Howard Gardner recently received an inquiry from a ski instructor who is writing a teaching manual for professional ski instructors. They wrote:
You may or may not know this: your work on Multiple Intelligences has been a major contribution in the field of snowsports instruction; instructors everywhere incorporate these concepts in lessons.
In our section of our Teaching Manual on cognitive development, we refer to you and your work. We have 25,000 member instructors in our organization and, as you can imagine, understanding the ways our students process information, problem-solve, and store what they learn from us, is highly valuable—which is why our teaching manual includes your theory.
Dr. Gardner answered some questions which might be of interest to anyone teaching sports.
Why would it be important for snowsports instructors to understand the concept of multiple intelligences in our students?
Presumably individuals who come to you for instruction, want to learn how to ski well, and as non-problematically as possible. But we all have different potentials and different strengths— and these capacities did not evolve just for skiing. "MI" theory delineates eight different “mental computers” that all human beings have, but we differ in the strength of these several computers. The challenge for the ski instructor is to work together with each student to determine which “intelligences” are strong, which ones are less potent, and how to combine these intelligences for a smooth and successful learning experience. Think of it as a kind of mental “toolkit” on which both of you can draw as appropriate—and when one tool is not working effectively, try another, or a different combination.
Not all skiing and snowsports students are necessarily "body- or sport-smart" or "nature-smart". How can snowsports pros use our knowledge of Multiple Intelligences to help our students excel in areas that aren't necessarily areas of strength for them?
I am not “body-smart” but I have good linguistic, logical, and musical skills. If you as a teacher can approach the skiing lessons with these strengths and weaknesses in mind, it should make for a more positive experience AND better learning. Of course, your personal relation to the students (the personal intelligences) and their goals and motivations are important considerations as well.
Do you have any message to snowsports instructors—who are, after all, teachers?
You are skiing teachers, but you are also role models and mentors. So the kind of a person you are and how you interact with others is at least as important as knowing which intelligences to tap and how to tap them. And you may well be remembered more as a human being than as someone who coached students with a particular motion or balance technique.