligences as long as they have the right support system and instruction in place. It will be my job as a teacher to be that support system and provide my students with the right instruction so that they can further develop their multiple intelligences.

Amanda Fitzpatrick
Chapter one focused on introducing the eight intelligences, and thus I was able to become better acquainted with each of them. I think that by fully understanding each intelligence, one will better be able to understand the learners in their classroom that possess the intelligences. The information I obtained from this reading will definitely help in the classroom. If I know each intelligence, I can identify which of my students is each, and thus I will be able to modify my lesson plans and curriculum to better reach the learners that may be described as “unteachable” in other classrooms. The “untraditional” students who may possess intelligences such as bodily/kinesthetic, or natural, seem uninterested in the subject content, it is the teachers job to develop new strategies to reach them, and by the reading I was able to understand what sorts of activities they may be interested in, and what are the indicators that the students are having a positive learning experience. The chart in the middle of the chapter I found very beneficial as each intelligence is laid out neatly and in a manner where one could look up information on multiple intelligences at once. As a teacher, I could definitely reference this chart for interesting information on some of the different learners in my classroom and how I can better reach them.

Jason Malbon
It’s all about the students. Efforts in curriculum design and instruction would be meaningless without total understanding and dedication to student needs. With all of the planning, implementing, changing, and re-implementing, we need to be flexible and make changes in a moments notice. The chapter discusses several students whose struggles fall well beyond curriculum and lesson planning. A students’ cultural environment, family life and special leaning needs challenges his or her teacher to be perceptive and creative. Only through an observant and tuned-in teacher where these students able to gain the help they needed and begin learning. I appreciate the passage and the end of the chapter that states: “Learning happens within students, not to them”. (p 22) Another lofty goal of mine is to become this kind of educator. One who promotes learning from within, not shovel work upon them because it’s “what we do”.

Eric Cole
This first chapter goes into detail about what Multiple Intelligence Theory is, how it was created, and most importantly, how an Intelligence is considered an intelligence. This last part was definitely the most interesting part to me. To often, we look at somebody and an ability they can do and we dismiss this ability as showing intelligence, or we over praise the ability and make it seem greater than it actually is. That is just human nature. So, it was nice to see a set of guidelines created to show what is an intelligence, and what isn’t. Now, in terms of these guidelines there are two that really stick with me as being the most important. The first one is that there is support from psychometric findings. Now, I have never been a huge fan of standardized tests. I believe that most of them are a stupid waste of time, and they diminish the capacity to learn instead of enhancing it. Students spend more time in school learning stuff that they don’t care about than they do anything else, and that is because of standardized tests. However, there are a couple of tests out there that are useful. There are tests out there that take into account all forms of intelligence, and are a fair and balanced way of doing things. Why is this important? It is important because most times if a student does poorly on a test we assume that it is because they are stupid. The student is not stupid though. They just couldn’t do the test well because it was not in their intelligence style. By having a test for all intelligences, we give all kids a chance to succeed, and not just a select few. The second guideline that jumped out at me was Susceptibility to encoding in a symbol system. This guideline says that in order for an intelligence to be an intelligence they need to be symbolized. For example, with linguistic intelligence we have written languages. For logical-mathematical there are numbers. Every intelligence has some kind of symbol attached to it. I just never thought about that kind of thing before, and it was cool to hear about it. What does all of this mean for my classroom? Well, it means that I will make even more of an effort to be aware of all the intelligences when I create my lesson plans so that all students are able to learn.

Susanna Cooper
Chapter one began by explaining the eight different multiple intelligence (MI) theory. Most of the eight MI I already knew, but it was interesting learning about Gardner and how he began publicizing the eight intelligences. I learned that each person doesn’t have to be effective at all eight intelligences, yet we normally use all eight in our daily lives. If someone has an injury to a certain part of their brain, one of the eight MI can be affected while the others do not change. I also learned that there are smaller sub categories within each intelligence, and that while each intelligence is unique, they also work together. This chapter will impact my classroom because I have already put a lot of thought into how I can use all the types of intelligences in different ways, to reach different types of students, at the same time. It really helps that I have high scores in quite a few of the eight intelligences and can already relate to how most of the eight MI help my students learn.

Jared Merrifield
Chapter 1: The Foundations of MI Theory

I was properly introduced to IQ tests and scores last year in my psychology class, and I agree with Gardner when he said that these tests were too narrow. When I took a few tests on the Internet, I was disappointed by the lack of diversity in the questions’ topics, and that it pertained to only three or four of Gardner’s intelligences, specifically logical. When discussing the factors he used for his tests, I appreciated the reference to //Rain Man//, which is not only one of my favorite films, but is also relative to my own life. Like Rain Man, I am autistic (but only mildly so), and when I was a little boy, I used to memorize the license plate numbers on various cars in the parking lots of Wal-Mart and Shop n’ Save. Of course, this “skill” was generally useless, but I stayed committed to it, like Rain Man’s interest in counting things. I was impressed by Gardner’s vast understanding of the learning and intelligence styles of various individuals – it seems as though everybody is able to fall into one category or another. It is true that all people possess all eight intelligences, it is just the degree of intelligence that is different. However, developing inadequate intelligences is a challenge to some people, including myself. For instance, I somewhat enjoy drawing and painting, but I choose not to brush up (no pun intended) on my artistic skills simply because it is not a particular interest of mine. Thus, I certainly do not consider myself an accomplished artist, and I accept the fact.

Sarah McGinley
Multiple Intelligences Chapter 1: The Foundations of MI Theory 1/21/10

The first thought of intelligence was thought to be too general in definition. Instead, intelligence should be thought of as more specific and break it up into seven basic parts. More parts of intelligence are still being developed. This was the beginning of the Multiple Intelligence theory. The seven parts are linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. At one point of another, in my learning career, I was learning a lesson using more than one of these intelligences at once and I found myself fully engaged in what I was learning. This is the same feeling that I would like to give to my students when I am trying to teach a lesson. The student’s attention is kept engaged longer than usual and it makes the lesson more fun to learn.

Sarah R.
Through out Chapter 1 I have learned that it is important as a teacher to realize that there are more intelligences than just the normal reading and writing, the multiple intelligences discovered by Gardner are very beneficial to being a good teacher. This chapter has impacted me in the way that it has made me think about how I will try to teach to all eight intelligences in my class, because every student will have his or hers strengths and weaknesses within the eight intelligences. I have learned in this chapter that everyone is different in what eight intelligences fit them best, and which one do they have strong learning abilities in. This chapter has impacted my classroom because it has taught me that as the world is changing different intelligence will become more important to understand and master, for example as technology grows, we need to grow to learn how to use all the new technology. It is known that having diversity in the classroom is a good thing and it can help students feel comfortable which makes a good learning environment, and focusing on all eight intelligences will bring diversity to the classroom. I have also learned that there are other intelligences out there, and as a teacher and to be a good teacher I will have to address as many intelligences to ensure the best learning as possible for my students.